Baltic Dry Index. 1348 -17 Brent Crude 77.70
Spot Gold 1978 US 2 Year Yield 4.26 -0.03
Coronavirus
Cases 01/04/20 World 1,000,000
Deaths 53,103
Coronavirus Cases 24/05/23 World 689,124,038
Deaths 6,881,401
You load 16
tons, what do you get?
Another day older and deeper in debt
St. Peter, don't you call me 'cause I can't go
I owe my soul to the company store.
Treasury Secretary Yellen, with apologies.
Another day older and the USA is
deeper in debt and another day closer to Treasury Secretary Yellen’s
scaremongering default day of June one.
Not so, say sceptical Republicans,
June one means very little. The US Treasury still has taxes and duties coming
in each day and week and can prioritise who it pays first, by how much, and who
will only get a delayed or partial payment.
While true, that’s probably a
technical default if not actually a declared default. Either way, it saps credibility
from the dollar reserve standard most of the world operates on.
Thankfully for now, there’s no
viable replacement for the dollar reserve standard, but just wait until a world
functioning on Central Bank Digital Currency.
Look for the Bank for International
Settlement to promote its own version of CBDC as the next international reserve
and trading currency. Who needs a US political football driven CBDC, when a better, non political, widely accepted international CBDC, becomes available
whether adopted by the USA or not.
For the record I am against digital
currencies issued by anyone, though with Artificial Intelligence fast rolling
out and about to up-end global employment, I think CBDCs will prove unstoppable.
Asia markets
slide; New Zealand raises rates and industrials weigh on Hong Kong
UPDATED TUE, MAY 23 2023 11:33 PM
EDT
Asia-Pacific
markets mostly slid Wednesday. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index fell
1.05% and the Hang Seng Tech index shed 1.16%, dragged by healthcare and
industrial stocks.
Mainland Chinese markets also
extended losses from Tuesday, with the Shanghai Composite down
0.63% and the Shenzhen
Component marginally lower.
In Japan, the Nikkei 225 slid
1.08% and the Topix fell 0.54%, even as the country’s business sentiment among
manufacturers turned positive for the first time in 2023, according to a
Reuters Tankan survey.
South Korea’s Kospi slipped
0.26%, while the Kosdaq was down 0.38%. In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 was
down 0.43%.
New Zealand shares reversed
losses, while the New Zealand dollar strengthened against the U.S. dollar after
the country’s central bank raised its benchmark policy rate to 5.5%, in line
with expectations from economists polled by Reuters. The S&P/NZX 50 Gross
Index crept 0.17% higher after the move.
The country also saw its retail
sales volume fall 4.1% year-on-year in the first
quarter, the second straight quarterly contraction following a 4% fall in the
quarter ended December.
Overnight in the U.S., all three major indexes
fell, with the Nasdaq Composite leading losses at 1.26% lower, while the S&P 500 lost 1.12% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average down 0.69%.
Asia markets slide in early trade amid U.S. debt ceiling impasse (cnbc.com)
Stock futures are
little changed as investors eye debt ceiling clash in Washington: Live updates
UPDATED TUE, MAY 23 2023 10:25 PM
EDT
U.S. stock futures were flat on Tuesday night as
investors kept an eye on debt-ceiling negotiations.
Futures linked to the Dow Jones
Industrial Average rose by 25 points, or 0.08%. S&P 500 futures inched
higher by 0.08%, and Nasdaq 100 futures added 0.05%.
The three major averages fell
during regular
trading Tuesday. The S&P 500 lost
1.12%, while the Nasdaq Composite and the Dow Jones Industrial Average declined
1.26% and 0.69%, respectively.
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen previously
warned lawmakers that a potential default in early June is
“highly likely.” House Speaker Kevin McCarthy said he had a “productive”
discussion with President Joe Biden on Monday.
Nonetheless, there were few indicators of progress made in negotiations on
Tuesday.
Even if Washington’s officials
were to raise the debt ceiling, however, markets could be roiled, according to
Bill Merz, head of capital markets research at U.S. Bank Wealth
Management. That’s because the Treasury will need to issue a lot of debt
to replenish its general account, he said.
