By Julie Zhu
HONG
KONG (Reuters) -Asian shares climbed in morning trade on Tuesday, tracking a
Wall Street rally overnight, while the dollar held near a fourth-month low as investors
tempered fears about inflation-driven rate hikes.
MSCI’s broadest index of
Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was up 1% at a two-week high, after U.S.
stocks ended the previous session with mild gains.
Australian shares were up 0.69%,
while Japan’s Nikkei stock index rose 0.6%.
Chinese stocks hit a 2-1/2-month
high on financial services, consumer and tourism gains in morning trade. The
blue-chip CSI300 index jumped 1.89%, while the benchmark Shanghai Composite
Index advanced 1.39%, reaching their highest levels since early March.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index rose
1.05%.
“Markets were buoyed as data flow
didn’t live up to the strong-inflation narrative, and amid repeated guidance
from senior central bank figures that the current rise in inflation is temporary,”
ANZ analysts wrote in a note.
The U.S. national activity index
reading of 0.24 against expectations above 1, along with dovish comments from
Federal Reserve speakers, helped support the view that policy will remain on
hold for some time.
Still, after global service sector
surveys showed strong growth last Friday, all eyes will be on the release of
U.S. personal consumption data on Thursday, the Fed’s preferred inflation
measure.
Overnight, Wall Street closed
higher, spurred by gains in tech stocks, with the sector’s majors Apple up
1.33% and Microsoft up 2.29%.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average
rose 0.54% while the S&P 500 and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite gained
0.99% and 1.41%, respectively.
Treasury yields, which fell on
Monday after a few Fed officials affirmed their support to keep monetary policy
accommodative for some time, were little changed.
More
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-global-markets/asia-shares-track-wall-street-higher-as-inflation-worries-recede-idUSKCN2D606D
In other news, will the Olympics spread the Indian Covid
variant around the world? America seems to think so. But what will it do to the
global economy if it does?
US warns against all travel to
Japan as Olympics loom By
MATTHEW LEE May 24 2021
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. health officials and the
State Department on Monday warned Americans against travel to Japan because of
a surge in coronavirus cases in the country, which is preparing to host the
Olympics in just two months.
The twin alerts don’t ban U.S. citizens from
visiting the country, but they could have an impact on insurance rates for
travelers and may factor into decisions by Olympic athletes and spectators on
whether to compete in or attend the games, which are due to start in July.
There was no immediate indication as to what effect the warnings might have on
would-be Olympic-goers.
“Travelers should avoid all travel to Japan,”
the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in a new
COVID-19 update. “Because of the current situation in Japan even fully
vaccinated travelers may be at risk for getting and spreading COVID-19 variants
and should avoid all travel to Japan.”
The State Department’s warning, which followed
the CDC alert, was more blunt. “Do not travel to Japan due to COVID-19,” it
said in the announcement, which raised the department’s travel alert from Level
3 — Reconsider travel — to Level 4 — Do not travel. The previous alert was
issued on April 21.
The United States Olympic & Paralympic
Committee said it still anticipates that American athletes will be able to
safely compete at the Tokyo Games.
“We feel confident that the current mitigation
practices in place for athletes and staff by both the USOPC and the Tokyo
Organizing Committee, coupled with the testing before travel, on arrival in
Japan, and during Games time, will allow for safe participation of Team USA
athletes this summer,” the committee said in a statement Monday.
Earlier Monday, Japan mobilized military
doctors and nurses to give shots to older adults in two major cities, as the
government tried desperately to accelerate its vaccination rollout and curb
coronavirus infections before it hosts the Olympics. That move came amid
growing calls for the games to be canceled.
Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga is
determined to hold the Olympics in Tokyo beginning on July 23, after a one-year
delay, and has made an ambitious pledge to finish vaccinating the country’s 36
million older people by the end of July.
More
https://apnews.com/article/japan-business-olympic-games-coronavirus-pandemic-sports-82792eb3ebd3e066400f6b16405bf864
Finally,
another major setback for unicorn trading. HSBC wisely says no.
More
Greensill bankruptcy fallout in Europe.
