Baltic Dry Index. 2566 -05 Brent Crude 115.86 (?)
Spot Gold 1834
Coronavirus Cases 02/04/20 World 1,000,000
Deaths 53,100
Coronavirus Cases 01/06/22 World 532,824,515
Deaths 6,313,736
“People don’t realize what’s fixing to hit them,” said Texas farmer Lynn “Bugsy” Allen. “They think it’s tough right now, you give it until October. Food prices are going to double.”
For more on food price inflation scroll down to the Inflation/Stagflation section.
In the stock casinos, more wobble as the realisation sets in that food and energy inflation isn’t going away anytime soon.
President Biden and Fed Chairman Powell can huff and puff up a good storm of anti-inflation rhetoric, but inflation’s house is still standing and depending on what happens with this year’s northern hemisphere crops food price inflation looks set to soar later this year.
Fed Chairman Powell and his gang, plus the rest of the central bankster frauds, are so far behind the global inflation curve as to make Biden, Johnson and Trudeau look like competent statesmen.
The only good news on the foodstuffs inflation front is that the US winter wheat harvest is already underway in Texas and Oklahoma, while Russia announced yesterday the reopening of the port of Mariupol. Some trapped grain ships will soon be moving again once crews return to man them.
Asia-Pacific stocks mixed as private survey shows China’s factory activity contracted
SINGAPORE — Shares in Asia-Pacific were mixed in Wednesday trade, with investors watching for market reaction to the release of a private survey on Chinese factory activity for May.
Mainland Chinese stocks were mixed, with the Shanghai Composite sitting below the flatline while the Shenzhen Component was up 0.419%. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index slipped 0.74%.
China’s Caixin/Markit manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index for May came in at 48.1 on Wednesday, an improvement over April’s reading of 46 but still remaining below the 50-level mark that separates expansion from contraction.
China’s official manufacturing PMI for May, released Tuesday, came in at 49.6 — an improvement over April’s reading of 47.4. The May reading was above the 48.6 level expected from a Reuters poll.
PMI readings are sequential and represent month-on-month expansion or contraction.
The Nikkei 225 in Japan gained 0.61% while the Topix index advanced 1.19%.
In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 climbed 0.11%. Australia’s gross domestic product grew 0.8% quarter-on-quarterly in seasonally adjusted chain volume terms during the first quarter, data from the country’s Bureau of Statistics showed Wednesday. That was above expectations in a Reuters poll for a 0.5% gain.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan traded 0.41% lower.
“We’re in a relatively calm period, there has been a risk-on environment that’s been triggered by some degree of opening up in China,” Manishi Raychaudhuri, head of Asia-Pacific equity research at BNP Paribas, told CNBC’s “Street Signs Asia” on Wednesday. “There has also been commentary, a narrative that the risk perception is way too high among institutional investors.”
“That said, we must also keep in mind that we’re now about to enter a period of quite severe monetary policy tightening,” he added. “We have to brace for the impact at least, you know, in the next one quarter or so.”
Markets in South Korea are closed on Wednesday for a holiday.
Overnight on Wall Street, the S&P 500 shed 0.63% to 4,132.15. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 222.84 points, or 0.67%, to 32,990.12. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite dipped 0.41% to 12,081.39.
More
https://www.cnbc.com/2022/06/01/asia-markets-china-economy-australia-gdp-data-currencies-oil.html
Dow falls 222 points as markets end May in the red
May 31, 2022 / 5:29 PM
May 31 (UPI) -- U.S. markets fell Tuesday to close out May after a day off for the Memorial Day holiday.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed down 222.84, or 0.67%, while the S&P 500 fell 0.63% and the Nasdaq Composite lost 0.41%.
With Tuesday's losses, the Dow and S&P 500 closed the month mostly flat, following a rally last week that saw them break multi-week losing streaks, while the Nasdaq lost 2.1% for the month.
"The market is digesting the sharp rally late last week and trying to figure out its footing," Peter Boockvar, chief investment officer at Bleakley Advisory Group said.
We're still far from being out of the woods here in terms of the major overhangs, being inflation, monetary tightening and rising rates."
