Baltic Dry Index. 1515 Brent Crude 85.91
Spot Gold 1824 U S 2 Year Yield 4.41 +0.07
An optimist stays up until midnight to see the
new year in. A pessimist stays up to make sure the old year leaves.
Stocks fall to end Wall Street’s worst year since 2008,
S&P 500 finishes 2022 down nearly 20%
UPDATED FRI, DEC 30 2022 5:23 PM EST
Stocks slipped on Friday to end a brutal 2022 with
a whimper, as Wall Street wrapped up its worst year since 2008 on a sour note.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average slid 73.55 points,
or 0.22%, to close at 33,147.25. The S&P 500 shed 0.25% to end at 3,839.50.
The Nasdaq Composite ticked down 0.11% to 10,466.88.
Friday marked the final day of trading in what has
been a painful year for stocks. All three of the major averages suffered their
worst year since 2008 and snapped a three-year win streak. The Dow fared the
best of the indexes in 2022, down about 8.8%. The S&P 500 sank 19.4%, and
is more than 20% below its record high, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq tumbled
33.1%.
Sticky inflation and aggressive rate hikes from the
Federal Reserve battered growth and technology stocks and weighed on investor
sentiment throughout the year. Geopolitical concerns and volatile economic data
also kept markets on edge.
---- As the calendar turns to a new year, some investors think the
pain is far from over. They expect the bear market to persist until a recession
hits or the Fed pivots. Some also project stocks will hit new lows before
rebounding in the second half of 2023.
---- Despite the yearly
losses, the Dow and S&P 500 did break three-quarter losing streaks in the
final three months of the year. The Nasdaq, however, dominated by the likes of
Apple, Tesla and Microsoft, muddled through its fourth consecutive negative
quarter for the first time since 2001. All three averages are negative for
December, however.
European stocks log worst year since 2018 as rate hikes,
Ukraine war rattle markets
LONDON — European markets wrapped up their worst
year since 2018 as Russia’s war in Ukraine, high inflation and tightening
monetary policy hammered risk assets around the world.
The pan-European Stoxx 600 index closed
the last trading day of 2022 down 1.3% — but it was lower by 12.76% since the
turn of the year — its worst performance since a 13.24% annual decline in 2018.
The European blue-chip index enjoyed a bumper 2021, jumping 22.25% on the year.
On Friday, the French CAC 40 closed
down 1.5% and the German DAX was
lower by 1.1% — with the two bourses logging annual losses of 9.5% and 12.5%, respectively.
The U.K.’s FTSE 100,
which was open for a half day Friday, closed lower by 0.8% and clocked a yearly
gain of 1.2%. The more domestic-focused FTSE 250 lost 19.5% in 2022, its
biggest annual loss since 2008.
Economies around the world began
the year still trying to emerge from the Covid-19 pandemic, with persistent
lockdowns in China and other lingering supply bottlenecks forming what was now
infamously mischaracterized by the U.S. Federal Reserve in
2021 as “transitory”
inflationary pressure.
Russia’s
unprovoked invasion of Ukraine in February, and subsequent
weaponization of its food and energy exports in the face of
sweeping sanctions by Western powers, sent food and energy prices skyrocketing
and compounded this pressure, helping to send inflation to multi-decade highs
across many major economies.
The cost-of-living crisis arising
from soaring energy bills for businesses and consumers eventually began to
weigh on activity, while the Fed and other major central banks were forced to
tighten monetary policy with aggressive hikes to interest rates in order to
rein in inflation.
More
European
stocks log worst year since 2018 as rate hikes, Ukraine war rattle markets
(cnbc.com)
After
$18 Trillion Rout, Global Stocks Face More Hurdles in 2023
With a drop of more than 20% in 2022, the MSCI
All-Country World Index is on track for its worst performance since the 2008
crisis, as jumbo interest rate hikes by the Federal Reserve more than doubled
10-year Treasury yields — the rate underpinning global capital costs.
Bulls looking ahead at 2023 might take solace in
the fact that two consecutive down years are rare for major equity markets —
the S&P 500 index has fallen for two straight years on just four occasions
since 1928. The scary thing though, is that when they do occur, drops in the
second year tend to be deeper than in the first.