“The impact of that is likely to
remove liquidity from the broader capital markets,” Merz said. “Especially more
recently, [that] has really overlapped with, or it has correlated with, S&P
500 in general stock performance,” he continued.
“Especially more recently, [that]
has really overlapped with, or it has correlated with, the S&P 500 in
general stock performance,” Merz said.
On the economic front, investors
will be watching for the minutes from the Federal Reserve’s meeting earlier in
May. They will be released Wednesday afternoon.
Investors will also be looking
toward more earnings announcements. Clothing retailer American Eagle Outfitters and
semiconductor giant Nvidia will
be posting their results Wednesday after the bell.
Stock
market today: Live updates (cnbc.com)
Republicans question June 1 debt ceiling
deadline as talks zero in on potential trade-offs
WASHINGTON — A
significant group of House Republicans raised questions Tuesday about whether
the Treasury Department’s June 1 deadline to avoid a potential U.S. debt
default was accurate.
“We’d like to see
more transparency on how they come to that date,” House Majority Leader Rep.
Steve Scalise said Tuesday at a news conference.
Scalise also said he
believed that Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen’s latest comments, out Monday,
“implied that it’s June 1, or later, giving some openness to the idea that June
1 may not be the so called X-date.”
Yellen released a new
letter to congressional leaders Monday that appeared to say the
opposite of what Scalise claimed, specifically omitting a line from a previous
letter about how extraordinary measures could buy the United States more time
to avoid defaulting on its debt.
“We haven’t really been able to see
a lot of transparency, but it looks like they’re hedging now and opening up the
door to move that date back,” said Scalise.
A Treasury spokesperson declined to
comment.
More
Debt
ceiling deadline questioned by House Republicans (cnbc.com)
US
money market fund assets hit record highs despite debt-ceiling fears
May 24, 20235:03 AM GMT+1
NEW YORK, May 24 (Reuters) - U.S. money
market fund assets hit a new record of $5.8 trillion this week as yield-hungry
investors continued to turn to the short-term debt securities - a stark
contrast to the 2011 debt- ceiling standoff when there were large outflows from
the funds.
Money market mutual funds - a key
source of short-term corporate and municipal funding - have enjoyed $614.8
billion in net inflows so far this year, with $48 billion of those in the past
week as of Monday, according to Crane Data.
The influx comes despite growing
concerns that the White House and Republican lawmakers may not reach a
compromise to raise the $31.4 trillion debt ceiling ahead
of a June 1 deadline, pushing the country into a devastating default.
Although money market funds are
considered safe havens, they have experienced runs during previous crises and
government officials and ratings agencies have warned they may continue to be
vulnerable to rapid redemptions in times of stress.
In 2008, the collapse of Lehman
Brothers sparked a run on money market funds, which also experienced severe
stress in March 2020 as COVID-19 shut down the economy. Both episodes led the
government to backstop the sector and to review its rules.
---- But this time there are several
key differences buoying the sector. Those include higher interest rates, with
money market funds today offering yields of as much as 5% compared with bank
products which generally yield less than 1%. Recent bank failures have also prompted
investors to move cash from bank accounts to money funds, said Crane Data
President Peter Crane.
"In 2011 you had weakness in
money funds anyhow, whereas now you have assets hitting record levels," he
said. "The tide was going out then and now the cash tide is rising, or is
high, and it would take a lot more to reverse that."
Money market funds that invest in
Treasuries - money funds invest in high-quality, liquid, short-term debt,
including Treasuries, government agency debt and corporate securities - are
also avoiding exposure to Treasury bills that mature in June, said Crane.
"That's the sort of kryptonite
that people are staying away from," he said.
US
money market fund assets hit record highs despite debt-ceiling fears | Reuters
In other news.
From
mangoes to luxury watches, Indians look to offload 2,000-rupee notes
May 23, 2023
MUMBAI/NEW DELHI,
May 23 (Reuters) - Indians are stepping up purchases of daily essentials, and
even premium branded goods, using the soon-to-be-withdrawn 2,000-rupee ($24.46)
notes as they aim to sidestep the need to exchange or deposit them at banks.
The Indian
central bank announced on Friday the country's largest denomination note will
be withdrawn from circulation by the end of September. While it did not specify
the reason for the move, it comes ahead of state and general elections in the
country when, analysts said, cash usage typically spikes,
often in unaccounted deals.
