Baltic Dry Index. 1068 -23 Brent Crude 75.04
Spot Gold 1924 US 2 Year Yield 4.94 +0.07
"There is no means of avoiding the final collapse of a boom
brought about by credit expansion. The alternative is only whether the crisis
should come sooner as the result of voluntary abandonment of further credit
expansion, or later as a final and total catastrophe of the currency system
involved."
Ludwig
von Mises.
An interesting day ahead, even though the US markets are closed for the July 4th Independence Day holiday.
Did the Australian central bank just signal the end of all the global interest rate hikes?
Europe’s manufacturing sector has entered a slump.
Tired
of America and Europe initiating a high tech trade war on China’s semiconductor
industry, China today struck back.
Australia’s
central bank leaves its key rate unchanged, says inflation ‘passed its peak’
Australia’s central bank held its official cash
rate steady at 4.10% in a closely watched decision Tuesday.
Economists were split on
expectations ahead of the decision, with 16 out of 31 respondents surveyed by
Reuters forecasting a hike of 25 basis points and 15 expecting the central bank
to hold.
Stocks cheered the move as the
central bank said “inflation in Australia has passed its peak.” The S&P/ASX 200 pared
earlier losses and rose 0.21%.
The Australia Bureau of Statistics’ monthly
inflation indicator showed some cooling in the rise of prices at 5.6% for the month of May, led by housing
prices, food and non-alcoholic beverages.
Australia’s monthly inflation
indicator peaked at 8.4% in December. The economy’s consumer price index rose
7% in the first quarter of 2023.
The decision comes after the
central bank raised its cash rate by 25 basis points last month — a move it
described as a “finely balanced” decision, according to minutes from its June meeting.
More
Australia's central bank leaves its key rate unchanged, says inflation 'passed its peak' (cnbc.com)
Stocks eke
out small gain to start second half of 2023, Tesla rises 6%: Live updates
UPDATED MON, JUL 3 2023 2:49 PM EDT
Stocks rose
slightly Monday in a shortened session that kicked off the second half of
what’s already been a stellar
year on Wall Street.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average added
10.87 points, or 0.03%, to finish at 34,418.47. The S&P 500 climbed
0.12% to end at 4,455.59, while the Nasdaq Composite advanced
0.21% to 13,816.77.
U.S. markets closed early ahead
of the Fourth of July holiday. They will be closed Tuesday as well.
Tesla shares
jumped 6.9% after the electric vehicle maker reported delivery and production numbers that beat
analysts’ expectations. Other electric vehicle stocks including Rivian, Fisker and Lucid rose
in tandem.
Monday’s shortened session marked
the start of a new trading month, quarter and half. On Friday, the Nasdaq
Composite closed out its biggest first-half gain since 1983, surging 31.7%,
while the S&P 500 jumped 15.9% for its best first-half performance since
2019. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lagged, climbing a modest 3.8% during
the period.
Those gains came as enthusiasm
around artificial intelligence boosted
tech stocks. Recent data showing a resilient U.S. economy despite
higher rates also lifted investor sentiment, easing some fears on Wall Street
of a long-awaited downturn.
More
Stock
market today: Live updates (cnbc.com)
Finally, in the tech war on China, China hits
back.
China slaps
export curbs on chipmaking metals in tech war with the U.S, Europe
China is restricting the exports of two metals key
to the manufacturing of semiconductors, its commerce ministry said late Monday,
escalating a technological trade war with Europe and the United States over
access to microchips.
These new regulations — imposed on
grounds of national security — will require exporters to seek a license to ship
some gallium and germanium compounds starting Aug. 1, China’s commerce ministry said. Applications for these export licenses
must identify importers and end users and stipulate how these metals will be
used.
This move is part of an intensifying global battle
for technological supremacy — with China as the world’s largest
source of both metals, according to a European Union study on critical raw
materials this year.
Shares of Chinese germanium producers soared on Tuesday. At the
midday trading break, Yunnan Lincang Xinyuan Germanium Industrial surged by the
10% limit in Shenzhen, while Yunnan Chihong
Zinc & Germanium pared earlier gains but was still 7.5% higher. Both are
outperforming the 0.1% gain for the CSI 300 index of China’s largest A-share
listings.
