Wednesday 20 July 2022

All You Need Is Pixie Dust.

 Baltic Dry Index. 2145 -17   Brent Crude 106.95

Spot Gold 1712         US 2 Year Yield 3.23 +0.08

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

Deaths 53,100

Coronavirus Cases 20/07/22 World 569,834,452

Deaths 6,391,948

Besides the positive lead from Wall Street, there were also reports that Russia and Ukraine are nearing a deal that would end the blockade on grain exports, and that Nord Stream 1 is likely to restart gas exports on schedule after maintenance is completed. 

In the stock casinos, more whiplash action. Great for commission brokers, if any are left, but usually a sign of trouble ahead.

Still it’s a summer market and thin summer markets are rife with rumour, and all the usual Wall Street hype and crime.

Below, not much left for me to add today, except to say I doubt that Russia and Ukraine are close to a deal on Ukraine grain exports. Russia is still bombarding Odessa, the only port Ukraine has left to export grain. All the others are in Russian hands or require passage through Russian occupied land.

Look away from that inverting US yield curve now!

 Japan’s Nikkei jumps 2% after rally on Wall Street; China’s benchmark lending rate unchanged

SINGAPORE — Shares in the Asia-Pacific jumped Wednesday after a sharp bounce in U.S. stocks overnight.

The Nikkei 225 in Japan rose 2.46% with Fast Retailing and Tokyo Electron up 1.79% and 5.6% respectively. The Topix index gained 2.04%.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index briefly traded 2% higher and was last up 2.29%. The Hang Seng Tech index advanced 2.14%. Tencent popped 2.34% and Meituan added 3.38%.

South Korea’s Kospi rose 1.01% and the Kosdaq was 1.43% higher.

In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 rose 1.87%.

Reserve Bank of Australia Governor Philip Lowe on Wednesday said inflation for the June quarter to be released next week will show a further step-up, and there needs to be a path back to 2% to 3% inflation.

Prices rose 5.1% in the March quarter. In his speech, Lowe also said the neutral nominal rate is at least 2.5%, whereas current rates are at 1.35%.

Markets in Mainland China ticked higher. The Shanghai Composite gained 0.67%, and the Shenzhen Component rose 0.61%.

China kept its one-year and five-year loan prime rates unchanged at 3.7% and 4.45% Wednesday.

MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan rose 1.5%.

U.S. stocks rallied Tuesday stateside following strong earnings reports.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average popped 754.44 points, or 2.43%, to 31,827.05. The S&P 500 jumped 2.76% to 3,936.69 and the Nasdaq Composite rose 3.11% to 11,713.15.

Besides the positive lead from Wall Street, there were also reports that Russia and Ukraine are nearing a deal that would end the blockade on grain exports, and that Nord Stream 1 is likely to restart gas exports on schedule after maintenance is completed.

“There’s still a lot of uncertainty around whether they’ll actually materialize, [but] a little bit of good news goes a long way in this market,” Tai Hui, chief global market strategist for APAC at JPMorgan Asset Management, told CNBC in a phone call on Wednesday.

That said, it’s likely to be a short-term bounce in the market as uncertainties over the Fed and corporate earnings remain, he said.

In company news, Japanese automaker Toyota said its production in August would be around 700,000 units, lower than the previously announced figure of 850,000 units, due to a parts shortage related to Covid disruptions.

Toyota shares were 0.28% higher on Wednesday.

More

Asia markets rally; China keeps benchmark lending rate unchanged (cnbc.com)

Finally, Gazprom declares Force Majeure on Europe’s gas supply.  Economic madness continues. Although this morning, Russia says that Gazprom will fulfil all its existing contracts, implying the Nord Stream One pipeline will resume pumping gas on Thursday or Friday.