HSBC rules out move into crypto
market over volatility concerns Monday 24 May 2021 11:25
am
HSBC will not enter the
cryptocurrency market, its chief executive has said, amid concerns over
volatility and a lack of transparency.
“Given the volatility we are not
into Bitcoin as an asset class, if our clients want to be there then of course
they are, but we are not promoting it as an asset class within our wealth
management business,” Noel Quinn told Reuters.
Cryptocurrencies have hit an
all-time high in recent months as institutional investors rallied behind the
likes of Bitcoin and Ethereum.
In March Goldman Sachs restarted its cryptocurrency trading
desk while reports suggest JP Morgan is planning to roll out a Bitcoin
fund.
Other financial institutions have been more sceptical. Last
month Natwest said it had “no appetite” to serve business customers which
accept cryptocurrency as it takes a cautious approach to the market.
Quinn’s comments today come after a bruising weekend for
the crypto market. Bitcoin is down nearly 50 per cent in just 40 days from its
year high of $64,895 in April.
It came under pressure after Tesla chief Elon Musk, a big proponent
of cryptocurrencies, reserved his stance on the electric carmaker accepting
Bitcoin as payment.
Quinn’s scepticism also comes amid concerns about the lack
of transparency amongst cryptocurrencies, particularly in assessing who owns
them.
“I view Bitcoin as more of an asset class than a payments
vehicle, with very difficult questions about how to value it on the balance
sheet of clients because it is so volatile,” he said.
Quinn also said HSBC would not rush into so-called
stablecoins, which are digital currencies that try to avoid volatility by
pegging their value to assets like the US dollar.
“Then you get to stablecoins which do have some reserve
backing behind them to address the stored value concerns, but it depends on who
the sponsoring organisation is plus the structure and accessibility of the
reserve.”
https://www.cityam.com/hsbc-rules-out-move-into-crypto-market-over-volatility-concerns/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Midday+newsletter+Nov+2020
Banca Ifis rescues Italian
casualty of Greensill collapse May 24, 2021 12:01 PM
ROME (Reuters) - Italy’s Banca Ifis
has bought the healthy assets of Aigis Banca for 1 euro ($1.22) after Aigis was
forced into liquidation by the insolvency of Germany’s Greensill Bank.
German financial services regulator
BaFin in March shut down Greensill Bank AG, which was part of Greensill
Capital, the collapsed London-based supply-chain finance group owned by
Australian financier Lex Greensill.
“The intervention of Banca Ifis will
protect the savings of retail customers, guarantee continuity of finance to
businesses and safeguard jobs,” Banca Ifis Chief Executive Frederik Geertman
said in a statement.
Milan-based Aigis was established
only last December as a specialist lender for small- and medium-sized
enterprises (SMEs) with a staff of 50 and three branches spread among Italy’s
financial capital, Rome and the southern town of Bari.
At the behest of Italy’s central
bank, the Treasury on Sunday ordered Aigis to be put into liquidation, while
transferring part of its business to Ifis, which also specialises in SME
lending, as well as bad loan management.
Aigis is the first Italian casualty
of Greensill’s demise, which also hit clients of Swiss bank Credit Suisse as
well as steel magnate Sanjeev Gupta’s GFG Alliance and around two dozen German
towns.
More
https://www.reuters.com/article/aigis-banca-ma-banca-ifis/update-1-banca-ifis-rescues-italian-casualty-of-greensill-collapse-idUSL2N2NB0HE
Liberty Steel to sell
Stocksbridge site as Gupta seeks to pay off creditors Monday 24 May 2021 12:53
pm
Liberty Steel said today that it
would sell of its Stocksbridge aerospace and special alloys steel business as
part of restructuring plans.
The sale will help Liberty to pay
off its debts to Credit Suisse, one of its main creditors.
The metals group, part of
billionaire Sanjeev Gupta’s GFG Alliance, has been scrambling to find new
financing since the collapse of boutique bank Greensill in March.
In a statement, the firm, which
employs about 3,000 people in the UK, said that the asset was not “core” to
Liberty Steel’s vision.
