Baltic Dry Index. 1386 +01 Brent Crude 76.10
Spot Gold 1797 U S 2 Year Yield 4.33 +0.02
"There is no means of avoiding the final collapse of a
boom brought about by credit expansion. The alternative is only whether the
crisis should come sooner as the result of voluntary abandonment of further
credit expansion, or later as a final and total catastrophe of the currency
system involved."
Ludwig
von Mises.
Dow tumbles 300 points Friday, posts worst week since
September
UPDATED FRI, DEC 9 2022 6:09 PM EST
Stocks
finished lower Friday, with all the major averages posting losses for the week
as worries persisted over continued rate hikes.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average
shed 305.02 points, or 0.9%, to close at 33,476.46. The S&P 500 tumbled
0.73% to end at 3,934.38, while the Nasdaq Composite fell 0.7% to finish at
11,004.62.
On a weekly basis, the Dow fell
2.77% to post its worst week since September. The S&P tumbled 3.37%, while
the Nasdaq dropped 3.99%.
Friday’s moves came after
November’s producer
price index showed higher-than-expected wholesale prices, which rose 0.3% last
month and 7.4% over the previous year. Core PPI, which excludes food and
energy, also topped expectations.
Optimistic consumer sentiment data
alleviated some fears, but attention remains laser-focused on next
week’s busy economic calendar.
Attention shifted toward the
consumer price index due out Tuesday, which is expected to show whether
inflation has receded. The Federal Reserve will likely deliver a 50 basis point
hike at the end of its December meeting on Wednesday. While the increase would
be smaller than the previous four hikes, concerns have mounted over whether the
central bank can architect a soft landing and prevent a recession.
Investors have long hoped for a
pivot from the Fed’s aggressive tightening stance, but the data fails to
support that desire, said Stephanie Lang, chief investment officer at Homrich
Berg.
“It’s our expectation that we
really need to see inflation come down closer to the fed funds rate for the Fed
to pause, and we still have quite a bit of delta between those numbers,” she
said. “There’s still a bit of work to be done on the inflation front to really
see that as the reality.”
In other news, shares of Lululemon tumbled
nearly 13% after the company gave a weaker-than-expected
fourth-quarter outlook. DocuSign jumped on strong results.
Bahamas attorneys file emergency motion in FTX case for
access to databases with client information
Attorneys in the Bahamas filed an emergency motion
on Friday asking a Delaware bankruptcy judge to compel U.S. leaders of failed
crypto firm FTX to give them access to databases as part of the proceedings.
The emergency motion claims that
despite “many attempts to obtain access,” FTX employees and counsel have
stymied Bahamian regulators in their effort to get critical financial
information located in Amazon Web
Services and Google Cloud
Portal databases.
The lawyers, working on behalf of the Securities Commission of the
Bahamas, said the U.S. bankruptcy proceedings will “suffer no harm or hardship
if this relief is granted.” They’re seeking data on FTX international customers
that is stored on AWS servers, including “wallet addresses, customer balances,
deposit and withdrawal records, trades, and accounting data.” Google’s
technology served as an analytics platform for FTX International’s data.
“While the Joint Provisional Liquidators are happy
to engage in dialogue with the U.S. Debtors, their refusal to promptly restore
access has frustrated the ability of the Joint Provisional Liquidators to carry
out their duties under Bahamian law and placed FTX Digital’s assets at risk of
dissipation,” the filing read.
FTX filed for bankruptcy protection last month
after a liquidity crunch at the crypto exchange, which was intermingling assets
with sister hedge fund Alameda Research. FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried, who had
an estimated net worth of $16 billion before the collapse, will appear before
U.S. lawmakers next week.
Bahamas
files emergency motion in FTX case for access to customer data (cnbc.com)
FTX
founder Bankman-Fried to testify before U.S. House panel
December 10, 2022 3:42 AM GMT
WASHINGTON, Dec 9
(Reuters) - FTX's Sam Bankman-Fried is set to testify before a U.S. House
committee on Tuesday, the cryptocurrency exchange's founder and the congressional
panel said on Friday, as regulators investigate his role in the wake of its
collapse.
The
chair of the House of Representatives Committee on Financial Services, Maxine
Waters, told Reuters on Thursday that she was
prepared to subpoena Bankman-Fried if he did not agree to appear before the
panel, which is holding a hearing as part of its probe into FTX.
In a statement
late on Friday, the panel said it would hear from newly appointed FTX CEO John
Ray and from Bankman-Fried, FTX's founder and former CEO, on Tuesday.
"I
still do not have access to much of my data -- professional or personal. So
there is a limit to what I will be able to say, and I won't be as helpful as
I'd like," Bankman-Fried said on Friday on Twitter.
"But
as the committee still thinks it would be useful, I am willing to testify on
the 13th," he added.
