Baltic Dry Index. 1004 -33 Brent Crude 79.46
Spot Gold 1985 US 2 Year Yield 4.74 unch.
“Give me control of a nation’s money and I care not who makes the laws.”
Amschel Rothschild.
In the stock casinos, bubble on like it’s 2019. But, Netflix, Tesla and Goldie take a hit.
In the real world, as a food calamity looms into sight, China warns on international Trade.
Russia targets Ukraine shipping.
Not to worry though, we have team Biden,
Trudeau, Sunak, Macron, Scholz and Von der Leyen on the case. What could
possibly go wrong?
Asia markets mixed as investors weigh economic
data from the region
UPDATED WED, JUL 19 2023 10:56 PM
EDT
Asia-Pacific markets were mixed on Thursday as
investors digested a slew of economic data across the region.
China kept its one and five-year
loan prime rates unchanged, days after China’s second quarter GDP came in below
expectations.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index climbed
after two straight days of losses, gaining 0.72%. Mainland Chinese markets were
trading close to the flatline, with the Shanghai Composite down
marginally and the Shenzhen
Component up 0.07%.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 was
down 0.97%, while the Topix was 0.5% lower as the country posted a surprise
trade surplus of 43 billion yen ($308 million), its first surplus in 23 months.
South Korea’s Kospi was up
marginally, with the Kosdaq advancing 0.57%.
In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 rose
0.17% as its unemployment rate for June fall slightly to 3.5% compared to the
3.6% in May.
Overnight in the U.S., all three major indexes
gained as the corporate earnings season continued, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average and
its longest winning streak in nearly four years.
The Dow traded 0.31%
higher to register its eighth straight day of gains, while the S&P 500 climbed
0.24%. The Nasdaq Composite saw
the smallest gains, adding 0.03%
Asia markets mixed as
investors weigh economic data from the region (cnbc.com)
Nasdaq 100
futures slip Wednesday evening after Netflix posts results: Live updates
UPDATED WED, JUL 19 2023 8:24 PM
EDT
Nasdaq 100 futures slipped Wednesday evening
after Netflix posted its latest quarterly results.
Nasdaq 100
futures dipped
0.6%. S&P 500
futures slipped
by 0.2%, while Dow futures hovered
near the flat line.
Shares of Netflix dropped
8% in after-hours action after the streaming giant posted its second-quarter
earnings report. The company posted $8.19 billion in revenue,
falling short of the $8.3 billion anticipated by analysts, according to
Refinitiv. Tesla shares
tumbled 4% in extended trading as CEO Elon Musk and other executives said on an
earnings call that vehicle
production would slow during the third quarter due to shutdowns
for factory improvements.
During the regular trading
session, the Dow climbed more than 109 points, or 0.3%, in what was the index’s
eighth consecutive day in the green and its longest winning streak since
September 2019. Meanwhile, the S&P 500 gained
0.2%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite ticked
up by 0.03%.
These gains came as companies are
posting stronger-than-expected quarterly results. Three-quarters of the S&P
500 companies that have already announced have topped estimates, according to
FactSet data. The strength in corporate earnings have created optimism for a
soft landing for the economy.
“Investors are saying loud and
clear that they expect the current stock market rally to continue,” said Tom De
Luca, senior researcher at Vanguard. “Right now, short-term optimism is higher
than we’ve seen since December 2021, right before the start of the 2022 bear
market.”
Johnson
& Johnson, Travelers, American Airlines and Blackstone are
set to report earnings Thursday before the bell. Wall Street will also be
keeping an eye on the weekly jobless claims numbers and existing home sales
data.
Stock
market today: Live updates (cnbc.com)
Tesla shares dip after hours as earnings call
disappoints
Tesla reported earnings after the bell, showing a record
for quarterly revenue but lower margins thanks to price cuts and incentives.
The stock price remained flat after
the initial report, but began dropping during the earnings call as CEO Elon
Musk and other executives failed to deliver precise specs and start of delivery
dates for the Cybertruck, and for a robotaxi-ready vehicle. Musk and other
execs also said during the call that vehicle production would slow down during
Q3 due to shutdowns for factory improvements. It’s now down about 5% after
hours.
