Baltic Dry Index. 3281 +40 Brent Crude 74.10
Spot Gold 1808
Coronavirus Cases 02/04/20 World 1,000,000
Deaths 53,100
Coronavirus Cases 09/07/21 World 186,349,589
Deaths 4,026,838
“Here in America, we’re doing a much better job of getting people vaccinated than most countries, but we screwed up when we made the vaccination process voluntary.”
CNBC’s Jim Cramer.
What part of freedom and a non-slave society does Jim Cramer and CNBC not understand? If we can force a free people to not make best medical decisions for themselves and their children, where does it end?
Forced sterilisation for the feeble minded, the less useful to society, the “wrong” ethnic group, asylum seekers?
Mr. Cramer needs to rethink his panic reaction to a simple selloff in the stock casinos. People matter, stock prices less so.
Japan stocks fall nearly 2% as Asia-Pacific shares slide after Covid worries resurface in region
SINGAPORE — Shares in Asia-Pacific fell in Friday trade as Covid worries resurfaced in the region.
In Japan, the Nikkei 225 led losses among the region’s major markets as it fell 1.7% in afternoon trade while the Topix index shed 1.48%.
Olympics organizers will ban spectators from the upcoming summer games in Tokyo, after a state of emergency in the city was declared by Japan on Thursday as the country sees rising Covid-19 cases. The state of emergency will last till August 22.
South Korea’s Kospi dropped 1.52%. South Korea announced Friday that the greater Seoul area will be placed under the toughest social distancing rules of Level 4, according to local news agency Yonhap.
Australian stocks also declined as the S&P/ASX 200 shed 1.29%. The city of Sydney earlier this week announced that Covid-19 restrictions would be extended by another week.
Mainland Chinese stocks slipped by the afternoon, with the Shanghai composite shedding 0.69% and the Shenzhen component declining 1.029%. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index advanced 0.65%.
Reuters reported Friday, citing sources, that the Biden administration is set to add more Chinese firms to its economic blacklist over alleged human rights abuses and high-tech surveillance in Xinjiang.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan traded 0.53% lower.
China’s consumer price index for June rose 1.1% as compared with a year ago, data from the country’s National Bureau of Statistics showed on Friday. That was lower than expectations for a 1.3% year-on-year increase by analysts in a Reuters poll.
Meanwhile, Chinese producer inflation data came in in line with expectations. The producer price index for June rose 8.8% as compared with a year ago, meeting forecasts by analysts in a Reuters poll for a 8.8% rise. The June PPI reading was a slight decrease in pace from the 9% increase in May.
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/07/09/asia-markets-covid-china-inflation-data-currencies-oil.html
Jim Cramer blames market sell-off on government failures to contain delta spread
CNBC’s Jim Cramer came out swinging on Thursday, blaming the market sell-off on world governments and slamming leaders for failing to get a grip on the spread of a Covid-19 variant.
Major U.S. stock averages all plunged almost 1% during the session, dropping the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite indexes from record highs. Health concerns also led to a drop in bond yields to levels not seen since February.
The declines can be attributed to the delta strain that’s spreading quickly across the globe, Cramer said.
“I put this sell-off squarely in the laps of politicians around the world, because we right now have a failure of global leadership,” the “Mad Money” host said.
“Here in America, we’re doing a much better job of getting people vaccinated than most countries, but we screwed up when we made the vaccination process voluntary.”
Cramer lambasted that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has yet to give full approval to coronavirus vaccines from the likes of Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech. Three vaccines, including a one-shot solution from Johnson & Johnson, have been authorized by the agency for emergency use to combat the health crisis and administered to millions across the country.
----The delta variant, which was first discovered in India and is spreading quickly across the globe, is now the dominant strain affecting people in the U.S. Despite America’s elevated vaccination rates in comparison to most other countries, the delta outbreak elsewhere in the world could portend breakouts in communities here vaccination rates are lagging.