Here are some factors that could determine how 2023
shapes up for global equity markets:
FTX Japan to return assets to
clients from February
December
30, 2022 10:14 AM GMT
TOKYO, Dec 30 (Reuters) - The Japanese
unit of failed cryptocurrency exchange FTX said on Friday it would return its
customer assets from February.
FTX Japan is developing a system with
which customers can withdraw assets via the website of Liquid Japan, a crypto
exchange it bought in February this year.
"We deeply apologise for the big
trouble caused by the prolonged suspension of services for the withdrawal of
legal currency as well as crypto assets," FTX Japan said in a statement.
FTX filed for U.S. bankruptcy protection
in November and its founder Sam Bankman-Fried resigned as chief executive,
after the biggest blowup in the crypto industry drew calls for tighter
regulation.
FTX
Japan to return assets to clients from February | 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.
China December manufacturing contracts at sharpest pace
in almost 3 years
China’s factory activity shrank for the third straight month in December and
at the sharpest pace in nearly three years as Covid infections swept through
production lines across the country after Beijing’s abrupt reversal of
anti-virus measures.
The official purchasing managers’ index (PMI) fell to 47.0
from 48.0 in November, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said on
Saturday. Economists in a Reuters poll had expected the PMI to come in at 48.0.
The 50-point mark separates contraction from growth on a monthly basis.
The drop was the biggest since the early days of the pandemic
in February 2020.
The data offered the first official snapshot of the
manufacturing sector after China removed the world’s strictest Covid
restrictions in early December. Cumulative infections likely reached 18.6
million in December, UK-based health data firm Airfinity estimated.
Analysts said surging infections could cause temporary labour
shortages and increased supply chain disruptions. Reuters reported on Wednesday
that Tesla plans
to run a reduced
production schedule at its Shanghai plant in January, extending the
reduced output it began this month into next year.
Weakening external demand on the back of growing global
recession fears amid rising interest rates, inflation and the war in Ukraine
may further slow China’s exports, hurting its massive manufacturing sector and
hampering an economic recovery.
More
China manufacturing contracts sharply as Covid infections soar (cnbc.com)
2023 set to be 'year of recession', expert says
The
cost of living crisis wrought havoc in 2022, but 2023 is not expected to be
much better
UPDATED
09:14, 30 DEC 2022
The nation headed into 2022 with optimism for the economy,
but hopes of a bumper year of growth unrestrained by Covid restrictions were
dashed as the cost-of-living crisis took centre stage. But if we were hoping
2023 would be better, unfortunately experts are predicting it will be the
"year of recession".
Samuel Tombs at Pantheon Macroeconomics said GDP is
likely to fall by 1.5% year-on-year in 2023, with no sign of a recovery until
early 2024. With rates ending 2022 at 3.5% – a 14-year high – this will further
hold back consumer spending, hitting some four million mortgage borrowers who
are due to refinance next year, according to the Bank of England.
But the expected recession will also help rein in
inflation, which will allow the Bank to take its foot off the pedal. Mr Tombs
said: “We expect the MPC to raise Bank Rate to 4% in February, but then to
stand pat in March.
“Eventually, the MPC [Monetary Policy Committee] will
cut Bank Rate again… but we think the Monetary Policy Committee will wait until
early 2024 to begin to reduce Bank Rate, and only then by 50 basis points to
3.5% by the end of the year.”
Martin Beck at the EY Item Club is slightly more
optimistic, as he believes households still have some savings built up during
Covid that they can dip into. “Consumer spending is therefore unlikely to fall
to the same extent as real incomes. And falling inflation over the course of
next year offers hope of a return to growth later in 2023,” he said.
2022 has been a rough year for many, with the majority
of households badly affected by the cost of living crisis. Just as the worst of
the pandemic seemed to be behind us as we headed into 2022, the emergence of
soaring inflation soon became the next big threat to the economy and one which
is set to send the UK plunging back into recession.
While Bank of England policymakers had forecast
inflation to jump higher as supply chains struggled to keep up with surging
demand, they were not prepared for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on February 24
and the economic onslaught that followed as a result. As the UK joined its
international neighbours in shunning Russian gas and oil, energy prices were
quickly sent rocketing higher, pushing inflation to levels not seen for more
than 40 years.
