Baltic Dry Index. 1807 -06 Brent Crude 85.18
Spot Gold 1625 US 2 Year Yield 4.30 +0.03
Coronavirus
Cases 02/04/20 World 1,000,000
Deaths 53,100
Coronavirus Cases 28/09/22 World 621,219,557
Deaths 6,542,894
September 28, 1781 The
siege of Yorktown begins.
The siege of
Yorktown, also known as the Battle of Yorktown, the surrender
at Yorktown, or the German battle (from the presence of
Germans in all three armies), beginning on September 28, 1781, and ending on
October 19, 1781, at Yorktown, Virginia, was a decisive victory by a combined force of the
American Continental Army troops led by General George Washington and Gilbert du
Motier, Marquis de Lafayette, and French Army troops led by Comte de Rochambeau over British Army troops
commanded by British peer and Lieutenant General Charles
Cornwallis. The culmination of the Yorktown campaign, the siege
proved to be the last major land battle of the American Revolutionary
War in the North American region, as the
surrender by Cornwallis, and the capture of both him and his army, prompted the
British government to negotiate an end to the conflict.[b]
More
The big story of today, tonight UK time, is likely
to be hurricane Ian slamming into Florida somewhere near Tampa and Tampa Bay.
Even category 1 hurricanes can do a lot of damage,
especially if they’re slow moving and dumping a lot of rain. Hurricane Ian is
forecast to hit Florida as a category 4 hurricane.
The other big story today is who blew up the Nord
Stream pipelines in the Baltic Sea. More on that below.
In the stock casinos, Bruno the Bear looks like he’s
just getting started.
European markets
set to slide at the open as global counterparts turn lower
UPDATED WED, SEP 28 2022 12:15 AM EDT
European
stocks are expected to open in negative territory on Wednesday as global
markets turn lower on economic concerns surrounding inflation and the growth
outlook.
The negative open expected in
Europe comes after a torrid night for markets
in the Asia-Pacific. Major indexes there briefly dipped 2% after
the S&P 500 set a new 2022 low overnight on Wall Street.
The offshore and onshore Chinese
yuan reached their weakest levels since 2008. The Indian rupee also marked a
record low. U.S.
stock futures were lower on Tuesday evening.
U.S. 10-year Treasury
yield breaches 4% for the first time since 2010
The benchmark U.S. 10-year Treasury yielded
breached 4% for the first time since 2010 – after topping
3.9% overnight.
The yield on the
policy-sensitive 2-year
Treasury was at 4.2953%. Yields and prices have an inverted
relationship. One basis point is equivalent to 0.01%.
More
European markets open to close, earnings, data and news (cnbc.com)
Stock futures
fall after S&P 500 hits new low for the year; 10-year Treasury yield
briefly tops 4%
UPDATED WED, SEP 28 2022 12:18 AM
EDT
Stock futures were lower on Wednesday morning
after a relief rally failed during regular trading hours and the S&P 500
hit a new intraday low for the year.
Futures tied to the Dow Jones
Industrial Average lost 173 points, or about 0.59%. S&P 500 futures shed
0.71%, and Nasdaq 100 futures also fell more than 100 points, or about 0.98%.
During Tuesday’s session, stocks
gave up a large early gain and the S&P
500 fell below its intraday low from June, which was the previous
market bottom. The Dow and S&P 500 closed lower for the sixth straight day,
while the Nasdaq Composite ground higher by 0.25%. All three major averages are
now in bear market territory.
Several technical metrics show
that the stock market may be oversold, but some on Wall Street are worried that
investors have not priced in an earnings slowdown and the impact of the Federal
Reserve’s rate hikes. The S&P 500 breaking below its previous low is a key
indicator for some that stocks still have further to fall.
“I think we’re certainly not at
the end of the road in terms of pricing in the full recessionary outcome. … We
really need to get to dirt cheap valuations oun equities, and we’re not quite
there yet,” Anastasia Amoroso, chief investment strategist at iCapital, said on
Tuesday’s “Closing Bell.”
On Wednesday, investors will get
an updated look at the housing market with pending home sales from August.
More
Stock market losses wipe out $9 trillion from
Americans’ wealth
Falling stock markets
have wiped out more than $9 trillion in wealth from U.S. households, putting
more pressure on family balance sheets and spending.
