Baltic Dry Index. 1977 +37 Brent Crude 95.66
Spot Gold 1854
Coronavirus Cases 02/04/20 World 1,000,000
Deaths 53,100
Coronavirus Cases 14/02/22 World 412,273,663
Deaths 5,834,561
“I am a war president.”
Well with no Russian invasion of Ukraine tied to yesterday’s Super Bowl,
“President Biden's National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said an invasion could begin "any day now".
"We cannot perfectly predict the day, but we have now been saying for some time that we are in the window," Sullivan told CNN.”
Ukraine’s President “Zelenskiy's office said he invited Biden to visit Ukraine soon. The White House declined to comment.”
Why would a US President place himself as a hostage to fortune in Ukraine?
All the western “hysteria” seems to suggest Russia might attack as soon as Wednesday, causing Ukraine’s Ambassador to London to tell the BBC Ukraine might not want to join NATO after all. Wrecking Ukraine for Washington and London now suddenly doesn’t seem to be such a good idea.
So for now the bad news is this week will likely be dominated by war or peace in Europe.
Ominously, for global inflation, the oil price is still rising heading for triple digits.
Japan’s Nikkei falls more than 2% as investors monitor Ukraine tensions; oil rises over 1%
SINGAPORE — Shares in Japan led losses in Asia-Pacific during Monday trade as investors monitor monitor developments from the Covid situation in Hong Kong to tensions between Russia and Ukraine.
The Nikkei 225 dropped 2.17% in afternoon trade, with shares of conglomerate SoftBank Group falling more than 4% while the Topix index shed 1.61%. South Korea’s Kospi declined 1.58%.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index dipped 1.25%. The city is currently facing a fifth wave of Covid infections, which its chief executive said has “dealt a heavy blow” to Hong Kong and “overwhelmed” its capacity to handle the situation. Over the weekend, Hong Kong’s chief secretary announced that mainland China will assist the city in areas such as testing and quarantine facilities.
In mainland China, the Shanghai composite shed 0.63% while the Shenzhen component slipped 0.535%.
Elsewhere, the S&P/ASX 200 in Australia climbed 0.14%.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan declined 1.35%.
Developments surrounding Russia-Ukraine tensions continued to be monitored by investors. Fears of a Russia attack on Ukraine sent stocks on Wall Street plunging Friday, with the Nasdaq Composite falling nearly 3%.
Oil prices were higher in the afternoon of Asia trading hours, with international benchmark Brent crude futures jumping 1.1% to $95.48 per barrel. U.S. crude futures surged 1.35% to $94.36 per barrel.
The U.S. dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of its peers, was at 96.084 against an earlier low of 95.906.
Ukraine seeks meeting with Russia within 48 hours to discuss build-up
14 February, 2022
Ukraine has called for a meeting with Russia and other members of a key European security group over the escalating tensions on its border.
Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said Russia had ignored formal requests to explain the build-up of troops.
He said the "next step" was requesting a meeting within the next 48 hours for "transparency" about Russia's plans.
Russia has denied any plans to invade Ukraine despite the build-up of some 100,000 soldiers on Ukraine's borders.
But some Western nations have warned that Russia is preparing for military action, with the US saying Moscow could begin with aerial bombardments "at any time".
More than a dozen nations have urged their citizens to leave Ukraine, and some have pulled embassy staff from the capital. CBS News reported that the US is preparing to withdraw all its personnel from Kiev within the next 48 hours, citing three sources.
----Western allies have previously made clear one of Russia's key demands - that Ukraine is never be allowed to join the Nato military alliance - is not up for debate, saying the alliance's door must remain open to new members.
But Ukraine's ambassador in London, Vadym Prystaiko, has told the BBC his country might be willing to drop its ambition to join Nato to avert war, saying Ukraine could be "flexible".
Asked if Kiyv was considering shelving its plans to pursue Nato membership, despite it being written into the Ukrainian constitution, he replied: "We might - especially being threatened like that, blackmailed by that, and pushed to it."
