CEO says
‘fintech and big tech are here’ as banks lose ground
·
Jamie Dimon said he’s optimistic the pandemic will end with
a U.S. economic rebound that could last at least two years.
“I have little doubt that with excess savings, new stimulus
savings, huge deficit spending, more QE, a new potential infrastructure bill, a
successful vaccine and euphoria around the end of the pandemic, the U.S.
economy will likely boom,” the JPMorgan Chase
& Co. chief executive officer said Wednesday in his annual letter to shareholders. “This
boom could easily run into 2023.”
Unprecedented federal rescue programs have blunted
unemployment and averted further economic deterioration, according to Dimon,
who said banks entered the crisis strong and able to help communities weather
the storm. While lenders also benefited from U.S. stimulus, they built up
buffers against future loan losses and performed well in stress tests, he said.
Dimon also pointed to U.S. consumers, who used stimulus
checks to reduce debt to the lowest level in 40 years and stashed them in
savings, giving them -- like corporations -- an “extraordinary” amount of
spending power once lockdowns end. The latest round of quantitative easing
measures will have created more than $3 trillion in deposits at U.S. banks, a
portion of which can be lent out, he said.
It could all add up to a Goldilocks moment,
according to Dimon, where growth is fast and sustained while inflation ticks up
gently. Threats to that outcome include virus variants and a rapid or sustained
jump in inflation that prompts rates to rise sooner.
At 65, Dimon is the most prominent executive in global
banking, serving as a spokesman for the industry while leading a titan of both
Wall Street and consumer lending. He’s run the company since the end of 2005,
and is the only CEO still at the helm after steering a major bank through the
financial crisis.
More
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-04-07/dimon-says-fintech-and-big-tech-are-here-as-banks-lose-ground
Major Chinese container ports
volume up 10.8% in late March Katherine Si
| Apr 08, 2021
According to the statistics released by China Ports and
Harbors Association, export container volume increased 8.7% while the domestic
volume increased 18% in late March. Among which, the port of Ningbo-Zhoushan
and Shenzhen posted a growth rate of over 30%.
Cargo throughput at major coastal hub ports increased 8.6%
year-on-year while the international trade cargo throughput increased 3.8%.
Related: China
port container volumes up 37.9% in Feb a year on from lockdown
Crude oil shipments at major coastal ports slightly
increased 4.3% year-on-year. The port of Yantai posted a growth rate of over
60% and the port of Tianjin reported a growth rate of over 30%. Port inventory
increased 23.1% year-on-year.
Metal ore shipments at major Chinese ports declined 8.6%
while the port inventory increased 6.4%.
Cargo throughput and container volume at the three major
Yangtze river ports, Nanjing, Wuhan and Chongqing, increased 58.1% and 47.6%
year-on-year respectively.
In March, major Chinese coastal hub ports’ cargo throughput
increased 10.9% comparing with the same period of last year. Container volume
at eight major ports increased 14.5%.
https://www.seatrade-maritime.com/ports-logistics/major-chinese-container-ports-volume-108-late-march
Critics slam the Fed as home
prices rise at a historic rate Published
Tue, Mar 30 202112:20 PM EDT Updated
Tue, Mar 30 20214:50 PM EDT
Home price gains are accelerating at an alarming pace,
fueled by Covid pandemic -related
inflation, which some claim is not getting enough attention from the Federal
Reserve.
Home prices nationally in January rose 11.2% year over
year, according to the latest S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller Index. That is the
largest annual gain in nearly 15 years.
As a comparison, annual price gains were 10.4% in December,
9.5% in November, 8.4% in October, 7% in September, 5.8% in August and 4.8%
last July. In January 2020, the annual gain was just 3.9%, and the monthly
moves were in small fractions, not whole percentage points.
“In more than 30 years of S&P
CoreLogic Case-Shiller data, January’s year-over-year change is comfortably in
the top decile. That strength is reflected across all 20 cities,” noted Craig
Lazzara, managing director and global head of index investment strategy at
S&P Dow Jones Indices. “January’s price gains in every city are above that
city’s median level, and rank in the top quartile of all reports in 18 cities.”
The main reason home prices are now
rising so quickly is that strong demand butting up against record low supply.
