Baltic
Dry Index. 2345 +169 Brent Crude 81.55
Spot Gold 2178 US 2 Year Yield 4.48 -0.02
The US central bank’s bank bailout program, the Bank Term Fundin Program, ends today. How long before regional and local US banks get into trouble?
In the stock casinos, more wobble, that if this is the top, the punters should be selling stocks and raising cash.
After all, with the Fed’s BTFP bank rescue
program ending today, how long before the first US banks start crashing out of
the trees and smashing into the ground?
Japan’s
Nikkei falls almost 3%, leading losses in Asia; China exits deflation territory
as consumer prices rise
UPDATED MON, MAR 11 2024 1:14 AM EDT
Japan stocks led losses in the Asia-Pacific
region after the country averted a technical recession, paving the way for its
central bank to raise rates, while investors also assessed China’s inflation
numbers.
The Nikkei 225 plunged
almost 3%, led by technology stocks, slipping below the 39,000 mark for the
first time since Feb. 21, as revised official data showed Japan’s
GDP expanded 0.4% in the October-December period last year. The Topix declined
2.98%.
Separately, China recorded its
first month of inflation after four months of deflation with the country’s
consumer price index climbing 0.7% year on year in February.
The CPI, which had fallen 0.8% in
January, and also beat expectations of 0.3% from economists polled by Reuters.
South Korea’s Kospi slipped
0.46%, and the small-cap Kosdaq was up marginally.
In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 started
the week down 1.83%, retreating from its all-time high and snapping a three-day
winning streak.
However, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index bucked
the wider downturn and gained 1.28%, while the mainland Chinese CSI 300 rose
0.8%.
On Friday in the U.S., all
three major indexes lost ground as with artificial intelligence darling Nvidia finishing down more than 5% in its worst session since
late May.
More
European markets set to start the week on a
negative note
UPDATED MON, MAR 11 2024 1:30 AM EDT
European
markets are heading for a negative open to start the new trading week,
following declines in the Asia-Pacific region overnight.
Japan stocks led losses in Asia-Pacific
markets after the country averted a technical recession, paving
the way for its central bank to raise rates, while investors also assessed
China’s inflation numbers.
U.S.
stock futures fell slightly Sunday night after the Dow Jones
Industrial Average closed out its worst
week since October. Investors are also looking ahead to inflation
data due out later this week.
European
markets set to start the week on a negative note (cnbc.com)
Stock futures
fall slightly after Dow’s worst week since October: Live updates
UPDATED MON, MAR 11 2024 1:21 AM EDT
U.S. stock futures fell on Monday after the Dow
Jones Industrial Average closed out its worst
week since October. Investors are also looking ahead to inflation
data due out later this week.
Dow Jones Industrial Average
futures dipped 74 points, or 0.19%. S&P 500 futures and Nasdaq 100 futures
declined 0.21% and 0.34%, respectively.
Wall Street is coming off a
losing week for the major averages. The 30-stock Dow slid 0.93% last week,
marking its worst performance since October. The S&P 500 dipped 0.26%,
while the Nasdaq Composite dropped 1.17%.
Investors took profits in some
market leaders as exceedingly high valuations have many concerned stocks could
be due for a pullback after this year’s rally. Five of the Magnificent
Seven companies declined last week, with Nvidia and Meta
Platforms alone pulling away from the pack.
The February jobs data on Friday
also gave investors mixed signals as to when the Federal Reserve could be
expected to cut interest rates. While the U.S. economy added more jobs than
economists anticipated, a higher unemployment rate and lighter-than-expected
wage growth were encouraging signals the central bank could start easing up on
monetary policy.
Investors will seek more signs of
progress on inflation this week. February’s consumer and producer price indexes
— that are set to release Tuesday and Thursday, respectively — come after
January’s surprisingly hot report dashed hopes the path toward the Fed’s 2%
target will be easy. Traders will get their last major economic reports before
Fed leaders convene for their March policy meeting.
“We aren’t counting on the Fed to
cut rates at its meeting later this month,” wrote Mike Dickson, head of
research at Horizon Investments. “Given this recent spike, we expect the Fed to
hold off until it sees at least three consecutive months of lower core services
inflation. That means June at the earliest—and later in 2024 if services
inflation stays sticky.”
On the earnings from, the
software platform Oracle is set to report on Monday after the close.
Stock
market today: Live updates (cnbc.com)
Wall
Street Breakfast: The Week Ahead
Mar. 10, 2024 6:30 AM ET
The
consumer price index report for February will be closely watched next week.
Economists expect headline CPI to rise 0.4% month-over-month for February and
be up 0.3% once the food and energy categories are stripped out. Inflation is
expected to show a 3.1% year-over-year increase for the month. Other economic
reports that are due to be released include the producer price index report,
the retail sales report, and the latest reading from the University of Michigan
on consumer sentiment.
After
adding it all up, investors may walk away with new interest rate expectations.
Currently, Goldman Sachs thinks the first rate cuts from the Federal Reserve,
European Central Bank, Bank of England, and Bank of Canada will be in June.
