Baltic Dry Index. 3175 +28 Brent Crude 75.69
Spot Gold 1777
Coronavirus Cases 02/04/20 World 1,000,000
Deaths 53,100
Coronavirus Cases 25/06/21 World 180,776,268
Deaths 3,916,246
Central banks: ignore what they say, watch what they do.
Our major central banksters are all talking out a lot about our rising inflation being temporary, but they are purposely doing nothing about it, heavily gambling our future that they are right. I have serious doubts.
After a wobble in the stock casinos last week after Fed Chairman Powell pretended he was concerned about rising inflation, doing nothing gave a green light to rattled stock gamblers to flood back into sky high stocks.
In fact, our central banksters can’t take on inflation without blowing up the stock, bond and commodity markets, something they are highly unlikely to do except by accident.
Below, the everything bubble is back on. Unhappily, so is inflation. To check a rising crude oil price, will the USA dare to sell crude from its strategic stockpile? And if it does, how long would that check last?
Asia-Pacific stocks edge higher after S&P 500 sails to record high close overnight
SINGAPORE — Asia-Pacific stocks rose in Friday morning trade after the S&P 500 rose to a record closing high overnight stateside.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 rose 0.48% in morning trade while the Topix index gained 0.5%. South Korea’s Kospi advanced 0.79%.
Mainland Chinese stocks saw muted moves in early trade, with the Shanghai composite little changed while the Shenzhen component edged slightly higher. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index climbed 0.48%.
Elsewhere, the S&P/ASX 200 in Australia edged 0.24% higher.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan traded 0.53% higher.
Overnight on Wall Street, the S&P 500 gained 0.58% to a new record closing high of 4,266.49. The Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped 322.58 points to 34,196.82 while the Nasdaq Composite advanced 0.69% to 14,369.71.
The gains stateside came after U.S. President Joe Biden announced the White House had reached an infrastructure deal after meeting with a bipartisan group of senators.
----Oil prices were higher in the morning of Asia trading hours, with international benchmark Brent crude futures rising 0.4% to $75.86 per barrel. U.S. crude futures gained 0.38% to $73.58 per barrel.
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/06/25/asia-markets-sp-500-touches-record-high-currencies-oil.html
Dow futures rise more than 100 points helped by Nike earnings, key inflation report ahead
U.S. stock futures rose in overnight trading on Thursday after the S&P 500 closed at a record.
Dow futures rose 137 points. S&P 500 futures and Nasdaq 100 futures were both in mildly positive territory.
Nike’s stock rose 14.1% in extended trading after the company reported earnings of 93 cents per share, outpacing a Refinitiv estimate by 42 cents per share. Revenue came in at $12.34 billion, topping a forecast of $11.01 billion. Digital sales were up 41% since last year and 147% from two years ago. FedEx dipped 4% despite beating on the top and bottom lines of its earnings. FedEx also gave a strong yearly outlook.
Shares of the major U.S. bank popped after the Federal Reserve announced the banks could easily withstand a severe recession. The Fed, in releasing the results of its annual stress test, said the 23 institutions in the 2021 exam remained “well above” minimum required capital levels during a hypothetical economic downturn. Bank of America and Wells Fargo rose 1.8% and 2.7%, respectively.
Investors will be watching for a key inflation indicator on Friday morning when the Commerce Department releases the core personal consumption expenditures index. Economists polled by Dow Jones are expecting prices rose 3.4% in May from a year earlier. Economists also estimate prices increased by 0.6% from April to May.
The index captures price movements across a variety of goods and services. It is also generally considered a wider-ranging measure for inflation as it captures changes in consumer behavior and has a broader scope than the Labor Department’s consumer price index.
More
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/06/24/stock-market-futures-open-to-close-.html
Credit Suisse predicts global growth of 5.9% for 2021, says stocks to outperform other asset classes
Swiss investment bank Credit Suisse expects global growth to accelerate in the coming months as countries gradually reopen their economies, leading to a recovery in revenue growth and rehiring.
In its investment outlook for the second half of 2021, Credit Suisse predicted the world economy will grow 5.9% this year and 4% in 2022. That growth will be led by vaccine rollouts, fiscal stimulus and a broadening services recovery. It also said the United States is set to grow at a rate of 6.9% this year, the Eurozone is expected to expand by 4.2% while Asia ex-Japan is predicted to grow 7.5%.
Economic expansion will likely lead to a sharp recovery in global earnings growth that is set to fuel the stock market, according to Ray Farris, chief investment officer for South Asia at Credit Suisse.
“We are looking for equities to be the asset class that is going to outperform over the next six months to a year,” Farris told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Asia” on Thursday. “As long as earnings continue to trend higher, history suggests that equities will grind their way up.”
“There will be corrections from time to time, but those corrections would really be opportunities,” Farris said.
