Baltic
Dry Index. 1784 -13 Brent Crude 84.41
Spot Gold 2358 US 2 Year Yield 4.94 +0.01
In
the run up to the UK General Election on July 4, the LIR will play its part.
A politician needs the ability to foretell what is going to happen tomorrow, next week, next month, and next year. And to have the ability afterwards to explain why it didn't happen.
Winston Churchill.
In the first US trading day of the week in the US stock gambling casinos, the Nvidia/AI mania/bubble drove the NASDAQ to new highs, but in the wider S&P 500 casino, 350 of the 500 fell while only 150 rose. The Dow actually fell over 200 points.
Is the smart money, aka insiders, now exiting
the casinos for the summer?
Asia markets
mostly lower after investors assess Australia inflation data
UPDATED WED, MAY 29 2024 10:01 PM EDT
Asia-Pacific markets traded mostly lower on
Wednesday as investors assessed Australia’s inflation numbers for April and
awaited data from Japan.
Australia’s weighted consumer price index
rose 3.6% year-on-year in April, greater than the 3.4% gain forecast in a Reuters
poll. The reading was also higher than the 3.5% reported for March.
In a preview note last week, analysts from ING
said: “One more bad inflation report from Australia, and we will consider
removing the final cut we have pencilled in by the [Reserve Bank of Australia]
in the fourth quarter of this year. Two more, and we may consider adding a rate
hike.”
The Australian S&P/ASX
200 fell nearly 1% after the CPI
announcement.
Japan’s Nikkei
225 fell 0.41%, while the
broad-based Topix dropped 0.48%. Both indexes reversed course from the open to
trade lower.
South Korea’s Kospi fell 0.9% and the small-cap
Kosdaq was 0.75% lower.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng
index fell 1.35%, while mainland
China’s CSI 300 rose 0.35%.
Overnight in the U.S., the Nasdaq
Composite hit another record high to
surpass 17,000, powered by a 7% gain in tech darling Nvidia.
The S&P
500 inched up just 0.02%, while
the Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 0.55%.
While Nvidia’s rally disguised troubles in the
broader market, the blue-chip Dow was weighed down by a drop in Merck and other health-care stocks.
Meanwhile, more than 350 stocks in the broad
S&P 500 were negative in the session. The index’s health-care, industrials
and financials sectors all finished more than 1% in the red.
Asia markets live markets: Nvidia, Nasdaq record,
Australia CPI (cnbc.com)
Stock futures are
little changed after the Nasdaq Composite posts a record close: Live updates
UPDATED WED, MAY 29 20247:20 PM EDT
Stock futures were little changed Tuesday night
after the Nasdaq Composite rose to a fresh record.
Futures tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average
inched lower by 54 points, or 0.1%. S&P 500 futures ticked down 0.07%,
while Nasdaq 100 futures hovered near the flatline.
American
Airlines slid more than 6% in
after-hours trading after slashing its sales outlook for the second
quarter. JetBlue and Southwest
Airlines slid about 2% each in
sympathy. Retail brokerage Robinhood added about 3% after announcing a $1 billion share
repurchase program.
On Tuesday, the Nasdaq
Composite popped 0.6% to a record
high and closed above the 17,000 threshold for the first time, fueled by a
nearly 7% jump in Nvidia. The
tech-heavy index was an outlier, however, as the S&P
500 edged higher by just 0.02%, and
the 30-stock Dow slid
nearly 0.6%, dragged lower by a decline in Merck shares.
Still, the major averages are on track to close
the month with impressive gains, partly propped up by enthusiasm about a
better-than-expected quarterly earnings season. The S&P 500 is up 5.4% this
month, while the Dow has advanced 2.7%. The Nasdaq is outperforming by a wide
margin, up 8.7% in May.
The gains arrive even as traders have lowered
their expectations for Federal Reserve rate cuts. Indeed,
fed funds futures trading data suggests a nearly 54% chance that rates will
hold steady in September, according to the CME FedWatch Tool.
More
Stock market today: Live updates (cnbc.com)
Dow Theory.
Record highs in the
stock market have yet to be confirmed by a more than 100-year-old indicator:
Dow Theory.