However, there is less clarity around the forecast with central bankers
reluctant to provide guidance too far in advance. Sizing up the FOMC tea
leaves, Seeking Alpha Investing Group Leader Lawrence Fuller expects
to see softer payroll data and a continuation of the disinflationary trend that
would then allow the Federal Reserve to reduce rates sooner, with the economy
on track for a soft landing.
More
Hmm, something about rats leaving ships comes
to mind.
Do they know something we don't? American titans Jeff Bezos, Leon Black, Mark Zuckerberg, Jamie Dimon and Walmart's Walton family sell a staggering $11 BILLION in stock - as billionaires cash out before looming election.
March 10, 2024
American billionaires are selling stocks by the boatload - sparking fears of an impending financial disaster.
Jeff Bezos - the third-richest man behind Louis Vuitton's Bernard Arnaut and Elon Musk - unloaded $8.5billion in Amazon shares this month alone.
Mark Zuckerberg - the fourth-richest -
sold about 1.4 million Meta shares worth roughly $638million.
Jamie Dimon, chairman and CEO of JPMorgan,
shilled $150 million this past week, in his first cash-out since taking the
reins at the bank nearly two decades ago.
Within days, Apollo Global Management's Leon
Black also enacted his first-ever sale, shedding $172.8million in his equity
firm after 34 years. Walmart's Walton family sold $1.5billion in a
week, bringing its total sale proceeds to $2.3billion since December.
The series
of transactions were all made within weeks of each other, and have already
sparked conversation amongst onlookers.
Experts
this week theorized the sales could be the result of the looming election, and
as the S&P 500 index - a decent measure of the larger economy - remains at
an all-time high.
'If you're reading the tea leaves and looking
at what may happen with our politics in the next year or so, things are pretty
good right now - the markets are up,' finance firm consultant Alan Johnson told Fortune late last month.
The staffer at Manhattan-based
Johnson Associates went on to suggest the sales could be the result of
potentially volatile fall, to coincide with the upcoming general election.
'With our politics and everything
else going on geopolitically, maybe it won't be as good a year from now or two
years from now,' he conceded.
More
Somebody has to be
on the other side.
George Goodman, aka Adam Smith. The Money Game. Why Are The Little People Always Wrong?
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.
Slow US Inflation Retreat Is Set to Bolster Fed
Patience on Rate Cuts
Sun, 10 March 2024 at
7:03 am GMT
(Bloomberg) -- Inflation in the US
probably abated only gradually last month and retail sales rebounded,
illustrating why the Federal Reserve is in no rush to lower interest rates.
The core consumer price index, a
measure that excludes food and fuel for a better picture of underlying
inflation, is seen rising 0.3% in February from a month earlier after a 0.4%
advance to start the year. The Labor Department will issue its CPI report on
Tuesday.
The price gauge is projected to have
risen 3.7% from a year ago, which would mark the smallest annual advance since
April 2021. While the year-over-year figure is well below the 6.6% peak reached
in 2022, the pace of progress more recently has been modest.
That squares with congressional
testimony from Fed Chair Jerome Powell in the past week, who said that while it
would likely be appropriate to cut rates “at some point this year,” he and his
colleagues aren’t ready yet.
That’s because the Fed wants
convincing signs that inflation is nearing their 2% target, based on a separate
gauge — the personal consumption expenditures price index. In addition to the
CPI, the government’s producer price index on Thursday will help inform the PCE
index, which will be released after the US central bank’s March 19-20 policy
meeting.
Fed officials will observe a blackout
period for speaking engagements ahead of that meeting.
Away from inflation, there are scant
signs of stress in the economy. The latest jobs report pointed to moderating
yet healthy employment growth that will keep consumer spending afloat.
Government figures on Thursday are
expected to show a 0.8% advance in February retail sales following a drop of
the same magnitude a month earlier. Such an outcome would indicate a return of
shoppers who took a breather after a strong holiday-shopping season.
Other US data in the coming week
include February industrial production and the University of Michigan’s
preliminary March consumer sentiment index.
More
Slow US Inflation Retreat Is Set to Bolster Fed
Patience on Rate Cuts (yahoo.com)
Wall Street is growing more worried about 1970s-style
stagflation risks
March
7, 2024
Some Wall Street strategists
are growing concerned the U.S. economy could
be headed toward a 1970s-style stagflation scenario amid recent signs that
progress on inflation is stalling.
Back-to-back consumer price
index reports in December and January came in above estimates, fueling fears
that high inflation could be more difficult to conquer than previously
believed.
"We
believe that there is a risk of the narrative turning back from Goldilocks
towards something like 1970s stagflation, with significant implications for
asset allocation," JPMorgan chief market strategist Marko Kolanovic wrote
in a note to clients at the end of February.
Stagflation
is the combination of economic stagnation and high inflation, characterized by
soaring consumer prices as well as high unemployment.