Health experts say that indoor mask mandates and public health measures may need to be reinstated to slow the delta variant’s spread in the country.
More
Dow drops more than 250 points amid global economic recovery concerns, S&P 500 slides
The major U.S. stock indexes fell Thursday on concerns about the global economic comeback from Covid-19. The losses came as Japan declared a state of emergency in Tokyo for the upcoming Olympics and as countries deal with a rebound in cases due to Covid variants.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 259.86 points, or 0.75%, to 34,421.93. The S&P 500 lost 0.86% to close at 4,320.82. The Nasdaq Composite fell 0.72% to 14,559.78. Both the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite closed at records in the prior session because of gains from tech shares. Stocks closed off their lows of the day, which saw the Dow down as much as 536 points.
The Labor Department’s latest jobless claims data came in unexpectedly higher at 373,000, signaling a possible slowdown in the the labor picture amid the Covid recovery. Economists expected to see 350,000 first-time applicants for unemployment benefits for the week ended July 3, according to Dow Jones.
Losses were led by companies that would benefit from a rapid economic comeback from the virus. Shares of Carnival, Norwegian Cruise Line and Royal Caribbean each dropped more than 1%. United Airlines and Delta Air Lines each fell more than 1%. Retailer Nordstrom dipped nearly 3%, and Home Depot and Lowe’s both fell 1.5%.
Chip stocks also fell on concerns about the pace of the global recovery. Micron, Qualcomm, Intel and Applied Materials fell more than 1% and Nvidia dropped 2.3%. Technology stocks also declined with Microsoft, Apple, Facebook and Google-parent Alphabet all closing in the red. Amazon bucked the trend and rose 0.9%.
“The market has been in one of those ‘Goldilocks’ stretches when economic growth was accelerating while inflation and interest rates remained low. Increased Covid cases, particularly delta variants, have caused concerns that the economic acceleration will slow,” said Timothy Lesko of Granite Investment Advisors. “A few weeks ago the porridge was too hot, now it seems it is too cold. With markets at all-time highs and some valuations stretched there is little room for economic slowdown in this market.”
More
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/07/07/stock-market-open-to-close-news.html
In other disturbing news, just how safe are cell phones?
Cell phones and cancer: New UC Berkeley study suggests cell phones sharply increase tumor risk
By Sharon Song Published July 7, 2021
BERKELEY, Calif. - New UC Berkeley research draws a strong link between cell phone radiation and tumors, particularly in the brain.
Researchers took a comprehensive look at statistical findings from 46 different studies around the globe and found that the use of a cell phone for more than 1,000 hours, or about 17 minutes a day over a ten year period, increased the risk of tumors by 60 percent.
Researchers also pointed to findings that showed cell phone use for 10 or more years doubled the risk of brain tumors.
Joel Moskowitz, director of the Center for Family and Community Health with the UC Berkeley School of Public Health conducted the research in partnership with Korea’s National Cancer Center, and Seoul National University. Their analysis took a comprehensive look at statistical findings from case control studies from 16 countries including the U.S., Sweden, United Kingdom, Japan, Korea, and New Zealand.
"Cell phone use highlights a host of public health issues and it has received little attention in the scientific community, unfortunately," said Moskowitz.
Cell phone use has increasingly become part of people’s daily lives, especially with the emergence of smartphones. Recent figures from the Pew Research Center showed that 97% of Americans now own a cell phone of some kind.
This, as more and more people have become dependent on their mobile phones as an integral mode of communication. In fact, an increasing number of people have ditched their landlines at home, relying on their cell phone as their sole device for telephone communication.
Figures from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention's National Center for Health Statistics found 61.8% of adults have decided to go wireless-only.
With the increased use of mobile devices, the research has been vast on their potential link to cancer. The findings have varied and at times been controversial.
Many studies looking into the health risks of cell phone use have been funded or partially funded by the cellular phone industry, which critics argue can skew research results.
