Baltic Dry Index. 1403 -04 Brent Crude 79.08
Spot Gold 1980 US 2 Year Yield 4.10 +0.02
Coronavirus
Cases 01/04/20 World 1,000,000
Deaths 53,103
Coronavirus Cases 31/03/23 World 683,779,273
Deaths 6,830,463
Nothing is so admirable in
politics as a short memory.
John Kenneth Galbraith.
It is month-end and end of first quarter
2023. Despite the continuing banking crisis, it’s time to dress up the stock
casinos and stock indexes once again.
The banksters and professional money manager sharks, quarterly bonuses depend on share prices forever moving higher. “Whatever it takes,” as they say at the ECB.
Look away from rising interest rates,
inflation and events in the real global economy now.
Asia-Pacific markets climb after tech stocks led
gains on Wall Street
UPDATED FRI, MAR 31 2023 12:06 AM EDT
Markets in the Asia-Pacific traded higher on
Friday as technology stocks continued to see renewed interest and led gains on Wall
Street, with some shaking off concerns of a further banking crisis.
Investors also looked ahead to
the U.S.
personal consumption expenditure price index, the Federal Reserve’s
preferred measure of inflation, which is slated for release later in the day.
The Hang Seng index in
Hong Kong rose 1.85%, leading gains in the region and the Hang Seng Tech index
jumped 1.77%. In mainland China, the Shenzhen Component gained
0.2% and the Shanghai Composite inched
up 0.14%
In Japan, the Nikkei 225 rose
0.97% and the Topix rose 1% as Tokyo’s inflation print continued to show lower
levels from its recent peak of 4.3% seen in December. The S&P/ASX 200 in
Australia rose 0.7%.
South Korea’s Kospi also
rose 1.01% while the Kosdaq fell marginally. Hang Seng futures also pointed to
a higher open at 20,563 against the index’s
last close at 20,309.13.
Overnight in the U.S., weekly jobless claims
rose by 7,000 to 198,000, adding to hopes that the Federal Reserve could slow
down its tightening campaign on a cooling labor market.
The S&P 500 added
0.57%, and touched its highest level since March 7 mid-session. The Nasdaq Composite also
rose and marked an increase of more than 4% for the month and the Dow Jones Industrial Average added
0.43%.
China’s March
official manufacturing PMI reading beats expectations
China’s official manufacturing
purchasing managers index for March was 51.9, data from the National Bureau of
Statistics showed.
That’s slightly
above expectations of 51.5 by analysts polled by Reuters, but lower than 52.6
seen in February.
Most components
eased from February, while output, new orders and exports remained in expansion
territory, government data showed.
Non-manufacturing
PMI meanwhile was 58.2, higher than February’s reading of 56.3 alongside
notable rises in activity in the construction sector.
Asia-Pacific markets
climb after tech stocks led gains on Wall Street (cnbc.com)
Stock
futures are flat Thursday evening: Live updates
UPDATED THU, MAR 30 2023 7:28 PM EDT
U.S. stock futures were flat on Thursday night.
Dow Jones Industrial Average
futures added 14 points, or 0.04%. S&P 500 futures rose 0.09%, while
Nasdaq 100 futures gained 0.05%.
The Dow gained
more than 141 points or 0.43% during regular trading Thursday. The S&P 500 rose
0.57%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq gained
0.73%.
The three major averages are also
on pace for a positive week. The Dow is up 1.93%, and the S&P 500 has a 2%
gain. Both indexes are on track for their best weekly performance since
January. The Nasdaq is up 1.6% for the week.
Thursday’s gains come after the
number of weekly jobless claims reached 198,000, up 7,000 from the prior week.
The cooldown in the labor market added to Wall Street’s optimism that the Fed
will soon bring an end to its rate hike cycle. Semiconductors enjoyed a strong
day, with AMD and Nvidia up more than 1%.
The recent rally is “helping to
confirm the market’s perception that the problems that brought the market to a
crisis of confidence could very well be contained,” said Quincy Krosby, chief
global strategist for LPL Financial.
“The semiconductors, [which] have
come to be viewed as an important bellwether for global growth, delivered a
strong performance,” Krosby continued.
However, she noted that the
markets are not yet completely in the clear from an economic downturn.
“Economic concerns enveloping recession
fears haven’t vanished as the yield curve still represents a counter to the
market’s climb higher,” Krosby added.