Stocks, however, remained far from their record highs, with the Dow having fallen 10.7%, the S&P 500 dropping 14.3% and the Nasdaq declining 25.5% this year.
Oil futures rose on the heels of an agreement by the European Union to stop purchases of crude oil and petroleum products from Russia, with the U.S. benchmark West Texas Intermediate Crude oil climbing 3.6% to $118.70, while Brent crude, the international benchmark, gained 3.7% to $123.83.
The energy sector dragged down the S&P 500 with Schulmberger falling 4.32% and Chevron declining 2.03%.
Major tech stocks helped to soften some of the losses Tuesday, with Amazon rising 4.4% and Google parent, Alphabet, gaining 1.29%.
Investors are expected to look to the May jobs report due Friday, as well as earnings from companies such as Salesforce, GameStop, Chewy and HP.
https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2022/05/31/Dow-falls-222-points-markets-end-May-red/7041654027121/
Finally, global oil refineries are struggling to meet demand and it’s only likely to get much worse as the Chinese economy slowly returns to normal. High energy inflation looks like being anything but transitory.
Global refiners falter in efforts to keep up with demand
May 31, 2022 8:57 AM GMT+1
May 31 (Reuters) - Refiners worldwide are struggling to meet global demand for diesel and gasoline, exacerbating high prices and aggravating shortages from big consumers like the United States and Brazil to smaller countries like war-ravaged Ukraine and Sri Lanka.
World fuel demand has rebounded to pre-pandemic levels, but the combination of pandemic closures, sanctions on Russia and export quotas in China are straining refiners' ability to meet demand. China and Russia are two of the three biggest refining countries, after the United States. All three are below peak processing levels, undermining the effort by world governments to lower prices by releasing crude oil from reserves.
Two years ago, margins for making fuel were in the dumps due to the pandemic, leading to multiple closures. Now, the situation has reversed, and the strain could persist for the next couple of years, keeping prices elevated.
"When the coronavirus pandemic occurred, demand for global oil was not expected to fall for a long time, and yet so much refining capacity was cut permanently," said Ravi Ramdas, managing director of energy consultancy Peninsula Energy.
Global refining capacity fell in 2021 by 730,000 barrels a day, the first decline in 30 years, according to the International Energy Agency. The number of barrels processed daily slumped to 78 million bpd in April, lowest since May 2021, far below the pre-pandemic average of 82.1 million bpd.
Fuel stocks have fallen for seven straight quarters. So while the price of crude oil is up 51% this year, U.S. heating oil futures are up 71%, and European gasoline refining margins recently hit a record at $40 a barrel.
STRUCTURALLY SHORT
The United States, according to independent analyst Paul Sankey, is "structurally short" on refining capacity for the first time in decades. U.S. capacity is down nearly 1 million barrels from before the pandemic to 17.9 million bpd as of February, the latest federal data available.
LyondellBasell (LYB.N) recently said it would shut its Houston plant that could process more than 280,000 bpd, citing the high cost of maintenance.
Operating U.S. refiners are running full-tilt to meet demand, especially for exports, which have surged to more than 6 million bpd, a record. Capacity use currently exceeds 92%, highest seasonally since 2017.
"It's hard to see that refinery utilization can increase much," said Gary Simmons, Valero chief commercial officer. "We've been at this 93% utilization; generally, you can't sustain it for long periods of time."
The U.S. ban on Russian imports has left refiners in the northeast United States short of feedstocks needed to make fuel. Phillips 66 (PSX.N) has been running its 150,000-bpd catalytic cracker at its New Jersey refinery at reduced rates because it cannot source low-sulfur vacuum gasoil, according to two sources familiar with the matter.
More, much, much more.
China announces detailed stimulus policies to support virus-hit economy
May 31, 2022 9:45 AM GMT+1
BEIJING, May 31 (Reuters) - China's cabinet announced a package of 33 measures covering fiscal, financial, investment and industrial policies on Tuesday to revive its pandemic-ravaged economy, adding it will inspect how provincial governments implement them.
The stimulus package, which was flagged by China's State Council in a routine meeting last week, underscores Beijing's shift toward growth, after COVID-19 control measures pounded the economy and threaten Beijing's 5.5% growth target for the year.
