Baltic
Dry Index. 1945 +10 Brent Crude 90.94
Spot Gold 1920 US 2 Year Yield 5.04 -0.02
“The supreme
art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting.”
The Art of War
In the stock casinos this morning, nervous relief that Israel hasn’t yet actually invaded Gaza and has announced that it will restore water supplies to southern Gaza. But without restoring Gaza’s electricity supply, it is hard to see how Gaza can restore water supply and restart sanitation.
But no one really expects Israel to delay its invasion of north Gaza for long.
The week ahead has economic data from China
and Japan, though both are likely to be over shadowed by what happens next in
the Middle East.
Asia markets dip
as investors look ahead to China GDP, Japan inflation data
UPDATED MON, OCT 16 2023 12:16 AM EDT
Asia-Pacific markets started the week on soft
footing as investors look ahead to key economic data from China and Japan this
week.
Most notably, China will release its
third-quarter gross domestic product numbers on Wednesday. Economists polled by
Reuters expect a 4.4% year-on-year expansion, down from 6.3% in the previous
quarter.
The People’s Bank of China left its one-year
medium-term lending facility rate unchanged at 2.50%, as expected.
Japan’s September inflation data is expected on
Friday, which will come ahead of the country’s central bank’s monetary policy
meeting on Oct. 30 and 31.
South Korea’s central bank will also announce
its rate decision on Thursday. The Bank of Korea has held rates steady for five
meetings in a row at 3.5% since February.
Japan’s Nikkei
225 fell 1.67%, while the Topix
dropped 1.32%.
South Korea’s Kospi index dipped 0.58%.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng
index opened marginally lower at
0.05%, while China’s benchmark CSI 300 index dipped 0.19% at open.
On Friday in the U.S., all three major indexes
ended the day mixed, pressured by a spike in oil prices and rising inflation
expectations, as Wall Street wrapped up a volatile week.
The S&P
500 declined by 0.50%, while
the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite lost 1.23% The Dow Jones
Industrial Average was the outlier,
rising by 0.12%
Asia stock markets today: Live
updates (cnbc.com)
Stock futures
rise slightly to kick off a busy earnings week: Live updates
UPDATED SUN, OCT 15 2023 6:57 PM
EDT
Stock futures inched higher in overnight trading
Sunday ahead of a busy week for corporate earnings.
Futures tied to the Dow Jones
Industrial Average added 0.1%,
while S&P 500 futures
and Nasdaq-100 futures gained
0.12% and 0.16%, respectively.
Stocks are coming off a mixed session and
week. The S&P 500 advanced
0.45% for its second consecutive positive week, while the Dow Jones
Industrial Average gained 0.79%.
The Nasdaq Composite lost
about 0.2% for the week and fell 1.23% during Friday’s session, while the
S&P dipped 0.5% and the Dow inched up 0.12%.
Oil prices spiked more than 5% during
Friday’s session and posted their best day since April as the conflict between
Israel and Hamas fueled some fears related to oil production in the region.
Meanwhile, Wall Street assessed a slew reports
from major financial firms, with JPMorgan
Chase and Wells Fargo gaining 1.5% and 3%, respectively.
Despite these mostly positive results, some on
Wall Street are bracing for more volatility into year end as yields and oil
prices rise, inflation remains sticky, and conflict ensues in the Middle East,
said Eric Johnston, Cantor Fitzgerald’s head of equity derivatives
and cross-asset.
“This Mideast situation is kind of showing that
when you own equities, you are taking risks,” he told CNBC’s “Closing
Bell” on Friday. “As a result, you need
to have good upside returns in order to justify that risk, because there are
things that come out of nowhere, like this situation.”
More
Stock futures today: Live updates (cnbc.com)
In other news, what happens next in the Middle
East dominates. At worst, the Israel-Gaza war widens out into a regional war
generating a new oil crisis. At best, some sort of limited Israeli incursion
into Gaza leads to some sort of humanitarian relief for Gazans.