More
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-60370541
U.S. says Russia may create pretext to attack Ukraine
February 14, 2022 12:56 AM GMT
WASHINGTON/KYIV, Feb 13 (Reuters) - Russia could invade Ukraine at any time and might create a surprise pretext for an attack, the United States said on Sunday, as it reaffirmed a pledge to defend "every inch" of NATO territory.
Russia has more than 100,000 troops massed near Ukraine, which is not part of the Atlantic military alliance, and Washington - while keeping open the diplomatic channels that have so far failed to ease the crisis - has repeatedly said an invasion is imminent.
Moscow denies any such plans and has accused the West of "hysteria".
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, on the eve of a trip that takes him to Kyiv on Monday and Moscow for talks with President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday, called for Russia to de-escalate and warned of sanctions if Moscow did invade.
A German official said Berlin did not expect "concrete results" but diplomacy was important.
In Washington, President Joe Biden's National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said an invasion could begin "any day now".
"We cannot perfectly predict the day, but we have now been saying for some time that we are in the window," Sullivan told CNN.
U.S. officials said they could not confirm reports that U.S. intelligence indicated Russia planned to invade on Wednesday.
Sullivan said Washington would continue sharing what it learned with the world in order to deny Moscow the chance to stage a surprise "false flag" operation that could be a pretext for an attack.
----Biden spoke to his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Sunday and they agreed on the importance of continuing to pursue diplomacy and deterrence in response to Russia’s military build-up, the White House said after the call.
Zelenskiy's office said he invited Biden to visit Ukraine soon. The White House declined to comment.
----The Kremlin said Putin told Biden during their call on Saturday that Washington had failed to take Russia's main concerns into account, and that it had received no "substantial answer" on key elements of its security demands.
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US reaffirms warning Russia could invade Ukraine as Scholz heads to Kyiv
Issued on:
Washington reaffirmed its warning Sunday that Russia could invade Ukraine at any moment and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz prepared to visit both countries in a bid to head off a crisis that Berlin said had reached a "critical" point.
Kyiv also scrambled to keep its airspace open after KLM became the first major airline to suspend its operation because of the threats posed by Russian troops conducting military drills across Ukraine's frontiers.
Western countries are winding down their diplomatic missions and urging their citizens to leave immediately after a frantic week of diplomacy failed to calm one of the most explosive standoffs since the Cold War.
US President Joe Biden briefed Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky about an hour-long conversation with Russia's Vladimir Putin he had on Saturday that brought made no breakthrough.
Zelensky's office said the Ukrainian leader had invited Biden to visit Kyiv "in the coming days" to show his moral support and deliver "a powerful signal" to Russia.
Washington made no mention of an invitation in its readout of the 50-minute call.
But US national security advisor Jake Sullivan issued a grim assessment that an invasion that could begin "any day now" would likely start with "a significant barrage of missiles and bomb attacks".
Western leaders are pushing back against Putin's demands that the US-led NATO alliance withdraw from eastern Europe and never expand into Ukraine.
But Putin is dismissing calls by Biden and others to pull back Russian forces from Ukraine's frontiers.
More
In non new European war news, are the tech giants “sunsetting?”
Are tech giants ‘sunsetting’? Strategists warn of big tech under pressure
nvestors looking to put money into U.S. and China internet giants should be cautious as these companies are facing a myriad of challenges, strategists told CNBC.
Investment bank Macquarie said large consumer tech companies like Facebook and Amazon are in the “sunsetting” phase.
“You have to be very careful when you approach companies like [Facebook-parent] Meta or Alphabet because as I said, in my view, they are sunsetting. They’re suffering from a number of issues,” Viktor Shvets, head of global and Asian strategy at Macquarie Capital. He also named other companies like i-Phone maker Apple and Chinese e-commerce platform Alibaba.
Headwinds may include “major economies of scale,” as well as significant political and social pressure, Shvets told CNBC’s “Street Signs Asia” on Thursday.
“So be very careful about these large digital platforms, but there are a lot of opportunities and profitable opportunities in the rest of [the] tech universe,” he said.
Both American and Chinese tech giants have come under regulatory scrutiny in recent years.
n the past year, Chinese authorities cracked down on its tech companies, introducing legislation targeting areas from anti-monopoly to data protection.