“We are looking for equities to be the asset class that is going to outperform over the next six months to a year,” Farris told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Asia” on Thursday. “As long as earnings continue to trend higher, history suggests that equities will grind their way up.”
“There will be corrections from time to time, but those corrections would really be opportunities,” Farris said.
More
Finally, it never rains but it pours. Water turning to blood, frogs, lice, flies, livestock pestilence, boils, hail, locusts, and darkness next? Hopefully not.
Western drought brings another woe: voracious grasshoppers
BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — A punishing drought in the U.S. West is drying up waterways, sparking wildfires and leaving farmers scrambling for water. Next up: a plague of voracious grasshoppers.
Federal agriculture officials are launching what could become their largest grasshopper-killing campaign since the 1980s amid an outbreak of the drought-loving insects that cattle ranchers fear will strip bare public and private rangelands.
In central Montana’s Phillips County, more than 50 miles (80 kilometers) from the nearest town, Frank Wiederrick said large numbers of grasshoppers started showing up on prairie surrounding his ranch in recent days. Already they’re beginning to denude trees around his house.
“They’re everywhere,” Wiederrick said. “Drought and grasshoppers go together and they are cleaning us out.”
Grasshoppers thrive in warm, dry weather, and populations already were up last year, setting the stage for an even bigger outbreak in 2021. Such outbreaks could become more common as climate change shifts rainfall patterns, scientists said.
To blunt the grasshoppers’ economic damage, the U.S. Department of Agriculture this week began aerial spraying of the pesticide diflubenzuron to kill grasshopper nymphs before they develop into adults. Approximately 3,000 square miles (7,700 square kilometers) in Montana are expected to be sprayed, roughly twice the size of Rhode Island.
Agriculture officials had seen this year’s infestation coming, after a 2020 survey found dense concentrations of adult grasshoppers across about 55,000 square miles (141 ,000 square kilometers) in the West. A 2021 grasshopper “hazard map” shows densities of at least 15 insects per square yard (meter) in large areas of Montana, Wyoming and Oregon and portions of Idaho, Arizona, Colorado and Nebraska.
Left unaddressed, federal officials said the agricultural damage from grasshoppers could become so severe it could drive up beef and crop prices.
More
The lesson is clear. Inflation devalues us all.
Margaret Thatcher.
Global Inflation Watch.
Given our Magic Money Tree central banksters and our spendthrift politicians, inflation now needs an entire section of its own.
Fed officials say 'temporary' inflation surge may last longer than thought
Reuters June 24, 2021
WASHINGTON - A period of high inflation in the United States may last longer than anticipated, two U.S. Federal Reserve officials said on Wednesday, prompting one to pull forward his views on when the central bank should start raising interest rates.
Atlanta Fed President Raphael Bostic said with growth surging to an estimated 7% this year and inflation well above the Fed's 2% target, he now expects interest rates will need to rise in late 2022.
"Given the upside surprise in recent data points I pulled forward my projection," Bostic said, placing him among seven Fed policymakers who at the central bank's meeting last week projected the overnight policy rate may need to lift from the current near zero level sometime next year.
That marked a decisive shift from the end of 2020, when 12 Fed policymakers felt that crisis levels of interest rates would need to remain in place into 2024.
The difference in the meantime: Vaccines that have driven back the spread of the coronavirus, and an economic reopening that has proceeded faster, and driven inflation higher, than Fed officials anticipated.
Both Bostic and Fed Governor Michelle Bowman on Wednesday said that while they largely agree recent price increases will prove temporary, they also feel it may take longer than anticipated for them to fade.
"Temporary is going to be a little longer than we expected initially ... Rather than it being two to three months it may be six to nine months," Bostic said in an interview on National Public Radio's "Morning Edition."
More
Bank of England keeps rates at record low
Thursday 24 June 2021 12:21 pm
The Bank of England kept interest rates at a record low 0.1 per cent despite mounting concerns over whether inflation may be stickier than initially expected.
The scale of government and corporate bond purchases through the Bank’s quantitative easing programme remained unchanged at £875bn and £20bn respectively.
Analysts had expected the latest Monetary Policy Committee meeting to be uneventful, with many predicting rates and the pace of bond purchases staying the same.
Economists polled by Reuters did not expect rates to change as the Bank waits to see if a post-lockdown rise in prices is transitory or more sustained and whether unemployment ticks up after the government winds down its job-protection scheme.
Read more: UK inflation jumps to 2.1 per cent in May as clothing and fuel prices rise
BoE upbeat on UK economy
The BoE’s outlook for the UK economy was upbeat, driven by a better than expected economic rebound triggered by the easing of Covid prevention measures and the success of the UK’s vaccination programme.
The Bank “revised up their expectations for the level of UK GDP in 2021 second quarter by around 1.5 per cent”. However, “output in June is expected to be around 2.5 per cent below its pre-Covid 2019 fourth quarter level.”
