By Reuters Staff
BEIJING (Reuters) -China’s factory
activity slowed slightly in May as raw materials costs grew at their fastest
pace in over a decade, weighing on the output of small and export-oriented
firms.
The official manufacturing
Purchasing Manager’s Index (PMI) inched lower to 51.0 in May, against analyst
expectations that it would remain unchanged from April at 51.1, data from the
National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed on Monday.
The official PMI, which largely
focuses on big and state-owned firms, has stood above the 50-point mark that
separates growth from contraction for over a year.
While the Chinese economy has
largely shaken off the gloom from the COVID-19 pandemic, offficials warn the
foundations for the recovery are not yet secure amid problems like higher raw
material costs and the pandemic situation overseas.
Iris Pang, chief economist for
Greater China at ING, said in a note that “external demand will likely remain
flat” as economic recoveries in the United States and parts of Europe are
likely to be “offset by increasing Covid cases in ASEAN, which is the biggest trade
partner of China.”
Some emerging COVID-19 cases China’s
Guangdong province, where most electronic factories are located, continued
semiconductor chip shortages and high commodity prices are also among the
challenges facing producers, she added.
More
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-economy-pmi/chinas-factory-activity-slows-slightly-in-may-as-raw-materials-costs-surge-official-pmi-idUSKCN2DC03J
A big jobs report looms in the
week ahead, as markets enter the often-weak month of June Published Fri, May 28 2021 3:26 PM EDT
Updated Fri, May 28 2021 6:21 PM EDT
May’s employment report is the big event in the week ahead,
as stocks enter the often weak month of June. Stocks are finishing May with a
mixed performance. Big cap indexes like the S&P 500 and Dow notched gains.
The S&P rose a half percent, and the Dow rose 1.9%. The small cap Russell
2000 was flat, up 0.1%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq declined 1.5%.
June is not historically a strong month for stocks. Bespoke
Investment Group points out that over the past 50 years, the Dow has gained
just 0.12% in June and has been positive 52% of the time.
But over the past 20 years, June was far weaker, gaining
only 40% of the time. June’s performance is tied with September as the worst
month of the year, with an average Dow decline of 0.7%, according to Bespoke.
The economy is front and center in the coming week with the
important ISM readings on manufacturing and services sector activity, but the
most important measure will be Friday’s jobs report. According to Dow Jones,
economists expect Friday’s employment report to show the creation of about
674,000 jobs in May, after
the disappointing 266,000 jobs added in April . That was about a quarter of
what economists had expected.
“You know if we have two months in a row of not delivering
on the jobs expectations, the market is going to get nervous,” said George
Goncalves, head of U.S. macro strategy at MUFG.
---- The Fed meets June 15-16, and already market pros are anticipating it
will be the most important event of the month. Fed officials have emphasized
that they will keep policy easy as they watch to see signs that the economy is
really healing. They also contend that higher inflation readings are temporary,
since the data is being compared with a weak period last year.
Key for the markets is whether the
Fed begins to believe that inflation is higher than it expected or that the
economy is strengthening enough to progress without so much monetary support.
Fed officials have said they would consider discussing tapering back on their
quantitative easing bond purchase program if they see signs of improvement, and
that would be a first step toward interest rate hikes, not expected until at
least 2023.
More
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/05/28/jobs-report-looms-in-the-week-ahead-as-markets-enter-the-often-weak-month-of-june.html
Finally, will the G-7
adopt Covid passports at their upcoming meeting in about two weeks? Almost as important, Will Cornwall’s often
windy and wet summer weather cooperate?
Boris Johnson urges G7 accord on
Covid-19 'passports' Issued
on: 30/05/2021 -
21:56
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson
wants the upcoming Group of Seven summit to reach agreement on Covid-19 vaccine
passports and to open talks on a "world treaty" to prepare for future
pandemics.
"We need to have agreements on
issues such as vaccine passports, Covid status certification and the
rest," Johnson said in an interview broadcast Sunday by Canadian public
channel CBC.
