Baltic Dry Index. 602 +10 Brent Crude 85.54
Spot Gold 1859 US 2 Year Yield 4.50 +0.02
Coronavirus
Cases 02/04/20 World 1,000,000
Deaths 53,103
Coronavirus Cases 13/02/23 World 677,600,631
Deaths 6,782,403
Without freedom of thought, there can be no such thing as wisdom - and no such thing as public liberty without freedom of speech.
Benjamin Franklin.
In the Asian stock casinos this morning, a rocky start. More trouble for India’s Adani group of companies.
US stock futures are signalling a lower opening.
In Asia minor, the death toll from last week’s earthquake has now risen past 33,000 with many more injured and homeless.
In Ukraine, the NATO proxy war on Russia is
approaching its second year. With the Spring planting season fast approaching,
how much crops will get planted in Ukraine?
Asia markets fall
ahead of economic data release, yen remains volatile on BOJ nomination report
UPDATED MON, FEB 13 2023 12:17 AM
EST
Stocks in Asia-Pacific were down on Monday as
investors look ahead to a week of crucial economic data releases, including the U.S.
consumer price index that will determine the Federal Reserve’s
path forward.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 fell more
than 1% and the Topix was down 0.5% as the Japanese yen continued to remain
volatile after a report that
Japan will nominate Kazuo Ueda as its next central bank governor.
The yield on the 10-year Japanese
government bond stood at 0.499%, hovering around the BOJ’s upper ceiling of its
tolerance range. In South Korea, the Kospi shed 0.8%,
while the Kosdaq erased earlier gains and traded flat.
In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng index fell
0.5% and the Hang Seng Tech index dropped 0.5%. In mainland China, the Shanghai Composite rose
0.5% and the Shenzhen Component gained
0.7%.
In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 fell
0.3%. The S&P/NZX 50 0.85%
lower as New Zealand braced for further impact from tropical
cyclone Gabrielle.
Stocks on Wall
Street ended the week on Friday with the S&P 500 up 0.2%
and the Nasdaq Composite down
0.61% — both indexes posting
the worst week since December after a slew of corporate earnings and Federal
Reserve speakers reiterated their hawkish messages that there is more work to
be done to tame inflation. The Dow closed nearly 170 points higher.
Moody’s cuts outlook for four Adani group
companies, cites rapid declines in market value
Moody’s lowered its outlook for four
Adani Group companies on Friday, citing a “significant and rapid decline” in
the market values of the entities, the ratings agency said in a notice.
It cut the outlook for Adani Green Energy from
stable to negative, alongside Adani Transmission Step-One, Adani Electricity
Mumbai and Adani Green Energy Restricted Group – an entity that includes Adani
Green Energy, Parampujya Solar Energy, and Prayatna Developers.
“These rating actions follow the significant and rapid decline in the
market equity values of the Adani Group companies following the recent release
of a report from a short-seller,” Moody’s said.
Without naming Hindenburg Research, the ratings
agency highlighted “the recent release of a report from a short-seller
highlighting governance concerns in the Group.”
The U.S.
short-seller in a Jan. 24 report accused the
Indian conglomerate of stock manipulation and accounting fraud, and Adani has
denied those allegations.
Adani group
companies have lost
more than $100 billion in market capitalization as shares
plunged since the Hindenburg report.
Credit concerns
For Adani Green
Energy, Moody’s said the downgrade to negative takes into consideration the
company’s large capital spending program and dependence on support from its
sponsors.
Moody’s described Adani Green Energy’s support
will potentially come in the form of subordinated debt or shareholder loans,
adding that it will “likely be less certain in the current environment.”
“The negative outlook also
factors in the company’s significant refinancing needs of around $2.7 billion
in fiscal year ending March 2025 and limited headroom in its credit metrics to
manage any material increase in funding costs,” it said.