Inflation is expected to breach the Bank’s target and reach 3 per cent, although this is likely to be “temporary”, according to the MPC.
https://www.cityam.com/bank-of-england-keeps-rates-at-record-low/
Whoever controls the volume of money in our country is absolute master of all industry and commerce...when you realize that the entire system is very easily controlled, one way or another, by a few powerful men at the top, you will not have to be told how periods of inflation and depression originate.
James A. Garfield.
Covid-19 Corner
This section will continue until it becomes unneeded.
Delta Covid variant has a new mutation called ‘delta plus’: Here’s what you need to know
The “delta variant” has come to dominate headlines, having been discovered in India where it provoked an extreme surge in Covid-19 cases before spreading around the world.
But now a mutation of that variant has emerged, called “delta plus,” which is starting to worry global experts.
India has dubbed delta plus a “variant of concern,” and there are fears that it could potentially be more transmissible. In the U.K., Public Health England noted in its last summary that routine scanning of Covid cases in the country (where the delta variant is now responsible for the bulk of new infections) has found almost 40 cases of the newer variant, which has acquired the spike protein mutation K417N, i.e. delta plus.
It noted that, as of June 16, cases of the delta plus variant had also been identified in the U.S. (83 cases at the time the report was published last Friday) as well as Canada, India, Japan, Nepal, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Switzerland and Turkey.
As is common with all viruses, the coronavirus has mutated repeatedly since it emerged in China in late 2019. There have been a handful of variants that have emerged over the course of the pandemic that have changed the virus’s transmissibility, risk profile and even symptoms.
Several of those variants, such as the “alpha” strain (previously known as the “Kent” or “British” variant) and then the delta variant, have gone on to be dominant strains globally, hence the attention on delta plus.
India’s Health Ministry reportedly said Wednesday that it had found around 40 cases of the delta plus variant with the K417N mutation. The ministry released a statement on Tuesday in which it said that INSACOG, a consortium of 28 laboratories genome sequencing the virus in India during the pandemic, had informed it that the delta plus variant has three worrying characteristics.
These are, it said: increased transmissibility, stronger binding to receptors of lung cells and the potential reduction in monoclonal antibody response (which could reduce the efficacy of a lifesaving monoclonal antibody therapy given to some hospitalized Covid patients).
India’s Health Ministry said it had alerted three states (Maharashtra, Kerala and Madhya Pradesh) after the delta plus variant was detected in genome-sequenced samples from those areas.
More
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/06/24/delta-plus-covid-variant-heres-what-you-need-to-know.html
Danish officials say Delta variant reported during Euro 2020
June 24, 2021
COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — Danish health officials have urged soccer fans who attended the European Championship game between Denmark and Belgium on June 17 to be checked for the coronavirus after they found at least three people who later tested positive for the delta variant.
Danish Health Minister Magnus Heunicke wrote on Twitter on Wednesday that about 4,000 people sat near those who tested positive.
All those who attended the three Euro 2020 games in Copenhagen had to provide valid documents showing they were not infected with COVID-19 before being allowed to enter Parken Stadium.
About 25,000 fans were allowed to attend the host team’s game against Belgium as restrictions began to ease in the country.
The head of the Danish Agency for Patient Safety said the people were infected independently of each other and were infected during the game.
“They did not get symptoms until three or four days later, which means that there must have been some kind of unknown source of infection present in the section where they sat,” Anette Lykke Petri told Danish broadcaster DR.
Denmark has reported 247 case of the variant since April 2. According to Danish media, the fans that tested positive were Danes.
The Latest: Infections, deaths continue to soar in Russia
MOSCOW — Coronavirus infections continue to soar in Russia, with the authorities reporting 20,182 new cases on Thursday and 568 further deaths. Both tallies are the highest since late January.
A surge in infections that hit Russia earlier this month comes as the authorities struggle to overcome widespread vaccine hesitancy and immunize its 146 million people. As of Wednesday, only 20.7 million — or just 14% of the the population — have received at least one shot of the vaccine, while 16.7 million — 11% — have been fully immunized.
In response to the soaring contagions, authorities in 14 Russian regions have made vaccinations mandatory for certain groups of people, such as state officials, those employed in retail, healthcare, education, restaurants and other service-providing businesses. In most of those regions, eligible companies are required to ensure vaccination of at least 60% of their staff in the coming months.
Russia’s state coronavirus task force has reported a total of over 5.3 million confirmed coronavirus cases in the pandemic and more than 131,000 deaths.
‘Scary’ Sydney virus cluster blamed on delta variant grows
June 24, 2021
SYDNEY (AP) — Sydney was going through one the “scariest” times of the pandemic as a cluster of the highly contagious delta variant infects more people, an Australian state leader said on Thursday.