Shares of Tencent, Alibaba and Didi sold off last year as the companies were caught in the regulatory crosshairs. The Hang Seng Tech index is still down more than 40% compared to a year ago, as of its Feb. 11 close.
In the U.S., President Joe Biden last year signed a new executive order aimed at cracking down on anti-competitive practices in Big Tech, among other sectors.
More
https://www.cnbc.com/2022/02/14/us-china-tech-giants-under-regulatory-pressure-competition.html
Finally, in better news, after almost a week and about 3 billion dollars of disrupted US – Canada trade, that by now world famous bridge has reopened.
If the organisers had called in BLM or antifa, that bridge would have stayed closed through the summer.
U.S.-Canada bridge reopens after police clear protesters
February 14, 2022 5:37 AM GMT
WINDSOR, Ontario/WASHINGTON/OTTAWA, Feb 13 (Reuters) - North America's busiest trade link reopened for traffic late Sunday evening, ending a six-day blockade, Canada Border Services Agency said, after Canadian police cleared the protesters fighting to end COVID-19 restrictions.
Canadian police made several arrests on Sunday and cleared protesters and vehicles that occupied the Ambassador Bridge in Windsor, Ontario, after a court order on Friday.
The blockade had choked the supply chain for Detroit's carmakers, forcing Ford Motor Co (F.N), the second-largest U.S. automaker, General Motors Co (GM.N) and Toyota Motor Corp (7203.T) to cut production.
The bridge carries about $360 million a day in two-way cargoes - 25% of the value of all U.S.-Canada goods trade.
A Windsor Police official told reporters that 20 to 30 arrests had been made. Police also seized vehicles within the demonstration area, according to an earlier statement.
Police stepped up their presence on Sunday with more than 50 vehicles, including cruisers, buses and an armoured car, as the number of protesters dropped to around 45 from roughly 100 on Saturday. Windsor Police tweeted "there will be zero tolerance for illegal activity".
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Global Inflation/Stagflation Watch.
Given our Magic Money Tree central banksters and our spendthrift politicians, inflation now needs an entire section of its own.
Inflation Is Everywhere, Including Places You Might Not Expect
Feb. 13, 2022 5:30 am ET
Inflation is seeping through American business, hitting companies in unexpected ways beyond higher prices for materials, shipping or wages.
It is adding to legal costs for the maker of Marlboro cigarettes, driving up the bill for auto repairs at Allstate Corp. ALL 0.08% , prompting people to pay less of their credit-card balances and stoking concerns of shrinking ad spending at social-media companies.
While companies have been sounding the alarm on inflation for the past year, economists were mostly playing down the rising prices as a temporary disruption caused by the reopening of the economy. Instead, inflation has persisted and recently hit its highest rate in four decades, pushing the Federal Reserve to accelerate its plan to raise interest rates.
To preserve profits, companies are passing along more price increases to customers as inflation shows no signs of slowing down.
“It kind of cascades from initially a small set of goods to a much larger set of goods,” said Chester Spatt, who was chief economist at the Securities and Exchange Commission from 2004 to 2007 and is now a professor of finance at Carnegie Mellon University.
Rising prices aren’t the main problem with inflation, he said; it is that prices are rising by different amounts at different times. As some prices rise more than others, companies and consumers might change their spending plans, something that can affect the economy as a whole.
----Car and home insurer Allstate cited inflation, specifically the surge in used-car prices, for the increased costs of auto-accident claims. Used-car values started climbing in late 2020 and accelerated in 2021 to rise 68% since the beginning of 2019, Allstate said when it reported earnings this month. The higher prices are reflected in insurer payments for totaled vehicles.
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ConEd to New Yorkers: Don't Blame Us for Soaring Power Bill
Francesca Maglione Fri, February 11, 2022, 8:42 PM
(Bloomberg) -- As New Yorkers fume over sky-high electric and natural gas bills this month, the utility Consolidated Edison Inc. has a message for customers: don’t blame us.
The Manhattan-based company sent an email to homes and businesses Friday explaining that an unusually cold January and soaring energy costs are the reason bills have spiked.