“This sale will allow Liberty to
focus on developing its Rotherham plant including its electric arc furnaces
into a competitive 2m tonnes recycled Greensteel plant, one of the largest in
Europe”, it added.
A formal sale process will be opened
soon, it was added.
The firm is currently in discussions
with the lender over a standstill agreement for its Liberty Primary Metals
Australia business while it completes its refinancing.
The announcement comes after it was
reported that Indian steel giant JSW was mulling a bid for Liberty’s UK assets.
Ministers have come under pressure
to prop up the ailing business, but have said they will not act until Gupta has
exhausted attempts to refinance the business.
The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) has
also begun a probe into the company.
https://www.cityam.com/liberty-steel-to-sell-stocksbridge-site-to-pay-off-creditors/
Liberty Steel breached £18m loan
with Metro Bank - report Sunday 23 May 2021 10:29
am
Metro Bank is reportedly still
waiting for the repayment of an £18m loan from embattled steel group
Liberty.
It is the latest sign of trouble for
Liberty’s owner GFG Alliance which is being investigated by the UK Serious
Fraud Office for alleged money laundering and fraudulent trading.
Its future has been in doubt since
its main backer, supply chain finance firm Greensill Capital collapsed into
administration in March.
But its troubles started some time
earlier, with a loan secured on the steelworks as early as 2018, the BBC
reported.
Filings at the Isle of Man Companies
Registry show that it’s one of a portfolio of industrial properties, including
another factory in South Wales, which were pledged as security for an £18m loan
from Metro Bank.
Liberty’s accounts for 2018-19 say
that “due to breaches of… covenants and restrictions, Metro bank have called in
the [loan] facility and have stipulated that full repayment must be made” by 31
March 2020.”
A GFG Alliance spokesman declined to
say what caused the terms to be breached and added: “no loan terms have been
breached due to non-payment” and “discussions are ongoing and are being
resolved.”
More
https://www.cityam.com/liberty-steel-breached-18m-loan-with-metro-bank-report/
Why, sometimes I've believed
as many as six impossible things before breakfast.
US Treasury Secretary
Yellen, with apologies to Alice in Wonderland.
Global Inflation Watch. Given our Magic Money Tree central banksters and our
spendthrift politicians, inflation now needs an entire section of its own.
Solar Power's Decade of Falling
Costs Is Thrown Into Reverse The price of key raw material polysilicon has surged, and
that could impact projects in India and the U.S.
By Dan Murtaugh
and Brian
Eckhouse 23 May 2021, 22:00 BST
·
·
A key selling point that made solar energy the
fastest-growing power source in the world—rapidly decreasing costs—has hit a
speed bump.
Solar module prices have risen 18% since the start of the
year after falling by 90% over the previous decade. The reversal, fueled by a
quadrupling in the cost of the key raw material polysilicon, threatens to delay
projects and slow uptake of solar power just as several major governments
are finally throwing their weight behind it in an effort to slow climate
change.
Rising Costs Solar panels are getting more expensive for the second
time in a decade
Source: PVInsights
“The disruption to solar hasn’t been this bad in more than a
decade,” said Jenny Chase, lead solar analyst with clean energy research
group BloombergNEF. “Developers and governments are going to have to stop
expecting solar to get much cheaper quickly.” BNEF slightly lowered
its forecast for solar buildout this year in a report last week, citing
rising prices of materials including polysilicon as one reason.
Higher prices are affecting demand and may delay some
large-scale projects, panel-maker Canadian Solar Inc. said on an earnings call on
Thursday. In India, about 10 gigawatts of projects may be impacted, equivalent
to more than a quarter of the country’s current capacity, Mint reported , citing unnamed developers.
Large-scale projects in the U.S. could also get postponed, analysts
at Cowen & Co. said.
Projects that haven’t signed price agreements with
utilities that buy the power might get delayed unless the customer is willing
to pay a higher rate for the electricity.
More
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-05-23/solar-power-s-decade-of-falling-costs-is-thrown-into-reverse
Issuance of Bundles of Risky
Loans Jumps to 16-Year High A recovering
economy, demand from yield-starved investors boost collateralized loan
obligations May 24, 2021 5:49 am ET
Sales of securities backed by bundles of risky corporate
loans are hitting records, lifted by a recovering economy and demand from
yield-starved investors.