While the Dow Jones Industrial Average has been trading at new all-time highs over the
past two weeks, the Dow Jones Transportation Average is still trading 9% below it's record closing high.
When both are moving higher in lockstep, they provide a bullish signal for
stocks, according to the theory.
The current divergence
between the two major stock market averages represents a tactical risk for US
equities in 2024, according to a recent note from Bank of America.
Record
Highs in Stock Market Are Defying Dow Theory Indicator (businessinsider.com)
Bond yields climb,
stocks under pressure as Fed cut doubts resurface
By Kevin Buckland May 29, 2024 3:32 AM GMT+1
TOKYO, May 29 (Reuters) -
U.S. Treasury yields pushed to a near four-week peak on Wednesday, lifting
their Asia-Pacific counterparts and the dollar while pressuring equities, as
data sowed new doubts about the timing and extent of Federal Reserve rate cuts.
Crude oil rose for a fourth day to reach a four-week high amid
speculation OPEC+ will maintain production cuts at a meeting this
Sunday.
Benchmark U.S. 10-year yields ticked as high as 4.556% in Tokyo
trading hours, a level not seen since May 3, following poorly received two- and
five-year Treasury auctions overnight.
Equivalent Japanese yields
hit the highest since December 2011 at 1.065%, while Australian yields jumped
to a more than three-week top at 4.42%.
Investors were also caught off-guard by a sharp improvement in a
U.S. consumer
confidence measure for May. Economists had predicted a fourth
straight month of weaker confidence, particularly after a tepid reading for the
University of Michigan's analogous survey result from Friday.
That has kept the market guessing about the
strength of the economy and sticky inflationary pressures, which in turn cloud
the outlook for the Fed's policy path.
Traders currently put the odds of at least a
quarter-point interest rate cut by September at 44% following the data, from a
coin toss a day earlier, according to the CME Group's FedWatch Tool.
More
Bond yields climb, stocks under pressure as Fed cut doubts resurface | Reuters
Finally, more on why you should never buy an
EV.
Thieves target EV charging cables at rapid charging
sites in latest wave of car-related crime
May
25, 2024
The electric vehicle charging
industry is the latest target car crime with cable thefts said to be on the
rise.
Experts are warning that thieves are
after the copper in cables at rapid and ultra-rapid charger sites, in a spate
of criminality dating back to November.
Autocar says Instavolt - Britain's
largest operator of rapid chargers, running Osprey Charging and BP Pulse - have
had 174 cables stolen from 27 sites since.
Nottinghamshire residents first flagged
up the issue of missing charging cables at The Malting Retail Park, Northgate
and at Waitrose, Ossington Way in November - around seven months after four
Osprey high-powered EV chargers were first installed in Northgate.
This type of charger has the cable
attached to the charge point, which the EV owner plugs into their car in order
to charge it.
At the time ZapMap, showed that EV
charging points at Albert Street and Appletongate – both owned by BP Pulse –
were also offline.
An Osprey spokesman confirmed that
Osprey was 'aware of coordinated vandalism targeting public charging sites in
the Leeds, Newark, Rotherham and Derby areas' and said it was working with the
police and other operators to share CCTV.
Instavolt has over 1,500 live
chargers across the UK, which puts the 174-affected sites as reported by
Autocar, just below 12 (11.6) per cent of the network.
Each cable cut costs charging
providers between £700 and £1,000 – an expensive problem, but Instavolt is most
worried about the way it could jolt public confidence.
----
It appears organised gangs of thieves are cutting charging cables to
strip and sell the copper wiring inside to illegal scrap dealers, or on places
like Facebook Marketplace and eBay.
In March copper hit an 11-month high
with prices rising to $9,164.50 a ton on the London Metal Exchange.
The International Copper Study Group
predicts global copper demand will rise by 4.6 per cent in 2024, due demand
from renewable energy systems and electric vehicle fleet expansion combining
with global supply constraints.
But, while the price of copper might
be tempting, the cable wiring isn't worth as much as vandals would imagine.
Lane told Autocar 'that the cable
isn't a solid copper bar, it's just lengths of thin wire that takes ages to
extract. It's a misconception that the copper brings real financial gain.'