Israel-Hamas war
live updates: Iran warns war could expand; China says Gaza offensive is ‘beyond
self-defense’
UPDATED MON, OCT 16 2023 12:37 AM
EDT
Israel’s military continued to urge residents to
move from northern Gaza to the south as it pledged to counter Hamas with “an
even greater force.” The Israel Defense Forces said it would not carry out any
military operations along the evacuation route from 10 a.m. local time (3 a.m.
ET) to 1 p.m. Sunday.
The evacuation orders have been criticized by
many humanitarian agencies, however. After negotiations between Israeli Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and U.S. President Joe Biden, a decision to renew
water supplies to parts of southern Gaza was agreed upon, Israel Energy
Minister Israel Katz said on Sunday. The UN warned late Saturday that the lack
of water and fuel in Gaza had “become a matter of life or death.”
Energy Minister Israel Katz said that the
decision to partially renew water supplies was in line with Israeli policy,
which is to tighten a blockade on the Hamas-ruled territory.
On Sunday, China urged Israel to
end its collective punishment of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, saying that
“Israel’s actions have gone beyond self-defense.” China’s Foreign Minister Wang
Yi’s comments came during a series of weekend calls, as world leaders worked to
avert a wider conflict in the Middle East.
Meanwhile, U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck
Schumer (D-N.Y.) said on Sunday that the Senate would swiftly push through a military aid package to help Israel in its fight against Hamas.
----- U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will head back to
Israel after meeting with Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on
Sunday. The top U.S. diplomat is also expected to land in Egypt later in the
day and work on a deal to grant safe passage of Americans currently in Gaza
through the Rafah gate — the only crossing between Egypt and the Gaza Strip.
Gaza — a narrow strip of land sandwiched between
Egypt, Israel and the Mediterranean Sea — has been pounded by Israeli forces in
response to Hamas’ brutal attack on Israel last weekend. The death toll
continues to tick higher, with at least 1,400 killed in Israel and nearly 2,700
in Gaza. The number of hostages believed to be held by the militants has jumped to 155, according to IDF spokesperson
Daniel Hagar.
Israel-Hamas war updates and latest and news on Gaza
(cnbc.com)
Nervous markets eye
Gaza as oil hovers above $90
By Kevin Buckland October 16, 20231:24 AM GMT+1
TOKYO,
Oct 16 (Reuters) - Crude oil hovered above $90 a barrel while equities were
weak and the safe-haven dollar was firm on Monday as investors nervously
watched for whether escalating
violence in Gaza would cause the conflict
to spread beyond Israel and Hamas.
Israel's
shekel sank to a nearly eight-year low,
after the country's prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, vowed to "demolish
Hamas" in retaliation for the rampage on Oct. 7 that killed 1,300 people
in the worst attack on civilians in Israel's history.
U.S. Secretary of
State Antony Blinken is visiting the region, seeking to prevent further
escalation. Netanyahu agreed to lift a blockade of water supplies to parts of
southern Gaza after speaking with U.S. President Joe Biden.
Brent crude
futures reached a new recent high of $91.20 on Monday before easing back
slightly to $90.84, following Friday's 5.7% surge.
Japan's
Nikkei share average (.N225) fell more than 1%, while Australia's S&P/ASX
200 index (.AXJO) lost 0.15% in
early trading. New Zealand's equity benchmark (.NZ50) slid 0.9%.
---- "Risk and energy markets will look for
headlines and actions from Iranian officials who have stated they have a duty
to come to the aid of the Palestinians."
Benchmark 10-year
U.S. Treasury yields were little changed at 4.6434%, following a more than 8 basis
point decline on Friday amid demand for the safety of bonds.
Currencies
overall retraced some of their moves from the end of the week, with the U.S.
dollar index easing slightly to 106.55 from as high as 106.79 on Friday.
The euro rose
0.1% to $1.0522 while the yen was little changed at 149.505 per dollar.
Nervous markets eye Gaza as oil hovers above $90 |
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.
Ex-Walmart CEO
Says US Consumers Reaching Breaking Point
Political
polarization, inflation, and high interest rates are all working together to
undermine consumers and their propensity to spend, he warns.
10/13/2023 Updated: 10/13/2023
The all-mighty
American consumer, whose spending drives the economy, is reaching a breaking
point and is on the verge of folding, according to former Walmart CEO Bill
Simon.
