Baltic
Dry Index. 1871 -4
Brent Crude 93.08
Spot Gold 1648 US 2 Year Yield 4.55 +0.12
Coronavirus
Cases 02/04/20 World 1,000,000
Deaths 53,100
Coronavirus Cases 20/10/22 World 631,541,371
Deaths 6,577,
Some cause happiness wherever they go; others whenever they go.
Oscar Wilde.
In the stock casinos, rising dismay. Nothing seems to work anymore, at least not like it used to.
China continues with its policy of Covid lock downs, disrupting global supply chains.
Everywhere interest rates are rising but so far with negligible effect on global inflation.
The proxy war in Ukraine on Russia is going badly for all. Russia and Ukraine are basket cases of course, but this disastrous unnecessary war is fast unravelling continental Europe, fast draining the US Strategic Petroleum Reserve, and causing political chaos in the UK.
Well maybe not causing political chaos in the UK. His Majesty’s Government in the UK doesn’t appear to need any outside help in creating chaos, it’s doing a first class job all by itself.
Hong Kong’s Hang
Seng index hits 13-year low; yen inches near 150 against U.S. dollar
UPDATED THU, OCT 20 2022 12:26 AM EDT
Shares in
the Asia-Pacific traded lower on Thursday as economic fears weigh.
The Hang Seng index in
Hong Kong fell 2.42% after briefly dropping 3%, hitting its lowest level since
May 2009. The Hang Seng Tech index was 3.42% lower at the lunch break.
Kelvin Tay, regional chief
investment officer at UBS, said the steep drop in Hong Kong markets is due to
the government’s “unprecedented silence on key economic indicators.”
“It’s largely because of concerns
over the economic outlook and a rise of Covid cases in the middle of the party
congress in Beijing,” he said.
In Japan, the Nikkei 225 lost
1.38% and the Topix shed 0.91%. The S&P/ASX 200 in
Australia declined 1.35%.
Mainland China’s Shanghai Composite fell
0.39% and the Shenzhen
Component slipped
0.602%.
South Korea’s Kospi dipped
1.6% and the Kosdaq was 2.11% lower. The MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific
shares outside Japan was down 1.72%.
The offshore yuan touched
a record low against the U.S. dollar overnight, weakening to 7.2745 per dollar.
It last traded at 7.2612. The Japanese yen reached
yet another fresh 32-year low of 149.95 against the greenback.
U.S. stocks fell as Treasury yields climbed on Wednesday
stateside, with the benchmark 10-year
yield touching
4.138%, the highest level since July 23, 2008.
The Nasdaq Composite shed 0.85%
to close at 10,680.51, while the S&P 500 declined 0.67% to 3,695.16. The
Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 99.99 points, or 0.33%, to finish the day at
30,423.81.
Asia
markets: Stocks lower, Japanese yen nears 150 per dollar (cnbc.com)
Stocks snap
two-day winning streak as 10-year yield hits highest level since 2008
UPDATED WED, OCT 19 2022 5:25 PM
EDT
Stocks moved lower
on Wednesday as Wall Street struggled to extend its rally amid a sharp rise in
Treasury yields.
The Nasdaq
Composite lost 0.85% to close at 10,680.51. The S&P 500 ticked down 0.67%
to 3,695.16. The Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 99.99 points, or 0.33%,
to finish the day at 30,423.81. The losses ended a two-day winning streak,
though all three averages are still up for the week.
Earnings season is off to a
solid start, but Treasury yields remained elevated on Wednesday, suggesting
that recession fears are still intact. The 10-year Treasury yield traded as
high as 4.136%, the highest level since July 23, 2008.
---- The impact of higher rates is being shown
sharply in the housing market, where housing starts fell faster than expected
in September, the Census Bureau said on Wednesday.
The rate move also weighed on
more speculative tech stocks. Among the biggest losers in the Nasdaq were
Chinese tech stocks JD.com, falling more than 7%, and Baidu, sinking 8.8%.
The declines for the broader
market came even as Netflix shares rallied more than 13% after the streaming
giant posted
earnings and revenue that beat estimates as well as strong subscriber growth
for the third quarter. United Airlines climbed nearly 5% after its
quarter also beat estimates on the top and bottom lines.
Stocks
snap two-day winning streak as 10-year yield hits highest level since 2008
(cnbc.com)
Jeff Bezos is the
latest to warn on the economy, saying it’s time to ‘batten down the hatches’
Washington: US President
Joe Biden announced a plan on Wednesday to sell off the rest of his release
from the nation's emergency oil reserve by year's end and begin refilling the
stockpile as he tries to dampen high petrol prices ahead of midterm elections
on Nov. 8.
Biden is seeking to
add enough supply to prevent near-term oil price spikes that could punish
Americans, and assure US drillers that the government will enter the
market as a buyer if prices plunge too low.
He said 15 million
barrels of oil will be offered from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) —
part of a record 180 million-barrel release that began in May, and added the
United States is ready to tap reserves again early next year to rein in prices.