"There has to be some sort of
agreement then, at the G7 level to start, on how travel and passports are going
to work."
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Johnson was speaking ahead of a June
11-13 summit of the G7 economic powers (US, Canada, Japan, Britain, France,
Germany and Italy) which he will host in Cornwall, at the southwestern tip of
England.
"What we need, I think, is a
global treaty on pandemic preparedness," he said, adding that 2020 had
been a "terrible year for humanity."
To date, the pandemic has killed
more than 3.5 million people worldwide. Britain was among the hardest-hit
countries, though it has been recovering since beginning vaccinations.
Johnson said it was also a bad time
"for believers in global cooperation, because the world simply became
balkanized," with many countries slow to share stocks of protective
equipment, medicines and vaccines.
"We've got to do better than
this," the prime minister added.
"Vaccination has got to be a
global enterprise," Johnson said in the interview taped Friday.
He said it was crucial that
developing countries receive vaccine supplies as quickly as possible.
Rather than the goal set by some of
vaccinating the world by 2024 or 2025, Johnson set a more ambitious target,
saying, "We need to get this done by the end of next year."
As to the debate over the origins of
the pandemic -- which flared up recently when President Joe Biden ordered a new
intelligence report on the problem -- Johnson said he still leaned to the theory
that it had spread from wild animals to humans, not leaked from a Chinese
laboratory.
"But," he added, "I'm
not going to exclude any possibility."
Johnson, who himself was
hospitalized last year with a serious case of Covid, has faced sharp criticism
in Britain for his early handling of the pandemic there.
The G7 summit will be an in-person
affair. The group was set to meet last summer in the US, but Covid concerns led
to the meeting's cancellation.
https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20210530-boris-johnson-urges-g7-accord-on-covid-19-passports
Every
generation imagines itself to be more intelligent than the one that went before
it, and wiser than the one that comes after it.
George Orwell.
Global Inflation Watch. Given our Magic Money Tree central banksters and our
spendthrift politicians, inflation now needs an entire section of its own.
Travis Perkins warns of price
rises amid shortage of raw materials 30
May, 2021
The UK's biggest builders' merchant has warned customers
of "considerable" cost increases to raw materials amid an
industry-wide shortage.
As first reported by
the Times , Travis Perkins says the price of bagged cement will rise by 15%,
chipboard by 10% and paint by 5% from Tuesday.
It comes as industry groups warn electrical components,
timber and steel are also in short supply.
They blame surging demand as lockdown eases, as well as
supply chain issues.
Travis Perkins has been informing customers in its stores,
websites and by email of the price rises.
It said it had seen demand across the board - from
consumers doing more DIY projects, to demand from big infrastructure projects
such as HS2.
'Inflationary
pressure' It said the increases would affect all of its brands which
include Keyline, BSS and Toolstation.
A spokesman said: "In instances where we have seen
some challenges posed by global demand for raw materials or inflationary
pressures, we continue to work closely with our suppliers and partners to minimise
price increases where possible, whilst also ensuring healthy stock availability
for all of our customers."
The Office for National Statistics has projected a rise of
7-8% in material prices this year, with increases for certain materials, such
as timber, expected to more than double.
The supply problems stem from a number of factors.
Construction industry projects have surged since lockdown began easing which
has led to skyrocketing demand for already scarce materials.
There are also issues hitting specific products, such as
the warmer winter affecting timber production in Scandinavia while the cold
winter weather in Texas affected the production of chemicals, plastics and
polymer.
There has also been a sharp rise in shipping costs amid the
pandemic.
More
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-57299350
[US] Home prices rise at fastest
pace since 2005 — here’s where they soared the most Last Updated: May 29, 2021 at 12:15 p.m. ET
By Jacob
Passy
Phoenix topped
the country with a 20% increase in home prices over the past year The numbers: Home
price gains continue to accelerate, reflecting the significant imbalance
between the supply and demand for housing across the U.S.
The index of home prices across 20 large cities increased
at yearly pace of 13.3% in March, according to the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller home price index . On a monthly
basis, home prices were up 1.6%.