"Moskowitz emphasized that these studies have been controversial as it is a highly sensitive political topic with significant economic ramifications for a powerful industry," Berkeley Public Health noted.
More
Finally, when “neobanking,” aka online-only banking, goes wrong. Below, a fool and his money, comes to mind. “Chime” unhappily rhymes with another “ime” that also starts with a “C.”
A Banking App Has Been Suddenly Closing Accounts, Sometimes Not Returning Customers’ Money
Chime, a “neobank” serving millions, is racking up complaints from users who can’t access their cash. The company says it’s cracking down on an “extraordinary surge” in fraudulent deposits. That’s little consolation to customers caught in the fray.
Carson KesslerJuly 6, 1:30 p.m. EDT
The day after Jonathan Marrero’s federal stimulus payment landed in his bank account, he took his 5-year-old twins out for lunch at an Applebee’s near where he lives in New Jersey. When he went to pay, his only means of payment, a debit card issued by the hot financial technology startup Chime, was declined.
He didn’t understand why. Marrero had checked his account earlier that day and saw a balance of nearly $10,000. With the Applebee’s server standing next to him, he quickly pulled out his phone to check his Chime app, just as he had hundreds of times since he signed up in January.
Marrero couldn’t log in. He immediately checked his email and found a message from Chime that read, “We regret to inform you that we have made the decision to end our relationship with you at this time. Your spending account will be closed on March 18, 2021.”
He had no choice but to call his parents and have them pay the lunch bill. “I was so embarrassed,” said Marrero, a 32-year-old motorcycle technician. “I’m a grown man, and I was tearing up and everything.” Speaking of the $10,000 that he was suddenly locked out of, he added, “If it was $100, I wouldn’t sweat it. But it was everything I had for my kids.”
Marrero’s grievance is not unusual. Chime, which provides app-based banking services to an estimated 12 million customers, has according to experts been generating a high rate of complaints, with 920 filed at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau since April 15, 2020. “For a company that most people have never heard of, I think that’s a lot of complaints,” said Lauren Saunders of the National Consumer Law Center.
Many customers have told the CFPB that they can’t access their money or accounts, and that, among other things, Chime is slow to resolve problems. Of the 920 complaints filed about Chime, 197 were tagged as involving a “closed account.” The CFPB’s complaints are labeled inconsistently, and many of the other 723 also detail problems involving accounts that were closed against customers’ will. By comparison, Wells Fargo, a bank with six times as many customers and a lengthy recent history of misbehavior in its consumer bank, has 317 CFPB complaints tagged for closed accounts over the same time period. Marcus, the new online bank created by Goldman Sachs, with 4 million customers, has generated seven such complaints.
More
https://www.propublica.org/article/chime?utm_source=pocket&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=pockethits
Neobank
A neobank (also known as an online bank, internet-only bank, virtual bank or digital bank) is a type of direct bank that operates exclusively online without traditional physical branch networks.[1][2]
History
The term neobank has been in use since at least 2016[1] to describe fintech-based financial providers that were challenging traditional banks. There were two main types of company that provided services digitally: companies that applied for their own banking license and companies in a relationship with a traditional bank to provide those financial services.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neobank
Man shall not live by bread alone, nor by stock prices.
With apologies.
Global Inflation Watch.
Given our Magic Money Tree central banksters and our spendthrift politicians, inflation now needs an entire section of its own.
Finally, some light relief, but will it last? I think that’s unlikely
World food prices fall in June for first time in a year - FAO
July 8, 2021 9:13 AM By Reuters Staff
ROME (Reuters) - World food prices fell in June for the first time in 12 months, pushed lower by declines in vegetable oils, cereals and dairy products, the United Nations food agency said on Thursday.
The Rome-based FAO also said in a statement that worldwide cereal harvests would come in at nearly 2.817 billion tonnes in 2021, slightly down on its previous estimate, but still on course to hit an annual record.