Americans’ holdings
of corporate equities and mutual fund shares fell to $33 trillion at the end of
the second quarter, down from $42 trillion at the start of the year, according
to data from the Federal Reserve. With major market indexes falling even
further since early July, and the bond market adding further losses, market
experts say the current wealth losses from financial markets could total $9.5
trillion to $10 trillion.
Economists say the
drops could soon start rippling through the economy, adding pressure to
Americans’ balance sheets and possibly hurting spending, borrowing and
investing. Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody’s Analytics, said the losses
could reduce real GDP growth by nearly 0.2 percentage points over the coming
year.
“The loss of stock
wealth suffered to date, if sustained, will be a small, but meaningful headwind
to consumer spending and economic growth in coming months,” Zandi said.
The wealthy are
bearing the largest losses, since they own an outsize share of stocks. The top
10% of Americans have lost over $8 trillion in stock market wealth this year,
which marks a 22% decline in their stock wealth, according to the Federal
Reserve. The top 1% has lost over $5 trillion in stock market wealth. The
bottom 50% have lost about $70 billion in stock wealth.
More
Stock
market losses wipe out $9 trillion from Americans' wealth (cnbc.com)
Now back to today’s big stories. Who sabotaged the
Nord Stream pipelines and why? Take your
pick from America, Britain, NATO/Ukraine or Russia.
Fears of sabotage as gas leaks into Baltic from Nord Stream 1
and 2 pipelines
27
September, 2022
Gas is seeping into the Baltic Sea from three separate
leaks on the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines, Denmark’s energy agency confirmed
on Tuesday, prompting speculation that the infrastructure at the heart of the
energy standoff between Russia and Europe had been deliberately damaged.
The Danish energy agency said
it had found two leaks on the Nord Stream 1 pipeline north-east of the island
of Bornholm, and a third in the Nord Stream 2 pipeline in Swedish waters
south-east of the island.
A five-mile exclusion zone
for shipping has been set up around Bornholm, and flights below 1,000 metres
have been banned in the area. Methane, the primary component of natural gas,
partially dissolves in water, is not toxic and creates no hazard when inhaled
in limited quantities.
“Breakage of gas pipelines is
extremely rare”, Danish authorities said in a statement. “Therefore we see
reason to raise the preparedness level as a result of the incidents we have
seen over the past 24 hours.”
Nord Stream AG, the pipeline
operator, had on Monday morning reported an unexpected overnight drop of pressure from 105 to 7 bar in Nord Stream 2, which is filled
with gas but was cancelled by Olaf Scholz, the German chancellor, shortly
before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
A further
drop of pressure was reported on Monday afternoon in Nord Stream 1, which
Russia shut down indefinitely at the start of September, initially saying it
needed repairs.
German and Danish authorities would not comment
on the cause of the extremely rare leaks while investigations were ongoing. But
anonymous sources in German government circles said the simultaneity of the
three leaks made an accident unlikely. “Our imagination cannot come up with a
scenario which isn’t a deliberate attack,” a person involved in the
investigation told the German daily Der Tagesspiegel.
The news magazine Spiegel, quoting
government sources, said officials were not ruling out sabotage, designed to
cause further uncertainty on Europe’s energy markets.
A European security source told
Reuters news agency there were “some indications that it is deliberate damage”,
adding it was still too early to draw conclusions. They added: “You have to
ask: Who would profit?”
The drop in pressure comes after some
politicians on the far right and far left of Germany’s political spectrum have
started calling for Nord Stream 2 to be opened for gas deliveries to Europe, in
defiance of Germany’s stated solidarity with Ukraine.
The Kremlin said on Tuesday that it
did not rule out sabotage as a reason for the damage to the Russian-built
network of Nord Stream pipelines. “No option can be ruled out right now,” the
Kremlin spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, told a conference call with reporters when
asked if sabotage was the reason for the damage. “This is a very concerning
news,” he added, calling for a prompt investigation. “Indeed, we are talking
about some damage of an unclear nature to the pipeline in Denmark’s economic
zone.”
More
Fears of sabotage
as gas leaks into Baltic from Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines (msn.com)
Vulnerable
Tampa Bay braces for storm not seen in a century
September 27 2022.