More
Moody's
cuts outlook for 4 Adani group firms as market value declines (cnbc.com)
Stock futures are
down on Sunday night as Wall Street tries to rebound from a rocky week: Live
updates
UPDATED SUN, FEB 12 2023 7:00 PM EST
U.S. stock
futures were down on Sunday night after the S&P 500 and Nasdaq ended
their worst week in nearly two months.
S&P 500
futures fell by about 0.26%. Dow Jones Industrial Average dipped 64 points, or
0.19%, and Nasdaq-100 futures slid 0.31%.
All three major
indexes ended the week on a downturn. The Dow ended the week down 0.17%. The
S&P 500 fell 1.11%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq slid 2.41%, marking their
biggest weekly losses since December.
These losses came
after Federal
Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said that there is still a long way to go in the
fight against inflation. Powell also noted that interest rates could
rise more than markets anticipate if inflation numbers do not abate, reversing
some of the prior market optimism that rate hikes would soon ease.
“The risk,
however, is that premature easing in financial conditions, and in turn, a pick
up in growth expectations, may be counterproductive from an inflation fighting
point of view. Indeed, post the hot January payrolls report, a number of Fed
speakers this week have talked up rates expectations, pushing back on Powell’s
dovish talk.” Barclays analyst Emmanuel Cau wrote in a Friday note. “As a
result, the disconnect between the Fed’s own rates forecasts and market pricing
has noticeably narrowed, which has hurt US equities.”
Investors are
watching out for the consumer price index numbers on Tuesday for insight into
the pace of inflation, as well as retail sales data.
The final leg of
earnings season also continues next week, with Coca-Cola, Marriott, Cisco, Marathon and Paramount set to
report.
Stock
market today: Live updates (cnbc.com)
Next, is crypto regulation coming or an
outright crypto ban?
G20
exploring cryptocurrency regulation, India's finance minister says
February 11, 2023 10:09 AM GMT
Feb 11 (Reuters)
- The Group of 20 (G20) big economies is exploring whether the group could
collectively regulate cryptocurrencies, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman
said on Saturday.
Given the
sophisticated technologies involved with these virtual assets, countries must
discuss whether a given regulation is needed, said Sitharaman, whose country is
this year's G20 president.
Prime Minister
Narendra Modi's government has for several years debated drafting a law to
regulate or even ban cryptocurrencies but has not made a final decision.
"We are
talking to all nations, that if it requires regulation, then one country alone
cannot do anything," Sitharaman told reporters after meeting the central
bank's directors in New Delhi.
"We are
talking with all nations, if we can make some standard operating procedure
which is followed by everyone to make a regulatory framework, and if it can be
effective.
India will host
G20 finance ministers and central bank governors this month.
Last year, Modi has said a
collective global effort is needed to deal with problems posed by
cryptocurrencies. The Reserve Bank of India has said that cryptocurrencies
should be banned as they are akin to a Ponzi scheme.
G20 exploring
cryptocurrency regulation, India's finance minister says | Reuters
Finally, more news from the Great EUSSR. Just wait until the Great Diesel and Jet Fuel scarcity hits later this year.
‘Unspeakable botch’:
Spain spends €258 million on trains that are too big for its tunnels
February 10 2923.
Spain has spent €258 million on trains that are too big to pass
through its rail network’s tunnels.
Since the blunder was exposed by
local newspaper El Comercio late last month, two transport bosses have
been fired.
The 31 commuter trains were ordered
by Renfe in 2020. They are set to replace an ageing
fleet in the poorly connected northern autonomous regions of Asturias and
Cantabria.
Originally slated for completion in
2024, the much-needed update is now likely to be delayed until at least 2026.
It has also emerged that the
manufacturer, Basque-based CAF, flagged the error back in March 2021.
President Miguel Ángel Revilla has
called it “an unspeakable botch” adding that “heads must roll", according
to Spanish regional newspaper El Diario Montañés.
Who is to blame for ordering the wrong size trains?
