Baltic Dry Index. 1016 +77 Brent Crude 75.78
Spot Gold 1963 US 2 Year Yield 4.51 +0.05
Coronavirus
Cases 01/04/20 World 1,000,000
Deaths 53,103
Coronavirus Cases 07/06/23 World 689,970,159
Deaths 6,888,216
“Beyond
this, the problem is universal. It is that governments are now held responsible
for the welfare of the people. The aspirations of the people can outrun their
ability to pay for them, and nobody has yet found a way to create answers to
the aspirations out of thin air.”
George
Goodman, aka Adam Smith, The Money Game. 1968. [Until October
19, 1987 onwards.]
In the central bank fuelled, fantasy stock casinos, it’s boom time again, unless you are living in cryptoland, where this week the sky just fell in. Would the last one out remember to turn out the lights.
Stock futures are flat after S&P 500 notches
highest close since August: Live updates
UPDATED TUE, JUN 6 2023 7:00 PM EDT
Stocks futures were flat in overnight trading
after the S&P 500 notched
its highest closing level of 2023.
The tail-end of
earnings season pressed on with results from Dave & Buster’s and Stitch Fix.
Dave & Buster’s gained
about 4% after the bell, while Stitch
Fix added nearly 5%.
Futures tied to
the Dow Jones
Industrial Average dipped
8 points. S&P 500 futures
and Nasdaq-100 futures traded
flat.
Stocks edged
higher during
Tuesday’s regular trading session. The broad index added 0.24%
to finish at its highest level since August 2022, while the Nasdaq Composite rose
0.36% to end at its highest close in 2023. The Dow Jones Industrial Average ticked
10.42 points higher, or 0.03%, pressured by health stocks Merck and UnitedHealth.
Seven major
S&P sectors finished Tuesday’s session with gains. The financial sector
added 1.3%, boosted by regional banking stocks and bellwethers like Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley.
Tuesday’s uptrend
trailed last week’s blowout rally. However, continued modest gains instead of
sharp pullbacks after a major upswing could signal more good news ahead, said
Adam Sarhan, CEO of 50 Park Investments.
“The fact that it
refuses to fall to me is extremely bullish,” he said. “Normally, after a big
run up, you see a market pullback, and when the market doesn’t pull back and
goes sideways, that to me is very bullish.”
A light period
for economic data continues ahead of next week’s Federal Reserve policy
meeting, with trade balance data due out before the bell Wednesday. Earnings
from Campbell Soup and GameStop are
also on deck.
Stock
market today: Live updates (cnbc.com)
SEC sues
Coinbase over exchange and staking programs, stock drops 12%
The Securities and Exchange Commission sued crypto
exchange Coinbase in
New York federal court on Tuesday morning, alleging that the company was acting
as an unregistered broker and exchange and demanding that the company be
“permanently restrained and enjoined” from continuing to do so.
Shares closed down 12% Tuesday.
Coinbase stock had already fallen 9% on Monday, after the SEC unveiled
charges against rival crypto exchange Binance and its founder
Changpeng Zhao.
“These trading platforms, they call themselves exchanges, are commingling
a number of functions,” SEC chair Gary Gensler said on CNBC Tuesday. “We don’t
see the New York Stock Exchange operating a hedge fund,” Gensler continued.
Coinbase’s flagship prime brokerage, exchange and
staking programs violate securities laws, the regulator alleged in its complaint. The company “has for years defied
the regulatory structures and evaded the disclosure requirements” of U.S.
securities law.
The SEC has alleged that at least
13 crypto assets available to Coinbase customers were considered “crypto asset
securities” by the regulator. Those assets include Solana’s SOL token, Cardano’s token
and Protocol Labs’ Filecoin token.
“We allege that Coinbase, despite
being subject to the securities laws, commingled and unlawfully offered
exchange, broker-dealer, and clearinghouse functions,” Gensler said in a
statement.
“The SEC’s reliance on an
enforcement-only approach in the absence of clear rules for the digital asset
industry is hurting America’s economic competitiveness and companies like
Coinbase that have a demonstrated commitment to compliance,” Coinbase chief
legal officer Paul Grewal told CNBC in a statement. “The solution is
legislation that allows fair rules for the road to be developed transparently
and applied equally, not litigation. In the meantime, we’ll continue to operate
our business as usual.”