Here’s how the company did versus expectations:
More
Tesla
(TSLA) earnings Q2 2023 (cnbc.com)
Goldman Sachs misses on profit after hits from
GreenSky, real estate
BEIJING — China’s Commerce Ministry on Wednesday
said non-economic factors were growing and interfering with the country’s
foreign trade which was facing an “extremely severe” situation in the second
half of this year.
“Some countries’ forceful push for
‘decoupling,’ ‘severing [supply] chains’ and so-called ‘de-risking’ are
human-made obstacles blocking normal commerce,” Li Xingqian, the head of the
ministry’s external trade department, said in Mandarin, according to a CNBC
translation. He was speaking to reporters at a press conference about the
ministry’s work in the first half of the year.
China’s
exports, a significant contributor to domestic growth, have plunged
in recent months as global growth has slowed.
On Wednesday, Li noted the overall slowdown. He also said that
since trade had risen during the three years of the Covid-19 pandemic, that had
set a high base for this year’s figures.
Li also directly referenced calls for supply chain
diversification.
“Companies say some countries’
politicization of trade has forced orders and production to move out, damaging
the economic interests of both suppliers and buyers,” he said. He added the
ministry would help businesses to cope with “unreasonable trade restrictions.”
The ministry did not say anything
about its own recently announced export controls, set to take effect Aug. 1 on
two key metals.
The U.S. is using export controls
of its own in an effort to limit China’s development of high-end tech. Trade
tensions between the U.S. and China have escalated over the last few years,
prompting other countries to take action as well.
China, meanwhile, is looking to
retain and attract foreign investment. Apple’s
Tim Cook, Tesla’s
Elon Musk and many other business leaders have traveled to China since it
relaxed its border restrictions this year.
The Commerce Ministry said
Wednesday that its minister, Wang Wentao, has met with more than 20 visiting
executives of foreign companies this year. The ministry reiterated its efforts
to establish regular roundtables with foreign businesses in China and address
operational challenges.
Among other plans, the ministry
said it would make changes to allow foreign investors to increase the size of
their strategic investments in listed companies.
China
says trade faces 'extremely severe' situation, blames geopolitics (cnbc.com)
Finally, more food price inflation, scarcity to
come.
Ukraine's farmers
fear the worst after grain deal collapses
July 19, 202310:38 AM GMT+1
KYSHCHENTSI,
Ukraine, July 19 (Reuters) - Farmers whose work on Ukraine's fertile land has
long been vital to its economy fear losing their livelihoods after Russia this
week quit a
wartime deal allowing the safe Black Sea export of grain.
For Kees Huizinga,
who moved from his native Netherlands to farm in central Ukraine in 2003,
Moscow's refusal to extend the deal makes
his finances, already squeezed by Russia's invasion last year, appear
catastrophic.
"We have some reserves so we can
survive for a month or so, but if we can't sell it's going to be a
disaster," he told Reuters at his 15,000-hectare farm in a village in the
rolling hills and green flat plains of the Cherkasy region in central Ukraine.
Ukraine is a major exporter of grains
and sunflower oil, including to Middle Eastern and African nations. The deal
brokered by the United Nations and Turkey in July 2022 was designed to enable
Ukraine to export grain via the Black Sea despite a Russian blockade and to
combat a global food crisis.
Agricultural exports are crucial for
Ukraine's economy, making up about 12% of gross domestic product before
Russia's invasion in February 2022 and about 60% of all exports.
Of the 60,000 tons of produce grown on
Huizinga's land last year, 50,000 tons was sent abroad through the grain deal.
In total, Ukraine has been able to
export 33 million tons of agricultural products through the deal.
Huizinga said exporting the same volume
of his produce won't be possible without the Black Sea initiative which,
according to an industry association, was used for up to 90% of Ukraine's
pre-war agricultural exports.
The Dutchman, who grows seven major
crops including wheat and sunflowers, estimates war-related disruption cost his
business between $3 and $6 million in 2022, and could cost it another $6
million this year.
He said he was getting about $100 a ton
for his barley, half the price that western European farmers would receive, and
that his transportation costs had risen sharply.
CLOSURES FEARED
Huizinga, who came to Ukraine from his
family's farm near the Dutch city of Groningen, has already been forced to take
out loans to cover his expenditure.
"Some farmers who have more
reserves will last longer, and those farmers who have less reserves will
probably have to sell or close down the business, or give it to somebody
else," he said.