“The market’s strength is broadly-based: all 20 cities
rose, and all 20 gained more in the 12 months ended in March than they had
gained in the 12 months ended in February,” Craig J. Lazzara, managing director
and global head of index investment strategy at S&P DJI, said in the
report.
The separate national index, which measures home prices
across the country, displayed a similar 13.2% gain over the past year, which
equates to the highest annual gain since December 2005.
What happened:
Among the 20 cities that the index tracks, Phoenix again saw the largest
increase with a 20% jump, followed by San Diego (up 19.1%) and Seattle (up
18.3%).
Separately, the Federal Housing Finance Agency released its
quarterly house-price index, which showed that home prices were up 12.6% over
the past year as of the first quarter.
“House price growth over the prior
year clocked in at more than twice the rate of growth observed in the first
quarter of 2020, just before the effects of the pandemic were felt in housing
markets,” Lynn Fisher, deputy director of FHFA’s division of research and
statistics, said in the report.
“In March, rates of appreciation
continued to climb, exceeding 15% over the year in the Pacific, Mountain and
New England census divisions,” she added.
More
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/home-prices-rise-at-fastest-pace-since-2005-as-housing-grows-more-expensive-in-every-part-of-the-country-11621948739?mod=home-page
Monthly payments of up to $300
per child are starting for most families — and could keep coming for years Last Updated: May 29, 2021 at 8:31 a.m. ET By Victor
Reklaitis
‘This is the
largest basic income trial in human history that’s about to kick off,’ one
advocate says As the U.S. government prepares to send out up to $300 a
month per child to millions of families this summer, the payments could end up
coming for years rather than fading away next year as planned.
That’s the prediction made by some analysts and advocates,
regardless of whether they support or oppose the expanded Child Tax Credit
payouts, which are due to start July 15 and stem from March’s $1.9 trillion stimulus law .
“It’s very difficult for me to imagine that this will be
going away anytime soon,” said Michael Strain, director of economic policy
studies at the conservative-leaning American Enterprise Institute.
Strain said it’s unlikely that lawmakers would reduce the
Child Tax Credit after ramping it up this year, and while it’s possible the CTC
could go back to getting paid out only once a year at tax time rather than
through some monthly installments, he wouldn’t bet on it.
“We’re going to see politicians in both parties grabbing
the reins of this, wanting to make it their own and having their own takes on
it,” said Greg Nasif, chief spokesman for Humanity Forward, a nonprofit group
started by former Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang that advocates
for universal basic income.
“I don’t think you’re going to see many people wanting to
openly run against this,” added Nasif, whose group is no longer affiliated with
Yang as he now campaigns to become New York’s mayor.
The monthly payments are slated to amount to $300 per child
under age 6, or $250 per child aged 6 to 17. They’re due to come for this
year’s last six months, beginning in July and running through December, so the
total amount disbursed in 2021 for a younger kid will be $1,800, while those
with an older kid get $1,500.
Then
next year at tax time, parents or guardians of children under age 6 are due to
get another $1,800 per child, bringing their total CTC haul for the 2021 tax
year to $3,600, while those with the bigger kids receive another $1,500 for a
total of $3,000. That’s because the $1.9 trillion stimulus law, known as the
American Rescue Plan, increased the CTC amounts to $3,600 or $3,000, up from an
earlier level of $2,000, with half coming through the monthly installments.
More
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/monthly-payments-of-up-to-300-per-child-are-starting-for-most-families-and-could-keep-coming-for-years-11622145562?mod=home-page
Covid-19 Corner This
section will continue until it becomes unneeded.
Vietnam finds new virus variant,
hybrid of India, UK strains By HAU
DINH May 29, 2021
HANOI, Vietnam (AP) — Vietnam has discovered a
new coronavirus variant that’s a hybrid of strains first found in India and the
U.K., the Vietnamese health minister said Saturday.