We're calling it a
ready and release plan" Biden said at a White House event. This allows us
to move quickly to prevent oil price spikes and respond to international
events."
Biden's use of the
federal government's reserve to manage oil price spikes and attempts to
increase US production underscore how the Ukraine crisis and inflation
have changed the policies of a president who came into office vowing to cut US
dependence on the fossil fuel industry.
With President
Biden's approval rating hovering in the 40s, he has not received a lot of
invites to campaign with embattled Democrats.
But that is not
stopping him from spending the week touting policies that he hopes will
resonate with voters — though his stumping has mostly been in D.C. and without
a candidate by his side.
On Tuesday, Biden
announced the SPR release and brushed aside Republican claims that the
move was political, noting that it was not the first time he'd ordered such a
withdrawal.
More
US
sells oil reserves as Biden tackles pump prices ahead of elections | Markets –
Gulf News
UK
interior minister quits with criticism of Truss as lawmakers row
October
20, 2022 1:48 AM GMT+1
LONDON, Oct 19
(Reuters) - Britain's interior minister quit on Wednesday with a broadside at
Liz Truss before her lawmakers openly quarrelled in parliament, underscoring
the erosion of the prime minister's authority after just weeks in the job.
The
departure of Suella Braverman, over a "technical" breach of
government rules, means Truss has now lost two of her most senior ministers in
less than a week, both replaced by politicians who had not backed her for the
leadership.
Hours after the
resignation, lawmakers openly rowed and jostled amid confusion over whether a
vote on fracking was a confidence vote in her administration.
Opposition
parliamentarians complained that Truss's politicians were being manhandled to
make them vote with the government, though two lawmakers from her Conservative
party said they had not seen any such behaviour.
"Discipline
is falling apart, we can't go on like this," one Conservative lawmaker
told Reuters.
Another, Charles
Walker, told BBC television he was "livid" at the "talentless
people" who had put Truss into power, just because they wanted a job.
"I think it is a shambles and a disgrace," he said, in a video that a
couple of other Conservative lawmakers tweeted in agreement.
Truss,
in power for just over six weeks, has been fighting for her political survival
ever since Sept. 23, when she launched a "mini-budget" - an economic
programme of vast unfunded tax cuts that sent shockwaves through financial
markets.
A handful of
lawmakers have openly called for her to quit, and others have discussed who
should replace her. Following the scenes in parliament, there were reports that
the person responsible for Conservative party discipline, and their deputy, had
quit.
Business
minister Jacob Rees-Mogg, asked on television if the reports were correct,
said: "I'm not entirely clear on what the situation is."
Truss's
office said later they both remained in their posts, but the episode
illustrated the confusion in government and underscored the prime minister's
faltering authority.
More
UK interior minister quits with criticism of Truss as lawmakers row | Reuters
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.
Inflation
surges back to 40-year high after food prices soar
The
Office for National Statistics said Consumer Prices Index inflation reached
10.1% in September, compared with 9.9% in August.
October 19 2022 06:22 AM
Inflation last
month returned to the 40-year high it hit earlier this summer after food prices
soared.
The Office for
National Statistics (ONS) said Consumer Prices Index inflation reached 10.1% in
September, compared with 9.9% in August.
It was above the expectations of economists,
who had predicted a figure of 10%.
The figure matches
the 40-year high inflation hit in July and remains well above the Government’s
target of 2%.
The increase was
driven by food prices, leaping by 14.5% compared with the same month last year,
representing the largest annual rise since 1980, according to data modelling.
Meanwhile, housing
and utilities costs leapt by 20.2% against the same month last year.
ONS director of
economic statistics Darren Morgan said: “After last month’s small fall,
headline inflation returned to its high seen earlier in the summer.
“The rise was
driven by further increases across food, which saw its largest annual rise in
over 40 years, while hotel prices also increased after falling this time last
year.
“These rises were
partially offset by continuing falls in the costs of petrol, with airline
prices falling by more than usual for this time of year and second-hand car
prices also rising less steeply than the large increases seen last year.
“While still at a
historically high rate, the costs facing businesses are beginning to rise more
slowly, with crude oil prices actually falling in September.”
Economists at the
ONS said rising transport prices slowed significantly last month on the back of
cheaper fuel costs.
The Bank of England
warned last month that inflation is expected to peak in October at just below
11%, following Government support to freeze energy bills at £2,500 for an
average household.
New Chancellor
Jeremy Hunt said on Wednesday he would prioritise help for the vulnerable after
the inflation increase was revealed.
More
Inflation surges
back to 40-year high after food prices soar - BelfastTelegraph.co.uk
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.
Lab-made COVID-19 hybrid
sparks controversy
Tue,
October 18, 2022 at 5:11 PM
Boston University scientists have
created a hybrid version of the coronavirus that
causes COVID-19. Their experiments sparked controversy, with heated headlines
claiming that the researchers made the virus more lethal and university officials
denouncing these claims as "false and inaccurate."