The main remaining route for
agricultural produce out of Ukraine is the Danube river, which runs along
Ukraine’s southwestern border with Romania.
Some of Ukraine's
western neighbours have restricted imports
of Ukrainian grain under pressure from their farmers, who said they were
suffering from the added competition.
Denys Marchuk, deputy head of the
Ukrainian Agrarian Council, the country's largest agribusiness organisation,
has estimated that Ukraine's Danube ports can carry up to 3 million tons a
month, nowhere near enough to cover its export potential.
Ukraine expects to harvest 44 million
tons of grain this year, down from a record 86 million-ton harvest in 2021.
One of Huizinga’s farm workers, Yuriy,
recently drove a fresh harvest of barley down to storage in Izmail, a southern
town where one of the river ports is situated.
He said the storage operators were
stunned to see 2023 barley arriving, as they still had a huge stockpile of last
year's crop which had not yet been shipped.
Ukraine's farmers fear the worst after grain deal
collapses | Reuters
Ukraine war live updates: Russia says it views
all Ukraine-bound ships as military cargo carriers; Odesa under attack again
UPDATED WED, JUL 19 2023 6:16 PM EDT
Russia launched a second straight day of attacks
on the southern Ukrainian port city of Odesa,
targeting the port itself and critical grain export infrastructure, Ukrainian
authorities said. The attacks follow Russia’s withdrawal from a U.N.-brokered
grain deal under which Russian forces blockading Ukraine’s ports would allow
ships to leave it for agricultural exports.
Moscow also sent a volley of
lethal drones to attack the capital Kyiv, but no major damage or injuries were
reported, Kyiv’s military administration said. CNBC was not able to verify the
information on the ground.
In a pivot since it pulled out of
the grain deal, Russia also said that all vessels sailing toward Ukrainian
ports will be considered military cargo carriers.
Meanwhile, Russian President
Vladimir Putin will not attend the BRICS summit in South Africa, ending months
of speculation over whether the leader would travel to a country where he would
be subject to an International Criminal Court warrant for his arrest.
More
Live updates: Latest news on Russia and the war in Ukraine (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.
UK inflation slows
sharply, offering some relief to Bank of England
By William
Schomberg and Andy Bruce
July 19, 2023 7:59 AM GMT+1
LONDON, July 19 (Reuters) - British
inflation fell by more than expected in June and was at its slowest in more
than a year at 7.9%, according to official data that will ease some of the
pressure on the Bank of England to keep on raising interest rates sharply.
Sterling weakened against the U.S.
dollar and the euro as the Office for National Statistics said the consumer
price inflation growth rate was its lowest since March 2022 but stayed above
the pace of price growth in other big, rich economies.
Economists polled by Reuters had
forecast the CPI rate in the 12 months to June would drop to 8.2% from May's
8.7%, moving further away from October's 41-year high of 11.1% but still far above
the BoE's 2% target.
The BoE said in May it expected June
inflation would fall to 7.9%.
"Overall, the UK will probably
still have higher rates of inflation than elsewhere for a while yet, but at
least the UK is now following the global trend," Paul Dales, chief UK
economist at Capital Economics, said.
Investors reeled in bets for more
interest rate hikes from the BoE. Markets now show a 25-basis point rise next
month is likelier than a 50-basis point increase which had been priced in on Tuesday.
Bank Rate peaking at 6% is no longer
fully priced, which had been the case on Tuesday.
Core inflation - which excludes food,
energy, alcohol and tobacco prices and which the BoE uses to gauge underlying
price pressures - also dropped by more than expected, coming in at 6.9% from
May's 7.1%, its joint highest in more than 30 years.
Economists
polled by Reuters had expected the core measure of price growth to hold at
7.1%.
Food price and non-alcoholic drinks
price inflation slowed to 17.3% - still a major strain on the finances of many
households - from 18.3% in May.
The BoE is expected to raise interest
rates for a 14th time in a row on Aug. 3, having already increased its base
rate to 5% in May from 0.1% in December 2021.
---- Services prices, also monitored
closely by the BoE, rose by 7.2% in annual terms, slowing from 7.4% in the 12
months to May.
There were signs of a weakening of
inflation pressure as factory gate prices rose by just 0.1% in the 12 months to
June, the weakest reading since December 2020.
Manufacturers' input prices fell by
2.7%, the biggest fall in almost three years.