Russia’s Gazprom tells European buyers gas supply halt beyond its control

 Julia Payne July 19 2022 08:13 AM

Russia's Gazprom has told customers in Europe it cannot guarantee gas supplies because of "extraordinary" circumstances, according to a letter seen by Reuters, upping the ante in an economic tit-for-tat with the West over Moscow's invasion of Ukraine.

The Russian state gas monopoly said in a letter dated July 14 that it was retroactively declaring force majeure on supplies from June 14. The news comes as Nord Stream 1, the key pipeline delivering Russian gas to Germany and beyond, is undergoing 10 days of annual maintenance scheduled to conclude on Thursday.

The letter added to fears in Europe that Moscow may not restart the pipeline at the end of the maintenance period in retaliation for sanctions imposed on Russia over the war in Ukraine, heightening an energy crisis that risks tipping the region into recession.

Known as an "act of God" clause, force majeure is standard in business contracts and defines extreme circumstances that release a party from their legal obligations. The declaration does not necessarily mean that Gazprom will stop deliveries, rather that it should not be held responsible if it fails to meet contract terms.

Gazprom did not respond to a request for comment.

Russian gas supplies have been declining via major routes for some months, including via Ukraine and Belarus as well as through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline under the Baltic Sea.

A trading source, asking not to be identified because of the sensitivity of the issue, said the force majeure concerned supplies through Nord Stream 1.

"This sounds like a first hint that the gas supplies via NS1 will possibly not resume after the 10-day maintenance has ended," said Hans van Cleef, senior energy economist at ABN Amro.

All you need is faith, and trust, and a little bit of pixie dust.

 

Global Inflation/Stagflation Watch.

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

Italy’s farmers in race against time as drought threatens crops

Mon, 18 July 2022 at 2:03 pm

Farmers in Italy’s Lombardy region are desperately trying to save their crops, regional authorities have warned, as water supplies continue to wane across the drought-stricken country.

In a press conference in Milan, the head of the Lombardy region Attilio Fontana, told journalists that agricultural water reserves are expected to be fully depleted by the end of July at the latest.

“The last reserves for agriculture are running out and cannot last beyond 25-30 July,” said Fontana. “We’re working carefully, alongside different associations – unfortunately the only thing we can hope for is that it starts to rain again.”

Fontana’s bleak warning follows months of dwindling water levels across the country as Italy endures its worst drought in seventy years.

From north to south water resources have been visibly depleted, including the Po, Italy’s longest river where many stretches have run so dry that the sea water has been making its way inland, destroying crops.

Lake Como in the north and the Tiber River in Rome have also suffered the effects of the drought, with water levels at an all-time low.

“We have decided in this first moment to give priority to the first harvest, so the little water we have available we use it to help agriculture,” said regional councillor Massimo Sertori during the press conference.

A deal with hydroelectric plants should ensure the arrival of approximately six million cubic metres of water to Lake Como until 25 July, which should in turn save the first harvest. But this doesn’t guarantee that the following harvests will survive.

“When the stocks are exhausted, what worries us above all is that we have zero snow, which has always been the summer cache,” said Sertori.

More

Italy’s farmers in race against time as drought threatens crops (yahoo.com)

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

https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/environmental-disaster-ev-battery-metals-crunch-horizon-industry-races-recycle

Covid-19 Corner

This section will continue until it becomes unneeded.

With Covid-19 starting to become only endemic, this section is close to coming to its end.

With a sniff or a swallow, new vaccines aim to put the brakes on Covid-19 spread

By Brenda Goodman, CNN Updated 0133 GMT (0933 HKT) July 19, 2022

 

(CNN)Injected vaccines against the coronavirus that causes Covid-19 have been hugely successful, saving nearly 20 million lives globally in their first year of use and slashing the pandemic's death toll by an estimated 63%, according to a recent study. Yet good as these shots are, they have not stopped the virus from spreading from person to person.

As the SARS-CoV-2 virus spreads, it changes. That's helped it get past our firewalls, the immunity created by vaccines or left behind after we recover from an infection. Which is why, well into the third year of the pandemic, we're in the midst of another wave of Covid-19 caused by the most immune-evasive variant yet, BA.5. And more variants are coming.