Nguyen Thanh Long said scientists examined the
genetic makeup of the virus that had infected some recent patients, and found
the new version of the virus. He said lab tests suggested it might spread more
easily than other versions of the virus.
Viruses often develop small genetic changes as
they reproduce, and new variants of the coronavirus have been seen almost since
it was first detected in China in late 2019. The World Health Organization has
listed four global “variants of concern” – the two first found in the U.K. and
India, plus ones identified in South Africa and Brazil.
Long says the new variant could be responsible
for a recent surge in Vietnam, which has spread to 30 of the country’s 63
municipalities and provinces.
Vietnam was initially a standout success in
battling the virus — in early May, it had recorded just over 3,100 confirmed
cases and 35 deaths since the start of the pandemic.
But in the last few weeks, Vietnam has
confirmed more than 3,500 new cases and 12 deaths, increasing the country’s
total death toll to 47.
Most of the new transmissions were found in Bac
Ninh and Bac Giang, two provinces dense with industrial zones where hundreds of
thousands of people work for major companies including Samsung, Canon and
Luxshare, a partner in assembling Apple products. Despite strict health
regulations, a company in Bac Giang discovered that one fifth of its 4,800
workers had tested positive for the virus.
In Ho Chi Minh City, the country’s largest
metropolis and home to 9 million, at least 85 people have tested positive as
part of a cluster at a Protestant church, the Health Ministry said. Worshippers
sang and chanted while sitting close together without wearing proper masks or
taking other precautions.
Vietnam has since ordered a nationwide ban on
all religious events. In major cities, authorities have banned large
gatherings, closed public parks and non-essential business including in-person
restaurants, bars, clubs and spas.
Vietnam so far has vaccinated 1 million people
with AstraZeneca shots. Last week, it sealed a deal with Pfizer for 30 million
doses, which are scheduled to be delivered in the third and fourth quarters of
this year. It is also in talks with Moderna that would give it enough shots to
fully vaccine 80% of its 96 million people.
https://apnews.com/article/vietnam-india-coronavirus-pandemic-health-c4c0a7c9f2e3b03c9cea2bf6fdcad70d
British drug regulator approves
J&J vaccine May 28, 2021 / 1:39 PM
May 28 (UPI) -- Britain's Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency on
Friday approved a one-dose coronavirus vaccine produced by Johnson &
Johnson.
The approval makes the Johnson & Johnson vaccine the fourth
available in Britain. Vaccines by Pfizer/BioNTech, Moderna and
AstraZeneca/Oxford are all available. The Johnson & Johnson vaccine,
though, is the first one-dose vaccine that will be used.
The vaccine, referred to by Johnson & Johnson's
subsidiary Janssen, will be available for those 18 and over while pregnant and
breast-feeding women should talk to their doctors before using it, the MHRA
said.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Food and Drug Administration paused using the Johnson & Johnson vaccine in the
United States for more than a week while researching reports of blood clotting
complications among a small number of users. The agencies approved the drug for
use again last month.
More
https://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2021/05/28/British-drug-regulator-approves-JJ-vaccine/5451622221857/
Deadly black fungus outbreak
declared an epidemic as cases climb to 12,000 in Covid-hit India Saturday 29 May 2021
5:53 pm
A range of states across India have
declared the outbreak of a rare black fungus an official epidemic, as the total
number of cases has hit more than 12,000.
Yesterday alone, the government of
Delhi reported 153 new cases of the mysterious fungal infection Mucormycosis.
It is not contagious but its rapid rise in recent weeks has left doctors
shocked. Cases have also been reported in neighbouring Pakistan.
Dozens of hospitals across India
have seen patients hit by the rare condition, which has a mortality rate of
about 50 per cent. So far, 300 people have died as a result of the extremely
rare condition, according to news channel France 24 today.
Read more: Outbreak
of rare deadly black fungus among Covid-19 patients spreading from India to
Pakistan
Mucormycosis causes vital organs to rot, include the brain,
lungs and sinuses. Some doctors have had to remove infected jaw bones, noses
and eyes in order to save patients, namely to prevent the mucor from spreading
to the brain.