In October, the U.S. launched sweeping
rules aimed at cutting
off exports of key chips and semiconductor tools to China. The
measures are believed to have the potential to cripple
China’s ambitions to boost its domestic technology industries.
The U.S. has also lobbied key chipmaking nations and allies, like the
Netherlands and Japan, to
introduce export restrictions of their own.
The Netherlands responded Friday
with new
export restrictions on advanced semiconductor equipment. This
will effectively bar ASML from
exporting to China. But these latest Dutch curbs do not specifically target
ASML, one
of the most important semiconductor companies in the world.
More
China
slaps curbs on chipmaking metals in tech war with U.S., Europe (cnbc.com)
EU and Japan
look to partner on A.I. and chips as China ‘de-risking’ strategy continues
The European Union is looking to cooperate more
closely with Japan on key technologies such as artificial intelligence, the
bloc’s industry chief said, as the coalition looks to reduce its reliance on
China in certain areas.
EU Commissioner Thierry Breton is
meeting with the Japanese government on Monday, and artificial intelligence
will be “very high” on his agenda, he said in a video posted on Twitter on
Sunday.
“I will engage with [the] Japanese
government … on how we can organize our digital space, including AI based on
our shared value,” Breton said.
Breton also said there will be an EU-Japan Digital
Partnership council, to discuss areas including quantum and high-performance
computing. The EU held a similar council with South Korea last week, in which
the two sides agreed to cooperate on technologies such as AI and cybersecurity.
Partnerships with key Asian
countries with strong technology sectors come as the EU looks to “de-risk” from
China — a
different approach from that of the U.S., which has sought to
decouple its economy from Beijing.
Part of that EU strategy involves
deepening the relationship with allied countries around technology.
More
EU,
Japan look to partner on A.I., chips amid China 'de-risking' push (cnbc.com)
Factbox: Where are
strategic materials germanium and gallium produced?
July
4, 20234:44 AM GMT+1
BEIJING, July 4 (Reuters) - China said
on Monday it will impose export restrictions on some gallium
and germanium products from Aug. 1 to protect national security interests.
Here are some
details about gallium and germanium
WHERE IS GERMANIUM
FOUND?
Germanium ores are
rare and most germanium is produced as a by-product of zinc production and from
coal fly ash.
China produces
around 60% of the world's germanium, according to the European association
Critical Raw Materials Alliance (CRMA), with the rest coming from Canada,
Finland, Russia and the United States.
China exported 43.7 tons of unwrought
and wrought germanium last year, according to Chinese customs.
WHAT ABOUT
GALLIUM?
Gallium is found in
trace amounts in zinc ores and in bauxite, and gallium metal is produced when
processing bauxite to make aluminium. Around 80% is produced in China,
according to the CRMA.
Gallium is used to
make gallium arsenide for use in electronics. Only a few companies - one in
Europe and the rest in Japan and China - can make it at the required purity,
says the CRMA.
China exported 94
tons of gallium in 2022, up 25% on the prior year, according to Chinese
customs.
More
Factbox:
Where are strategic materials germanium and gallium produced? | 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.
Euro zone factory
downturn deepened in June as ECB hikes bite-PMI
July 3, 2023
LONDON
(Reuters) - Euro zone manufacturing activity contracted faster than initially
thought in June as persistent policy tightening by the European Central Bank
squeezed finances, according to a survey which painted an increasingly gloomy
outlook for industry.
The downturn
was broad-based with surveys published earlier on Monday showing factory
activity in all four of the euro zone's biggest economies contracted last
month.
Compiled by
S&P Global, HCOB's final manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) fell
to 43.4 from May's 44.8, its lowest since the COVID pandemic was cementing its
grip on the world, below a preliminary reading of 43.6 and further from the 50
mark separating growth from contraction.
An index measuring output, which feeds into a composite PMI
due on Wednesday that is seen as a good gauge of economic health, dropped to an
eight-month low of 44.2 from 46.4.
"There is
growing evidence that the capital-intensive industrial sector is reacting
negatively to the ECB's interest rate hikes," said Cyrus de la Rubia,
chief economist at Hamburg Commercial Bank.