The Federal
Reserve’s preferred inflation gauge, the personal consumption expenditures
index, is due to be released at 8:30 a.m. ET on Friday. Economists polled by
Dow Jones expect that the core PCE, which excludes energy and food costs,
gained 0.4% in February from the prior month and added 4.7% on an annualized
basis.
Personal income
data and consumer spending will also be issued Friday morning. The final March
reading of the University of Michigan’s consumer sentiment index is due at 10
a.m. ET.
Several central
bank officials are also scheduled to speak Friday, including Fed Governors Lisa
Cook and Christopher Waller.
Stock
market today: Live updates (cnbc.com)
Finally, in other news, more food price inflation seems likely in 2023. Buy now for Christmas 2023?
Virgin’s moon shot crashes back to Earth.
Macron to introduce water levy as France suffers worst drought in years
March
30, 2023
Emmanuel Macron has pledged to tax water usage in France to tackle a major drought, with the move coming amid a public uprising over pension reforms and the cost of living.
The move was announced in a 53-point plan after last summer’s
devastating heatwave and record low
rainfall this winter. On March 1, groundwater levels in France were 80 per cent
lower than average.
Climate change had turned water into a “strategic issue for the nation”,
said Mr Macron, who warned that the climate crisis would deprive France of
30-40 per cent of its available water by 2050.
Speaking in the Alpine town
of Savines-le-Lac, on the shores of western Europe’s largest fresh water
reservoir, the president unveiled the new water-saving measures as he sought to
dismiss political and social unrest.
“There is contestation over
a reform, but it doesn’t mean everything else should grind to a halt. We need
to continue working,” he said as critics accused him of timing the water plan
to divert attention from the anger. Around 200 protesters turned out, and there
were two arrests.
----The
president said France would impose “gradual and responsible tariffs” on water
usage that would apply “to everyone”.
“The first
cubic metres will be billed at a modest rate, close to cost price” but “beyond
a certain level, the price per cubic metre will be higher”, he said, without
providing further details.
But he denied
that this would lead to higher water bills for the average French person,
saying rates in France were at “middling” levels in Europe.
Mr Macron said
he wanted 10 per cent of all water in France to be reused by 2030, up from the
current one per cent, adding: “We want to reuse 300 million cubic metres – that
is three Olympic swimming pools or 3,500 bottles of water – per French person
per year.”
He pledged
€180 million to plug water leaks, saying these were responsible the loss of one
in every five litres of water in France. Much of the funds would go towards 170
problem areas where water loss from leaks was at 50 per cent.
Nuclear power
plants will have to adapt to reduce their reliance on water to cool down, he
said. Some 58 per cent of the water used in France goes to farming, 26 per cent
to drinkable water, 12 per cent to cool down nuclear reactors and four per cent
to industrial uses.
Despite their
huge water consumption, French farmers would not be asked to reduce their
overall water consumption but would need to share the volumes out over larger
areas in future “due to climate change”, said Marc Fesneau, the agriculture
minister.
The proposals
will also create a new app to inform residents if water usage in their area has
reached a critical level, on the model of the Ecowatt app for electricity use
that was launched to encourage savings this winter.
Macron
to introduce water levy as France suffers worst drought in years (msn.com)
Sugar Getting Even Pricier Poses
Threat to Food Inflation
Decline
in Indian exports is tightening world supplies
More
sugar cane output is being used to make biofuel
Updated on
More Expensive Sugar, With Lower India Exports, Is New Threat to Food Inflation - Bloomber
Virgin Orbit fails to secure funding, will cease
operations and lay off nearly entire workforce
Virgin
Orbit is
ceasing operations “for the foreseeable future” after failing to secure a
funding lifeline, CEO Dan Hart told employees during an all-hands meeting
Thursday afternoon. The company will lay off nearly all of its workforce.
“Unfortunately, we’ve not been able
to secure the funding to provide a clear path for this company,” Hart said,
according to audio of the 5 p.m. ET meeting obtained by CNBC.
“We have no choice but to implement
immediate, dramatic and extremely painful changes,” Hart said, audibly choking
up on the call. He added this would be “probably the hardest all-hands that
we’ve ever done in my life.”
The company will eliminate all but 100 positions,
amounting to about 90% of the workforce, Hart said, noting the layoffs will
affect every team and department. In a securities filing, the company said the
layoffs constituted 675 positions, or approximately 85%.