‘A new challenge’ Yesterday, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi called the
outbreak is providing a “new challenge” for the country, which is currently
also in the midst of fighting the world’s most severe outbreak of Covid-19.
Before the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic,
Mucormycosis was close to non-existent, with only a few known cases reported
every year.
However, since Covid-19 spiralled out of control in India
in March, hospitals and clinics started to report multiple cases a day, and
that number is climbing fast. Cases have also been reported in neighbouring
Pakistan.
Mould Mucormycosis is caused by exposure to mucor mould, which is
commonly found in soil, air and even in the nose and mucus of humans. It
spreads through the respiratory tract and erodes facial structures.
According to data from the US Center for Disease Control
and Prevention, black fungus has a mortality rate of around 50 per cent. Early
diagnosis and treatment significantly improve survival chances.
Read more: Hospitals
across India report Covid-19 patients with rare deadly black fungus that decays
brains and lungs
“It is a new challenge and things are looking bleak,”
Ambrish Mithal, the chairman and head of the endocrinology and diabetes
department at Max Healthcare, a chain of private hospitals across India, told
PA.
He explained that the fungal infection “preys on patients
with weakened immune systems” and underlying conditions, particularly diabetes,
and irrational usage of steroids.
More
https://www.cityam.com/deadly-black-fungus-outbreak-declared-an-epidemic-as-cases-climb-to-12000-in-covid-hit-india/
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.
Engineering matter at the atomic
level Date: May 25, 2021
Source: RIKEN
Summary: Researchers have developed a way to use a
'dry transfer technique' -- a technique that uses no solvent -- to position
optical quality carbon nanotubes in a precise way.
As devices continue to be built on
an increasingly small scale, scientists are looking toward developing ways to
engineer materials at the atomic level. In a breakthrough that will contribute
to this, published in Nature Communications , researchers from the RIKEN
Cluster for Pioneering Research and RIKEN Center for Advanced Photonics, along
with collaborators, have developed a way to use a "dry transfer
technique" -- a technique that uses no solvent -- to position optical
quality carbon nanotubes in a precise way.
Carbon nanotubes are a promising
type of materials with potential uses in applications such as light-emitting
diodes, single-electron transistors, or as single photon sources. They are
essentially tubes made up of graphene twisted in specific ways, and the way
they are twisted is critical for allowing the desired properties to emerge.
Creating devices with desired properties requires precise manipulation of the
position and orientation of the nanotubes, along with a property known as
"chirality," which essentially describes how much it is twisted. It
is difficult to manipulate the molecules precisely, however, as using solvents
or high-temperature treatment inevitably leaves the nanotubes dirty, hampering
their optical characteristics.
To solve this issue, the researchers
looked for a way to engineer the nanotubes without using solvents. They
experimented with using anthracene, a chemical derived from oil, as a
sacrificial material. Essentially, they picked up the nanotube on a scaffolding
of anthracene to carry it wherever they wanted, and then used heat to sublimate
the anthracene, leaving the nanotube in an optically pristine condition. They
also developed a method for monitoring the photoluminescence of the nanotubes
during the transfer, ensuring that a nanotube with the desired optical
properties would be placed at a right location.
---- According to Keigo Otsuka from the RIKEN Cluster for Pioneering
Research, the first author of the paper, "We believe that this technology
could contribute not only to the creation of nanodevices from carbon nanotubes
with desired properties, but also to the construction of higher-order systems
that are based on the free combination of atomic layer materials and other
nanostructures."
"Beyond that," says
Yuichiro Kato, the leader of the group, "this technology has the potential
to contribute to the development of atomically defined technologies that go
beyond nanotechnology, in which materials with precise structures at the atomic
level are used as building blocks to design and build functions that are
different from those of existing materials."
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/05/210525084303.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+sciencedaily%2Fmatter_energy%2Fgraphene+%28Graphene+News+--+ScienceDaily%29
If voting made any difference they wouldn't let us do it.
Mark Twain.