The new omicron
spike-carrying virus —
built by attaching the spike protein from an omicron version of the virus to the
original SARS-CoV-2 virus — killed 80% of lab mice infected with it, making it
more severe than the original omicron variant which didn’t kill any infected
mice. Yet the hybrid virus was still less deadly than the original Wuhan
variant of the virus, which killed 100% of infected lab mice.
Scientists at Boston University's
National Emerging Infectious Diseases Laboratories (NEIDL) created the chimeric
virus to study how omicron versions of the virus, which first appeared in 2021,
evade immunity built up against past strains and yet cause a lower rate of
severe infections. After exposing mice either to the chimeric virus or to the
naturally-occuring omicron BA.1 virus, the researchers found that the mutated
spike protein of the omicron virus did enable it to dodge immunity, but that
the mutated spike wasn't responsible for making omicron less severe.
The researchers published their
findings Oct. 14 on the preprint database bioRxiv, so it has yet to be peer-reviewed.
"Consistent with studies
published by others, this work shows that it is not the spike protein that
drives Omicron pathogenicity, but instead other viral proteins. Determination
of those proteins will lead to better diagnostics and disease management
strategies," lead author Mohsan Saeed, an assistant professor at NEIDL,
said in a statement, according to STAT..
Although the research was
conducted properly in a biosecurity level 3 laboratory and approved by an
internal biosafety review committee and Boston's Public Health Commission,
controversy is swirling around the study because the researchers did not clear
the work with the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases
(NIAID), which was one of its funders, STAT reported.
The scientists also didn't
divulge to NIAID if their experiments could create an enhanced pathogen of
pandemic potential (ePPP), according to STAT. To be awarded federal funding for
research on viruses with pandemic potential, proposals have to pass through a
committee process, called a P3CO framework, that assesses the pros and cons of
the work.
More
Lab-made COVID-19 hybrid sparks controversy
(yahoo.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.
‘World’s largest capacity floating wave energy device’ to
be tested in Orkney
18 Oct 2022
A €19.6m
project aims to design and test the ‘world’s largest capacity floating wave
energy device’.
Using waves to
drive trapped air through a turbine, the OE35 device was developed by Irish
company OceanEnergy. The firm will now work with 13 other partners from
industry and academia across the UK, Ireland, France, Germany and Spain to
design a 1MW-rated OE35, up from the 500kW current version.
Known as
Wedusea (Wave Energy Demonstration at Utility Scale to Enable Arrays), the
partnership is being launched this week at the International Conference on
Ocean Energy in San Sebastian, Spain.
Floating on
the ocean’s surface, the OE35 incorporates a trapped air volume, with the lower
part open to the sea. Wave pressures at the submerged opening cause the water
to oscillate and drive the trapped air through a turbine to generate
electricity. This energy can be exported to the grid or used in other offshore
applications.
The first
phase of the four-year project will focus on the design of a 1MW device.
Innovations will focus on hull and turbine design, air flow control, power
systems and moorings to increase reliability and power output.
That phase
will be followed by a two-year grid-connected demonstration at the European
Marine Energy Centre’s (Emec) Billia Croo wave energy test site in Orkney,
Scotland.
The project
aims to decrease the levelized cost of energy (LCOE) and create a technology
deployment pathway for a 20MW pilot farm. The project will also explore a
lifecycle analysis, looking at the circular economy and opportunities for reuse
and recycling of components at the end of a device’s deployment.
“This rigorous
technical and environmental demonstration will happen over a two-year period in
Atlantic wave conditions,” said Professor Tony Lewis, chief technical officer
at OceanEnergy. “We believe this will be transformational for the wave energy
industry, with outcomes directly impacting policy, technical standards, public
perception and investor confidence.
“Wave energy
is the world’s most valuable and persistent renewable resource. However, it has
yet to be fully realised. The project will demonstrate that wave technology is
on a cost reduction trajectory, and will thus be a stepping stone to larger
commercial array scale-up and further industrialisation. We predict that the
natural energy of the world’s oceans will one day supply much of the grid.”
The project is
funded by the EU Horizon Europe Programme and by Innovate UK.
“We are
expecting Wedusea to take wave energy beyond the state of the art by the
collaboration of partners with a multi-disciplinary background, and that it
will contribute to the deployment of arrays of reliable wave energy devices to
achieve the 1GW target for 2030, as presented in our Offshore Renewable
Energy Strategy,” said Matthijs Soede from the European Commission.
“The current
energy crisis shows that the use of multiple energy sources is important to
improve the security of supply, and a breakthrough in ocean energy would be
welcome.”
More
‘World’s largest
capacity floating wave energy device’ to be tested in Orkney (imeche.org)
Now that the
House of Commons is trying to become useful, it does a great deal of harm.
Oscar Wilde.
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