Various parties played a part
in the debacle, including Spain’s national rail operator Renfe, rail infrastructure
manager Adif, transport manufacturer CAF and the State Agency for Railway
Safety (AESF).
After granting the
manufacturing contract to CAF, Renfe says it provided measurements based on
infrastructure specifications provided by Adif. CAF later warned that the
specifications may not be correct.
Built in
the 19th century, the region’s rail network crosses a mountainous landscape. It
has varying tunnel sizes that do not adhere to standardised modern dimensions.
So far, two senior officials have
been dismissed - a Renfe rolling stock manager and Adif’s head of inspection
and track technology.
Spain’s transport minister Raquel
Sanchez says she was only recently made aware of the problem. She has launched
an internal audit into who knew about the issue and why it wasn’t raised
earlier.
Spain’s Secretary General for
Infrastructure, Xavier Flores, has admitted that he was made aware of the issue
months ago.
What will happen to the oversized trains?
As
the trains were still in the design phase, they have not been manufactured yet.
While
this minimises the cost of the error, the time-consuming process will need to be
repeated, delaying the trains’ construction.
They
will now be manufactured using the dimensions of a train that
already runs on the network for comparison to ensure they fit through the
various tunnels. Adif will also update its infrastructure data accordingly to
ensure it doesn’t happen again.
France made a similar error in 2014
This
is not the first time such a fiasco has taken place. In 2014, French train
operator SNCF ordered
2,000 regional trains that were too wide for the network’s platforms.
Again,
the error was caused by data from the infrastructure manager that did not
account for older structures.
In
this case, the trains were already made and the platforms had to be rebuilt at
great cost.
‘Unspeakable botch’: Spain spends €258 million on trains that are too big for its tunnels (msn.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.
Dollar
rises as investors look to next week's inflation report; yen gains
February 10, 2023 9:46 PM GMT
NEW YORK, Feb 10 (Reuters) - The dollar
gained on Friday as investors grew concerned about a U.S. inflation report next
week that could show a number that is higher than markets forecast amid data
showing expectations for a continued rise in prices over the next year.
The yen also rose across the board with
Kazuo Ueda reportedly set to become the next Bank of Japan (BOJ) governor but
pared gains after he said the central bank's monetary policy was appropriate.
The Japanese unit was on track for its first weekly gain versus the dollar
after posting losses for three straight weeks.
As the data continued to show positive
U.S. momentum, the dollar was on pace for its second weekly rise against a
basket of six currencies, a run it has not seen since October.
The University
of Michigan surveys on Friday showed a one-year inflation outlook of
4.2%, higher than the final number in January. The overall index of consumer
sentiment came in at 66.4, up from 64.9 the prior month.
Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell has
cited the Michigan survey's inflation outlook as one of the indicators the U.S.
central bank tracks.
Aside from the Michigan data, revisions
showed that U.S.
monthly consumer prices rose in December instead of falling as
previously estimated, while data for the prior two months was also revised
higher, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Mazen Issa, senior FX strategist at TD
Securities said next week's CPI report has been "put in the crosshairs
because this morning we had indications that...inflation was on a stronger
footing than initially perceived last year."
"This is really challenging the
idea that the Fed could cut rates and stronger data like payrolls, ISM
(Institute for Supply Management) and continued tightness in labor markets are
pushing the...higher-for-longer policy stance by the Fed...and that might what
ends up happening. That puts the dollar back on the front foot."
Data next Tuesday is likely to show
that the U.S. consumer price index (CPI) climbing 0.4% month-on-month in
January and the core CPI gaining 0.4% as well, according to a Reuters poll.
More
Dollar rises as investors look to next week's inflation report; yen gains | Reuters
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.
Most
young people aren’t getting latest Covid-19 booster, but they’re not filling
hospital beds at three large health care systems
By , CNN Senior Medical Correspondent
Published
12:59 PM EST, Fri February 10, 2023
As
the US mulls over its future Covid-19 vaccination plan, data from three large
health care systems indicate that even though a small percentage of people
under age 65 have gotten the new Covid-19 booster, people this age are not
becoming severely ill and overwhelming hospitals.
