Baltic Dry Index. 763 -38 Brent Crude 87.58
Spot Gold 1924 US 2 Year Yield 4.14 +0.05
Coronavirus
Cases 02/04/20 World 1,000,000
Deaths 53,103
Coronavirus Cases 23/01/23 World 673,328,829
Deaths 6,746,458
“Anything that
can go wrong will go wrong,”.
Biden’s Murphy’s Law.
It is the Lunar New Year holiday
week in much of Asia. It is the week before both the Fed and the ECB get to raise
their key interest rates again next week.
In what is likely to be a thinly trading week, time for the bulls to try a short squeeze in the stock casinos? If not now, when?
Asia-Pacific
shares higher, many markets closed for Lunar New Year
Shares were higher in Asia on Monday, but most
markets were closed for the Lunar New Year holiday, with markets in Shanghai
shut for the whole week.
Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 index
added 1.1% to 26,852.85 and the S&P/ASX 200 in
Sydney edged 0.1% higher, to 7,456.90. The gains followed a rally Friday for
tech stocks that countered worries about the weakening U.S. economy.
In other trading, U.S. benchmark
crude oil lost
35 cents to $81.29 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile
Exchange. It gained $1.03 to $81.64 per barrel on Friday.
Brent
crude,
the price benchmark for international trading, gave up 40 cents to $87.23 per
barrel.
The U.S. dollar slipped to 129.14 Japanese yen from
129.59 yen. The euro rose
to $1.0905 from $1.0868.
On Friday, the S&P 500 rose
1.9% to 3,972.61. The Dow Jones
Industrial Average gained
1% to 33,375.49. The Nasdaq added
2.7% to close at 11,140.43.
Small company stocks also notched
solid gains. The Russell 2000 index rose
1.7%, to finish at 1,867.34.
Despite the gains, the benchmark
index still ended with its first weekly loss in the last three.
Technology and communication
services stocks powered much of the gains as investors cheered another big
quarterly surge in Netflix’s subscribers.
Gains for tech-oriented stocks
accounted for a big share of the S&P 500′s rally Friday. Google’s
parent company, Alphabet said
it was cutting costs by laying
off 12,000 workers. Its shares jumped 5.3%.
More
Asia-Pacific
shares higher, many markets closed for Lunar New Year (cnbc.com)
Stock futures are
flat as investors weigh the Fed’s next policy move and await a busy earnings
week
UPDATED SUN, JAN 22 2023 6:15 PM EST
Stock futures were little changed Sunday evening
as investors weighed a potential slowdown or pause in Federal Reserve interest
rate hikes and looked ahead to a busy week of earnings.
Futures tied to the Dow Jones
Industrial Average were lower by 27 points, or 0.08. S&P 500 futures barely
budged and Nasdaq 100 futures also sat near the flat line.
On Friday, the major averages
rallied to finish the week after briefly losing the momentum of the January
rally. The Nasdaq posted a slight gain for the week. However, the Dow and
S&P each logged down weeks. All of the major averages remain in the green
for the month. The Nasdaq is leading the others with a 6.44% year-to-date gain.
“The markets are becoming
increasingly enthused that the bout of high inflation is quickly moving behind
us and the period of tight monetary policy is coming to an end,” said Brian
Levitt, global market strategist at Invesco. “While the economy will likely
still have challenges by the middle of the year, the market is looking ahead to
what will likely become a sustained recovery.”
Investors have been weighing the
possibility that the Fed is getting ready to slow the pace of its
inflation-fighting rate hikes after economic data last week showed a decline
in wholesale prices and retail sales. They’re also absorbing
comments made Friday by Fed Governor Christopher Waller, who said he favors a
quarter percentage point rate increase at the next meeting.
Markets have
priced in a 99.7% chance of a 25-basis point hike, according to CME Group data, which would bring the interest
rate to a targeted range of 4.5%-4.75%.
There are no speeches from Fed
officials on the calendar as the central bank will meet the following week, on
Jan. 31 and Feb. 1. However, investors will be monitoring another batch of
economic data, including the Fed’s preferred inflation measure, the personal
consumption expenditure price index, due out Friday.
In the meantime, earnings reports could
keep the market on edge, with about 40% of the Dow scheduled to
release their latest financial results and give investors more insight into how
companies are weathering inflation and interest rates. Microsoft, IBM, Tesla,
Visa and Mastercard are some of the big names on deck.
Stock
futures are flat as investors weigh the Fed's next policy move (cnbc.com)
European
Central Bank to raise deposit rate to 3.25% by mid-year - Reuters poll
January 23, 2023 2:09
AM GMT
LONDON, Jan 23
(Reuters) - The European Central Bank will be more aggressive than previously
thought in its tightening campaign, adding another 50 basis points to its
deposit rate on Feb. 2, as it continues its battle against rampant inflation, a
Reuters poll found.
Although
the euro zone's central bank has been raising rates at its fastest pace on
record it has so far failed to bring inflation anywhere near its 2% target.
Prices rose 9.2% in December on a year earlier, official data showed last week.
ECB President
Christine Lagarde and her Governing Council will take the deposit rate to 2.50%
on Feb. 2, said 55 of 59 economists in the Jan. 13-20 poll. They are likely to
follow that up with another 50 basis point lift in March.