Coinbase’s institutional service, Prime, its retail exchange product, and
its self-custody Wallet service all offered one or more crypto asset security,
the SEC said in its complaint.
Coinbase’s staking
program was also identified as a investment contract and as an unregistered
security: The SEC had already taken similar action to force the closure of
crypto exchange Kraken’s staking service.
The SEC described the
staking program as a way for “investors to earn financial returns through
Coinbase’s managerial efforts.” The SEC says the five “stakeable crypto assets”
are considered securities under its interpretation of the law, an assessment
that will no doubt be disputed by Coinbase.
More
SEC
sues Coinbase over exchange and staking programs, stock drops 12% (cnbc.com)
Binance U.S. clients have $2.2 billion ‘at
significant risk’ after crypto exchange charged, SEC says
The $2.2 billion of U.S. customer assets held by
Binance is at “significant risk” of being stolen by founder Changpeng Zhao
unless a freezing order is in put place, federal regulators said in a filing
Tuesday night, after the crypto regulator was charged by the Securities and
Exchange Commission.
Lawyers from the SEC filed an
emergency motion earlier,
citing a risk of capital flight and asking a judge
to repatriate and freeze U.S. customer assets to prevent illicit transfers by
Zhao or Binance entities. The SEC sued
Binance and Zhao on Monday, alleging they engaged in the
unregistered offer and sale of securities and commingled investor funds with
their own.
The latest filing described Zhao as a “foreign national who has
made overt his views that he is not subject to the jurisdiction of this Court.”
SEC lawyers alleged that two Binance U.S. subsidiaries — BAM Trading and BAM
Management — were controlled by Zhao and had already garnered “illicit gains”
of at least $420.4 million in profits and venture fundraising.
Years of
communications between the SEC and Binance, which claims no official
headquarters, suggest that Binance.US couldn’t clearly indicate who controlled
customer assets, according to the filing.
“Zhao and Binance
have had free reign,” the SEC alleged, over “customer assets worth billions of
dollars.”
Zhao’s attorneys say
the billionaire is not subject to U.S. law, despite his control over or
beneficial ownership of U.S. companies and bank accounts that sent billions of
dollars to Swiss and British Virgin Islands-based holding companies, the SEC
said.
The SEC says federal
law and precedent establish the court’s jurisdiction over Zhao and Binance.
“There is no doubt
that the Court has personal jurisdiction over all Defendants,” the SEC said.
More
$2.2
billion of Binance customer assets at significant risk, SEC says (cnbc.com)
Back in the real world, things aren’t quite
so rosy or not even rosy at all.
China’s exports plunge by 7.5% in May, far more
than expected
BEIJING — China’s exports fell in
May for the first time since February, customs data showed Wednesday.
Exports fell 7.5% year-on-year to
$283.5 billion, far worse than the 0.4% decline predicted by a Reuters poll.
The decline was so sharp that
export volumes came in below their levels at the start of the year, after
accounting for seasonality and changes in export prices, Julian
Evans-Pritchard, head of China Economics at Capital Economics, said in a note.
“This points to subdued global demand for Chinese goods,” he said.
In April, China’s exports beat
expectations slightly with 8.5% year-on-year growth.
However, the
disappointing export figures for May indicate that the longer-term trend is
down, said Hao Hong, chief economist at Grow Investment Group.
China won’t be able
depend on trade to boost its economy for “another six months, for sure,” he
said, noting a drag from lackluster U.S. demand, where inflation — and interest
rates — remain high.
Imports
for May dropped by 4.5% from a year ago to $217.69 billion — less than the 8%
plunge forecast by Reuters.
China’s monthly
imports have declined on a year-on-year basis since late last year.
More
China's
exports plunge by 7.5% in May, far more than expected (cnbc.com)
Oil
extends losses as economic slowdown concerns return
By Yuka Obayashi and Muyu Xu
TOKYO, June 7 (Reuters) - Oil extended
losses on Wednesday as concerns over global economic headwinds deepened,
erasing the price gains booked after top crude exporter Saudi Arabia's surprise
weekend pledge to deepen output cuts.
Brent crude futures
were down 40 cents, or 0.5%, at $75.89 a barrel at 0456 GMT. The U.S. West
Texas Intermediate crude futures fell 35 cents, also 0.5%, to $71.39 a barrel.
Both benchmarks had
jumped more than $1 on Monday, boosted by Saudi Arabia's decision over the
weekend to reduce output by 1 million barrels per day (bpd) to 9 million bpd in
July.