“Even
if they’re not getting boosted, young, healthy people are not getting super
sick from this,” said Dr. Mangala Narasimhan, a senior vice president at
Northwell Health, the largest health care provider in New York state. “We’re
not seeing it. It’s not happening.”
The
US Food and Drug Administration has proposed a framework for annual Covid vaccinations for all
Americans over the age of 6 months, but at a meeting with its vaccine advisers last month, it did
not come up with a concrete plan. Vaccine advisers to the US Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention are scheduled to meet February 24 to discuss the future of the US
Covid-19 vaccination program.
Uptake
of the bivalent booster, which has been available since September, has been
low. Nationally, only about 16% of the population has gotten it, and the rates
are especially low for people under 65, according to CDC data.
Narasimhan
and doctors at Montefiore Medical Center in New York City and Clalit Health
Services, Israel’s largest health care organization, say the relative mildness
of current Covid strains, along with a degree of immunity from previous
vaccinations and infections, are going a long way toward protecting healthy
young people, even if they don’t get the booster.
Dr.
Ran Balicer, director of the Clalit Research Institute and chairman of
Israel’s Covid-19 National Expert Advisory Panel, noted that at earlier points
in the pandemic – for example, when the virulent Delta variant was raging – it
was “not responsible” to opt out of the vaccine.
“I
don’t think that’s the case anymore,” he said. “I think when you’re under 65
and healthy, it’s a much more complex question, and I think that’s where
individual risk assessment and personal preferences come into play.”
Since
the new booster became available, about 12% of all Covid deaths in the US have
been among people younger than 65, according to CDC data.
More
Approx. 13 minutes.
Why no media coverage and urgent investigation?
International
concern, excess deaths
International
concern, excess deaths - YouTube
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.
Merseyside's mega-battery is switched on - and here's how it
will save billions of pounds off bills
February 11 2023
It looks like a self-storage park:
rows of shipping containers in a patch of Merseyside waste ground. But
appearances can be deceptive as this is the first step in saving billions of
pounds off bills and millions of tonnes of carbon. It's a mega-battery.
Let's take a step back.
One of the great advantages of fossil fuels, and one we take largely for
granted, is they are so easy to store. Piles of coal, drums of oil, tanks of
gas. They just sit there waiting for a deliberate spark.
Renewables are
different: you can't hold the wind or bottle the sun. As the proportion of
green power on our grid grows so does this inconvenient truth.
The variable
and uncontrollable nature of solar and wind is not a new discovery, but it is
only now that we are coming close to an affordable solution: massive banks of
lithium-ion batteries similar to those in a laptop, phone and only affordable
now thanks to their use in electric cars.
Sky News has
been given exclusive access to Europe's biggest grid-linked battery just after
switch-on. It covers an area of around two football pitches in nearly one
hundred containers and can store as much electricity as 1,500 electric cars,
taking in the uneven power from wind turbines and smoothing it out for local
homes and businesses. If you didn't do this, lights would dim, or wires could
melt. Most of that job today is done by either firing up mini generators - so
called gas-peakers - to fill the power troughs or turning turbines off to
prevent surges.
James Basden,
CEO of the operator Zenobe, says their batteries will cut carbon emissions.
"Battery
storage sites like this are enabling more wind power to come on, but also it's
shutting down the gas generators that are currently operating and as a result
we save huge amounts of CO2."
But they
should also cut bills too. When wind farms must turn off, they are paid to do
this, paid to not generate. This is known as "curtailment" and the
total cost is over half a billion pounds per year and rising as we have more
renewables in the energy mix.
Zenobe and
other big battery developers say if we can store it, we can use it and not pay
to waste it.
More
Wine is constant
proof that God loves us and loves to see us happy.
Benjamin
Franklin.
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