Friday, 3 September 2021

Japan. Ida’s Cost. US Employment Numbers.

Baltic Dry Index. 4001 -12  Brent Crude 73.06

Spot Gold 1812

Coronavirus Cases 02/04/20 World 1,000,000

Deaths 53,100

Coronavirus Cases 03/09/21 World 219,975,001

Deaths 4,557,307

September 3, 301 San Marino, one of the smallest nations in the world and the world's oldest republic still in existence, founded by Saint Marinus.

On 26 June 1944, the Allied Forces under British command [Edit. I.e. The Royal Air Force] erroneously bombed San Marino[4] in the belief that it was harbouring German forces.[5][dead link] On 21 September 1944, San Marino declared war on Germany.[6] 

----At UN-sponsored talks between 17 and 22 July 1961, the British government agreed to pay San Marino reparations to the sum of £80,000 for their part in the erroneous wartime bombing of the republic after the latter had filed a claim for 732 million lire.[5]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Marino%E2%80%93United_Kingdom_relations

San Marino is bombed by Britain

https://www.italyonthisday.com/2018/06/san-marino-is-bombed-by-britain.html

In Japan the stock casino boomed on news Prime Minister Suga will shortly be leaving office. Paying the price for holding the Olympic games in the midst of a Covid-19 epidemic, against the wishes of most Japanese.

Elsewhere the stock casinos were less euphoric, awaiting America’s latest employment numbers due out later today.

Japan’s Nikkei 225 jumps nearly 2% on reports that Prime Minister Suga is set to depart

SINGAPORE — Shares in Japan jumped on Friday following reports that Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga will not be running in the upcoming leadership election.

In Friday afternoon trade, the Nikkei 225 in Japan surged 1.79% while the Topix index rose 1.56%. Japanese manufacturing stocks saw big gains, with Fanuc jumping 3.1% while JFE Holdings surged 5.67%.

It came after multiple media reports said Suga will not be running in the upcoming leadership election, a signal the country is set to have a new leader. Suga has come under much criticism for his handling of the Covid situation in Japan, which included the hosting of the Tokyo Summer Olympic Games while Tokyo was under a state of emergency.

Mainland Chinese stocks were lower, with the Shanghai composite down 0.15% while the Shenzhen component slipped 0.556%.

The Caixin/Markit services Purchasing Managers’ Index came in at 46.7, against July’s reading of 54.9. Earlier this week, the official non-manufacturing PMI for August showed contraction in the sector for the first time since early 2020.

PMI readings above 50 represent expansion, while those below that level signal contraction. PMI readings are sequential and represent month-on-month expansion or contractions.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index shed 0.54%. Hong Kong-listed shares of Alibaba fell more than 3% following reports that the firm is set to invest 100 billion yuan (about $15.5 billion) by 2025 for “common prosperity.”

South Korea’s Kospi climbed 0.72%. In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.63%.

MSCI’s largest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan traded 0.16% higher.

Overnight stateside, the Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped 131.29 points to 35,443.82 while the S&P 500 advanced 0.28% to 4,536.95. The Nasdaq Composite edged 0.14% higher to 15,331.18.

Those gains on Wall Street came ahead of the U.S. employment report for August, set for release Friday at 8:30 a.m. ET.

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/09/03/asia-markets-china-economy-us-jobs-data-alibaba-currencies-oil.html

In other stock casino news, China is about to cut in on Wall Street’s game.

China’s Xi Jinping says it will set up a stock exchange in Beijing for SMEs

China’s President Xi Jinping on Thursday said the country would set up a stock exchange in its capital, Beijing, to serve small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

Mainland China’s two major stock exchanges are in the financial hub of Shanghai and in the southern city of Shenzhen, on the mainland’s border with Hong Kong.

In a video address at the opening of the China International Fair for Trade in Services (CIFTIS), Xi said China would continue to support the innovation-driven development of SMEs.

This would be done “by deepening the reform of the New Third Board and setting up the Beijing stock exchange as the primary platform serving innovation-oriented SMEs,” he added.

Reuters reported in March that China was considering establishing a bourse to attract overseas-listed companies and bolster the global status of its onshore share markets, citing sources with knowledge of the matter.

The sources said then that upgrading Beijing’s existing equity exchange for small and mid-sized firms, known as the New Third Board, was among the options being discussed.

China’s securities regulator said setting up a Beijing stock exchange would help deepen financial supply-side structural reforms and improve capital market systems.

In a statement issued shortly after Xi’s remarks, the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) said its leadership was “excited” at the prospect, would study the president’s proposal in depth and resolutely implement it. “Small and medium-sized enterprises can do great things,” the CSRC added.

In other comments in his speech to mark the opening of CIFTIS, a trade fair in Beijing, Xi said China would “create more possibilities for cooperation by scaling up support for the growth of the services sector in Belt and Road countries.”