"The fears of recession, as more
and more sombre economic readings point towards a slowdown, have kept a lid on
oil prices, eroding all OPEC+'s efforts to keep prices afloat," Priyanka
Sachdeva, an analyst at Phillip Nova, said in a note.
U.S. gasoline
inventories rose by about 2.4 million barrels and distillates inventories were
up by about 4.5 million barrels in the week ended June 2, market sources said
on Tuesday, citing American Petroleum Institute figures.
The unexpected
buildup of stockpiles raised concerns over fuel consumption by the world's top
oil consumer, especially as travel demand grew during the Memorial Day weekend.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Energy Information
Administration (EIA) said on Tuesday that U.S crude oil production this year
would rise faster and demand increases would
cool compared to prior expectations.
"The market has
digested the news of Saudi's production cut and investors are now reluctant to
take a large position because of mixed economic forecasts and indicators in the
United States and China," said Hiroyuki Kikukawa, president of NS Trading,
a unit of Nissan Securities.
More
Oil
extends losses as economic slowdown concerns return | Reuters
Finally, as goes California so goes the nation.
As goes America, so goes the world. Is real estate trouble in San Francisco
leading the way?
What
Are Older Office Towers Worth in the New Era? Second San Francisco Office Tower
Sells for 70% Off Original Listing Price
by Wolf Richter • Jun 5, 2023
And nearly 60% off
the purchase price in 2005. Price discovery sets in. Deals are being made.
The burning question
arose over the past two years what these largely empty older office towers in
San Francisco are worth.
The market had frozen
over. There were no transactions because no one knew what anything was worth as
San Francisco’s office market has morphed in just a few years from being one of
the hottest office markets in the US with a vacancy rate of 7% in 2019 and some
of the highest rents in the US, to being put on ice by working-from-home. About 33% of all office space is now on
the market for lease – worse even than Houston, which was for
years the worst office market in the US.
So now there’s the second
deal in about a month — though the sale hasn’t closed yet. Wells Fargo found a
buyer for one of its office towers in San Francisco, the 13-story
355,000-square-foot 1960s-era tower at 550 California, across the street and
around the corner from its headquarters tower on Montgomery.
Wells Fargo had purchased
the tower in 2005 for $108 million. It is vacating the building. Last year, it
listed it for $160 million, but then pulled the listing after receiving bids
reportedly below $40 million. Earlier this year, it engaged real estate
investment bank Eastdil Secured to relist the tower.
And it has now made a
deal – the name of the buyer has not been disclosed – for about $42.6 million
to $46 million ($120 to $130 per square foot), according to sources cited by
the San Francisco Business Times.
That would be 71% below the original asking price and nearly 60% below the
purchase price in 2005.
The first tower to find a
buyer in the new era of working-from-home and office-footprint reduction had
been the Union Bank headquarters tower at 350 California, which changed hands in early May at 75%
off the original listing price in 2020, at around $200 to $225 per
square foot. But it had undergone $41 million in seismic upgrades and
renovations recently.
The price of the Wells
Fargo tower ($120 to $130 per square foot) and the price of the Union Bank
tower ($200 to $225 per square foot) now serve as benchmark for other older
office towers. It seems, as price discovery is beginning to take place, the
door has been opened to more deals.
More
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.
German factory orders dipped again as 2nd quarter
started
June 6, 2023
BERLIN (AP) — German factory orders, an important
indicator for Europe’s biggest economy, dipped in April after a big drop in
March, official figures showed Tuesday. The data pointed to a disappointing
start to the second quarter.
The Economy Ministry said orders were down 0.4% compared
with the previous month. That followed a painful 10.9% drop in March.
Economists had expected an increase in April, but the ministry said the figure
was influenced in part by fluctuations in bulk orders.
While domestic orders were up 1.6% in April, there was a
drop in foreign demand — particularly in orders from elsewhere in the 20-nation
eurozone, which were 2.7% lower.
The orders data followed the release on Monday of
lackluster export figures for April. They showed exports increasing by 1.2% on
the month after a 6% drop in March.
In late May, Germany’s national statistics office said
that the economy shrank in the first three months of this year, marking the
second consecutive quarter of contraction that is one definition of recession.
Germany’s gross domestic product, or GDP, declined by
0.3% in the period from January to March. That followed a drop of 0.5% in
Europe’s biggest economy during the last quarter of 2022.