The hybrid
hearing is scheduled for 10 a.m. ET (1500 GMT) on Tuesday, the committee said.
More
FTX
founder Bankman-Fried to testify before U.S. House panel | Reuters
Crypto.com CEO has history of red flags including bankruptcy and
quick exits
Kris Marszalek wants everyone to know that his
company, Crypto.com, is safe and in good hands. His TV appearances and tweets
make that clear.
It’s an understandable approach.
The crypto markets have been in freefall for much of the year, with
high-profile names spiraling into bankruptcy. When FTX failed
last month just after founder Sam Bankman-Fried said the crypto
exchange’s assets were fine, trust across the industry evaporated.
Marszalek, who has operated out of
Asia for over a decade, subsequently assured clients that their funds belong to
them and are readily available, in contrast to FTX, which used client money for
all sorts of risky and allegedly fraudulent activities, according to court
filings and legal experts.
Bankman-Fried has denied knowing
about any fraud. Regardless, FTX clients are now out billions of dollars with
bankruptcy proceedings underway.
Crypto.com, one of the world’s
largest cryptocurrency exchanges, may well be in fine health. After the FTX
collapse, the company published its unaudited, partial
proof of reserves. The release revealed that nearly 20% of customer funds were in a
meme token called shiba inu, an amount eclipsed only by its bitcoin allocation.
That percentage has dropped since
the initial release to about 15%, according to Nansen Analytics.
Marszalek said in a Nov. 14
livestream on YouTube that the wallet addresses were
representative of customer holdings.
On Friday, Crypto.com published an audited proof of reserves, attesting that
customer assets were held on a one-to-one basis, meaning that all deposits are
100% backed by Crypto.com’s
reserves. The audit was performed by the Mazars Group, the former
accountant for the Trump Organization.
While no evidence has emerged of wrongdoing
at Crypto.com, Marszalek’s business history is replete with red flags.
Following the collapse of a prior company in 2009, a judge called Marszalek’s
testimony unreliable. His business activities before 2016 — the year he founded
what would become Crypto.com — involved a multimillion-dollar settlement over
claims of defective products, corporate bankruptcy and an e-commerce company
that failed shortly after a blowout marketing campaign left sellers unable to
access their money.
Court records, public filings and
offshore database leaks reveal a businessman who moved from industry to
industry, rebooting quickly when a venture would fail. He started in
manufacturing, producing data storage products for white label sale, then moved
into e-commerce, and finally into crypto.
More
Crypto.com
CEO Kris Marszalek: Red flags from business past (cnbc.com)
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.
Wall St Week Ahead U.S. stock
rally faces gauntlet of CPI data, Fed meeting
December
9, 2022 10:19 PM GMT
NEW YORK, Dec 9
(Reuters) - A double dose of potentially market-moving U.S. events next week
could set the tone for asset prices in the rest of 2022 and beyond, as
investors brace for a key inflation report followed by the last Federal Reserve
meeting of the year.
The
S&P 500’s (.SPX) latest rebound stalled in the past
week, as stronger-than-expected economic data fueled concerns that the Fed will
need to keep interest rates higher for longer in its bid to crush inflation,
potentially bringing on a recession. The index has bounced about 10% from its
October lows but remains down more than 17% on the year.
Equities’ trajectory in the near future may depend
on whether Tuesday’s consumer price index report shows inflation is responding
to the most aggressive Fed hiking cycle since the 1980s. Hotter-than-expected
data could bolster fears of more Fed hawkishness, pressuring stocks.
“If CPI comes in north of expectations or even
doesn’t decline at all, that is not going to be market-positive," said Tom
Hainlin, national investment strategist at U.S. Bank Wealth Management.
CPI reports have
been catalysts for outsized swings in markets this year, with the S&P 500
moving an average of around 3% in either direction over the past six CPI
releases, compared with an average daily move of about 1.2% over the same
period.
That includes a Sept. 13 inflation release that sparked a 4.3% sell-off and a Nov. 10 report showing softer-than-expected inflation that fueled a 5.5% rise and helped stocks extend their latest rally. A second helping of benign data could bolster the case for a peak in inflation and buoy equities further.
“Typically around the CPI
reports it has been pretty volatile this year, and I don’t see a reason to
think it still won’t be that way when we get the data next week,” said David
Lefkowitz, head of U.S. equities at UBS Global Wealth Management.
Meanwhile,
investors are factoring in a half-percentage-point rate hike from the Fed next
week, a step down from its recent series of three-quarter-point increases. With
Wednesday's rate action largely seen as a foregone conclusion, Wall Street will
be focused on the central bank’s projections for how high rates will ultimately rise.
Also key will be Fed Chairman Jerome Powell’s views on inflation and the possibility that the economy can slip into recession next year – an idea that has filtered into asset prices and dominated investor thinking lately.