The Reuters poll of economists had
pointed to an increase of 0.5% in output prices and a fall of 1.6% in input
prices.
More
UK inflation slows sharply, offering some relief to
Bank of England | Reuters
Eurozone inflation lets
up further in June
July 19, 2023
Eurozone inflation
let up further in June, Luxembourg-based statistics agency Eurostat reported
Wednesday.
Euro-area
prices rose 5.5% year-over-year last month. In May that figure stood at 6.1%,
while in April it was 7%.
It marks the
lowest inflation rate for the eurozone since the beginning of 2022.
Supply chain
dysfunction after the COVID-19 pandemic, along with Russia's war on Ukraine and
the ensuing energy crisis, are a few of the key drivers of high inflation over
the last year.
Although the
inflation rate is sinking overall, the 5.5% in June was higher than the 5.4%
anticipated by analysts.
This suggests
that the European Central Bank (ECB) could increase interest rates further to
put a damper on prices. The bank is targeting 2% inflation over the medium term.
The ECB will
decide on whether it will raise rates next week in a meeting.
Eurozone inflation lets up further in June (msn.com)
Covid-19 Corner
This section will continue until it becomes unneeded.
"So
Friggin' Likely": New Covid Documents Reveal Unparalleled Media Deception
Newly
released chats and emails between the authors of a crucial scientific paper
leave no doubt: an unprecedented official disinformation campaign accompanied
the arrival of Covid-19
MATT
TAIBBI, LEIGHTON WOODHOUSE ALEX GUTENTAG, AND MICHAEL SHELLENBERGER
18 JUL 2023
---- Last week, House
members investigating origins of Covid-19 accidentally released a trove of
Slack chats and emails between the authors of Nature’s seminal
paper from March 17, 2020, The
Proximal Origin of SARS-CoV-2. The Proximal
Origin paper delivered a single line that for years helped authorities
slam a lid on theories of human intervention in Covid-19: “It is improbable
that SARS-CoV-2 emerged through laboratory manipulation.”
Chats showing Proximal
Origins authors saying things like “The truth will never come out (if
lab escape is the truth)” were published first by independent researcher Francisco Del Asis of the
independent investigatory group DRASTIC, after which the story was picked
up by Ryan Grim of The
Intercept. From there, health officials
did their best to ignore the material — “Many of them remained silent with this
revelation,” is how De Asis puts it — almost as if they were waiting for
another shoe to drop.
That
other shoe is dropping. Public and Racket last
week obtained a full complement of the “Proximal Origins” communications
examined by the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic, revealing
a story far worse than previously believed. While today’s Public story
details the unprecedented scientific cover-up, the letters and chats examined
here at Racket show how health officials and scientists
constructed perhaps the most impactful media deception of modern times,
exceeding even the WMD fiasco both in scale and brazen intentionality. Because
House investigators uncovered such a wealth of material, some of the Proximal
Origin communications — which shed light on other Covid-related
controversies — will be addressed in a second part of this series later this
week. For now, however, the degree to which these communications blow up years
of news stories stands out.
More
"So
Friggin' Likely": New Covid Documents Reveal Unparalleled Media Deception
(racket.news)
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.
Today, an update from the always excellent
Toronto website Investorintel.com and a real expert in the critical minerals
sector. The whole article is well worth
following the link.
Jack Lifton is
the Editor in Chief, Critical Minerals for InvestorIntel.com, a capital market
source celebrating its 21st year in business. He is also a Director of InvestorIntel.
Common Nonsense about Rare
Earth Permanent Magnets
Jack Lifton July 18, 2023
---- Just one project jumped out at me from the
report. A Chinese company is building a 15,000 year (!) rare earth permanent
magnet factory to serve the OEM automotive industry. This new plant will begin
operation this coming December. In its history, the North American rare earth
permanent magnet industry has not produced anywhere near the volume output in
all the years of its existence as this one new Chinese plant will produce. And
note that China’s current installed capacity to manufacture rare earth permanent
magnets is now over 200,000 t/year.
As of this writing
(July 18, 2023) North American companies produce only a few hundred tons per
year of rare earth permanent magnets, and that is based on imported Chinese
magnet alloy.
More
Common Nonsense about Rare Earth Permanent Magnets - InvestorIntel
“At the end fiat money returns to its inner value—zero.”
Voltaire.
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