Baltic Dry Index. 3630 -178 Brent Crude 84.45
Spot Gold 1796
Coronavirus Cases 02/04/20 World 1,000,000
Deaths 53,100
Coronavirus Cases 29/10/21 World 246,279,146
Deaths 4,996,480
“We
find that whole communities suddenly fix their minds upon one object, and go
mad in its pursuit; that millions of people become simultaneously impressed
with one delusion, and run after it, till their attention is caught by some new
folly more captivating than the first.”
Extraordinary Popular Delusions & the Madness of Crowds.
Yes, it’s time to save planet Earth again, this time in the unlikely setting of Glasgow, Bonnie Scotland.
Who is not for cleaner air, getting cheaper, cleaner electric power, a fairer distribution of goods, foodstuffs and services? Working less for more? Two chickens in every pot?
Less wealth inequality? Well on that last one, not the central banksters, who since their discovery of the Magic Money Tree forest in March 2020, have done more to promote wealth inequality with their “no billionaire left behind” stocks casino Ponzi schemes than everyone else on the planet.
It's just that no one can agree on how, or exactly what to save the planet from or who is going to pay for saving planet Earth from Earthlings, nor how much saving Planet Earth will cost.
Still let’s not quibble
over trivial details, even Pope Francis and Pope President Biden say it’s
a good idea to save planet Earth.
But if President Biden can’t even get his Democrats to agree on anything, what chance does he stand with the G-20 let alone the thousands upon thousands of folliest’s assembling in Glasgow?
Suggestions on postcards please to the Vatican City and Washington, District of Crooks.
Up first, dress up Friday, it’s the last trading day of the month.
Asian shares, U.S. futures slip after earnings disappointment
October 29, 2021 3:52 AM BST
HONG KONG, Oct 29 (Reuters) - Asian shares and U.S. stock futures slipped on Friday, as Amazon and Apple quarterly earnings bucked a recent strong trend and growth and inflation fears continued to weigh.
Investors, particularly in bond and currency markets, are also worried about varied responses by central banks worldwide to rising inflation.
MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan (.MIAPJ0000PUS) was down 0.3% in early trading and was on track for a weekly loss of 1.3%, snapping three weeks of gains. Japan's Nikkei (.N225) reversed early losses to trade flat.
Asian shares were weighed by a fall in Nasdaq futures (.NQcv1), which lost 0.73% as Apple Inc (AAPL.O) and Amazon Inc (AMZN.O) posted results after the close that missed expectations. read more
S&P 500 futures lost 0.4%.
"The background noise hasn't changed for the last few weeks, people are still concerned around stagflation, slowing growth numbers and rising inflation, but that's been priced more in the bond market than the equity market right now," said Kerry Craig, global market strategist at JPMorgan Asset Management.
----Chinese shares fell less than most other markets, with local blue chips (.CSI300) trading flat, though the Hong Kong benchmark (.HSI) lost 0.83%, once again weighed by mainland Chinese property stocks (.HSMPI).
However, China Evergrande Group's shares opened up 1.2% following news that the cash-strapped developer had made payments for an offshore bond coupon ahead of Friday's expiry of a grace period, meeting its second dollar-bond repayment obligation this month. read more
Overnight the S&P 500 (.SPX) and Nasdaq (.IXIC) finished at record closing levels, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average (.DJI) closed just shy of its highest close.
More
https://www.reuters.com/business/finance/global-markets-wrapup-1-2021-10-29/
Biden arrives in Rome as domestic agenda still unfulfilled
ROME (AP) — President Joe Biden promised to show the world that democracies can work to meet the challenges of the 21st century. As he prepares to push that message at a pair of global summits, his case could hinge on what’s happening in Washington, where he was struggling to finalize a major domestic legislative package.
After a fitful day of talks over the fate of twin infrastructure and social spending bills that he cast as a choice between “leading the world, or letting the world pass us by,” Biden landed in Rome aboard Air Force One in the dark early Friday with the answer still undetermined.
Headed first to a Group of 20 summit in Rome and then to Glasgow, Scotland, for a U.N. climate summit, Biden will be pressed to deliver concrete ideas for stopping a global pandemic, boosting economic growth and halting the acceleration of climate change. Those stakes might seem a bit high for a pair of two-day gatherings attended by the global elite and their entourages. But it’s written right into the slogan for the meeting in Rome: “People, Planet, Prosperity.”