To revive investment and consumption, the government ordered localities not to expand curbs on auto purchases and said those which already have curbs in place should gradually increase their quotas on car ownership.
The Ministry of Finance also said on Tuesday that it would halve the purchase tax for small-engined cars. B9N2X102M
China will promote healthy development of platform companies, which are expected to play a role in stabilising jobs, the State Council said.
More
“In a bull market and particularly in booms the public at first makes money which it later loses simply by overstaying the bull market.”
Jesse Livermore.
Global Inflation/Stagflation Watch.
Given our Magic Money Tree central banksters and our spendthrift politicians, inflation now needs an entire section of its own.
U.S. wheat crop hit by dry winter then soggy spring, adding to global tightness
May 31, 2022 6:26 AM GMT+1
May 31 (Reuters) - North Dakota farmer Dwight Grotberg wanted to plant more wheat this spring to capitalize on soaring prices since Russia's invasion of Ukraine cut grain exports and left the world short of millions of tonnes of wheat supply.
Heavy rain has prevented Grotberg from planting as much wheat crop as he wanted and is hampering farmers across the state, the top U.S. grower of spring wheat.
Instead of boosting supply, North Dakota expected to plant wheat over the smallest share of its farmland on record, according to government data.
The United States is the world's fourth-largest wheat exporter and problems are hitting output at a time when the world can ill afford to lose any more supplies of the staple grain amid a global food crisis.
Benchmark Chicago Board of Trade wheat prices surged 50% to more than $13.60 a bushel after Russia's invasion in February halted shipments of nearly a third of the world's wheat exports, and little has gone right for wheat since then.
Worsening harvest prospects in China and parts of Europe, followed by an export ban by major producer India, have tightened stocks and exacerbated global food supply concerns.
The United Nations has warned the impact of the war on grains, oils, fuel and fertilizer could throw millions of people into famine and take years to resolve. read more
Washington has been calling on U.S. farmers to seed more winter wheat this autumn, and the government said it would allow planting on some environmentally sensitive land beginning this fall. But the drought and costly farm inputs could limit production gains, say grain analysts. read more
There are two wheat crops in the United States: spring wheat planted now, and winter wheat planted in autumn that will be harvested soon. Both are in trouble.
More. Much, much more.
Looming Price Hikes on Food Set to Hit Americans This Fall
Higher inflation could force Fed action, leading to a 'deeper recession'
By May 29, 2022 Updated: May 30, 2022
----As weary as Americans have become from paying record high gas and grocery prices, however, another round of price hikes is making its way through the food supply chain and is expected to reach consumers this fall.
“People don’t realize what’s fixing to hit them,” said Texas farmer Lynn “Bugsy” Allen. “They think it’s tough right now, you give it until October. Food prices are going to double.”
The 8.8 percent increase in food prices that Americans have already seen does not take into account the dramatic cost increases that farmers are now experiencing. This is because farmers pay their costs upfront and only recoup them at the point of sale, months later.
“Usually, what we see on the farm, the consumer doesn’t see for another 18 months,” said John Chester, a Tennessee farmer of corn, wheat, and soybeans. But with the severity of these cost increases, consumers could feel the effects much sooner, particularly if weather becomes a factor.
Lorenda Overman, a North Carolina farmer who raises hogs and grows corn, soybeans, and sweet potatoes, said the spike in fuel costs has put her farm into the red this year. “Nothing that consumers are paying is going to bridge the gap for farmers right now,” she said. “The prices now have not hit the grocery stores yet,” but she expects they will start to by the end of summer.
Much of the cost of food hinges on the price of oil.
“They have no electric trucks delivering that food and there are no electric tractors,” Allen said. “It takes diesel to run all this.”
Chester said that fuel and fertilizer together make up 55 percent of his total costs. The price of diesel fuel has more than doubled, from $2.50 per gallon at the end of 2020 to more than $5 per gallon today. Farmers say the cost of fertilizer, an oil derivative, has tripled and in some cases quadrupled.