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) — It’s been more than a century
since a major storm like Hurricane Ian has
struck the Tampa Bay area, which blossomed from a few hundred thousand people
in 1921 to more than 3 million today.
Many of these people live in low-lying neighborhoods that
are highly susceptible to storm surge and flooding they have rarely before
experienced, which some experts say could be worsened by the effects of climate change.
The problem confronting the region is that storms
approaching from the south, as Hurricane Ian is on track to do, bulldoze huge volumes of water up into
shallow Tampa Bay and are likely to inundate homes and businesses. The adjacent
Gulf of Mexico is also shallow.
“Strong persistent winds will push a lot of water into
the bay and there’s nowhere for it to go, so it just builds up,” said Brian
McNoldy, a senior research associate at the University of Miami’s Rosenstiel
School of Marine, Atmospheric and Earth Science. “Tampa Bay is very surge-prone
because of its orientation.”
The National
Hurricane Center is predicting storm surge in Tampa Bay and surrounding waters
of between 5 and 10 feet (1.5 and 3 meters) above normal tide conditions and
rainfall of between 10 and 15 inches (12 and 25 centimeters) because of
Hurricane Ian.
More
Vulnerable Tampa Bay braces for storm not seen in a century | AP News
Global Inflation/Stagflation/Recession
Watch.
Given
our Magic Money Tree central banksters and our spendthrift politicians, inflation now needs an entire section of its
own.
Nowadays, an after-dinner mint is what you need to pay the
restaurant check.
Mad Magazine.
Lights
out, ovens off: Europe preps for winter energy crisis
September 26 2022
FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — As Europe heads into winter in
the throes of an energy crisis,
offices are getting chillier. Statues and historic buildings are going
dark. Bakers who can’t afford to heat their ovens are talking about giving up, while fruit and
vegetable growers face letting greenhouses stand idle.
In poorer eastern Europe, people are stocking up on
firewood, while in wealthier Germany, the wait for an energy-saving heat pump
can take half a year. And businesses don’t know how much more they can cut back.
“We can’t turn off the lights and make our guests sit in
the dark,” said Richard Kovacs, business development manager for Hungarian
burger chain Zing Burger. The restaurants already run the grills no more than
necessary and use motion detectors to turn off lights in storage, with some
stores facing a 750% increase in electricity bills since the beginning of the
year.
With costs high and energy supplies tight, Europe is rolling
out relief programs and plans to shake up electricity and natural gas markets as it prepares for rising energy use this winter.
The question is whether it will be enough to avoid government-imposed rationing
and rolling blackouts after Russia cut back natural gas needed to heat homes, run factories and generate
electricity to a tenth of what it was before invading
Ukraine.
Europe’s dependence on Russian energy has turned the war
into an energy and economic crisis, with prices rising to record highs in recent months and
fluctuating wildly.
In response, governments have worked hard to find new supplies and conserve energy, with gas storage facilities
now 86% full ahead of the winter heating season — beating the goal of 80% by
November. They have committed to lower gas use by 15%, meaning the Eiffel Tower will plunge into darkness over an hour earlier than normal while shops and
buildings shut off lights at night or lower thermostats.
Europe’s ability to get through the winter may ultimately
depend on how cold it is and what happens in China. Shutdowns aimed at halting
the spread of COVID-19 have idled large parts of China’s economy and meant less
competition for scarce energy supplies.
More
Lights out, ovens off: Europe preps for winter energy
crisis | AP News
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.
With Covid-19 starting to become only endemic,
this section is close to coming to its end.
But I
thought Dr. Biden said the pandemic was over.
Pfizer,
Moderna ask FDA to approve bivalent COVID-19 booster for kids
SEPT. 26, 2022 / 3:03 PM
Sept. 26 (UPI) -- Pfizer and BioNtech asked the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on
Monday to approve their new Omicron-specific COVID-19 vaccine for children ages 5 to 11.
The
companies submitted an application
for emergency use authorization of
a 10 microgram dose of the bivalent vaccine for that age group.
The
request comes on the heels of applications announced Friday by Moderna for emergency use authorization
of its updated COVID-19 booster for children as young as 6.