It was a reflection of his promise to align U.S. diplomacy with the interests of the middle class. This has tied any success abroad to his efforts to get Congress to advance his environmental, tax, infrastructure and social policies. It could be harder to get the world to commit to his stated goals if Americans refuse to fully embrace them, one of the risks of Biden’s choice to knit together his domestic and foreign policies.
Before leaving Washington, Biden pitched House Democrats to get behind a scaled-back $1.75 trillion “framework” that he believes could pass the 50-50 Senate. It remained to be seen whether lawmakers would embrace the package or send Biden back to the negotiating table, as some key priorities like paid family leave and steps to lower prescription drug costs were excised from the bill, which will be paid for with hiked taxes on the nation’s wealthiest and corporations.
“The rest of the world wonders whether we can function,” Biden told the lawmakers, according to a source familiar with his remarks.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi invoked the trip as she tried to rally Democratic votes around the separate $1 trillion infrastructure package, attempting, unsuccessfully, to build support for a vote on Thursday before Biden arrived in Rome.
“When the president gets off that plane we want him to have a vote of confidence from this Congress,” she said. “In order for us to have success, we must succeed today.”
While Biden was in the air, Pelosi, facing opposition from progressives who also want assurances that the scaled-back social spending plan will pass, pulled the plug on a Thursday vote and instead set out to pass yet another stop-gap funding measure for a range of transportation initiatives.
More
https://apnews.com/article/climate-joe-biden-business-rome-scotland-30c46a7eda7f8549d12fd70bd264b4f3
In other, less lofty, noble news, the global supply chain crisis might yet do more to save planet Earth from Earthlings than all the meetings in Rome and Glasgow combined.
Global supply constraints deal heavy blow to Japanese firms
October 28, 202111:44 AM BST
TOKYO, Oct 28 (Reuters) - A global parts and chip shortage is taking a heavy toll on Japanese firms with seven out of eight automakers seeing global output drop in September, casting doubt over the central bank's view the impact of supply constraints will be temporary.
Toyota Motor (7203.T) said on Thursday it saw global output slump 39.1% in September from a year earlier to 512,765 units, marking the second straight month of falls.
Nissan Motor's (7201.T) global output fell for the third straight month by 27.9% in September, while that of Honda Motor (7267.T) dropped for a four month in a row, by 30%, data released by the automakers showed.
The output cuts by the automakers are starting to affect suppliers including Hitachi (6501.T), which on Wednesday slightly slashed its consolidated operating profit forecast for the current fiscal year ending in March 2022.
"The impact of (chips shortages) likely was stronger in the third quarter than in the second quarter," Hitachi's chief financial officer Yoshihiko Kawamura told a news conference.
Electric equipment maker Canon Inc (7751.T) also cut its 2021 operating profit estimate by 11 billion yen ($97 million) to 272 billion yen as the cost of procuring parts rose and as factory disruptions in Southeast Asia, caused by COVID-19, hit sales.
With many Asian countries seeing infection numbers fall, some analysts expect supply constraints to ease in coming months. Toyota expects global output to recover to around 850,000-900,000 units in November.
But the output disruptions may deal a severe blow to Japan's economy, which has relied on exports to offset the weakness in consumption as the fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic lingers.
More
Finally, COP26 gets off to an inauspicious start.
India will go its own way. In something of an impossibility, but according to CNBC, Indian Prime Minister Modi is “set to participate in a two-day high-level meeting with world leaders on Monday.”
China, well China is busy being China.
India rejects net zero emissions target as Modi heads to COP26 climate talks
India rejected calls to announce a net zero carbon emissions target this week, ahead of the U.N.’s global climate talks, where world leaders including Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be gathered.
Despite mounting international pressure, India’s environment secretary R.P. Gupta announced that net zero was not the solution to the climate crisis, Reuters reported Wednesday.
“It is how much carbon you are going to put in the atmosphere before reaching net zero that is more important,” Gupta reportedly said.
Net zero emissions refer to achieving an overall balance between greenhouse gas emissions produced and greenhouse gas emissions removed from the atmosphere, through natural means or by using the still nascent carbon capture technology.
After China and the United States, India is the third-largest emitter of greenhouse gases and is still largely dependent on fossil fuels like coal and oil. India’s energy demand is expected to rise sharply over the next decade as the economy continues on its growth trajectory.
The U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has said that to avoid the devastating effects of climate change, the world needs to limit global warming to 1.5°C. And for that to happen, global carbon dioxide emissions would need to reach net zero around 2050.
Earlier this year, the IPCC delivered its starkest warning on climate change. To keep global temperatures from rising beyond 1.5°C or even 2°C above pre-industrial levels, the world needs immediate, rapid, and large-scale reductions in emissions over the next two decades, the panel said in a stern warning.