New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian said she tested negative for the coronavirus after her Agriculture Minister Adam Marshall tested positive Thursday. Health Minister Brad Hazzard is self-isolating as a close contact of a suspected COVID-19 case in Parliament House.
Sydney tightened pandemic restrictions on Wednesday, but Berejiklian said Australia’s largest city did not yet need to lock down further.
“Since the pandemic has started, this is perhaps the scariest period that New South Wales is going through,” Berejiklian told reporters.
“It is a very contagious variant but at the same time we are at this stage comfortable that the settings that are in place are the appropriate settings,” she added.
Authorities say the cluster spread from a Sydney airport limousine driver who tested positive last week. He was not vaccinated, reportedly did not wear a mask and is suspected to have been infected while transporting a foreign air crew. The cluster had grown to 36 cases by Thursday.
Police were considering charging the driver and his employer with a range of offenses, Police Force Deputy Commissioner Gary Worboys said.
More
Chinese Covid-19 Gene Data That Could Have Aided Pandemic Research Removed From NIH Database
Updated June 23, 2021 6:24 pm ET
Chinese researchers directed the U.S. National Institutes of Health to delete gene sequences of early Covid-19 cases from a key scientific database, raising concerns that scientists studying the origin of the pandemic may lack access to key pieces of information.
The NIH confirmed that it deleted the sequences after receiving a request from a Chinese researcher who had submitted them three months earlier.
“Submitting investigators hold the rights to their data and can request withdrawal of the data,” the NIH said in a statement.
The removal of the sequencing data is described in a new paper posted online Tuesday by Jesse Bloom, a virologist at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle. The paper, which hasn’t been peer reviewed, says the missing data include sequences from virus samples collected in the Chinese city of Wuhan in January and February of 2020 from patients hospitalized with or suspected of having Covid-19.
Some of the deleted information is still available in a paper that was published in a specialized journal, but scientists typically look for gene sequences in major databases like the one the NIH maintains, Dr. Bloom said. Dr. Bloom said he was able to find the deleted data after searching for it elsewhere online.
More
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
Centers for Disease Control Coronavirus
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/index.html
The Spectator Covid-19 data tracker (UK)
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.
Atomic-scale tailoring of graphene approaches macroscopic world
Date: June 18, 2021
Source: University of Vienna
Summary: Properties of materials are often defined by imperfections in their atomic structure, especially when the material itself is just one atom thick, such as graphene. Researchers have now developed a method for controlled creation of such imperfections into graphene at length scales approaching the macroscopic world. These results, confirmed by atomically resolved microscope images, serve as an essential starting point both for tailoring graphene for applications and for the development of new materials.
Graphene consists of carbon atoms arranged in a chicken-wire like pattern. This one-atom-thick material is famous for its many extraordinary properties, such as extreme strength and remarkable capability to conduct electricity. Since its discovery, researchers have looked for ways to further tailor graphene through controlled manipulation of its atomic structure. However, until now, such modifications have been only confirmed locally, because of challenges in atomic-resolution imaging of large samples and analysis of large datasets.
Now a team around Jani Kotakoski at the University of Vienna together with Nion Co. has combined an experimental setup built around an atomic-resolution Nion UltraSTEM 100 microscope and new approaches to imaging and data analysis through machine learning to bring atomic-scale control of graphene towards macroscopic sample sizes.
The experiment begins by cleaning graphene via laser irradiation, after which it is controllably modified using low energy argon ion irradiation. After transferring the sample to the microscope under vacuum, it is imaged at atomic resolution with an automatic algorithm. The recorded images are passed to a neural network which recognizes the atomic structure providing a comprehensive overview of the atomic-scale alteration of the sample.
"The key to the successful experiment was the combination of our unique experimental setup with the new automated imaging and machine learning algorithms," says Alberto Trentino, the lead author of the study. "Developing all necessary pieces was a real team effort, and now they can be easily used for follow-up experiments," he continues. Indeed, after this confirmed atomic-scale modification of graphene over a large area, the researchers are already expanding the method to employ the created structural imperfections to anchor impurity atoms to the structure. "We are excited of the prospect of creating new materials that are designed starting at the atomic level, based on this method," Jani Kotakoski, the leader of the research team concludes.
Another weekend and time
to enjoy the English summer countryside.
Fields of wheat and barley edged with abundant reddish poppies. Hedges
sprinkled with Elder trees with blooms of white and off white elderflowers just
starting to transform into black elderberries. Colourful butterflies and tiny
dragonflies flitting about. The occasional deer or daytime fox. Pastures of cows and horses and in my part of England, a small herd of Highland cattle.
And all of it viewed through England’s "delightful" summer light drizzle and often heavy showers. Have a great weekend everyone.
Joseph J. Cassano, a former A.I.G. executive, August 2007, on Credit Default Swaps that wiped out A.I.G in 2008.
No comments:
Post a Comment