A recent CBN News report looked into
charging cable thefts in Canada and found that EV chargers only contain about
$5 worth of copper metal – that's about £3.93.
For the 174 reported Instavolt thefts
vandals have netted less than £700, which considering the effort it takes to
cut and steal the cables – Lane says vandals will keep coming back to the same
site to strike again – is not much of a payoff.
More
Thieves
are Targeting Tesla Charging Stations for Copper in California, Causing
Approximately $1 Billion in Losses
May 21, 2024
In the
technological heartland of California’s Bay Area, a troubling trend has
emerged: thieves targeting Tesla and other electric vehicle (EV) charging
stations, aiming to harvest the copper from within the cables. This recent rash
of thefts underscores a persistent and growing challenge not just for car
owners but for the broader security of the nation’s critical infrastructure.
In what
appeared to be a meticulously timed operation, cables were severed from nine
Tesla supercharging stations, causing significant stress among EV drivers and
potentially racking up repair costs into the tens of thousands. According to a
report by NBC Bay Area, these incidents are part of a larger issue plaguing the
United States, where copper theft is recognized by the Department of Energy as
causing approximately $1 billion in annual losses.
More
Tesla
Settles Fatal Crash Suit as Another Jury Trial Loomed
May 28, 2024
(Bloomberg) -- Tesla Inc. has reached
a deal to resolve a lawsuit over the death of a Model S passenger in a fiery
2016 crash, marking the second time in two months the electric-vehicle maker
has avoided a jury trial in California over a fatal wreck.
Friday’s settlement comes after the
automaker in April struck a confidential accord in a high-profile suit over a
crash involving Autopilot on the eve of a trial. In that case an Apple Inc.
engineer was killed on the way to work in 2018 when his Model X veered off the
highway and slammed into a roadside barrier at about 71 miles (114 kilometers)
per hour.
While
Tesla has drawn a lot of attention from
regulatory investigations and litigation over alleged defects with its
assisted-driving software, the crash in downtown Indianapolis almost eight
years ago involved different issues.
The plaintiffs claimed that
driver Casey Speckman lost control of the 2015 Model S when the car suddenly
accelerated on its own, hitting a tree and bursting into flames. Speckman’s
boss, Kevin McCarthy, who was in the passenger seat, allegedly survived the
impact but died in the blaze ignited by a battery explosion, according to his
family’s complaint in state court in San Jose. The suit blamed the “propensity
of the vehicle to catch fire, as well as the defective design of the door latch
system entrapping him in the vehicle.”
Tesla maintains there was nothing
wrong with the car. It said the data event recorder showed that Speckman kept
her foot on the accelerator pedal before the crash and never attempted to
brake. It also said police reports revealed that Speckman was found to be
driving with a blood-alcohol level more than twice the legal limit.
The company lost a bid for dismissal
of the Speckman family’s suit in February 2023 when a judge concluded that
Tesla had failed to show that the plaintiffs didn’t have evidence to refute the
company’s version of events.
More.
Tesla Settles Fatal Crash Suit as Another Jury Trial Loomed (msn.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
retail sales bounce back in May, price growth slows: CBI
May 28,
2024
LONDON
(Reuters) - British retail sales bounced back in May after a slump in April
that could have been caused by the timing of Easter and bad weather, while
prices charged by shops pointed to the weakest inflation in nearly four years,
according to industry data.
The Confederation
of British Industry's (CBI) monthly retail sales balance, a gauge of sales
versus a year ago, recovered to +8 this month after tumbling to -44 in April.
More retailers
felt sales were normal for the time of year than at any other time in the past
eight months, the CBI said.
British
consumers are recovering some of the spending power lost to the surge in
inflation although official data published last week showed retail sales in
April slid by far more than expected as heavy rain kept shoppers away.
The CBI's
measure of selling price inflation was its slowest since August 2020 and was
below its long-run average with expectations of only a slight pick-up in June.
Earlier on
Tuesday, the British Retail Consortium said its measure of shop prices showed
the weakest increase in two-and-a-half years this month, welcome news for the
Bank of England as it considers when to cut interest rates.