The currency
exchange is expected to be far less disruptive than a 2016 move to demonetise 86% of the country's currency
in circulation overnight.
Since the
weekend, people have thronged outlets to spend using the 2000-rupee note to
avoid the hassle of queuing up at banks to exchange them or invite scrutiny
from the tax department by depositing large sums.
Indian shops,
for their part, eagerly accepted the note, using it as an opportunity to
increase sales, several of them said on Tuesday, the first day the exchange was
allowed.
---- Unlike
in 2016, when customers rushed to banks to exchange the scrapped currency
notes, bank branches in Mumbai and New Delhi were mostly quiet with a handful
of people standing in queues.
Maximum crowds
were seen at counters of India's largest lender, State Bank of India (SBI.NS), as the bank chose not to ask for any
documentation for exchange of up to the maximum allowed 20,000 rupees at one
time.
From
mangoes to luxury watches, Indians look to offload 2,000-rupee notes | Reuters
Oil
prices rise $1 on concerns over tightening supply
May 24, 20234:34 AM GMT+1
May 24 (Reuters)
- Oil prices gained over $1 on Wednesday after U.S. inventories and fuel
supplies tightened and as a warning from the Saudi energy minister to
speculators raised the prospect of further OPEC+ output cuts.
Brent crude
futures last rose 68 cents, or 0.9%, to $77.52 a barrel by 0330 GMT, while the
U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude (WTI) gained 75 cents, or 1%, to $73.66 a
barrel.
Brent had
earlier rose as much as $1.03 to $77.87 a barrel. WTI had jumped as much as
$1.07 to $73.98 a barrel.
"Oil is
starting to turn bullish after the Saudi threat to short-sellers," said
Edward Moya, senior analyst at OANDA, adding that Saudi Arabia will likely do
"whatever it takes to defend prices".
Fears of a
supply squeeze mounted after Saudi Arabia's energy minister said he
would keep short sellers - those betting that prices will fall -
"ouching" and told them to "watch out".
Some investors
took that as a signal that the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries
and allies including Russia, also known as OPEC+, could consider further output
cuts at a meeting on June 4.
---- Also
boosting oil prices was industry data late on Tuesday which showed that U.S.
crude oil and fuel inventories fell sharply.
Crude
inventories fell by about 6.8 million barrels in the week ended May 19,
according to market sources citing American Petroleum Institute (API) figures.
Gasoline inventories dropped by about 6.4 million, while distillate inventories
declined by about 1.8 million.
If data from the
Energy Information Administration (EIA), due on Wednesday, confirm the API
figures, U.S. gasoline inventories would have declined for the third consecutive
week to their lowest pre-Memorial Day levels since 2014.
---- The
Memorial Day holiday in the United States, this year on May 29, traditionally
marks the beginning of U.S. peak summer travel.
Elsewhere,
markets were still wary about U.S. debt ceiling discussions which in turn
tempered oil price gains. Another round of debt ceiling talks ended on Tuesday with
no signs of progress as the deadline to raise the government's $31.4 trillion
borrowing limit or risk default ticked closer.
More
Oil
prices rise $1 on concerns over tightening supply | 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.
Former Fed Chair
Ben Bernanke says there’s more work ahead to control inflation
WASHINGTON — Former Federal Reserve Chair Ben Bernanke, who guided
the central bank and the U.S. economy through the Great Recession, thinks
central bankers still have work to do to bring down inflation.
That work, he and economist Olivier
Blanchard argue in an academic paper released Tuesday, will
entail slowing down what has been a phenomenally resilient labor market.
The duo does not present specific prescriptions for how much unemployment
needs to rise, but they do suggest it’s possible for the current Fed to
orchestrate its way out of this predicament without severely tanking the U.S.
economy.
“Looking forward,
with labor market slack still below sustainable levels and inflation
expectations modestly higher, we conclude that the Fed is unlikely to be able
to avoid slowing the economy to return inflation to target,” Bernanke and
Blanchard wrote in the paper.
Since leaving the Fed
in 2014, Bernanke has been a distinguished senior fellow at the Brookings
Institution. Blanchard is a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for
International Economics.