“This company, this team — all of
you — mean a hell of a lot to me. And I have not, and will not, stop supporting
you, whether you’re here on the journey or if you’re elsewhere,” Hart said.
Virgin Orbit will “provide a
severance package for every departing” employee, Hart said, with a cash
payment, extension of benefits, and support in finding a new position — with a
“direct pipeline” set up with sister company Virgin Galactic for
hiring.
More
Virgin Orbit funding plans fail, will stop operations, conduct layoffs (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.
Ford
hikes F-150 Lightning's price again to battle high costs
March 30, 2023 9:28 PM GMT+1
March 30
(Reuters) - Ford Motor Co (F.N) has raised the base price of its
popular F-150 Lightning electric pickup truck again, the automaker's website
showed on Thursday, the latest in a series of price hikes aimed at offsetting
high costs.
Shares
of Ford were up 2% in afternoon trade.
The
base variant of Ford's electric F-150 truck now starts at $59,974, excluding
shipping and taxes, up nearly 50% from its starting price when launched last
year.
The Detroit
automaker resumed production of the F-150 Lightning
earlier this month after recalling 18 electric trucks due to a battery-cell manufacturing
defect.
Ford's
hike comes after EV maker Tesla Inc (TSLA.O) ignited a price war this year by
aggressively trimming prices.
A
week earlier, Ford said its electric-vehicle business unit was expected to lose $3 billion this year,
but remained on track to achieve a pretax margin of 8% by late 2026.
The company was not
immediately available for further comment on the price increase, which was
first reported by Automotive News on Thursday.
Ford
hikes F-150 Lightning's price again to battle high costs | Reuters
Supply
shortages threaten U.S. infrastructure and war efforts
March 29, 2023 12:40 PM GMT+1
LOS ANGELES,
March 29 (Reuters) - Manufacturers of everything from pickup trucks to homes
are still grappling with tight supplies of microchips and cement - shortages
that could translate into delays and higher costs for federal efforts to arm
Ukraine against Russian aggression and rebuild U.S. crumbling infrastructure
and manufacturing.
The supply chain
woes that sent costs soaring and spurred shortages of everything from toilet
paper to passenger cars are easing for retail-focused industries, but remain
stubbornly persistent in important growth sectors like autos, machinery,
defense and non-residential construction, experts said.
"For sectors
where demand is still strong, we are still seeing issues of materials
shortages, and these problems will take additional time to resolve," said
Jason Miller, associate professor of logistics at Michigan State University's
business school.
"One of the
big issues as we're trying to ramp up the military industrial base is having
enough electronic components," Miller said.
Companies that
make war weapons like shoulder-fired Javelin and Stinger missiles are
awaiting U.S. funding before
starting new production for Ukraine. When the defense industry gets that
greenlight, their scramble to source semiconductors and other hard-to-find
electronic components could usher in a new wave of supply chain snarls that
disrupt production and drive up costs.
"Any general
shortage in semiconductors will affect defense," said Brad Martin,
director of Rand Corp's National Security Supply Chain Institute.
The problem has
eased in some areas. Supplies of semiconductors for personal computers improved
after kids went back to the classroom and parents returned to their offices -
crushing sales of new machines.
On the other
hand, ongoing demand for auto and farm equipment has kept stocks of microchips
that act as electronic brains in that machinery tight.
Farm and
construction equipment maker Caterpillar Inc (CAT.N) is
still competing with car makers to get its hands on limited supplies,
Caterpillar CEO Jim Umpleby said at a March 14 conference in Las Vegas.
"It's gotten
a bit better, but it's still not what it was pre-pandemic," said Umpleby.
General
Motors (GM.N) last
week reopened its Silao, Mexico, plant that turns out Chevrolet Silverados and
GMC Sierras after halting production for more than a week due to hiccups in
semiconductor availability that the company is working to resolve.
More
Supply shortages threaten U.S. infrastructure and war efforts | Reuters
Covid-19 Corner
This section will continue until it becomes unneeded.
Nothing, of course, to do with soaring adverse reaction cases, continuing excess deaths across Europe and America, plus lawyers across GB and Europe starting to figure out ways to get around big pharma’s immunity from vaccine harm clauses, then.