The Food and Agriculture Organization’s food price index, which measures monthly changes for a basket of cereals, oilseeds, dairy products, meat and sugar, averaged 124.6 points last month versus a revised 127.8 in May.
The May figure was previously given as 127.1.
On a year-on-year basis, prices were up 33.9% in June.
FAO’s vegetable oil price index plunged 9.8% in June, partly on the back of a fall in palm oil prices, which were hit by expectations of output gains in leading producers and a lack of fresh import demand. Soy and sunflower oil quotations also dropped.
The cereal price index dropped 2.6% in June month-on-month, but was still up 33.8% year-on-year. Maize prices fell 5.0%, partly because of higher-than-expected yields in Argentina and improved crop conditions in the United States.
International rice prices also fell in June, touching 15-month lows, as high freight costs and container shortages continued to limit export sales, FAO said.
Dairy prices dipped 1.0% on a monthly basis, with all components of the index easing. Butter recorded the largest drop, hit by a rapid decline in global import demand and a slight increase in inventories, especially in Europe.
The sugar index posted a 0.9% month-on-month gain, reaching its highest level since March 2017. FAO said uncertainties over the impact of unfavourable weather conditions on crop yields in Brazil, the world’s largest sugar exporter, pushed prices up.
The meat index rose 2.1% from May, with quotations for all meat types rising as increases in imports by some East Asian countries compensated for a slowdown in China’s meat purchases.
More
Not Even Carbon at 200 Euros Can Make Green Hydrogen Competitive
Will Mathis July 7, 2021, 6:48 AM EDT
Even if European carbon prices more than tripled to 200 euros ($236), hydrogen from renewable energy would still struggle to compete with fossil fuels without further government support.
That’s the conclusion from research by consultants at Guidehouse and published by German think tank Agora Energiewende. To make the average renewable hydrogen project competitive with a fossil alternative will require annual subsidies of as much as 24 billion euros this decade, they said.
Transitioning more of Europe’s polluting economy to run on hydrogen is a crucial part of the bloc’s plan to eliminate carbon emissions by the middle of the century. The research highlights how significant a challenge the transition away from polluting energy sources will be.
Hydrogen could help cut carbon emissions from industries such as steel making, shipping and aviation, but making the gas with renewable sources is much more expensive than the kind made with natural gas that’s commonly used in oil refining and to make fertilizers.
Carbon Costs
Even if the EU's carbon price rises to 200 euros by 2030, it won't be enough to make renewable energy the cheapest way to produce hydrogen
As demand for renewable hydrogen is poised to surge and the industry scales up, costs will likely fall. Some companies, including Denmark’s Haldor Topsoe AS and Norway’s Nel ASA, that aim to profit from the growth have estimated that hydrogen made from wind or solar power could be cost competitive with the fossil fuel-based alternative as soon as 2025.
While that may be possible at the most ideal sites, it’s not clear how much hydrogen could actually be produced at those locations, according to Matthias Deutsch, senior associate at Agora Energiewende. Beyond 2030, the reliance on subsidies should wane.
Taxpayer’s Bill
“There is a cost gap and we need to bridge it with taxpayer money,” Deutsch said in an interview.
How the governments allocates money for renewable hydrogen will be crucial, according to the study. It will take a significant increase in green energy capacity to produce enough hydrogen to satisfy the various potential sources of demand. It would be more efficient to just use the electricity directly wherever possible than to first convert it into hydrogen, losing some of the energy in the process.
Applications like steel and ammonia production, long-haul aviation and long-term storage of renewable electricity, are among what Agora called the least controversial uses for renewable hydrogen because they don’t have alternatives to full decarbonization. That’s unlike passenger cars, light-duty trucks and heating for individual buildings that do have ways to decarbonize other than hydrogen.