Even as vaccine manufacturers race to update the first-generation shots in the hopes of patching up our protection for the fall, other scientists are taking a different approach, making vaccines delivered via nasal sprays or tablets that would deploy more immune defenders to the body's front lines: the lining of the mouth, nose and throat.

"The hope is to shore up the defenses right there in the nose so that the virus can't even replicate in the nose," said Dr. Ellen Foxman, an immunobiologist at the Yale School of Medicine. "And then someone who has a really effective mucosal vaccination can't even really support viral replication or make viruses that can infect other people.

"That would be like the holy grail," said Foxman, who helped plan the International Congress of Mucosal Immunology meeting this week in Seattle, which is sponsored by pharmaceutical companies Pfizer, Janssen and Merck.

If it works, there's hope that mucosal immunity could slow the development of new coronavirus variants and finally bring the Covid-19 pandemic under control.

----The idea behind vaccinating the mucosa -- the lining of "the tube" (as mucosal immunologists refer to it) that runs from our nose and mouths to our lungs and guts -- isn't new. There are nine existing vaccines that work this way, including oral drops that protect against polio, cholera, salmonella and rotavirus, and a nasal spray, FluMist, that inoculates against the flu.

More

New Covid-19 vaccines aim to put the brakes on virus spread - CNN

Next, some vaccine links kindly sent along from a LIR reader in Canada.

NY Times Coronavirus Vaccine Trackerhttps://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/science/coronavirus-vaccine-tracker.html

Regulatory Focus COVID-19 vaccine trackerhttps://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.

£8m in scaling-up world’s first market-ready graphene

Posted on 18 Jul 2022 by The Manufacturer

Integrated Graphene, a Scotland-based technology development and integration company, has announced plans to invest up to £8m in scaling up its revolutionary 3D Graphene foam, Gii®, manufacturing process to meet surging global demand from the human diagnostics and energy markets.

Founded in 2016, Integrated Graphene has developed the world’s only commercially viable graphene manufacturing process that is currently scaled to high volumes. This novel process eliminates the scale-up challenges associated with CVD graphene and graphene powder. As well as direct manufacturing, Integrated Graphene is designing manufacturing processes for blue-chip companies to effectively bolt-on to existing lines, and it also has a team dedicated to supporting organisations to adapt graphene technologies for their products.

The company’s investment plan will focus on scaling-up the manufacturing of its market-ready graphene enhanced electrodes and super capacitors which are currently being piloted by global blue-chips in human diagnostics point of care testing and smart label asset tracking applications.

These printable electronic products include the Gii-Sens®, which offers a better and more-effective sensor material for the human diagnostics market and Gii-Cap® which targets 10% of $500bn battery market, with the potential to remove 60 million batteries from being thrown away every year.

Since coming out of “stealth mode” in 2020, Integrated Graphene has quickly established its reputation in the market, winning several commercial contracts and dramatically increasing its intellectual property portfolio.

As part of its growth plans, the company intends to double its existing footprint in Stirling and treble its headcount to 100 over the next three years, hiring a significant number of market leading development and commercial experts in the UK, Europe and North America. The company will also increase capital expenditure in its next generation pilot line to allow rapid market expansion of Gii-Sens and Gii-Cap. For Gii-Sens, that includes wearables, animal diagnostics, companion diagnostics, environmental diagnostics. With Gii-Cap, expansion markets include Drones, e-mobility, space, satellites, and wearables.

The investment comes on the back of a significantly oversubscribed Series A + funding round for an undisclosed sum led by existing investors, Par Equity and Archangels.

Integrated Graphene to invest £8m in scaling-up world’s first market-ready graphene - The Manufacturer

All of this has happened before, and it will all happen again.

J. M. Barrie, Peter Pan.

 

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