Bidding wars for homes are now the rule, not the exception.
But mortgage rates are also playing
a key role, one engineered by the Federal Reserve.
While rates are rising slightly now,
they are still near historic lows, having set more than a dozen new lows last
year.
More
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/03/30/federal-reserve-under-fire-as-home-prices-soar.html
Next, trouble for
rare earth supply from Greenland?
Leftwing party opposed to mining
project wins Greenland vote Issued on: 07/04/2021 -
09:20
A left-wing environmentalist party
opposed to a controversial mining project won a clear victory in Greenland's
parliamentary election, according to results released Wednesday.
With 36.6 percent of the vote, Inuit
Ataqatigiit (IA) was ahead of Siumut, a social democratic party that has
dominated politics in the Danish territory since it gained autonomy in 1979.
"Thank you to the people who
trusted us to work with the people in the centre for the next four years,"
IA leader Mute Egede said on KNR public television after the results were
announced.
IA, which was previously in
opposition, is expected to grab 12 out of the 31 seats in the Inatsisartut, the
local parliament, up from eight currently.
But without an absolute majority,
the most likely scenario is that IA joins forces with smaller parties to form a
coalition.
Siumut, which headed the outgoing
government, was partly weakened by internal struggles. It gained 29.4 percent
of the vote, still two percentage points higher than its results in the 2018
election.
The dividing line between the two
parties was whether to authorise a controversial giant rare earth and uranium
mining project, which is currently the subject of public hearings.
The Kuannersuit deposit, in the
island's south, is considered one of the world's richest in uranium and rare
earth minerals -- a group of 17 metals used as components in everything from
smartphones to electric cars and weapons.
IA has called for a moratorium on
uranium mining, which would effectively put a halt to the project.
Divisions over Kuannersuit
originally triggered the snap election in the territory after one of the
smaller parties left the ruling Siumut coalition.
Opponents say the project, led by
the Chinese-owned Australian group Greenland Minerals, has too many
environmental risks, including radioactive waste.
https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20210407-leftwing-party-opposed-to-mining-project-wins-greenland-vote
In semiconductor chip
supply shortage news, a little light at the end of a months long tunnel.
Taiwan's Acer sees global chip
shortage gradually easing April
6, 2021 7:23 AM By Reuters Staff
TAIPEI (Reuters) - A global
shortage of chips for mid-end consumer products is starting to ease and will be
much better come the second half of the year, a senior executive at Taiwan’s
Acer Inc, the world’s No. 5 PC vendor by shipments, said on Tuesday.
From delayed car deliveries to a
supply shortfall in home appliances to costlier smartphones, businesses and
consumers across the globe are facing the brunt of an unprecedented shortage in
semiconductor microchips.
Originally concentrated in the auto
industry, the shortage has now spread to a range of other consumer electronics,
including smartphones, refrigerators and microwaves.
Andrew Hou, Acer’s president for
Pan-Asia Pacific Operations, told reporters in Taipei that since the problem
first became apparent in the fourth quarter of last year, the supply chain has
“jumped into action” as suppliers worked to address the situation.
Hou said he expected better supplies
in the second quarter compared with the first quarter of this year, and that
the situation in the second half will be better than the second quarter.
“That’s what we are seeing at the
moment,” he added.
The shortage stems from a confluence
of factors as carmakers, which shut plants during the COVID-19 pandemic last
year, compete against the sprawling consumer electronics industry for chip
supplies.
More
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-taiwan-acer/taiwans-acer-sees-global-chip-shortage-gradually-easing-idUSKBN2BT0J1?feedType=mktg&feedName=&WT.mc_id=Newsletter-US&utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=2018%20Template:%20UK%20TECHNOLOGY%20ROUNDUP%202021-04-06&utm_term=NEW:%20UK%20Technology%20Roundup
Japan's Renesas to shift
production to Ehime from fire-hit chip plant: NHK April 6, 2021 6:46 AM
TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese chipmaker
Renesas Electronics Corp is set to shift some production to a factory in the
southwestern prefecture of Ehime after a fire damaged a factory in northeast
Japan, public broadcaster NHK said on Tuesday.