Below, why a “green energy” economy may not be possible anyway, and if it is, it won’t be quick and it will be very inflationary, setting off a new long-term commodity Supercycle. Probably the largest seen so far.
The “New Energy Economy”: An Exercise in Magical Thinking
https://media4.manhattan-institute.org/sites/default/files/R-0319-MM.pdf
Mines, Minerals, and "Green" Energy: A Reality Check
https://www.manhattan-institute.org/mines-minerals-and-green-energy-reality-check
Covid-19 Corner
This section will continue until it becomes unneeded.
New Covid outbreaks a top risk to economic recovery, OECD chief says
Published Thu, Jul 8 2021 4:43 AM EDT
New outbreaks of Covid-19 remain one of the top risks to a global economic recovery, the OECD’s secretary-general has warned, calling for developed nations to support less-developed nations with their vaccination programs.
“We must do what we can to get as many people as we can, all around the world, vaccinated. There is a particular responsibility for developed economies and it’s not just a matter of charity or benevolence, it’s actually a matter of self interest both in terms of making sure we keep our populations safe ... and also to ensure the economic recovery can be sustained,” Mathias Cormann, secretary-general of the OECD, said Thursday.
“New outbreaks are still one of the biggest downside risks in terms of the sustained economic recovery moving forward,” he told CNBC’s Annette Weisbach.
“There is a race on between getting as many people vaccinated all around the world including and in particular in developing economies and the risk of new variants appearing, and variants that may be resistant to the vaccines currently available,” he noted.
Cormann is not alone in worrying that the ongoing spread of Covid-19, particularly the latest highly transmissible delta variant among younger and unvaccinated people, could derail an economic recovery.
Bruno Le Maire, France’s finance minister, told CNBC on Tuesday that “the single thing that might jeopardize the economic recovery in France is a new wave of the pandemic.”
On Wednesday, the World Health Organization reiterated its call for wealthier nations to help poorer countries by sharing Covid vaccines, particularly for health and care workers, and the elderly.
The coronavirus pandemic might be the most urgent issue in terms of global public health but governments have been turning to other pressing matters in the meantime, including international tax reform.
More
Japan Vaccine Effort Hits Logistic Bottlenecks Ahead of Olympics
By Chika Mizuta and Lisa Du8 July 2021, 09:09 BST Updated on 8 July 2021, 10:18 BST
· Country has enough total shots, but some locations are short
· Municipalities seek clarity from central government on outlook
Japan Declares Tokyo State of Emergency Ahead of Olympics
Several of Japan’s biggest municipalities, including parts of Tokyo and Osaka, have stopped taking new reservations for Covid-19 vaccinations in the latest hiccup for the country’s effort to vaccinate its people, with the Tokyo Olympics just over two weeks away.
The bottlenecks in distribution are sowing confusion among vaccine seekers, complicating a vaccination campaign that has sped up rapidly in recent weeks after criticism over a slow start.
Unlike many places around the world, Japan has an abundant supply of vaccines nationwide -- as of the end of June, the country had received 100 million doses of the Pfizer Inc.-BioNTech SE vaccine, of which 44 million had been administered. Rather, the issue appears to be a misallocation of shots, with too many doses going to places where demand is low, while others run out.
In total Japan has given 52.6 million doses, enough to cover about 21% of the population, according to Bloomberg’s vaccine tracker.
Japan’s inoculation rollout is in the spotlight as infections rise again, particularly in Tokyo, prompting the return of a state of emergency in the capital. The worsening picture is likely to mean that organizers will ban all spectators at the Olympics, which start July 23. While vaccination pace has accelerated to more than a million doses per day, Japan’s campaign is still far behind other developed countries.
Nerima, the second most populous of central Tokyo’s borough-like wards, is getting less than half the number of doses it requested for the period from July 5 to August 1, according to a spokesman. The ward has had to suspend new reservations at the vaccination centers it runs, as well as instruct private clinics to keep new appointments to a minimum as supply wanes.