Issuance of new collateralized loan obligations, which buy up loans
The prospect of rising inflation and a shift away from the
Federal Reserve’s easy money policies are making bonds tied to so-called CLOs
attractive to a wider range of investors, analysts said. Many are expecting
strong growth to prompt Fed tightening, eroding returns on corporate bonds.
Yields on CLO bonds typically rise with interest rates.
The CLO market’s record sales pace marks a reversal from
this time last year, when pandemic fears caused debt prices to plummet,
freezing sales of new funds. Support from the Fed, including cutting interest
rates to near zero and buying the highest-quality bonds
More
https://www.wsj.com/articles/issuance-of-bundles-of-risky-loans-jumps-to-16-year-high-11621849782?mod=hp_lista_pos3
Inflation is a form of tax, a tax that we all collectively must
pay.
Henry Hazlitt
Covid-19 Corner This
section will continue until it becomes unneeded.
India becomes 3rd nation to
surpass 300,000 COVID-19 deaths May 24, 2021 / 12:18 PM
May 24 (UPI) -- India on Monday became just the third country to surpass 300,000 COVID-19 deaths.
India has now seen well over 303,000 coronavirus-related
deaths after another 4,400 were newly reported Monday, according to Johns
Hopkins University.
India is third behind the United States (590,000) and
Brazil (449,100) in COVID-19 deaths.
Hospitals and emergency officials in India during the
current surge of cases have been dealing with a shortage of oxygen supplies and
hospital beds. Some, as a result, have succumbed to the virus in their homes
without treatment.
Maharashtra, India's second-most populous state and home to
Mumbai, has recorded the most deaths
India reported 222,000 more cases
https://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2021/05/24/India-becomes-3rd-nation-to-surpass-300000-COVID-19-deaths/8361621870616/
Two doses of Covid vaccines
provide effective protection against variant found in India: Study Published Mon, May 24 20217:13 AM EDT
A new study has found that two doses of either the
Pfizer-BioNTech or AstraZeneca-University of Oxford vaccine give effective
protection against the Covid variant first discovered in India, however it
underscored the need for two doses, as both vaccines were significantly less
effective after only one shot.
The study, led by Public Health England also found that two
doses of the vaccine were similarly as effective at protecting against the
variant that first emerged in the U.K. and has since become a dominant strain
in the West.
Dr Jenny Harries, CEO of the U.K. Health Security Agency,
told the BBC that the study provided the “first real-world evidence of vaccine
effectiveness” against the variant first identified in India.
Conducted between April and May, the
research found that the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine was 88% effective against
symptomatic disease from the B.1.617.2 Covid variant — a sub-type of a variant
that emerged in India last fall which has since spread to Europe — two weeks
after the second dose. The vaccine was 93% effective two weeks after the second
dose against the B.1.1.7 variant which was first discovered in the U.K. last
fall.
Meanwhile, two doses of the
AstraZeneca vaccine were found to be 60% effective against symptomatic disease
from the B.1.617.2 variant from India, compared to 66% effective against the
variant from the U.K.
“Vaccine effectiveness against
symptomatic disease from the B.1.617.2 variant is similar after 2 doses
compared to the B.1.1.7 (Kent) variant dominant in the U.K., and we expect to
see even higher levels of effectiveness against hospitalisation and death,” the
study authors wrote. The results were published Saturday as a pre-print and the
study has not yet been peer reviewed.
More
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/05/24/two-doses-of-covid-vaccines-provide-protection-against-india-variant.html
India’s Covid Crisis Threatens
the World’s Pandemic Recovery Contributors: Ruth Pollard
Updated on May 11, 12:02 AM EDT
What You Need To
Know India is now the epicenter of the world's Covid-19
pandemic, reporting record numbers of new infections each day. Images of
hospitals overflowing with the sick and dying are flooding social media, as
medical staff and the public alike make desperate appeals for oxygen supplies.