The phenomenon ravaged the
U.S. economy in the 1970s and early 1980s, as spiking oil prices, rising
unemployment and easy monetary policy pushed the consumer price index as high
as 14.8% in 1980, forcing Federal
Reserve policymakers to raise
interest rates to nearly 20% that year.
"There
are many similarities to the current times," Kolanovic said. "We
already had one wave of inflation, and questions started to appear whether a
second wave can be avoided if policies and geopolitical developments stay on
this course."
Stagflation fears surged in 2022 as
the Fed began aggressively hiking interest rates to quell raging inflation, but
those mostly dissipated last year amid signs that price pressures were
subsiding without a substantial hit to economic growth.
However, there have been some signs
recently that inflation is proving to be stickier than expected. While
inflation has fallen considerably from a peak of 9.1%, progress has largely
flatlined since the summer.
"The threat of resurgent
inflation is a major reason investors should fear a potential
stagflation," said Michael Arone, chief investment strategist for State
Street. "Extraordinary government spending, structural imbalances in
supply and demand with the labor and housing markets, deglobalization and more
are contributing to inflationary pressures."
More
Wall Street is growing more worried about 1970s-style stagflation risks (msn.com)
Covid-19 Corner
This section will continue until it becomes unneeded.
Today, something a little different. Are micro plastics causing heart attacks?
Scientists study if tiny specks of plastic in our body can cause heart attacks
March 8, 2024
We breathe, eat and drink
tiny particles of plastic. But are these
minuscule specks in the body harmless, dangerous or somewhere in between?
A small study published in the New England Journal of Medicine
raises more questions than it answers about how these bits — microplastics and
the smaller nanoplastics — might affect the heart.
The Italian study is likely
to draw attention to the debate over the problem of plastic pollution.
“The study
is intriguing. However, there are really substantial limitations,” said Dr.
Steve Nissen, a heart expert at the Cleveland Clinic. “It’s a wake-up call that
perhaps we need to take the problem of microplastics more seriously. As a cause
for heart disease? Not proven. As a potential cause? Yes, maybe.”
The study involved 257 people
who had surgery to clear blocked blood vessels in their necks. Italian
researchers analyzed the fatty buildup that the surgeons removed from the
carotid arteries, which supply blood and oxygen to the brain.
Using two methods, they found
evidence of plastics — mostly invisible nanoplastics — in the artery plaque of
150 patients and no evidence of plastics in 107 patients.
They followed these people
for three years. During that time, 30 or 20% of those with plastics had a heart
attack, stroke or died from any cause, compared to eight or about 8% of those
with no evidence of plastics.
The researchers also found
more evidence of inflammation in the people with the plastic bits in their blood
vessels. Inflammation is the body's response to injury and is thought to raise
the risk of heart attacks and strokes.
More
Scientists study
if tiny specks of plastic in our body can cause heart attacks (msn.com)
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.
More on so you really, really, really
want to drive an EV. Apart from the fact that the public doesn’t need or want
them, who will take on the risk of shipping them and at what cost?
Volkswagen hit with 2
lawsuits claiming that a Porsche EV battery triggered the massive
2022 fire that sank a cargo ship with thousands of
cars on board
BYKARIN MATUSSEK AND BLOOMBERG March
5, 2024 at 9:28 AM GMT
Volkswagen AG faces a pair of lawsuits in Germany over
claims it was the battery in a Porsche electric vehicle that triggered the
2022 fire onboard a massive cargo ship that eventually sank with thousands of cars on board.
One of the suits was filed in a court in Stuttgart where
VW’s Porsche unit is based. The case was brought by half a dozen plaintiffs,
including Mitsui OSK Lines Ltd., the ship’s operator, and Allianz SE, one of
the insurers of the vessel, according to a spokesman for the tribunal.
The case was filed a year ago but was recently paused
because of mediation talks planned for a second lawsuit over the ship’s that’s
currently before a court in Braunschweig. Both cases will resume if no
settlement can be reached. A Braunschweig judge plans to hold the talks later
this month, according to a tribunal spokesman.
Volkswagen confirmed the suits but declined to comment
further. Mitsui didn’t immediately reply to requests for comment. Allianz
didn’t have any immediate comment.
The Panama-flagged Felicity Ace caught
fire near the Azores archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean two years ago and was
left adrift after the crew was rescued. An internal email from VW’s U.S.
operations at the time revealed there were 3,965 vehicles aboard the ship. The
cargo ship’s loss could have cost the automaker at least $155 million, according to a
risk-modeling company’s estimate.
The plaintiffs claim that the fire originated from the
lithium-ion battery of a Porsche model and allege VW failed to inform them of
the danger and necessary precautions needed to transport such vehicles,
according to the Stuttgart court. Although the case was filed a year ago, the
judges haven’t yet looked into the merits of the suit as the parties have been
quarreling about the amount of collateral that must be posted before it can
proceed.
The Stuttgart suit is: LG Stuttgart, 26 O 30/23. The
Braunschweig court didn’t provide a docket number.
When the government makes loans or subsidies to business, what it does is to tax successful private business in order to support unsuccessful private business.
Henry Hazlitt.
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