Governor Kathy Hochul isn’t entirely convinced. She’s calling on ConEd to review its billing practices, saying the surge, which is some cases made January bills 25% more expensive than a year earlier, is yet another economic burden to low-income families.
“The extreme utility-bill increases we are seeing across the state come at a time when New Yorkers are already struggling financially,” Hochul said in a statement Friday.
It’s not just New York. Power bills are rising sharply across the U.S. this winter, largely because of high gas and coal prices. The cost of electricity rose 10.7% in January from a year ago, the biggest jump in about 16 years.
A Warning
In the email, ConEd told customers their bills “may be higher than usual this month.” The company explained that it buys power on the wholesale market and then delivers it the same price, “without a profit.”
And those prices have surged. The cost of power during times of peak demand in New York is averaging $138.70 a megawatt-hour so far this year, up from about $48 a year ago, according to grid data compiled by MCG Energy Solutions. That’s the priciest start to a year since at least 2017.
One of the main drivers is gas, which has also tripled from a year ago. The fuel is needed to heat homes in the winter and is also the top source of electricity in the region.
The other key reason is the weather. While December was about 4.6 degrees warmer than a year earlier, January temperatures averaged 30.3 degrees Fahrenheit (-1 Celsius), about 4.5 degrees colder than usual. All of that is driving up gas consumption.
ConEd warned New Yorkers in November that they would probably be getting higher bills.
----Energy Burden
These bills may add to an energy burden that’s already too high for many people. Even before the latest statements went out, more than 1.2 million New York households had utility bills that were overdue for more than 60 days, according to the Public Utility Law Project. That amounted to about $1.7 billion as of September, a 119% increase from February 2020, before the start of the pandemic.
More
https://www.yahoo.com/news/coned-yorkers-dont-blame-us-204251479.html
Covid-19 Corner
This section will continue until it becomes unneeded.
Hong Kong leader says fifth COVID wave has 'overwhelmed' city's capacity
Mon, February 14, 2022, 1:08 AM
HONG KONG (Reuters) -Hong Kong's is being overwhelmed by the "onslaught" of COVID-19 infections, its leader said on Monday, although deaths in the Chinese controlled global financial hub remain far less than similar-sized cities since the pandemic erupted two years ago.
Daily infections have multiplied 13 times over the past two weeks, from about 100 cases at the start of February to over 1,300 on Feb. 13, with authorities scrambling to control the deepening outbreak.
As the caseload soared, Hong Kong's leader Carrie Lam issued a statement on Monday saying her administration would coordinate with Chinese officials to tackle the "aggravating situation".
China has said it would help the city with testing, treatment and quarantine, and secure resources from rapid antigen kits and protective gear to fresh vegetables.
The city is due to report at least 1,530 COVID-19 cases on Monday, broadcaster TVB said, citing an unidentified source. It would be a new record for daily cases.
"The onslaught of the fifth wave of the epidemic has dealt a heavy blow to Hong Kong and overwhelmed the city's capacity of handling," she said, adding patients were having to wait longer to access isolation facilities.
"The situation is highly undesirable and the government feels worried and sorry about it," she said.
With the healthcare system already overstretched, medical experts warn the city could see 28,000 daily infections by the end of March, with the unvaccinated elderly a particular worry.
Hospital beds for COVID-19 patients are already at 90% occupancy, data from the city's Hospital Authority showed, while isolation facilities are near full capacity.
Hong Kong is prioritising elderly, children and those in serious conditions in hospitals, said Larry Lee, chief manager at the city's Hospital Authority.
For all the alarm over the latest wave of the pandemic, Hong Kong's total caseload since the pandemic first erupted was around 24,000 infections, including more than 200 deaths, less than many other similar major cities.
More
https://www.yahoo.com/news/hong-kong-leader-says-fifth-010846765.html
COVID-19: Third of adults over 65 develop medical conditions after infection
Published: FEBRUARY 12, 2022 05:01 Updated: FEBRUARY 12, 2022 12:17
A new peer-reviewed study published in the British Medical Journal examined the risk of delayed medical conditions brought on as a result of COVID-19 infection and determined that almost one in three adults ages 65 or older who became infected during 2020 developed at least one new condition during the months following diagnosis.