“When you look at the machinery that uses diesel, it’s farm equipment, it’s railroads, and it’s truckers,” said Daniel Turner, Executive Director of Power the Future, an energy advocacy group. Diesel “moves all of our goods, it grows our food. From cargo ships arriving from overseas to trucks or trains getting those goods across the country. All those things now have added costs that will get sent to the consumer.”
More
Eurozone inflation hits record 8.1% amid rising energy costs
May 31 2022
LONDON (AP) — Inflation in the 19 countries that use the euro currency hit a record 8.1% in May amid surging energy costs prompted in part by Russia’s war in Ukraine, authorities said Tuesday.
Annual inflation in the eurozone soared past the previous record of 7.4% reached in March and April, according to the latest data from European Union statistics agency Eurostat.
Energy prices jumped 39.2%, highlighting how the war and the accompanying global energy crunch are making life more expensive for the eurozone’s 343 million people.
Inflation in the eurozone is now at its highest level since recordkeeping for the euro began in 1997. The latest figures add pressure on European Central Bank policymakers to raise interest rates from ultralow levels to rein in the rising prices.
Food prices also rose 7.5%, Eurostat said — another sign of how the war is pushing up prices around the world because Russia and Ukraine are major global food suppliers. Prices for goods like clothing, appliances, cars, computers and books rose 4.2%. Prices for services increased 3.5%, Eurostat said.
https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-european-union-inflation-bd5e9345f5da5d44d78c612a6b9c0008
French inflation hits new record of 5.8% in May
May 31, 2022 8:00 AM GMT+1
PARIS, May 31 (Reuters) - French inflation rose more than expected in May to a new record, preliminary EU-harmonised data showed on Friday, putting pressure on President Emmanuel Macron ahead of legislative elections this month.
The INSEE statistics agency said consumer prices rose 0.7% in May for a 12-month inflation rate of 5.8%, up from 5.4% in April to hit the highest rate since France began using European Union methodology to calculate the readings in the early 1990s.
A Reuters poll of eight economists had expected on average for inflation to rise to 5.6%. (FRCPIP=ECI)
Tackling high inflation is at the top of France's political agenda and Macron's government has promised a fresh round of measures to support purchasing power after the elections.
France has so far managed to keep inflation lower than in all other EU countries apart from Malta thanks to a 25 billion euro package of measures consisting in large part of costly caps on gas and electricity price increases.
INSEE said annual inflation as measured by France's national consumer price index rose to 5.2% in May from 4.8% in April, hitting its highest since September 1985. Economists polled by Reuters had expected 5.0% on average in May.
The national index is more closely followed in France, while the EU-harmonised index is used outside it to compare inflation rates among countries using the euro.
https://www.reuters.com/markets/europe/french-inflation-hits-new-record-58-may-2022-05-31/
Primark chief regrets raising prices but says it is ‘a reflection of the scale of inflation we are seeing’
Tuesday 31 May 2022 7:01 am
Primark executive John Bason said he “regrets” the fashion firm’s decision to raise prices.
In April, Primark warned that it will increase prices on its autumn and winter collection as costs go up for businesses around the world.
The budget fashion chain said it would make “selective” rises in the range.
Bason, who is the finance director for Primark’s parent company AB Foods, told the BBC: “I do regret that we have to put some prices up. It is a reflection of the scale of the inflation that we’re seeing.”
AB Foods, which also owns Twinings and is also a major sugar producer, said last month the US dollar strengthening and soaring inflation forced the changes.
At the time, chief executive George Weston said: “Inflationary pressures are such that we are unable to offset them all with cost savings, and so Primark will implement selective price increases across some of the autumn/winter stock.
“However, we are committed to ensuring our price leadership and everyday affordability, especially in this environment of greater economic uncertainty.”
AB Foods’ pre-tax profit rose 131 per cent to £635m in the six months to the start of March, as revenue rose by a quarter to £7.9bn.
Below, why a “green energy” economy may not be possible, 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
"An Environmental Disaster": An EV Battery Metals Crunch Is On The Horizon As The Industry Races To Recycle
by Tyler Durden Monday, Aug 02, 2021 - 08:40 PM
Covid-19 Corner
This section will continue until it becomes unneeded.
Israeli company Virusight's device detects COVID-19 in 20 seconds - study
The Virusight solution was tested on 550 saliva samples and found to be safe and effective.