Having started the year at 5.5%, Consumer Prices Index
(CPI) inflation had jumped to 7% by March already before hitting double digits
in July. Its ascent did not stop there. Amid forecasts that annual household
energy bills could hit nearly £3,500 this year, experts predicted that
inflation could reach 13.3% by October.
More
2023 set to be
'year of recession', expert says - Business Live (business-live.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.
Why is this mRNA scandal happening?
Reanalysis
of mRNA trial data
Reanalysis of mRNA trial data - YouTube
Long COVID: 4 Contributors and the Possible Root Cause
Dec 29 2022
It has been more than two years since long COVID manifested, and scientists are still far from settled
on its cause.
However, based on common clinical
manifestations and emerging research, clinicians have identified several
contributors to long COVID symptoms.
Spike Protein Appears to Be the Leading Contributor
Spike protein can exist in the immune cells of long
COVID patients for up to 15 months after infection.
The spike protein sits on the
surface of the COVID-19 virus and is the key to breaking into cells and causing
the virus to spread in organs and tissue.
An increasing number of studies are pointing to it (1, 2) as a contributing factor to long COVID.
Studies in mice and human cell cultures revealed that the spike protein could travel into the brain by bypassing the blood-brain barrier.
Autopsy reports on people who died from COVID-19 have
found spike protein in the brain, heart, pancreas, liver, kidney, thyroid,
reproductive organs, adrenal glands, lungs, nasal and oral cavities, blood,
fat, bone, muscle, skin, and even the eyes.
However, the symptoms and
laboratory test results vary depending on the patient. Clinicians have
therefore developed various hypotheses on the reasons behind these symptoms.
More
Long COVID: 4 Contributors and the Possible Root Cause
(theepochtimes.com)
World
Health Organization - Landscape of COVID-19 candidate vaccines. https://www.who.int/publications/m/item/draft-landscape-of-covid-19-candidate-vaccines
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 more useful Covid links.
Johns Hopkins Coronavirus
resource centre
https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.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.
High-efficiency
water filter removes 99.9% of microplastics in 10 seconds
Michael Irving December 29, 2022
Microplastics are a growing environmental problem, but now
researchers in Korea have developed a new water purification system that can
filter out these tiny fragments, as well as other pollutants, very quickly and
with high efficiency.
Given the ubiquity of plastic in the modern
world, it’s not surprising that tiny flakes of the stuff can be found
basically everywhere
on Earth, even in environments thought to be pristine. Microplastics have been detected from pole to pole, from the deepest
ocean trenches to the tallest
mountain peaks, and are making their way up the food
chain all the way to humans.
Various materials are being
tested to help filter out microplastics, including magnetic
"nanopillars," nanocellulose, semiconductor
wires, and filtration
columns containing sand, gravel and
biofilms. Now, researchers at Daegu Gyeongbuk Institute of Science and
Technology (DGIST) in South Korea have found promise with a new design.
The key is a material known
as a covalent triazene framework (CTF). This is a highly porous material with a
large surface area, meaning they have plenty of room inside to store molecules
they capture. Similar
materials have recently been
demonstrated to be effective at removing organic dyes from industrial wastewater.
The team carefully designed the molecules in
the CTF to be more water-attracting, and exposed the material to mild
oxidation. The resulting filter was shown to be effective at very quickly
removing microplastics from water – reportedly over 99.9% of the pollutants
were removed within 10 seconds. The material can also be reused multiple times
without reducing its performance.
More
High-efficiency
water filter removes 99.9% of microplastics in 10 seconds (newatlas.com)
This weekend’s music diversion.. Approx.
9 minutes.
G.F.
HÄNDEL: Organ Concerto in F major Op. 4/5 HWV 293, La Divina Armonia
G.F. HÄNDEL: Organ
Concerto in F major Op. 4/5 HWV 293, La Divina Armonia - YouTube
This
weekend’s chess update. Approx. 8 minutes.
Magnus
Carlsen is World Rapid Champion!
Magnus Carlsen is
World Rapid Champion! - YouTube
This
weekend’s update on Crypto. What next in 2023?
Approx. 24 minutes.
FTX
Losses & Contagion are Destroying Crypto Market as Investment Funds &
Crypto Businesses Collapse
What happened to the man who shoplifted a
calendar on New Year’s Eve? He got 12 months!