In the UK, some very clever lawyers seem to think that the Consumers Protection Act of 1987 trumps the vaccine legal immunity given to big pharma, since the product, i.e. the vaccine, was defective, not up to the standard the consumer was led to believe and entitled to expect.
WHO experts revise Covid-19 vaccine advice, say healthy kids and teens low risk
March 29, 2023
The World
Health Organization’s vaccine experts have revised their global Covid-19
vaccination recommendations, and healthy kids and teenagers considered low
priority may not need to get a shot.
The updated
roadmap is designed to prioritize Covid-19 vaccines for those at greatest risk
of death and severe disease, according to the World Health Organization’s
Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on Immunization (SAGE).
It is being
issued to reflect the Omicron stage of the pandemic and because of countries’
high population immunity levels due to vaccines and infection, the group
announced following a recent meeting.
The new
streamlined recommendations focus on high-, medium- and low-risk groups.
SAGE
recommends additional booster doses of Covid-19 vaccine for high-priority
groups such as older people, immunocompromised people of all ages, front-line
health workers and pregnant people six or 12 months after their last booster
dose.
For those at
medium risk, the group recommends primary vaccinations and first booster doses
but does not recommend routine additional boosters. This group includes
children and adolescents with health risks and healthy adults under the age of
about 60.
For healthy
kids six months to 17 years old, the group said countries should consider
vaccinating based on factors such as disease burden and cost-effectiveness.
“The public
health impact of vaccinating healthy children and adolescents is comparatively
much lower than the established benefits of traditional essential vaccines for
children – such as the rotavirus, measles, and pneumococcal conjugate
vaccines,” SAGE said in a press release.
The group said its vaccine guidance is based
on current epidemiological conditions and could change if the pandemic evolves.
It also comes as countries are making their own
choices about vaccine recommendations based on their vaccine supply and
progress.
US officials, for example, are weighing
whether to offer people who
are at high risk of severe Covid-19 the chance to get another bivalent booster.
The United Kingdom and Canada have already begun allowing certain people to get
another bivalent booster.
Experts also acknowledged competing health priorities
when it comes to vaccinations.
More
WHO experts revise
Covid-19 vaccine advice, say healthy kids and teens low risk (msn.com)
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.
Well if they say so, I suppose, but it
sounds like a coming pitch for a taxpayer subsidy to me.
Recycling
Broken Wind Turbine Parts Could Create 20,000 UK Jobs and Multi-billion-pound
Supply Chain
Mar 29 2023
Tens of billions of pounds could be generated for the UK
economy from the re-use, refurbishment and re-engineering of broken wind
turbine parts, according to a new coalition set-up to drive the creation of a
circular supply chain for renewables in the UK.
Building the capabilities to
refurbish wind turbine parts in the UK could also generate more than 20,000
full-time equivalent jobs by 2035, and prevent more than 800,000 tonnes of
parts from being scrapped.
The group, which so far comprises
Scottish-headquartered energy company SSE Renewables, the University of
Strathclyde, the National Manufacturing Institute Scotland (NMIS) and Renewable
Parts Ltd, made the statement as they launched CWIC, the new Coalition for Wind
Industry Circularity today (March 28).
Responding, Nick
Sharpe, Director of Communications and Strategy at Scottish Renewables, said:
“As we approach 2030, a
significant number of our wind farms will reach the end of their 20 to 25 year
lifespans.
“We know that 80% of a
modern wind turbine is recyclable so there are clear opportunities for wind
farm operators to harness a circular economy by increasing the reuse of
component parts from decommissioned projects.
“The formation of the
Coalition for Wind Industry Circularity sends a clear signal that the wind
industry is committed to delivering a renewable energy circular economy for
Scotland, and we look forward to working with more of our members as they join
the Coalition and this initiative gathers pace.”
Source: https://www.sserenewables.com/
Another weekend and hopefully a
weekend without another bankster crisis.
However, the gap between our stock casinos, and our increasingly fragile
developed economies is widening again. Q2 23 looks to be interesting, to say
the least. More fallout from rising interest rates, high food price inflation
and the soaring social discontent it generates, is all to likely to bring on
trouble with a big T. Have a great weekend everyone.
There can be few fields of human endeavour in which history
counts for so little as in the world of finance. Past experience, to the extent
that it is part of memory at all, is dismissed as the primitive refuge of those
who do not have the insight to appreciate the incredible wonders of the
present.
John Kenneth Galbraith.
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