Their paper notes that inflation has evolved since
ballooning to a
40-year high in the summer of 2022. Initially, prices jumped as
consumers used stimulus from Congress and the central bank to shift spending
from services to goods, creating logjams in supplies and juicing inflation.
However, they note the new phase is
now being pushed by a rise in wages trying to catch up to the surge in prices.
The good news is that such shocks are generally controllable, but they said the
Fed needs to keep trying to address the labor situation in which the
unemployment rate is at 3.4% and there are still about 1.6 open jobs for
every available worker.
“The portion of inflation which traces its origin to overheating of labor
markets can only be reversed by policy actions that bring labor demand and
supply into better balance,” Bernanke and Blanchard say.
More
Ex-Fed
Chair Bernanke: There's more work ahead to control inflation (cnbc.com)
Inflation tightens
grip on UK services firms in worry for BoE -flash PMI
May
23, 2023
LONDON (Reuters) - Companies in Britain's services sector increased
prices at a rapid pace in May as they saw another month of strong demand,
according to a survey that could add to the Bank of England's worries about the
persistence of high inflation.
Measures of
inflation for services firms' costs and their prices edged higher, although
they are down on peaks seen shortly after Russia invaded Ukraine last year, the
preliminary reading of the S&P Global/CIPS UK Purchasing Mangers' Index
(PMI) showed.
The BoE is
watching prices in the services sector as an indicator of how much inflation
pressure remains in the economy. It has increased interest rates at 12 meetings
in a row since late 2021 and is due to announce its next decision on June 22.
Tuesday's PMI
survey once again painted a contrasting picture for British businesses with
services firms reporting growth in May - albeit slowing slightly from April's
one-year high - while manufacturing companies' business shrank again.
S&P
Global's Composite PMI - spanning both the services and manufacturing sectors -
dropped to 53.9 from the one-year high of 54.9 recorded in April. But it
remained in growth territory above the 50.0 level for the fourth month in a
row.
Chris Williamson, chief
business economist at S&P Global, said the PMI was consistent with
quarterly gross domestic product growth of 0.4% in the second quarter, speeding
up from 0.1% in the first three months of the year.
"However,
this growth spurt is driving renewed inflationary pressures, as service
providers struggle to meet demand and hence not only offer higher wages to
attract staff but also find themselves able to charge more for their
services," he said.
"These
survey results are nothing but hawkish in suggesting the Bank of England has
more work to do to quash stubbornly high inflationary pressures in the services
economy."
So far in
2023, Britain's economy has fared better than many forecasts of a recession
made late last year.
More
Inflation tightens grip on UK services firms in worry for BoE -flash PMI (msn.com)
Olive Oil Prices Soar As
Top Producer Plagued With Drought
May 23, 2023
Spain's severe drought and
parched soils have sent olive oil prices to levels not seen in more than a
decade. The surge in olive oil prices, along with fresh produce, is
exacerbating already high food prices as the Northern Hemisphere summer starts
in less than a month.
Data from Bloomberg shows that
Spanish extra-virgin olive oil prices have jumped 200% since 2020 to 5,870
euros per metric ton -- the highest level since 2010. Most of the price surge
was recorded in the last year.
"Output
in the country could more than halve this season due to the arid conditions,
according to a Spanish farming industry group," Bloomberg said. Spain
accounts for 40% of the world's supply, indicating prices across Europe and
other regions are being pushed higher.
Europe's Monitoring Agricultural
Resources recently said Spain is under severe weather stress, with barely any
rainfall since January. The drought is damaging crops and threatens to drive
food prices even higher across Europe.
Research firm Gro Intelligence
penned a note last week that warned the country is in "extreme"
drought across top croplands — the highest recorded reading in at least two
decades — while soil moisture levels are the lowest since at least 2010.
Olive Oil Prices Soar As Top Producer Plagued With Drought | ZeroHedge
Covid-19 Corner
This section will continue until it becomes unneeded.
Today,
another reason for the UK to reject any USA trade deal that involves meat.
Beef Company CEO: “I’ll Shut Down the Company Before
We Ship a Single Bag With mRNA-Injected Meat”
May. 19, 2023
Quickly but quietly, Big Pharma and various state
governments are working to inject beef and dairy cattle with mRNA “vaccines.”