Renesas has said it would take
months to get the fire-hit factory back to normal, worsening a global shortage
of semiconductors used in cars, smartphones and home appliances.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-renesas-fire-ehime/japans-renesas-to-shift-production-to-ehime-from-fire-hit-chip-plant-nhk-idUSKBN2BT0GH?feedType=mktg&feedName=&WT.mc_id=Newsletter-US&utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=2018%20Template:%20UK%20TECHNOLOGY%20ROUNDUP%202021-04-06&utm_term=NEW:%20UK%20Technology%20Roundup
Finally, yet another
country fooling around with an e-currency. Just why we, the people, need
e-currencies at all is never explained. Cui bono? If the banksters are for it, it can’t be of
benefit to anyone else! Heads they win, tails we lose.
Sweden to bring in banks in next
stage of e-krona project April
6, 2021 12:37 PM By Reuters Staff
STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - Sweden’s
central bank will bring in banks in the coming year to test how its proposed
digital currency - the e-krona - could handle commercial and retail payments in
the real world, it said on Tuesday.
Central banks around the world are
looking at launching central bank digital currencies (CBDCs)in response to a
decline in the use of the cash they print and as a way of speeding up domestic
and international payments.
Up to now, the e-krona pilot has
only been simulated within the Riksbank, but will be broadened to include
participants like commercial banks in the next phase of the project, the
central bank said.
“The technology provides new
possibilities. ..but is untried when it comes to processing retail payments in
the magnitude and with the safety level required,” the Riksbank said in a
statement accompanying a report on a pilot study’s findings so far.
The pilot has been going for a year,
with the aim of testing out possible designs for a publicly used e-krona in
Sweden.
The Riksbank said it could not yet
confirm which banks or payment providers would assist in its next phase of
testing, but said the purpose was to evaluate how the e-krona could be used for
both large commercial and small retail payments.
A survey in January by the Bank for
International Settlements said central banks representing one-fifth of the
world’s population are likely to issue their own digital currencies in the next
three years.
Many central banks see central bank
digital currencies (CBDCs) as a means of warding off competition from
cryptocurrencies and maintaining a central role for public authorities in the
payment system.
So far, most central banks have only
got as far as researching CBDCs. Only the Bahamas has launched one, and Sweden
and China are the only other nations to have begun testing.
More
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-cenbanks-digital-sweden/sweden-to-bring-in-banks-in-next-stage-of-e-krona-project-idUSKBN2BT1CF?feedType=mktg&feedName=&WT.mc_id=Newsletter-US&utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=2018%20Template:%20UK%20TECHNOLOGY%20ROUNDUP%202021-04-06&utm_term=NEW:%20UK%20Technology%20Roundup
"Crisis? What crisis?"
Prime Minister “Sunny” Jim Callaghan. 1979.
Covid-19 Corner This
section will continue until it becomes unneeded.
India reports record 126,789 new
COVID-19 cases April 8, 2021 5:39 AM
NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India reported
a record-high 126,789 new COVID-19 cases, health ministry data showed on
Thursday, with much of the country struggling to contain a second surge in
coronavirus infections.
Deaths rose by 685, taking the tally
to 166,862, the data showed.
India’s overall caseload reached
12.9 million, the third-most affected globally, behind the United States and
Brazil.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-india-cases/india-reports-record-126789-new-covid-19-cases-idUSKBN2BV0E4?il=0
Moderna Covid-19 Vaccine Rolled
Out in U.K. for First Time Emily Ashton Wed, April 7, 2021, 7:54 AM
(Bloomberg) -- The U.K. began
rolling out the Moderna Inc. vaccine on Wednesday, bolstering Britain’s
Covid-19 immunization program amid concerns over AstraZeneca Plc’s shot and a
shortfall of doses this month.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock said
the Moderna shot would first be offered in west Wales. It is the third approved
vaccine to be offered in Britain, alongside shots from AstraZeneca and partners
Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech SE, and its rollout is around two weeks earlier than
expected.
The U.K. has ordered 17 million
doses of Moderna’s two-shot vaccine, enough for 8.5 million people.
The success of the vaccine program
is crucial to Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s ambition to fully reopen the U.K.
economy on June 21. On Tuesday, he sought to reassure people over the Astra
vaccine amid ongoing concerns in Europe over possible side effects.