Inflation has eased but remained at a still-high 6.1% in May, while higher interest rates are also complicating hopes of an economic upturn.
German factory
orders dipped again as 2nd quarter started | AP News
Spend the recession away? Not the thrifty Germans
June 6, 2023
BERLIN
(Reuters) -A drop-off in spending by inflation-hit consumers was one of the
main reasons Germany fell into recession in the first quarter, even as other
countries in the region managed to avoid it.
What's more,
even with inflation starting to ease across Europe, the signs are that
Germany's famously thrifty shoppers are not ready to spend their way out of
recession - meaning the region's largest economy will have to look elsewhere
for growth.
"Germans
are cautious by nature," said Stephan Fetsch, Germany's head of consumer
goods at KPMG. "Unless they feel safe about the future, they remain
reluctant to spend."
German output
shrank 0.3% in the first three months of the year to mark a second straight
quarter of negative growth, notably weighed down by a 1.2% fall in household
spending that contrasted with modest gains in France and Italy.
Its economy -
described in a Sentix survey on Monday as "the biggest problem child in
the euro zone" - is at a crossroads. Economists polled by Reuters are
split on its second quarter fortunes: views ranged from a 0.3% GDP fall to a
0.5% gain, with a median forecast of 0.2% growth.
Household consumption, which like elsewhere accounts for broadly half of GDP in Germany, will be key to the outcome.
However, German consumer sentiment remains below its pandemic low in the spring of 2020 and the consumer barometer from the German Retail Association (HDE) shows a similar picture.
"A
significant boost in private consumption is not expected in the coming
months," the retail association said on Monday in the presentation of the
barometer for June.
More
Spend the
recession away? Not the thrifty Germans (msn.com)
The Fed's man-made
housing market recession hit so hard that 4 real estate titans just lost their
Fortune 500 status
June 6, 2023
Not only did rock bottom interest rates during the pandemic spur a refinancing bonanza, but with the help of remote work and tight inventory, they also heated up the housing market in a way that hadn't been seen since the bubble. Borrowers simply couldn't pass up on 30-year fixed mortgages with a rate of 3%—or in some cases 2%. Few companies, of course, benefited more from that housing boom than Rocket Companies, which during the roughest part of the lockdowns did $5 billion in sales in the second quarter of 2020 compared to $1.6 billion in the same quarter in 2019.
That's
behind us now: The mortgage rate shock created by the Federal Reserve's rate hiking
campaign has set off a housing market recession. While national home prices remain fairly
stable, housing activity hasn't
been so lucky. Residential fixed investment, otherwise known as housing GDP, has fallen for four
straight quarters, while mortgage refinance applications and mortgage purchase
applications are down 45% and 31%, respectively, on a year-over-year basis.
The Fed's man-made housing market downturn has
been so sharp that when the Fortune
500 list was unveiled on Monday, it was missing four major real
estate companies, which had been on the list last year. That includes Rocket
Companies (which was No. 282 on the Fortune
500 list unveiled in June 2022), Zillow (No. 424 last year), Anywhere Real Estate (No.
427 last year), and Compass (No.
495 last year).
More
Covid-19 Corner
This section will continue until it becomes unneeded.
Some Sudden Deaths Caused by COVID-19 Vaccines, Autopsies
Confirm
Jun 6 2023
Some sudden deaths were caused by COVID-19 vaccines, autopsies have
confirmed.
Eight people who died suddenly after receiving a messenger RNA (mRNA) COVID-19 vaccine died due to a type of vaccine-induced heart inflammation called myocarditis, South Korean authorities said after reviewing the autopsies.
“Vaccine-related myocarditis was the only possible cause of
death,” Dr. Kye Hun Kim of the Chonnam National University Hospital and
other South Korean researchers said.
Myocarditis
wasn’t suspected as a clinical diagnosis or cause of death before the
autopsies, researchers said.
Thirteen
other deaths were recorded among those who experienced myocarditis after
COVID-19 vaccination but no autopsy results were detailed. Some of those who
died had received AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine.
The results show the need for “careful monitoring or warning of SCD as a potentially fatal complication of COVID-19 vaccination, especially in individuals who are ages under 45 years with mRNA vaccination,” according to the researchers, who reported the findings in a study published by the European Heart Journal on June 2.
The study was funded by the South Korean government.