More than 130 countries, including China, have set — or are considering setting — a target of reducing emissions to net zero over the coming decades.
Modi in Glasgow
Modi will be in Glasgow, Scotland for COP26 — the 26th U.N. Climate Change Conference of the Parties.
He is set to participate in a two-day high-level meeting with world leaders on Monday.
More
China offers few new climate targets ahead of UN conference
WASHINGTON (AP) — China is offering no significant new goals for reducing climate-changing emissions ahead of the UN climate summit set to start next week in Glasgow.
China, the world’s top emitter of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gasses that cause global warming, formally submitted its goals Thursday. The highly-anticipated announcement includes targets previously established in speeches by President Xi Jinping and domestic policy documents.
China says it aims to reach peak emissions of carbon dioxide — which is produced mainly through burning coal, oil and natural gas for transportation, electric power and manufacturing — “before 2030.” The country is aiming for “carbon neutrality” — no net emissions of CO2 — before 2060.
“It’s not surprising, but it is disappointing that there wasn’t anything new” in terms of goals, said Joanna Lewis, an expert in China, climate and energy at Georgetown University.
Lewis said the document released today “gave more detail about China will meet those goals,” however, by measures including increasing its wind and solar power capacity, as well as carbon-absorbing forest cover.
Climate experts say key questions about China’s future carbon emissions remain unanswered.
More
In January 1970, Life reported, “Scientists have solid experimental and theoretical evidence to support…the following predictions: In a decade, urban dwellers will have to wear gas masks to survive air pollution…by 1985 air pollution will have reduced the amount of sunlight reaching earth by one half.”
Global Inflation Watch.
Given our Magic Money Tree central banksters and our spendthrift politicians, inflation now needs an entire section of its own.
Retail trade group predicts record holiday sales growth
Oct. 27, 2021 / 3:54 PM
Oct. 27 (UPI) -- Despite the ongoing economic pressures created by the COVID-19 pandemic, holiday retail sales are forecast to set a new record, growing by as much as 10.5% over last year, the National Retail Federation said Wednesday.
The NRF, the world's largest retail trade association, said retail sales during November and December this year will grow between 8.5% and 10.5% over 2020's sales during the same months. That represents between $843.4 billion and $859 billion in sales for the last two months of the year.
The NRF doesn't include automobile, gas and restaurant sales in its holiday forecasting.
"There is considerable momentum heading into the holiday shopping season," NRF President and CEO Matthew Shay said. "Consumers are in a very favorable position going into the last few months of the year as income is rising and household balance sheets have never been stronger. Retailers are making significant investments in their supply chains and spending heavily to ensure they have products on their shelves to meet this time of exceptional consumer demand."
RELATED Amazon to hire 150K seasonal workers, offer $3,000 signing bonuses
Last year realized an 8.2% growth over 2019, for $777.3 billion in sales, which also set a record despite fears that the pandemic would hurt retailers. Over the past five years, there's been an average increase of 4.4%.
Like 2020, the NRF expects online and other non-store sales to see a boost among pandemic shoppers who may still be wary of crowded stores. These sales are expected to increase between 11% and 15% over 2020, for a total of between $218.3 billion and $226.2 billion in sales.
More
https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2021/10/27/holiday-retail-sales/1621635360962/
From beers to cars, German consumers face higher prices
October 28, 202112:25 PM BST
BERLIN, Oct 28 (Reuters) - German consumers face higher prices for goods across the board as more and more companies in Europe's largest economy decide to pass on increased production costs, driven by widespread supply shortages and a spike in energy prices.
While the development is helping firms to improve corporate margins after the coronavirus shock, consumers are feeling the pinch of higher prices, which could hurt household spending and ultimately domestic demand if wage growth is not keeping up.
In its latest business sentiment survey, the Munich-based Ifo institute said on Monday that every second industrial firm in Germany is already planning to hike prices due to persistent supply problems, a record high. read more
Consumer price inflation, harmonised to make it comparable with other euro zone countries, accelerated in September at an unprecedented pace of 4.1% on the year - and data due later on Thursday is expected to show a further rise to 4.5% in October.
For 2021 as a whole, the government expects the national inflation rate to reach 3%, the highest level in nearly three decades, before easing to 2.2% in 2022 and 1.7% in 2023.
Thanks to state aid measures to cushion the effects of the pandemic, the government hopes that consumers' disposable income will rise by 2.5% this year and 3.8% next, which could help stabilize domestic demand despite the price surge.