In its battle
to try and bring high inflation back to its 2% target the ECB has already added
400 basis points to key rates and is widely expected to add another 25 this
month, hitting the spending power of indebted consumers and companies.
Demand
weakened at the fastest pace in eight months despite sharper price cuts on
manufactured goods so less optimistic factories reduced their workforce for the
first time since early 2021. The employment index fell to 49.8 from 51.5.
Euro zone factory downturn deepened in June as ECB
hikes bite-PMI (msn.com)
German manufacturing
shrinks in June as demand weakens-PMI
July
3, 2023
BERLIN
(Reuters) - Germany's manufacturing sector contracted at the fastest rate in
more than three years in June, with both output and new orders falling, a
survey showed on Monday.
The HCOB final
Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) for manufacturing, which accounts for about a
fifth of Germany's economy, fell to 40.6 from 43.2 in May, the fifth
consecutive monthly decline.
The
manufacturing PMI has been below the 50 level that separates growth from
contraction since July 2022.
German
manufacturing firms reported deeper cuts to production levels at the end of the
second quarter, in response to a sustained weakening of demand, the report
said.
"Conditions
in the manufacturing sector have undoubtedly worsened, but this is not a
crash," said Cyrus de la Rubia, chief economist at Hamburg Commercial Bank
AG.
The economist
noted that new orders began falling from very high levels and manufacturers
haven't resorted to job cuts yet.
Nevertheless,
expectations towards output prospects in the coming year reached their lowest
since last November as surveyed firms cited numerous headwinds to growth.
"Overall,
the PMI data for manufacturing show that a recession in this sector, which was
still expanding in the first quarter according to GDP statistics, has become
much more likely," de la Rubia said.
German manufacturing shrinks in June as demand
weakens-PMI (msn.com)
Italy's manufacturing
shrinks at steepest rate since COVID lockdowns - PMI
July
3, 2023
ROME (Reuters)
- Italy's manufacturing sector contracted in June at the steepest rate in over
three years, a survey showed on Monday, signalling a recession ahead unless
buoyant services can prop up the euro zone's third largest economy.
The HCOB
Global Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) for Italian manufacturing came in at
43.8, down from 45.9 in May and well below the 50 mark that separates growth
from contraction for a third consecutive month.
"The
recession in Italian industry ... seems to be deepening," said HCOB
economist Tariq Kamal Chaudhry.
The reading
missed the median forecast of 45.4 in a Reuters survey of analysts and was the
lowest since April 2020, when Italian industry was shuttered by lockdowns at
the height of the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The manufacturing output sub-index plunged to 42.7 from May's
46.4, while the new orders indicator dropped to 40.1 from 44.3.
The Italian
economy has been giving extremely mixed signals in recent months, with the
industry and especially the manufacturing sectors struggling badly, but
services and employment growing amid a boom in tourist arrivals.
The services
PMI, to be released on Wednesday, is expected to show the sector slowing in
June but still registering some growth, according to Reuters' survey.
Industrial
output tumbled 1.9% in April from the month before, the fourth consecutive
monthly decline, data from national statistics bureau ISTAT showed last month.
Gross domestic
product rose 0.6% in the first quarter from the previous three months,
rebounding from a 0.1% drop at the end of 2022.
The government
is officially forecasting GDP growth of 1.0% this year, slowing compared with
last year's rate of 3.7%.
Italy's manufacturing shrinks at steepest rate since
COVID lockdowns - PMI (msn.com)
UK manufacturing
sinks to six-month low amid demand slump
July 3, 2023
The UK’s
manufacturing sector has shrunk to a six-month low as producers continue to
battle lacklustre demand at home and overseas, leading to nearly a year of decline.
But
manufacturers’ input costs fell at the sharpest rate since 2016, a “symptom” of
weak demand, the influential survey found.
The closely
watched S&P Global/CIPS UK Manufacturing PMI survey showed a reading of
46.5 in June, down from 47.1 in May, but coming in slightly ahead of
economists’ expectations.
A score below
50 shows the sector has contracted, while anything above 50 indicates growth.
The survey has
shown a negative reading for 11 months in a row, as the downturn facing
the sector deepens.
The UK
manufacturing sector continued to report recessionary conditions in June
Rob Dobson.
director for S&P Global Market Intelligence
Levels of
output, new orders and employment all declined during June, despite signs that
price and supply pressures were easing.