More than 245,000 people are reported to have died of the virus, although the
true figure is likely much higher.
The political and financial capitals of New Delhi and
Mumbai are in lockdown, with only the sound of ambulance sirens punctuating the
quiet, but there’s a growing chorus of blame directed at Prime Minister
Narendra Modi over his government’s handling of the pandemic.
Modi’s government has sought to block some recent criticism
of its response to the virus on Twitter, where the anger and disappointment in
India’s leader is manifest.
Key Coverage ·
How
India’s Vaccine Drive Crumbled and Left a Country in Chaos
·
World's
Biggest Covid Crisis Threatens Modi's Grip on India
·
Bodies
Pile Up at India Crematoriums Overwhelmed by Virus Surge
By The Numbers 1.4 billion India's population, which is second only to China 246,116 Number of reported Covid-19 deaths in the country as of May 10 172 million Doses of the vaccine given, representing just 6.3% coverage Why It Matters India's surging new wave brought its campaign of vaccine
diplomacy to an abrupt halt, after the prime minister had dubbed the South
Asian nation the “pharmacy to the world” and over-promised on its ability to
send millions of shots abroad.
The country's exports and donations were a critical part of
Covax, the World Health Organization’s global program to provide inoculations
to low-income countries. When they all but dried up, it left many countries
scrambling to find alternatives.
Given India’s growing strategic importance, the crisis
risks not only the fledgling recovery in Asia’s third-largest economy, but
attempts to tamp down Covid-19 and recuperate globally. Some scientists have
linked India's fresh wave to a more virulent strain, with the out-of-control
outbreak providing a petri dish for further mutations to evolve that could
challenge the vaccines now being distributed from Europe to the U.S.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/storythreads/2021-04-30/india-s-covid-crisis-threatens-the-world-s-pandemic-recovery?srnd=premium-europe
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.
Frameless solar panels can be
stuck directly to rooftops By Paul Ridden May 21, 2021
Singapore's Maxeon Solar
Technologies reckons that it's come up with a way to install photovoltaic
panels on the roofs of commercial buildings that may not be able to support
conventional setups. The company has created frameless, thin and lightweight
panels that can be adhered directly to a roof.
----"For close to 50 years, the
solar power industry has almost exclusively utilized glass superstrate panel
construction. As solar panels have increased in size, and the cost of solar
cells has been dramatically reduced, the cost of transporting, installing and
mounting large glass panels has become a relatively larger portion of total
system cost. With Maxeon Air technology, we can now develop products that
reduce these costs while opening up completely new market opportunities such as
low-load commercial rooftops."
Described as a
"peel-and-stick" solution, the Maxeon Air panels are backed by an
integrated adhesive layer that allows them to be installed directly on the
rooftops of commercial buildings without needing aluminum frames, racking,
anchors or ballast. They've also been engineered to work with uneven roof
surfaces.
Each panel is made up of a number of
IBC solar cells, which have a metal foundation and stress-relieved cell
connects, and are reported to be resistant to corrosion and able to bend
without cracking. Overall panel efficiency is touted as 20.9 percent, and shade
tolerance has also been integrated into the design.
"Maxeon's IBC module technology
has the unique ability to pass current while shaded, continuing to produce
power in conditions that would shut off other panels," explained Waters.
"This feature, along with inherently low temperature sensitivity, ensures
industry leading performance in all conditions."
The company is claiming an installed
weight of less than half that of conventional panels, at around 6 kg/m2 ,
so they're well-suited for installation on roofs that are not engineered to
support the weight of conventional solar systems. Maxeon estimates that the
untapped potential from low-load commercial rooftops in Europe alone could be
over 4 GW. But the company is also eyeing potential use on residential
rooftops, floating solar farms, and e-mobility further down the track.
After five years of research and development, the Maxeon
Air technology will make its public debut in July, followed by installation on
a select few projects in Europe in the second half of this year. General
availability is pegged for the first quarter of 2022.
Source: Maxeon
Solar Technologies
https://newatlas.com/energy/maxeon-air-peel-stick-solar-panels/
The natural tendency of the state is inflation.
Murray Rothbard
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