By JERUSALEM POST STAFF Published: MAY 31, 2022 04:19
Virusight Diagnostic, an Israeli company that combines artificial intelligence software and spectral technology announced the results of a study that found that its Pathogens Diagnostic device detects COVID-19 with 96.3 percent accuracy in comparison to the common RT-PCR.
The study was conducted by researchers from the Department of Science and Technology, University of Sannio, Benevento, Italy with partner company TechnoGenetics S.p.A.
Virusight is a collaboration between Sheba Medical Center's ARC Innovation Center and Newsight Imaging, a company that develops CMOS image sensor chips.
The Virusight solution was tested on 550 saliva samples from male and female subjects of all ages, showing an overall sensitivity of 92.7 percent and a specificity of 96.8% compared with an RT-PCR. The Virusight solution was found to be safe and effective at detecting SARS-CoV-2 antigens and viral particles in the samples, diagnosing COVID-19 within 20 seconds.
Virusight's SpectraLIT device obtains spectral signatures of the samples from mouth swabs and analyses machine learning algorithms that identify SARS-CoV-2. The device then sends the results to a phone or computer in 20 seconds.
The Virusight device is registered as an approved IVD device and has the CE Mark for the European market and is pending regulatory approval in the United States, The United Kingdom, Latin America and Asia Pacific. It will be available in Europe in the coming weeks, according to the company.
https://www.jpost.com/business-and-innovation/tech-and-start-ups/article-708123
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
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, among other things, I’ve added this section. Updates as they get reported.
Lift Energy Storage System: Turning skyscrapers into gravity batteries
Loz Blain May 31, 2022
Renewable energy is intermittent, so energy storage and release will be critical in the next few decades. IIASA researchers have put forth a fascinating solution, proposing to turn skyscrapers into giant gravity batteries for remarkably cheap renewable energy storage.
The concept is simple enough: excess renewable energy can be stored as potential energy, by using it to lift something heavy up to a higher point. That energy can then be released by using gravity to drive some kind of generator. Researchers from the International Institute of Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) in Vienna, Austria, looked at the height and location of skyscrapers and saw a huge amount of pre-built energy storage waiting to be unlocked.
The Lift Energy Storage System (LEST) would make use of the existing elevator systems in tall buildings. Many of these are already designed with regenerative braking systems that can harvest energy as a lift descends, so they can effectively be looked at as pre-installed power generators. The LEST would also make use of vacant spaces throughout the building, ideally close to the top and bottom. Thus, it could be remarkably cheap to retrofit this kind of capability to a building, as compared with building a dedicated gravity battery system anywhere else.
Basically, the LEST would take advantage of any elevator downtime, by moving heavy items – like big containers of wet sand – from the bottom of the building up to the top, when excess renewable energy is available, and from the top to the bottom, when that energy can be used or sold back into the power grid.
----In a study published in the journal Energy, the researchers state that state-of-the-art permanent-magnet synchronous gear-motor smart elevators can operate with efficiencies near 92 percent, when the elevators are fully loaded and set to descend at an optimal speed for energy generation. If large amounts of energy are needed quickly, the lifts can be set to descend faster, at the expense of some efficiency – and this system could become even more efficient when paired with a cable-free, Willy Wonka-style magnetic elevator system like the Thysenkrupp multi-elevator in the top image.
There are plenty of other grid-level energy storage technologies under development, but the LEST has some unique features that could get it a seat at the table. First and foremost, it lives right in the middle of the cities it serves, using ready-made properties of the tallest existing infrastructure known to man – that cuts down hugely on capital expenses, since all you need to do is roll some robots and weights into the lobby, and fiddle with the elevator programming, and you're off.
It won't be able to respond to demand spikes as quickly or reliably as a big battery project – but on the other hand, it might be a terrific way to address some of the weaknesses a big battery system brings, like the fact that they'll likely be less effective for longer-term seasonal energy generation fluctuations and multi-day blackout scenarios. A LEST could store up a literal ton of energy in the summer, then release its reserves gradually through the winter.
More
“There is nothing like
losing all you have in the world for teaching you what not to do.”
Jesse Livermore.
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