Moderna
made the announcement on Twitter, without including details about its
applications, which include two groups of children -- ages 6 to 11 and 12 to
17. The Moderna booster currently is available only to adults.
The
new vaccines are adapted to target the Omicron BA.4 and BA.5 subvariants along
with the original strain of COVID-19.
Pfizer
said its application for emergency use authorization is based on safety and efficacy
data trials of earlier vaccines and non-clinical data from the new vaccine.
Pfizer
also has initiated studies of the safety, tolerability and efficacy of the
vaccine in children ages 6 months to 11 years, including different vaccine
dosing regiments, dose levels and ages.
More
Pfizer, Moderna ask FDA to approve bivalent COVID-19
booster for kids - UPI.com
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.
Thickened
battery electrodes hint at fast-charging EVs with doubled range
Nick Lavars September 26, 2022
Scientists experimenting with key components in lithium
batteries have come up with a promising new design that could one day see electric
vehicles charge much faster, and offer twice the range at the same time. The
breakthrough centers on a new, thickened electrode made up of vertically
stacked layers that allows for easier transport of lithium ions.
Led by scientists at the University of Texas at Austin, the
work was carried out in pursuit of high-power energy storage systems that could
be put to use in electric vehicles of the future. One approach to this type of
design involves using stacked layers of very fine two-dimensional materials to
form the battery’s electrodes, but this does have its limits.
Thicker
electrodes might mean more
energy storage potential, but they also mean more ground for the lithium
ions to cover. Horizontally aligned layers of electrode material forces the
ions to snake back and forth as they exit and enter the electrodes, which leads
to slower charge times.
“Two-dimensional
materials are commonly believed as a promising candidate for high-rate energy
storage applications because it only needs to be several nanometers thick for
rapid charge transport,” said study author Guihua Yu. “However, for
thick-electrode-design-based next-generation, high-energy batteries, the
re-stacking of nanosheets as building blocks can cause significant bottlenecks
in charge transport, leading to difficulty in achieving both high energy and
fast charging.”
To achieve both high energy and fast charging, the scientists came up
with a new way of putting together the thin layers of electrode material. The
advance came via the use of magnetic fields to carefully manipulate the
orientation of these layers, arranging them into vertical stacks rather than
the typical horizontal form. This had the effect of creating “efficient
pathways for mass transport” of the ions through the electrode.
“Our electrode shows superior electrochemical performance partially due
to the high mechanical strength, high electrical conductivity, and facilitated
lithium-ion transport thanks to the unique architecture we designed,” said
study author Zhengyu Ju.
The
team's electrodes far surpassed the performance of commercial electrodes, and
another experimental battery with horizontally stacked electrode layers the
team used as a control. The vertically stacked electrode was able to be
recharged to 50% capacity in 30 minutes, whereas the horizontally stacked
electrode took 2 hours and 30 minutes to charge to the same level.
The
researchers say their dense and thick electrode offers some of the best
capacity figures “reported in literature,” and believe it could lead to
electric vehicles with twice the range offered by commercially available
battery electrodes. There is a lot more work to do for that to come to
fruition, with the team emphasizing that it is early days, and that it only
applied the technique to a single type of battery electrode. They do, however,
believe it could be a “potentially universal methodology.”
The research was published in
the journal Proceedings
of the National Academy of Sciences.
Source: University of Texas at Austin
Thickened battery
electrodes hint at fast-charging EVs with doubled range (newatlas.com)
September 28, 1066
William of Normandy lands in England.
---- The background to the battle was the death of the childless
King Edward the
Confessor in January 1066, which set up a succession struggle
between several claimants to his throne. Harold was crowned king shortly after
Edward's death, but faced invasions by William, his own brother Tostig, and the Norwegian King Harald Hardrada (Harold III of Norway). Hardrada and Tostig
defeated a hastily gathered army of Englishmen at the Battle of Fulford on 20 September 1066, and were in turn
defeated by Harold at the Battle of
Stamford Bridge five days later. The deaths of Tostig and Hardrada at
Stamford Bridge left William as Harold's only serious opponent. While Harold
and his forces were recovering, William landed his invasion forces in the south
of England at Pevensey on 28 September 1066 and established a
beachhead for his conquest of the kingdom. Harold was forced to march south
swiftly, gathering forces as he went.
More
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