It later emerged that vaccinations
of children in a study of the shot developed by Astra and Oxford University
have been paused while the U.K.’s drug regulator investigates rare cases of
blood clots in adults. No safety issues have arisen in the children’s trial,
Oxford said.
“There
is no proof as yet that there is any causal links on the very, very rare
occasions that there have been talks about blood clots,” Small Business
Minister Paul Scully told Sky News on Wednesday. “The AstraZeneca vaccine is
safe; it has saved thousands of lives.”
More
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/moderna-covid-19-vaccine-being-230100522.html
Study: Moderna COVID-19 vaccine
offers protection for at least 6 months April 6, 2021 / 4:37 PM
There's good news for the millions of Americans who've
already received a dose or two of Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine:
New research shows the vaccine should protect against illness for at least six
months.
The new study tracked 33 participants in the trials that
led to the vaccine's approval. Six months after having received their second
vaccine dose, "antibody activity remained high in all age groups,"
according to a team led by Nicole Doria-Rose of the U.S. National Institute of
Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
Her group published their findings
Tuesday in the New England Journal of Medicine.
The reassuring results follow on
similar findings for the other major two-dose vaccine included in the U.S.
vaccine rollout, made by Pfizer-BioNTech. Trial results released April 1 by the
companies found that their vaccine remains more than 91% effective six months
after people get their second dose.
The new results from Moderna are
based on 33 people ranging in age from 18 to older than 71.
The study found that while everyone
maintained high levels of infection-fighting immune system antibodies in blood
samples, levels did seem to fall according to the increasing age of
participants.
For example, while levels -- called
"titers" -- of antibodies averaged over 92,000 in vaccinated people
aged 18 to 55 at six months after full immunization, they dropped to an average
of about 62,000 in people aged 56 to 70, and to just over 49,000 in people aged
71 and older.
More
https://www.upi.com/Health_News/2021/04/06/Study-Moderna-COVID-19-vaccine-offers-protection-for-at-least-6-months/2351617738948/
NIH to study allergic reactions
to Pfizer and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines April 7, 2021 / 12:52 PM
April 7 (UPI) -- The National
Institutes of Health said Wednesday that it has begun a study to explore why
some recipients of the COVID-19 vaccines developed by Pfizer and Moderna have
seen severe allergic reactions to the shots.
Most of the reactions have been seen
in people with a history of allergies, the federal research agency said.
"A clinical trial is underway to determine whether
people who are highly allergic or have a mast cell disorder are at increased
risk for an immediate, systemic allergic reaction," the NIH said in a statement.
"In addition, investigators will examine the
biological mechanism behind the reactions and whether a genetic pattern or
other factors can predict who is at most risk."
A mast cell disorder is caused by a type of white blood
cell that's abnormal, overly active, or both. The disorder predisposes a person
to life-threatening reactions that look like allergic reactions.
The NIH trial will enroll 3,400 adults between the ages of
18 and 69 at about three dozen U.S. research centers.
"The public understandably has been concerned about
reports of rare, severe allergic reactions to the Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech
COVID-19 vaccines," added Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National
Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, which is part of the NIH.
More
https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2021/04/07/nih-study-covid-vaccines-allergic-reactions/6521617811189/
U.K. variant most dominant strain of COVID-19
in U.S., CDC saysApril 7, 2021 / 4:50 PM
April 7 (UPI) -- The Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention warned Wednesday that the so-called U.K. variant
of the novel coronavirus has become the most dominant strain of the virus in the
United States.
CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky
announced the findings during a COVID-19 Response Team update.
"Based on our most recent estimates from CDC
surveillance, the B.1.1.7. variant is now the most common lineage circulating
in the United States," she said.
Scientists have said the variant, first identified in Kent,
England, in September, is more contagious and up to 100% more deadly than the
original strains of the virus. In January, U.S. public health officials
predicted it would become the most dominant strain of COVID-19 in the United
States by the spring.
Walensky said the growing
predominance of the U.K. variant could lead to a surge of new COVID-19 cases.
The United States reported 61,258
new cases Tuesday, up from a 2021 low of 39,048 on March 21. Hospitalizations
have also increased to about 5,000 per day.