“Since we cannot foresee the specific amount of vaccine supply at the moment, we would like the government to quickly show us when and how much vaccine will be supplied,” said Yuta Okano, public relations strategist at the mayor’s office in Nerima, which is home to about 740,000 people.
To combat the asymmetry in distribution, the government said late last Friday it would prioritize shipping vaccines to municipalities that have little inventory left for its shipments in August. According to the health ministry, locations with more than six weeks of inventory will have their future shipments cut by 10%. Until recently, doses had been dispensed based on municipal requests and population.
-----Further complicating the task is the fact that a centralized vaccination registry system has not been updated promptly, according to reports from the Asahi Shimbun and other local media. The arcane recording system relies on individuals receiving vouchers by mail to confirm their eligibility for shots. Some places are vaccinating people without vouchers first, assuming they’ll receive them later, and these doses aren’t promptly reflected in the system.
More
Pfizer says it is developing a Covid booster shot to target the highly transmissible delta variant
Pfizer and BioNTech announced Thursday they are developing a Covid-19 booster shot intended to target the delta variant as concerns rise about the highly transmissible strain that is already the dominant form of the disease in the United States.
The companies said although they believe a third shot of their current two-dose vaccine has the potential to preserve the “highest levels” of protection against all currently known variants, including delta, they are “remaining vigilant” and developing an updated version of the vaccine.
“As seen in real world evidence released from the Israel Ministry of Health, vaccine efficacy has declined six months post-vaccination, at the same time that the Delta variant is becoming the dominate variant in the country,” the companies said in a written statement.
“These findings are consistent with an ongoing analysis from the companies’ Phase 3 study,” they said. “That is why we have said, and we continue to believe that it is likely, based on the totality of the data we have to date, that a third dose may be needed within 6 to 12 months after full vaccination.”
Clinical studies could begin as early as August, subject to regulatory approvals, the companies said.
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.
Falling in line: The simple design and control of MOF electric flow
Date: July 6, 2021
Source: Osaka Prefecture University
Summary: Researchers develop a method to design and control the path of electron flow in a polycrystalline material.
Osaka Prefecture University develops a method to design and control the path of electron flow in a polycrystalline material. Using epitaxial growth approach, researchers address the electrical conductivity problem of thin film materials by realizing a highly conductive in-plane orientation of a metal-organic framework. Furthermore, they show that it is possible to fabricate oriented thin film patterns by integration with UV lithography technology.
Metal-organic frameworks (MOF) are crystalline porous organic-inorganic hybrid materials that, by filling its pores with guest molecules, can create functionalities through interactions between the organic-inorganic based frameworks of MOF (host) and its guest molecules. This host-guest chemistry has the potential to bring "designable" electrical properties, allowing for a material to be organized in ways never before possible -- paving the way for the next-generation of thin-film smart devices.
"However, most MOFs exhibit poor electrical conductivity," states Professor Masahide Takahashi, "due to the insulating nature of the organic linkers and the gaps between the varied shapes that make up the crystalline material." His research group from the Osaka Prefecture University, Graduate School of Engineering has developed a method to design and control the path of electron flow in a polycrystalline material and have realized a thin film material that shows high conductivity in a controllable direction. Their work was reported on June 4th, 2021, in the Journal of Materials Chemistry A.
----"By combining the epitaxial growth approach with UV lithography technology," states Professor Takahashi, "we were able to create oriented semiconducting polycrystalline MOF films regardless to the shape of the individual crystals."
Another weekend and just under two weeks to the delayed Olympics. But even without crowds, and promoters parties, should they be held at all? Thousands of participants, their trainers and support teams, hundreds of officials, organisers and media will all descend on barely vaccinated Japan in the midst of a pandemic. And for what?
By mid August we will know if this reckless gamble paid off. Have a great weekend everyone.
George Goodman, aka Adam Smith, The Money Game. 1968.
No comments:
Post a Comment