The
central bank will then add 25 basis points next quarter before pausing, giving
a terminal rate in the current cycle of 3.25%, its highest since late 2008. In December's poll, the rate was
put at 2.50% at end-March and was seen topping out at 2.75%.
More
European
Central Bank to raise deposit rate to 3.25% by mid-year - Reuters poll |
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.
Food for thought. Approx. 32
minutes. Even though China has u-turned on its Covid-19 policy mentioned in
this video, China’s pent up demand likely means persistent food and energy
inflation for longer than most in the west expect.
Globalization
is About to Collapse. Here's Why
Globalization
is About to Collapse. Here's Why - YouTube
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.
China says Covid
outbreak has infected 80% of population
PUBLISHED SAT, JAN 21 2023 6:00
AM EST UPDATED SAT, JAN 21 2023 6:08 AM EST
The possibility of a
big Covid-19 rebound in China over the next two or three months is remote as
80% of people have been infected, a prominent government scientist said on
Saturday.
The mass movement of
people during the ongoing Lunar New Year holiday period may spread the
pandemic, boosting infections in some areas, but a second Covid wave is
unlikely in the near term, Wu Zunyou, chief epidemiologist at the China Center
for Disease Control and Prevention, said on the Weibo social media platform.
Hundreds of millions
of Chinese are traveling across the country for holiday reunions that had been
suspended under recently eased Covid curbs, raising fears of fresh outbreaks in
rural areas less equipped to manage large outbreaks.
More
China says Covid
outbreak has infected 80% of population (cnbc.com)
Autopsy Series: Are COVID-19
Vaccines Causing Sudden Cardiac Death
Jan 19 2023
Almost everyday in the news is another reported case of sudden, unexpected cardiac death. The vaccination status is carefully concealed in the report and any mention of past SARS-CoV-2 immunization appears to be scrubbed from the internet. Families maintain an airtight silence on a simple medical query—did they take a COVID-19 vaccine? Yes or No?
Prior to COVID-19 vaccination, the usual causes of death were almost always known antemortem, and were roughly 40% cardiovascular, 40% cancer, and 20% other causes. Chaves and colleagues have shown these proportions have been dramatically shifted to sudden cardiac death.
In a series of 121 deaths primarily after the whole virus CoronaVac (Sinovac) injection, 57% were classified as sudden cardiac death and the pathologies included myocardial infarction, aortic dissection, and in few cases with no cardiac pathology assumed primary arrhythmic death. Pulmonary embolism, another accepted complication comprised 21% of the cases. Despite the authors claim of “no association,” its my interpretation of the data that 78% of the deaths could be directly attributed to a known mechanism of COVID-19 vaccination. This is very consistent with the recent report from Schwab et al from Germany whose data revealed 71% of deaths within 20 days of vaccination occurred in the context of acute problems known to be caused by the vaccines.
When autopsies done by separate
teams in different countries arrive at similar findings, we have external
consistency. This is one of many criteria that are used in determining
scientific validity. The assertion that COVID-19 vaccines are causing death is
increasingly supported in the peer-reviewed literature.
Autopsy Series:
Are COVID-19 Vaccines Causing Sudden Cardiac Death? (theepochtimes.com)
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.
Today, how “green” is green energy?
Somerset solar farm
designed to power 10,000 homes approved
21 January 2023
A solar farm designed to power
up to 10,000 Somerset homes is to be built near protected countryside in
Dorset.
Elgin Energy
has got permission to construct the solar farm in North Perrott, near
Crewkerne.
South Somerset
District Council has approved the proposals, arguing the solar farm's impact
can be mitigated.
But the Council
for the Protection of Rural England (CPRE) said the site is the wrong location
and has called for a delay on the plans.
Elgin intends
to occupy the site for at least the next three decades.
It is close to
the northern edge of the Dorset Area Of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) and
is deemed good quality land, reports the Local Democracy Reporting Service.
While the
actual solar site lies mostly within Somerset, the primary access for
maintenance and construction will be from the Dorset side, off the A356 in
neighbouring village South Perrott.
The 32MW solar
installation would cover some 54 hectares (around 133 acres) and would be
operational for 30 years - though this could be extended later.
Councillor
Oliver Patrick, whose Parrett ward includes the site, said his constituents
were widely supportive of the plan when the council's regulation committee met
in Yeovil on Tuesday.
Mr Patrick told
the committee: "It's my personal opinion that the visual impact is
acceptable, especially when weighted against the wider public benefits.
"This site
does not dominate the landscape - it's on low-lying land, and a solar park
development is likely to nestle into the countryside."
'Sensitive landscape'
He added Elgin
will plant around 10,000 trees and nearly 1km (0.6 miles) of hedgerow, for
screening.
The firm
currently manages the Sutor Farm installation near Wincanton, and it is seeking
permission for another farm near the Tropiquaria Zoo between Washford and
Williton.
Hugh Williams,
chairman of the Somerset branch of the CPRE, said the decision on the solar
farm should be pushed back, citing a possible change in government policy.
He said:
"There is an effective national ban on solar farms on the best and most
versatile agricultural land, due to the food crisis."
More
Somerset
solar farm designed to power 10,000 homes approved - BBC News
O’Toole’s Commentary on Biden’s Murphy’s Law
“Murphy was an optimist.”
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