More

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/09/03/xi-jinping-says-china-to-set-up-beijing-stock-exchange-for-smes.html

In other, sadder news, the US Northeast is still counting up the cost of the remnants of hurricane Ida. Not that anyone in Wall Street’s stock casinos noticed.

More than 45 dead after Ida’s remnants blindside Northeast

NEW YORK (AP) — A stunned U.S. East Coast faced a rising death toll, surging rivers and tornado damage Thursday after the remnants of Hurricane Ida walloped the region with record-breaking rain, drowning more than 40 people in their homes and cars.

In a region that had been warned about potentially deadly flash flooding but hadn’t braced for such a blow from the no-longer-hurricane, the storm killed at least 46 people from Maryland to Connecticut on Wednesday night and Thursday morning.

At least 23 people died in New Jersey, Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy said. At least 13 people were killed in New York City, police said, 11 of them in flooded basement apartments, which often serve as relatively affordable homes in one of the nation’s most expensive housing markets. Suburban Westchester County reported three deaths.

Officials said at least five people died in Pennsylvania, including one killed by a falling tree and another who drowned in his car after helping his wife to escape. A Connecticut state police sergeant, Brian Mohl, perished after his cruiser was swept away. Another death was reported in Maryland.

---- Ida’s soggy remnants merged with a storm front and soaked the Interstate 95 corridor, meteorologists said. Similar weather has followed hurricanes before, but experts said it was slightly exacerbated by climate change — warmer air holds more rain — and urban settings, where expansive pavement prevents water from seeping into the ground.

The National Hurricane Center had warned since Tuesday of the potential for “significant and life-threatening flash flooding” and major river flooding in the mid-Atlantic region and New England.

Still, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said the storm’s strength took them by surprise.

“We did not know that between 8:50 and 9:50 p.m. last night, that the heavens would literally open up and bring Niagara Falls level of water to the streets of New York,” said Hochul, a Democrat who became governor last week after former Gov. Andrew Cuomo resigned.

De Blasio, also a Democrat, said he’d gotten a forecast Wednesday of 3 to 6 inches (7.5 to 15 cm) of rain for the day. The city’s Central Park ended up getting 3.15 inches in just one hour, surpassing the previous one-hour high of 1.94 inches (5 cm) during Tropical Storm Henri on Aug. 21.

Wednesday’s storm ultimately dumped over 9 inches (23 cm) of rain in parts of New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts and Rhode Island, and nearly as much on New York City’s Staten Island.

More

https://apnews.com/article/northeast-us-new-york-new-jersey-weather-60327279197e14b9d17632ea0818f51c

Finally, the real victor in Afghanistan puts out a plea for their junior partner. I suspect few in the west will respond.

The world must engage with Afghanistan, Pakistan’s national security advisor says

Published Thu, Sep 2 2021 4:17 AM EDT

The international community needs to engage with Afghanistan to stop a humanitarian crisis and a security vacuum, Pakistan’s National Security Advisor Moeed Yusuf said.

“If the world is not engaged with Afghanistan, for the sake of the average Afghan, then what we are really saying is: ‘We don’t care about a governance collapse, we don’t care about a humanitarian crisis, and we don’t care about a security vacuum,’” he told CNBC’s “Capital Connection” on Wednesday.

“If that’s where we want to go, then we are repeating the mistakes of the 90s,” he added, referring to the 1990s when the ultraconservative militants ruled most of the country before U.S. forces toppled the regime in 2001.

---- The Taliban has a history of imposing restrictions on women, brutally oppressing minority groups, banning music and television, and carrying out public executions.

Most of the world did not recognize the Taliban as a legitimate government when they held power from 1996 to 2001, and limited their diplomatic ties with Afghanistan during that time. Pakistan was one of the few countries that recognized the Taliban’s rule then.

Influencing an Afghan government

Pakistan is not telling the world if it should or should not support the Taliban, Yusuf said.

Instead, Pakistan hopes that the international community would engage with Afghanistan when a new government is formed and discuss how to ensure an inclusive and moderate government, respect for human rights, and prevent terrorism from being carried out on Afghan soil.

---- Pakistan has long been accused of covertly aiding the Taliban during their insurgency in Afghanistan in the last 20 years, while also being an U.S. ally — a charge that Pakistan denies and Yusuf on called “preposterous.”

Media reports say Pakistan is also growing more worried over potential security threats spilling over from Afghanistan.

Security vacuum

Yusuf warned that if there is a security vacuum in Afghanistan, it could be filled by “undesirable elements,” and that it would affect the entire world. There would also be a refugee crisis, he added.

“Afghans are not commodities. They are human beings,” Yusuf said. “Millions are refugees already. Rather than we talking about another refugee crisis, another security crisis, let’s ensure we prevent them.”

More

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/09/02/pakistan-national-security-advisor-on-afghanistan-taliban-security.html

Global Inflation Watch.

Given our Magic Money Tree central banksters and our spendthrift politicians,  inflation now needs an entire section of its own.

More Than 1 Billion Asians Will Join Global Middle Class by 2030

By Alexandre Tanzi

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