Many patients experienced complications involving vital organs such as the heart, kidneys, lungs and liver that required medical attention; mental health complications were reported as well. Conditions that are the consequence of a previous illness are known as sequelae.
The study used data from UnitedHealth Group Clinical Research Database to examine administrative claims and outpatient lab results for COVID-19 infection. In total, data for 133,366 individuals ages 65 or older who were enrolled in a Medicare Advantage plan were included. All patients had been diagnosed with COVID-19 before April 1, 2020.
Any new conditions that presented from 21 days post-COVID-19 diagnosis were recorded so that excess risk could be calculated when compared with the data from three other groups whose patients did not have COVID-19.
The three groups included one consisting of patient records from 2019, one from 2020, and another group including records of patients who had been diagnosed with a viral low spiratory tract illness (LRTI).
Results showed that 32 of every 100 patients diagnosed with COVID-19 in 2020 developed at least one new condition that caused them to seek medical attention, an 11% increase from those in the non-COVID-19 group from the same year. The most common conditions for which patients sought treatment were respiratory failure in an additional 7.55 patients out of every 100, fatigue for an additional 5.66, high blood pressure 4.34 and kidney injury with 2.59. An additional 2.5 per 100 patients sought treatment for mental health complications.
More
https://www.jpost.com/health-and-wellness/coronavirus/article-696233
Next, some vaccine links kindly sent along from a LIR reader in Canada.
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
Technology Update.
With events happening fast in the development of solar power and graphene, I’ve added this section. Updates as they get reported.
Rare earth elements await in waste
Date: February 9, 2022
Source: Rice University
Summary: Scientists applied their flash Joule heating process to coal fly ash and other toxic waste to safely extract rare earth elements essential to modern electronics and green technologies.
Rare earth elements are hard to get and hard to recycle, but a flash of intuition led Rice University scientists toward a possible solution.
The Rice lab of chemist James Tour reports it has successfully extracted valuable rare earth elements (REE) from waste at yields high enough to resolve issues for manufacturers while boosting their profits.
The lab's flash Joule heating process, introduced several years ago to produce graphene from any solid carbon source, has now been applied to three sources of rare earth elements -- coal fly ash, bauxite residue and electronic waste -- to recover rare earth metals, which have magnetic and electronic properties critical to modern electronics and green technologies.
The researchers say their process is kinder to the environment by using far less energy and turning the stream of acid often used to recover the elements into a trickle.
The study appears in Science Advances.
Rare earth elements aren't actually rare. One of them, cerium, is more abundant than copper, and all are more abundant than gold. But these 15 lanthanide elements, along with yttrium and scandium, are widely distributed and difficult to extract from mined materials.
"The U.S. used to mine rare earth elements, but you get a lot of radioactive elements as well," Tour said. "You're not allowed to reinject the water, and it has to be disposed of, which is expensive and problematic. On the day the U.S. did away with all rare earth mining, the foreign sources raised their price tenfold."
So there's plenty of incentive to recycle what's been mined already, he said. Much of that is piled up or buried in fly ash, the byproduct of coal-fired power plants. "We have mountains of it," he said. "The residue of burning coal is silicon, aluminum, iron and calcium oxides that form glass around the trace elements, making them very hard to extract." Bauxite residue, sometimes called red mud, is the toxic byproduct of aluminum production, while electronic waste is from outdated devices like computers and smart phones.
While industrial extraction from these wastes commonly involves leaching with strong acid, a time-consuming, non-green process, the Rice lab heats fly ash and other materials (combined with carbon black to enhance conductivity) to about 3,000 degrees Celsius (5,432 degrees Fahrenheit) in a second. The process turns the waste into highly soluble "activated REE species."
Tour said treating fly ash by flash Joule heating "breaks the glass that encases these elements and converts REE phosphates to metal oxides that dissolve much more easily." Industrial processes use a 15-molar concentration of nitric acid to extract the materials; the Rice process uses a much milder 0.1-molar concentration of hydrochloric acid that still yields more produc
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In a time of deceit telling the truth is a revolutionary act.
George Orwell.
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