Meanwhile, deaths have declined
mostly steadily since a peak of 4,400 in January. The United States reported
736 deaths Tuesday.
More
https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2021/04/07/CDC-UK-variant-COVID-19/2791617824301/
Next, some vaccine links
kindly sent along from a LIR reader in Canada. The links come from a most
informative update from Stanford Hospital in California.
World
Health Organization - Landscape of COVID-19 candidate vaccines . https://www.who.int/publications/m/item/draft-landscape-of-covid-19-candidate-vaccines
NY
Times Coronavirus Vaccine Tracker . https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/science/coronavirus-vaccine-tracker.html
Stanford
Website . https://racetoacure.stanford.edu/clinical-trials/132
Regulatory
Focus COVID-19 vaccine tracker . https://www.raps.org/news-and-articles/news-articles/2020/3/covid-19-vaccine-tracker
Some other useful Covid links.
Johns Hopkins Coronavirus
resource centre
https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html
Rt Covid-19
https://rt.live/
Centers for Disease Control
Coronavirus
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/index.html
The Spectator
https://data.spectator.co.uk/city/national
Technology Update.
With events happening
fast in the development of solar power and graphene, I’ve added this section.
Updates as they get reported.
A new, positive approach could be
the key to next-generation, transparent electronics Filling a
crucial gap in the materials spectrum Date: April 5, 2021
Source: ARC Centre of Excellence in Future Low-Energy
Electronics Technologies
Summary: A new study could pave the way to
revolutionary, transparent electronics for potential integration in glass,
flexible displays and smart contact lenses -- bringing to life futuristic
'scifi-like' devices. A decades-long search for electronics based on
semiconducting oxides could also find use in power electronics and
communications, reducing the carbon footprint of our utility networks. The
introduction of a new 2D semiconductor fills a crucial gap in the materials
spectrum to enable fast, transparent circuits.
A new study, out this week, could
pave the way to revolutionary, transparent electronics.
Such see-through devices could
potentially be integrated in glass, in flexible displays and in smart contact
lenses, bringing to life futuristic devices that seem like the product of
science fiction.
For several decades, researchers
have sought a new class of electronics based on semiconducting oxides, whose
optical transparency could enable these fully-transparent electronics.
Oxide-based devices could also find
use in power electronics and communication technology, reducing the carbon
footprint of our utility networks.
A RMIT-led team has now introduced
ultrathin beta-tellurite to the two-dimensional (2D) semiconducting material
family, providing an answer to this decades-long search for a high mobility
p-type oxide.
"This new, high-mobility p-type
oxide fills a crucial gap in the materials spectrum to enable fast, transparent
circuits," says team leader Dr Torben Daeneke, who led the collaboration
across three FLEET nodes.
Other key advantages of the
long-sought-after oxide-based semiconductors are their stability in air,
less-stringent purity requirements, low costs and easy deposition.
"In our advance, the missing
link was finding the right, 'positive' approach," says Torben.
Positivity has been lacking
There are two types of
semiconducting materials. 'N-type' materials have abundant negatively-charged
electrons, while 'p-type' semiconductors possess plenty of positively-charged
holes.
It's the stacking together of
complementary n-type and p-type materials that allows electronic devices such
as diodes, rectifiers and logic circuits.
Modern life is critically reliant on
these materials since they are the building blocks of every computer and
smartphone.
A barrier to oxide devices has been
that while many high-performance n-type oxides are known, there is a
significant lack of high-quality p-type oxides.
Theory prompts action
However in 2018 a computational
study revealed that beta-tellurite (?-TeO2) could be an attractive p-type oxide
candidate, with tellurium's peculiar place in the periodic table meaning it can
behave as both a metal and a non-metal, providing its oxide with uniquely
useful properties.
"This prediction encouraged our
group at RMIT University to explore its properties and applications," says
Dr Torben Daeneke, who is a FLEET associate investigator.
More
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/04/210405113633.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+sciencedaily%2Fmatter_energy%2Fgraphene+%28Graphene+News+--+ScienceDaily%29
“Inflation is always
and everywhere a monetary phenomenon in the sense that it is and can be
produced only by a more rapid increase in the quantity of money than in
output.”
Milton Friedman.
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