Manufacturers
came up against weak demand in both domestic and overseas markets, leading to a
sharp decline in new orders and a reluctance among customers to commit to new
contracts, the report found.
Weaker interest from regions including the US, China, Europe and Brazil brought down exports, while
foreign demand declined for the 17th month in a row and at the fastest rate all
year.
Meanwhile, fewer new orders led producers to reassess their
staffing levels, driving down employment further. Job losses also reflected
weaker demand, redundancies and cost saving initiatives, according to the
survey.
More
UK manufacturing sinks to six-month low amid demand
slump (msn.com)
Covid-19 Corner
This
section will continue until it becomes unneeded.
Moderna Submits
Regulatory Application to the European Medicines Agency for Its Updated
COVID-19 Vaccine
Mon, 3 July 2023 at 6:00 am BST
CAMBRIDGE, MA /
ACCESSWIRE / July 3, 2023 / Moderna, Inc. (NASDAQ:MRNA), a
biotechnology company pioneering messenger RNA (mRNA) therapeutics and
vaccines, today announced that it has submitted a regulatory application to the
European Medicines Agency (EMA) for its updated COVID-19 vaccine encoding the
spike protein for the XBB.1.5 sublineage of SARS-CoV-2.
"We are proud to announce this
filing for our updated COVID-19 vaccine and continue to support the European
Union in protecting citizens against COVID-19," said Stéphane Bancel,
Chief Executive Officer of Moderna. "Our preliminary clinical testing
showed that our updated COVID-19 vaccine is effective in generating an immune
response against the current XBB variants of concern, and we believe it will
play a critical role in protecting against severe disease and hospitalization.
We look forward to working with the EMA to bring our updated vaccine to people
across the European Union."
The application is based on guidance
from the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) and the EMA,
which recommended that COVID-19 vaccines be updated to a monovalent XBB.1.5
composition. This aligns with other regulators and global public health
agencies recommending a monovalent XBB.1.5 composition. Additionally, Moderna
has generated preliminary clinical data of its monovalent XBB.1.5 vaccine
candidate showing an immune response against XBB descendent sublineages such as
XBB.1.5, XBB.1.16, and XBB.2.3.2.
Moderna is in the process of submitting data to regulators
worldwide to advance its updated COVID-19 vaccine in time for the autumn/winter
vaccination season and has recently filed with the U.S. Food & Drug
Administration, Health Canada, and other health authorities.
More
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.
Battery storage projects to empower
Africa's grid
Created:
03 July 2023
----
Africa in recent years has witnessed a rapid increase in the adoption of
renewable energy sources such as solar and wind power to meet its growing
energy demands. However, the intermittent characteristics of these sources
present significant challenges pertaining to maintaining grid stability.
Battery storage projects, with their ability to offer a reliable and
efficient solution to harness the potential of renewable energy, have the
potential to be a game-changer and could transform Africa's grid infrastructure
in the years to come.
Battery storage projects not only enhance grid stability by mitigating
fluctuations caused by intermittent renewable energy sources but also
ensure consistent and reliable power supply by storing excess
energy in periods of high generation and ensure grid stability by releasing it
during low-production times, thus decreasing the likelihood of power outages.
Battery storage projects also help enable peak shaving and load
management, thus optimising electricity utilisation. This optimisation of
renewable energy usage not only minimises the reliance on fossil fuel-based
power plants but also fosters a cleaner and more sustainable energy mix.
Another significant advantage of battery projects lies in their
contribution to Africa’s rural electrification efforts. Combining
renewable energy sources with battery storage helps enable the establishment of
microgrids in areas where connection to the main grid is challenging, thus
bringing reliable and affordable electricity access to off-grid communities,
thereby driving economic development and enhancing the quality of life for
millions.
Overall, battery storage projects have the potential to revolutionise
Africa's grid infrastructure and pave the way for a sustainable and
resilient energy future in Africa. Therefore, it is important that governments,
investors, and stakeholders continue to support and promote the deployment of
battery storage systems to unlock the full potential of renewable energy and
power Africa's growth.
Battery storage projects to empower Africa's grid
(africanreview.com)
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