The practice has been happening with pork since 2018 and beef is next on the
agenda.
Jason Nelson, CEO of Whole Cows, has
been watching the developments closely. His Texas company, which specializes in
shelf-stable freeze-dried meat for long-term storage, has vowed to never allow
gene therapied cattle to enter the food supply through their products (plus,
the Liberty Daily benefits when you purchase from them through this link and
the links below).
“I’ll shut down the company before we ship a single
bag of mRNA-injected meat,” he said. “That’s why we’re growing as quickly as
possible so we can achieve the buying power to produce large amounts. We’re
relatively small now but we want to have a surplus of tens of thousands of bags
of beef by 2024.”
The pushes for both transparency and to halt the push for mRNA-jabbed
beef have hit roadblocks recently. In Missouri, a bill that would have forced
labeling of beef injected with mRNA vaccines was stalled in committee.
According to Todd Neeley at DTN:
A bill at the center of a vaccine controversy in the state of Missouri
was voted down in a committee of the state’s house of representatives this
week. The Missouri House Committee on Emerging Issues voted 10-4 against HB1169
on Wednesday, effectively ending the bill’s chance for passage in the current
session.
Among many other stipulations, the bill would have required all beef
derived from Missouri cattle to include labels detailing vaccines cattle
received throughout their life. HB1169 also would have applied to commodities
produced using GMO corn and soybeans.
Unfortunately, cattle and rancher associations across the nation have
ignored concerns from both consumers and producers. Currently, most state
rancher associations are either silent on the issue or in favor of advancing
Big Pharma’s agenda.
----Dr. Joseph Mercola, who has been a heavy
proponent of natural foods his entire career, has been raising the alarm bell
about the risks of the burgeoning threat to the food supply in America. As he
recently noted:
Moving forward, it’s going to be extremely important to stay on top of
what’s happening to our food supply. Many of us were surprised to realize mRNA
shots have been used in swine for several years already. Soon, cattle may get
these customizable mRNA shots as well, which could affect both beef and dairy
products.
For now, I strongly recommend avoiding pork products. In addition to the
uncertainty surrounding these untested mRNA “vaccines,” pork is also very high
in linoleic acid, a harmful omega-6 fat that drives chronic disease. Hopefully,
cattle ranchers will realize the danger this mRNA platform poses to their
bottom-line and reject it. If they don’t, finding beef and dairy that has not
been “gene therapied” could become quite the challenge.
Ultimately, if we want to be free, and if we want food safety and food
security, we must focus our efforts on building a decentralized system that
connects communities with farmers who grow real food in sustainable ways and
distribute that food locally.
More
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.
World's largest and most efficient aircraft engine
aces first tests
Loz Blain May 22, 2023
Rolls-Royce has completed the first ground tests on its
massive UltraFan engine, claiming it's at least 10% more efficient than any
other large aero engine in service today. This carbon/titanium beauty will roll
out on airliners in the 2030s.
Despite the UltraFan's intimidating size, it's impressively
lightweight thanks to Rolls-Royce's high-precision 3D-manufacturing robots,
which make most of those mammoth 140-inch-diameter (3.56 m) blades in carbon
composite, but use titanium to add strength and resilience to the leading
edges.
The turbines behind the main fan are kept fairly small,
creating a high bypass ratio by allowing a good volume of air to pass straight
through around the compressors and out the back. This cuts down noise by a
remarkable 35%. It also boosts efficiency – as does a planetary power gearbox
that allows the main fan to spin slower and the compressors to spin faster,
putting each in their optimal zones.
At 10% more efficient than the most frugal engine on the market –
Rolls-Royce's own Trent XWB, according to the company – it stands to save
airlines billions of dollars in fuel bills, so it's sure to be popular when
it's fully certified and rolling out on narrow and widebody aircraft in the
2030s, at a number of different sizes ranging from 25,000-110,000 pounds of
thrust.
As well as saving money, it'll also drop a corresponding
amount off the airline's carbon footprint – a small step toward clean flight,
but a significant one at scale – while also virtually eliminating particulate
emissions and cutting NOx emissions by about 40%.
More, plus video.
World's largest
and most efficient aircraft engine aces first tests (newatlas.com)
John Kenneth Galbraith. The Great Crash: 1929.
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