But for many consumers, the unusually high inflation is being felt nonetheless, with doubts growing that the price hike will only be temporary as suggested by central bankers.
Germany's largest brewery, the Radeberger Group, said it plans to raise its beer prices next spring in two stages for both the hospitality and retail industries due to the rising costs of utilities, logistics and raw materials.
"These cost increases can no longer be compensated for by simply increasing efficiency," a Radeberger spokesperson said.
More
https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/beers-cars-german-consumers-face-higher-prices-2021-10-28/
Are high energy prices here to stay? Analysts weigh in on the gas crisis
Published Thu, Oct 28 2021 3:00 AM EDT
Winter hasn’t even arrived, but gas prices have already soared to record highs in Europe and Asia on supply concerns, while several energy suppliers in the U.K. have collapsed.
Natural gas supply is set to rise incrementally in the coming years, before jumping in 2025, analysts told CNBC.
But analysts are divided on whether demand will continue to outstrip supply in years to come.
The current gas crisis will likely repeat itself again, said Richard Gorry, managing director of JBC Energy Asia.
“This will be a crisis that is reoccurring over the next three or four years — simply because we don’t have a lot of new natural gas supply coming into the market in that period,” he told CNBC’s “Capital Connection” in mid-October.
“By 2025, the situation may change, but I think we definitely have a couple of years where we’re going to be looking at high energy prices,” he said.
But James Whistler, global head of energy derivatives at shipbroking firm Simpson Spence Young, said he doesn’t expect prices to remain high beyond this winter.
“Are we going to be in an energy crisis perpetually for the next three years? Absolutely not,” he told CNBC’s “Street Signs Asia” on Wednesday.
“This is a short-term issue … come March or April next year, we’ll see much more reasonable prices starting to come through again,” he said.
Pull toward clean energy
Gas demand is growing “quite rapidly” as countries attempt to shift away from coal and oil, to cleaner energies, Gorry told CNBC again this week. That means the world doesn’t have enough gas, and the market will be very tight for the next three years, he added.
Natural gas is less polluting than other traditional fuels.
While he predicted that the current crisis will pass around February or March, the market will likely tighten again when next year’s winter season approaches and demand rises.
Even if a shortage of gas doesn’t lead to another energy crisis, it could cause the world to fall back on coal and oil, said Gavin Thompson, Asia Pacific vice chairman of energy at Wood Mackenzie.
In a bid to meet its electricity needs, the U.K. fired up an old coal power plant in September.
Thompson expects gas to “feature prominently” in the gradual move toward a cleaner energy mix. However, he said producers are concerned about the long-term future of gas, and may be underinvesting in supply.
If producers don’t invest enough, buyers may turn back to traditional fuels, he warned.
“That’s a big risk because … slowing the pace of the energy transition will make 2030 targets, 2050 targets really, really difficult to meet,” he said.
More
Harvard biologist George Wald estimated that “civilization will end within 15 or 30 years unless immediate action is taken against problems facing mankind.”
Earth Day, April 22, 1970.
Covid-19 Corner
This section will continue until it becomes unneeded.
Singapore probes unusual surge in COVID-19 cases after record
October 28, 2021 11:46 AM BST
SINGAPORE, Oct 28 (Reuters) - Singapore is looking into an "unusual surge" of 5,324 new infections of COVID-19, the city-state's health ministry said, its highest such figure since the beginning of the pandemic, as beds in intensive care units fill up.
Ten new deaths on Wednesday carried the toll to 349, after 3,277 infections the previous day, while the ICU utilisation rate is nearing 80%, despite a population that is 84% fully vaccinated, with 14% receiving booster doses.
"The infection numbers are unusually high today, mostly due to many COVID-positive cases detected by the testing laboratories within a few hours in the afternoon," the health ministry said in a statement.
"The Ministry of Health is looking into this unusual surge in cases within a relatively short window, and closely monitoring the trends for the next few days," it added in Wednesday's statement.
While nearly 98.7% of the past month's 90,203 cases had no symptoms, or only mild ones, about 0.2% of those had died, and 0.1% each were being monitored closely in intensive care units (ICU) or were critically ill and intubated there.
About 72 ICU beds were vacant by Wednesday, at an overall ICU use rate of 79.8%, with 142 coronavirus sufferers accounting for about half of occupied beds.
The ministry said it was adding more ICU beds. The Asian city-state, which has set aside 200 ICU beds to be used by COVID-19 patients, can add 100 more at short notice.