Mr. Simon told CNBC in a recent interview that a
series of factors—political polarization, inflation, and high interest
rates—were all working together to undermine consumers and their propensity to
spend.
“That sort of
pileup wears on the consumer and makes them wary,” Mr. Simon told the outlet.
“For the first time in a long time, there’s a reason for the consumer to
pause.”
Consumer spending
is a major driver of the U.S. economy, accounting for roughly two-thirds of
gross domestic product (GDP).
Mr. Simon, who
now serves on the Board of Directors for Darden Restaurants and Hanesbrands
Inc., said that, after a long period of cheap money cut short by the Federal
Reserve's rapid rate hikes in response to soaring inflation, consumers are now
beginning to buckle.
"Consumers
had an incredible 10-, 12-year run," he told CNBC's "Fast Money"
program. "Markets were buoyant. Interest rates were low. Money was
available."
But now, the
music has stopped, and the party is grinding to a halt.
Faced with
soaring inflation that remained persistently high despite predictions that the
price spike would be short-lived, Fed officials have pushed the benchmark
federal funds rate quickly from near zero in March 2022 to its current range of
5.25–5.5 percent.
Despite all the monetary tightening so far, inflation
remains uncomfortably high.
The government released the latest data on
inflation on Thursday, showing that the Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose 3.7
percent in September, matching August's pace. While that's down from a recent
peak of 9.1 percent in June 2022 and lower than the 8.2 percent pace a year
ago, it's still well above the Fed's inflation target of 2 percent.
Even though a number of Fed officials have,
in recent days, suggested that the rate-hiking cycle may have reached its
peak, newly released minutes detailing
internal discussions during the Fed's latest rate-setting policy meeting in
September show most of them think one more rate increase is in store—followed
by a period of higher interest rates for "some time."
The
higher-for-longer interest rate environment means tighter financial conditions,
marked by more expensive borrowing and reduced lending, putting a damper on
economic activity. It also tends to mean less consumer spending.
More
Ex-Walmart CEO Says US Consumers Reaching Breaking
Point | The Epoch Times
USDA LOWERS ITS SEPTEMBER CORN, SOYBEAN PRODUCTION
FORECAST
Oct. 13,
2023 Source: USDA news release
WASHINGTON, - Corn and
soybean production is down from September 2023, according to the Crop
Production report issued today by USDA's National Agricultural Statistics
Service (NASS). Corn production is down 10% from last year, forecast at 15.1
billion bushels; soybean growers are expected to decrease their production 4%
from 2022, forecast at 4.10 billion bushels.
Based on conditions as of Oct. 1, corn yields
are expected to average 173.0 bushels per harvested acre, down 0.8 bushel from
the previous forecast and down 0.4 bushel from 2022. Area harvested for grain
is forecast at 87.1 million acres, unchanged from the previous forecast.
Also based on conditions as of Oct. 1, soybean
yields are expected to average 49.6 bushels per acre, down 0.5 bushel from the
previous forecast but unchanged from 2022. Area harvested for beans in the
United States is forecast at 82.8 million acres, unchanged from the previous
forecast, but down 4% from 2022.
Today's report also included a production
forecast for U.S. cotton. All cotton production is forecast at 12.8 million
480-pound bales, down 2% from the previous forecast and down 11% from 2022.
Based on conditions as of Oct. 1, yields are expected to average 767 pounds per
harvested acre, down 19 pounds from the previous forecast and down 183 pounds
from 2022. Upland cotton production is forecast at 12.5 million 480-pound
bales, down 2% from the previous forecast and down 11% from 2022. Pima cotton
production is forecast at 356,000 bales, unchanged from the previous forecast
but down 24% from 2022. All cotton area harvested is forecast at 8.02 million
acres, unchanged from the previous forecast, but up 10% from 2022.
More
AgriMarketing.com - USDA Lowers Its September Corn, Soybean Production Forecast
Covid-19 Corner
This section will continue until it becomes unneeded.
‘We Can't Force the Human Body to Accept Foreign Genetic Code': Dr. McCullough on mRNA Technology
The
doctor called mRNA vaccines a ‘failed concept’ and something that the
government and military have been testing for quite a long time.