One
closely watched indicator can be seen in the U.S. government bond market, where
the Treasury yield curve recently inverted to its steepest level in at least 20
years, magnifying a signal that has preceded past economic downturns.
More
Wall
St Week Ahead U.S. stock rally faces gauntlet of CPI data, Fed meeting |
Reuters
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.
As COVID-19 becomes routine, Africa
readies for next crisis
The
World Health Organization’s Africa director said that the continent is
preparing for the next health crisis by strengthening gaps in health systems
found in the continent's response to the COVID-19 pandemic
8 December 2022
Building
on the experience of battling the COVID-19 pandemic, African countries are strengthening health systems to
prepare for the next health crisis, the World Health Organization’s Africa
director said Thursday.
At the
onset of the pandemic in early 2020, some of the 54 countries in the continent
of 1.3 billion people lacked the facilities or trained health workers to
respond adequately to the health crisis, with some struggling to provide
hospital isolation wards and intensive care units, Matshidiso Moeti, the World
Health Organization’s Africa regional director, said at an online briefing
Thursday.
However,
over the course of three years, African countries have ramped up investments in
health infrastructure in the race against the pandemic with support from global
donors, she said.
“The future, however difficult the past couple of
years have been, will find us in a much better situation in terms of our strategies,
our investments and our capacities to confront public health threats,” said
Moeti.
"We
know now what we need to do to be able to make sure that our systems are
resilient to the impact of a shock like an outbreak,” she said.
---- “Whatever happens in the future, the next pandemic will find
the world and Africa much readier” in its response, she said, optimistic about
“important partnerships” and African institutions being established “to take
the lead to work in the area of preparedness and also in primary healthcare.”
More
As COVID-19 becomes routine, Africa readies for next crisis | The Independent
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.
Scientists
pit AI algorithms against each other to optimize graphene nanotube synthesis
DECEMBER 8, 2022
An international research team led by Skoltech
scientists has identified the best artificial intelligence algorithm for
determining the synthesis conditions that favor the formation of carbon
nanotubes with properties tailored to specific applications in drug delivery,
environmental monitoring sensors, lasers, hydrogen power tech, and elsewhere.
The study is published in Carbon.
If you
picture graphene as a one-atom-thick layer of carbon with the atoms arranged in
a honeycomb pattern, then single-walled nanotubes are what you would get by wrapping a sheet of
graphene into a cylinder, although that is not how CNTs are actually made.
"Our
study sheds light on new ways of fine-tuning carbon
nanotube properties,"
the study's lead author, Senior Research Scientist Dmitry Krasnikov of
Skoltech, commented. "Owing to their amazing properties, CNTs have diverse
applications: from drug
delivery to specific tissues
to devices that adsorb atmospheric carbon dioxide to offset climate change. And there is no such
thing as 'one nanotube to rule them all.'
"Consider the amount of defects, for example: While
perfectly structured nanotubes are sought in electronics, extra defects are key
for hydrogen power-related applications."
More
Scientists pit AI
algorithms against each other to optimize graphene nanotube synthesis
(phys.org)
This weekend’s music diversion. The
very talented Benedictine monk MK. Approx. 8 minutes.
Marianus
Königsperger (1708-1769) - Concerto ex G à Organo principale (1754)
Marianus Königsperger (1708-1769) - Concerto
ex G à Organo principale (1754) - YouTube
This
weekend’s chess update. Approx. 11 minutes.
Wait Till You See This
Checkmate
Wait
Till You See This Checkmate - YouTube
This
weekend’s update on finance from Professor of Finance at King’s College,
London, Patrick Boyle. Approx. 15 minutes.
Top
Ten Finance Books For Traders & Investors
Top
Ten Finance Books For Traders & Investors - YouTube
"This first stage of the inflationary process may last for many years. While it lasts, the prices of many goods and services are not yet adjusted to the altered money relation. There are still people in the country who have not yet become aware of the fact that they are confronted with a price revolution which will finally result in a considerable rise of all prices, although the extent of this rise will not be the same in the various commodities and services. These people still believe that prices one day will drop. Waiting for this day, they restrict their purchases and concomitantly increase their cash holdings. As long as such ideas are still held by public opinion, it is not yet too late for the government to abandon its inflationary policy.
But then, finally, the masses wake up. They become suddenly aware of
the fact that inflation is a deliberate policy and will go on endlessly. A
breakdown occurs. The crack-up boom appears. Everybody is anxious to swap his
money against 'real' goods, no matter whether he needs them or not, no matter
how much money he has to pay for them. Within a very short time, within a few
weeks or even days, the things which were used as money are no longer used as
media of exchange. They become scrap paper. Nobody wants to give away anything
against them."
Ludwig
von Mises.
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