Last week, it extended some social curbs for about a month, to rein in the spread of COVID-19 and ease pressure on healthcare facilities. read more
More
Exclusive: Tens of millions of J&J COVID-19 shots sit at Baltimore factory
October 28, 202111:49 AM BST
Oct 28 (Reuters) - An estimated 30 million to 50 million doses of Johnson & Johnson's (JNJ.N) COVID-19 vaccine made early this year sits idle in Emergent BioSolutions Inc's (EBS.N) plant in Baltimore awaiting a green light from U.S. regulators to ship, two sources familiar with the matter said.
Emergent, a contract drug manufacturer, is waiting for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to approve release of those doses. The agency must still inspect and authorize the plant before Emergent can ship newly manufactured drug substance, one of the sources said.
The exact number of doses sitting idle cannot be determined, the source said, because Emergent only makes raw vaccine substance and does not fill vials with finished product.
The FDA in April halted operations at Emergent's production facility after J&J's vaccine was found to be contaminated with material from AstraZeneca's (AZN.L) COVID-19 shots, which were also being manufactured there at the time.
The contamination ruined about 15 million J&J doses and set back its U.S. vaccine rollout by weeks.
Material manufactured for the J&J vaccine at the Baltimore plant prior to the April shutdown and awaiting FDA approval could be enough to produce as many as 50 million shots, the two sources said. They asked not to be named because they were not authorized to speak publicly on the issue.
Of the 100 million doses worth of vaccine material Emergent described in an April Congressional hearing as being sidelined, the FDA has so far cleared nine batches of J&J's vaccine and three batches of AstraZeneca's. It has not disclosed how many doses were in those batches.
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
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
Kenneth Watt warned about a pending Ice Age in a speech. “The world has been chilling sharply for about twenty years,” he declared. “If present trends continue, the world will be about four degrees colder for the global mean temperature in 1990, but eleven degrees colder in the year 2000. This is about twice what it would take to put us into an ice age.”
Earth Day, April 22, 1970.
Technology Update.
With events happening fast in the development of solar power and graphene, I’ve added this section. Updates as they get reported.
Today, a subject and company we’ve covered before. I’m still sceptical this can make more than a marginal difference or a niche difference, but others, (experts,) are getting involved.
Startup Storing Energy in Blocks to Build in U.S., Canada
David R Baker October 27, 2021, 7:00 AM EDT
Deal with DG Fuels seen bringing in $520 million in revenue
Energy Vault Inc., which uses gravity to store large amounts of energy, plans to install its systems in Louisiana, Ohio and British Columbia, marking the first time the startup has announced projects in North America.
All three locations will provide energy storage for sustainable aviation-fuel maker DG Fuels LLC, according to a statement from the two companies. The deal will bring Energy Vault $520 million in revenue, Chief Executive Officer Robert Piconi said in an interview. Construction of the first project, in Louisiana, is expected to begin next year.
From the LIR in February or March. Approx. 10 minutes.
Gravity Energy Storage : A very uplifting technology!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lh1--ftWWvY
The latest from Energy Vault. Approx. 11 minutes.
Energy Vault Has Developed A Gravity Energy Storage Platform
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q4EpcXeXZ-0
In 1970, Harrison Brown, a scientist at the National Academy of Sciences, published a chart in Scientific American that looked at metal reserves and estimated that humanity would totally run out of copper shortly after 2000. Lead, zinc, tin, gold, and silver would be gone before 1990.
Another weekend and the start of the eco-madness, save the planet lunatics junket in Glasgow, Scotland. Hopefully the Scottish “climate” will cooperate and refresh the fanatics with bouts of good old Atlantic Scottish rain.
The BBC, man-made global warming, fake news propaganda machine, has spent weeks in overdrive putting out endless last chance, end of the world, predictions desired to fuel the madness of the crowds assembling in poor old Scotland.
Of the world’s leading Capos, only President Biden is attending, but only for a short photo-op visit, after a short European G-20 summit and a meeting with Pope Francis, all in Rome. All the other leading global Capos are wisely giving the madness of Glasgow’s crowds a miss. Besides, who in their right mind visits Glasgow in November if they don’t have to?
Have a great weekend everyone. Don’t get taken in by the end of the world nonsense flowing out of the extreme left-wing, Anti-British Broadcasting Corporation.
“Population will inevitably and completely outstrip whatever small increases in food supplies we make. The death rate will increase until at least 100-200 million people per year will be starving to death during the next ten years.”
Paul Ehrlich confidently declared in the April 1970 issue of Mademoiselle.
21st century adage: Is that true, or did you hear it on the BBC?
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