10/11/2023 Updated: 10/11/2023
Cardiologist
Dr. Peter McCullough warned that messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccines inject “foreign
genetic code” into human beings, which the body fails to break down or expel
for a prolonged period of time.
Research on mRNA “has been going on for
decades,” Dr. McCullough said during an Oct. 5 interview. The 2023
Nobel Prize for medicine was awarded to two scientists for making “messenger RNA
long-lasting in the human body,” he said. “I mean, it has been tested in
multiple applications … It's an absolute bust. It was just the worst idea ever
to install the genetic code for a lethal protein without being able to shut it
off. It wasn't the fact that it was rushed; it's just ill-conceived from the
very beginning.”
“We can't
force the human body to accept foreign genetic code and produce a foreign
protein … Messenger RNA for vaccines is a completely failed concept. It’s a
dangerous concept, and the U.S. government wasn't honest. They should have been
honest. Trump should have come out and said, ‘Listen, it's on our website; our
military's been working on this since 2012.’”
During
a testimony at the
European Parliament last month, Dr. McCullough said, “There's not a single
study showing that the messenger RNA is broken down” in the human body once it
is injected.
“There's not a
study showing it leaves the body.” Since the vaccines are “made synthetically,
they cannot be broken down.”
He added that
the lethal protein from the [COVID-19] vaccines found in the human body after
vaccination was found to be circulating “at least for six months, if not
longer.”
In the case of
seasonal jabs, that is, taking an injection or booster at the end of six months
as recommended by the authorities, “there's another installation in more
circulating potentially lethal protein.”
Scientist Drew Weissman, who won the 2023 Nobel Prize in Medicine for
his role in developing mRNA technology, warned in a 2018 paper that not only
did clinical trials of mRNA vaccines produce “more modest [results] in humans
than was expected based on animal models,” but that the “side effects were not
trivial.”
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.
New neodymium-doped material can fish uranium out of
seawater
Michael Franco October 12, 2023
Since the 1960s, researchers have been turning
to an unlikely harvesting ground for uranium: the world's oceans. Now, an
Australian-led team has moved the prospect of sea-based uranium harvesting
another step forward with a cheap and easy-to-make material.
As the planet begins its slow move away from
carbon-based fuel sources, alternative energies are coming to the fore. While
solar, wind, and hydroelectric technologies tend to steal the spotlight in this
arena, nuclear energy is still a mighty contender. In fact, in 2017, it
contributed to about 10% of the world's energy production and in 2022, 8 GW of
new nuclear power joined the global grid.
Key to nuclear
power generation is uranium, an element that is only found on land in a few
countries, where underground supplies will continue to diminish as nuclear
power plants proliferate. Not so with the underwater supply,
however. It is estimated that there are about 4.5 billion tonnes of the element
in the world's oceans, compared to just about six million on land. That's
enough to generate power planet-wide for thousands of years.
Retrieving all that
uranium has proven tricky though, as it is present in seawater in extremely
small concentrations.
----Seeking to overcome these difficulties, researchers from the
Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO), the University
of New South Wales, and other colleagues turned to layered
double hydroxides (LDH). These relatively easy-to-make
materials consist of layers of positively and negatively charged ions. The team
doped these LDHs with various chemicals including neodymium, terbium, and
europium, soaked them in seawater, and analyzed the results using intensive
imaging from X-ray adsorption spectroscopy.
The researchers found that
when neodymium was combined with LDHs, the resulting compound was able to grab
uranium from seawater over 10 other more abundant elements. These include
sodium, calcium, magnesium and potassium, which are present in quantities that
are about 400 times greater than that of the uranium. According to the
researchers, this selectivity, along with the low cost of producing the doped
LDH material should go a long way toward making the large-scale harvesting of
uranium from seawater a greater likelihood.
"These findings indicate
that dopant engineering of LDHs provides a simple, effective method for
controlling selectivity and producing adsorbents capable of challenging
separations such as uranium extraction from seawater," wrote the researchers
in the study, which has been published as a cover story in the journal Energy Advances.
Source: ANSTO
New neodymium-doped material can fish uranium out of
seawater (newatlas.com)
“It is not enough to win a war; it is more
important to organize the peace.”
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