Dr. Andrew Bostom, a retired professor of medicine in the United States who wasn’t involved in the research, said the results emphasize why mandating and promoting vaccines for younger people was wrong.
“These are people who ostensibly did not need the vaccine,” Bostom told The Epoch Times after reviewing the paper. “That’s what adds insult to injury.”
Pfizer, Moderna, and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration didn’t respond to requests for comment.
More
Some
Sudden Deaths Caused by COVID-19 Vaccines, Autopsies Confirm
(theepochtimes.com)
Tuberculosis surpassing COVID-19 as
world's deadliest infectious disease
Experts
have issued a dire warning as tuberculosis is emerging as the world's deadliest
infectious disease, surpassing COVID-19.
21:31, Mon, Jun 5, 2023 | UPDATED: 01:07, Tue, Jun 6, 2023
Tuberculosis has
emerged as one of the world's deadliest infectious diseases, with the
largest-ever clinical trial for the disease established to address this hidden
pandemic set up in Africa. Led by British Professor Robert Wilkinson, a global
initiative has been launched, involving research institutions in the US, India, Vietnam, Indonesia, Madagascar, and the Ivory Coast, to find a one-shot vaccine.
Currently, the treatment for
tuberculosis (TB) requires a minimum of six months, and if medications are
stopped prematurely, the disease can return in a highly dangerous
drug-resistant form.
In 2005, the NHS stopped providing the
BCG vaccine for TB to all children in the UK, opting instead to administer it
only to children who may travel to heavily affected countries.
However, the immunity provided by this
vaccine does not extend beyond teenage years.
The United States has adopted a similar approach with the BCG vaccine but is making significant progress towards eradicating the disease through substantial investments and effective contact tracing during outbreaks.
The Mirror interviewed survivors of TB in the South African township of Khayelitsha, which has one of the highest rates of drug-resistant TB worldwide.
This area is the focal point
of a clinic led by Professor Wilkinson, affiliated with London's Francis Crick
Institute.
He said: “It’s inevitable TB
will be the most deadly infectious disease in the world again. The proportion
of resistant TB is gradually increasing everywhere and that is a problem in
Europe too.
After a decade of decline, imported cases of TB
have started to increase in England.
This growing mutant form of TB has a high fatality
rate, with almost one-third of patients succumbing to the disease.
More
Tuberculosis
surpassing COVID-19 as world's deadliest infectious disease | UK | News |
Express.co.uk
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.
Light-activated concrete scrubs air pollution out of
traffic tunnels
June 06, 2023
Traffic is among the biggest sources of air pollution, but
what if the very roads they drive on could help clear
the air? Engineers in Korea
have now demonstrated that photocatalytic concrete can help reduce pollution in
tunnels.
While we need to transition to greener vehicles as soon as
possible, it’s still going to take a few decades. In the meantime, finding
other ways to slurp up that air pollution is important, so why not turn to the
most common building material in the world to help? In recent years scientists
have developed concrete that can convert some of the nasties in the surrounding
air into harmless products.
These air-purifying concrete systems rely on a coating of titanium
dioxide, which reacts to sunlight to produce molecules called reactive oxygen
species (ROS). These have strong oxidizing power, which breaks down air
pollutants like volatile organic compounds (VOCs), nitrogen oxides, sulfur
oxides, and ammonia and prevents the formation of fine particulate matter.
In the new study, researchers at the Korea Institute of Civil
Engineering and Building Technology (KICT) developed this kind of
photocatalytic concrete and tested it in a traffic tunnel, where pollution is
often higher due to poor air circulation. Artificial lights were installed
along the walls to fuel the light-activated reactions in the concrete.
The
team found that levels of nitrogen oxides dropped by about 18% over 24 hours,
and the end products of the reactions were salts, formed in part from the
calcium content in the concrete. These salts were quickly washed away by rain.
Better yet, the team says this process should allow the photocatalytic concrete
to function indefinitely, without needing any extra maintenance beyond that of
regular concrete.
The
team plans to continue researching the technology to help get it commercialized
and hopefully improve its effectiveness. Other examples have managed to reduce
nitrogen oxide levels by 45%, or even an astonishing 70% when paired
with graphene.
More
Light-activated
concrete scrubs air pollution out of traffic tunnels (newatlas.com)
Somebody has to be
on the other side.
George Goodman, aka Adam Smith. The Money Game. Why
Are The Little People Always Wrong?
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