Alpesh Paleja,
CBI lead economist, said the data added to signs of an improvement for
retailers in the near term
"Falling
inflation, and continuing real wage growth will contribute to a healthier
consumer outlook, in turn supporting the retail sector further," he said.
However, a
drop in retailers' investment intentions underscored the fragile mood in the
sector.
UK retail sales bounce back in May, price growth
slows: CBI (msn.com)
Covid-19
Corner
This section will continue until it becomes unneeded.
New
frontiers in medicine: COVID-19 lessons push for multidisciplinary
collaboration
May 28, 2024
In a recent review published in the journal Frontiers in Science,
researchers underline the need for multidisciplinary collaboration in medicine,
particularly in transmissible illnesses, precision/personalized medicine,
systems medicine, and data science, based on the lessons learned from the
coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).
---- About
the review
In the present review,
researchers propose an interdisciplinary approach to medicine incorporating
communicable illnesses, systems medicine, personalized medicine, data science,
and public health science while using COVID-19 pandemic findings for health
policy implementation.
The COVID-19 pandemic triggered an increase in medical and
health sciences publications overall but with variations between fields. (A) Actual
and expected publications across all medical and health sciences, and
proportion of all articles that were COVID-19–related, by year between 2016 and
2023. Overall, there was an increase of approximately 9% in the number of
articles published during the “COVID-19 years,” during the period 2020–2022, as
compared with the volume that would have been expected based on 2009–2019
trends. Approximately 7% of all articles published in 2020–2022 concerned or
included reference to SARS-CoV-2/COVID-19. After the increase in medical and
health sciences publications between 2020 and 2022, 2023 saw a decrease in
publication volume. (B) Actual and expected publications in
selected research fields by year between 2016 and 2023. (C) Difference
between actual and expected publication numbers between 2020 and 2023 in
selected research fields (expressed as a percentage of expected publications)
and the proportion of all actual articles that were COVID-19-related. The 2008
Australian and New Zealand Standard Research Classification (ANZSRC) was
applied to identify publications in the field of “Medical and Health Sciences”
within Dimensions (data until 1 January 2024), using machine learning to sort
publications into Fields of Research. Expected publication numbers for
2020–2022 were calculated based on an exponential trendline fitted on the
actual 2009–2019 annual publication numbers in relevant fields. An estimated
total publication volume for 2023 was used to correct for the indexation lag of
publications.
More
New frontiers in medicine: COVID-19 lessons push for multidisciplinary collaboration (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.
The Global Graphene
Market Report 2024-2035 - Analysis of Graphene Production Methods, Regulations
and Pricing Analysis
Mon,
27 May 2024 at 9:36 am BST
Dublin, May 27, 2024 (GLOBE
NEWSWIRE) -- The "Global Market for Graphene
2024-2035" report has
been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.
The Global Market for Graphene
2024-2035 is a comprehensive report that explores the evolving landscape of
graphene materials, technologies, and applications. This in-depth analysis
covers key sectors such as batteries, supercapacitors, polymer additives,
sensors, conductive inks, transparent conductive films, transistors, filtration
membranes, and more, providing insights into market trends, growth drivers,
competitive landscapes, and future outlooks.
The report offers a detailed
overview of graphene production methods, types of graphene materials, and their
unique properties, highlighting the importance of this revolutionary
nanomaterial in various industries. It covers the commercialization of graphene,
including recent market developments, funding and investments, and profiles of
publicly listed graphene companies. With market revenue and demand projections
spanning from 2024 to 2035, the report segments the global graphene market by
material type, end-user market, and region.
Key topics covered
include:
·
Types of graphene
materials, including CVD graphene, graphene nanoplatelets, graphene oxide, and
graphene quantum dots
·
Graphene production
methods, regulations, and pricing analysis
·
Patent landscape and
publication trends
·
Comprehensive
analysis of graphene applications in energy storage, composites, electronics,
sensors, and more
·
Market drivers,
challenges, and opportunities for each application segment
·
Regional market
insights for Asia-Pacific, North America, and Europe
More
Next, our
latest new section, the world global debt clock. Nations debts to GDP compared.
World Debt
Clocks (usdebtclock.org)
If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.
George Orwell.
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