Baltic Dry Index. 1948 +06 Brent Crude 82.62
Spot
Gold 2363 U S 2 Year Yield 4.67 -0.01
In
the run up to the UK General Election on July 4, the LIR will play its part.
Be polite; write diplomatically; even in a declaration of war one observes the rules of politeness.
Count Otto von Bismarck.
In the global stock
casinos, chasing nickels in front of a moving recession steam roller. Recession
gets nearer with each passing day.
Some words of wisdom
from the past.
You cannot always sell out when you wish or when you think it
wise. You have to get out when you can; when you have a market that will absorb
your entire line. Failure to grasp the opportunity to get out may cost you
millions.
Jesse Livermore.
Nasdaq Composite ekes out fifth straight record close,
notches a 3% weekly gain: Live updates
UPDATED FRI, JUN 14 2024 4:40 PM EDT
The Nasdaq Composite ticked
higher on Friday to close at a record for the fifth straight session.
The tech-heavy index inched
higher by 0.12% to end at 17,688.88. The S&P 500 inched
lower by 0.04%, closing at 5,431.60 and snapping a four-day win streak. The Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped
57.94 points, or 0.15%, to end at 38,589.16.
The University of Michigan’s Survey of
Consumers showed that consumer sentiment declined to 65.6 in
June, down from 69.1 in May. This reading also came below the 71.5 Dow Jones
estimate.
Eight of the 11 sectors in the
S&P 500 slid during the session, with communication services, information
technology and consumer staples emerging as the only winners. Within the broad
market index, more than 360 stocks ended the day with declines.
“The reality is that, even in
these bull markets, there are going to be days where you take a pause and where
people take some gains. We’ve had such a strong run, especially coming off of
soft PPIs and soft CPI … I think it’s a pretty, pretty natural place to take a
pause after a pretty aggressive rally,” said Ross Mayfield, an investment
strategy analyst at Baird.
Hopes for a continued cooling of
inflation have boosted the S&P 500 and Nasdaq this week. The S&P 500
and Nasdaq Composite ended the week higher by about 1.6% and 3.2%,
respectively.
Wholesale inflation unexpectedly ticked
down 0.2% last month, while economists polled by Dow Jones
expected the gauge to increase 0.1%. That follows a consumer
price index reading that was flat on a monthly basis in May.
Elsewhere, software giant Adobe leapt
14.5% Friday after fiscal second-quarter results surpassed Wall Street
estimates. Declines in Caterpillar and Boeing weighed
on the Dow, while Carnival and Norwegian Cruise Line were
the biggest laggards in the S&P 500.
Stock
market news for June 14, 2024 (cnbc.com)
Europe stocks close lower to cap off losing week;
France’s CAC 40 down 2.7%
LONDON — European stocks tumbled on Friday,
rounding off a choppy week that has delivered a host of fresh information for
investors.
The Stoxx 600 index
closed down 0.95%, with the regional benchmark down more than 2% on the week.
French stocks plunged 2.7%, with investors
still spooked by the possibility of victory for the populist,
far-right National Rally party, following French President Emmanuel Macron’s surprise
decision to call domestic parliamentary elections. The
country’s short-dated bond yields, which move inversely to prices, tumbled by
seven basis points.
----Two sets of inflation data — the consumer
price index and the producer
price index — both came in softer than expected this week,
boosting U.S.
stocks. Between those readings, the Federal Reserve held interest
rates steady and revised
its outlook for interest rate cuts to just one such curb taking
place in 2024.
Money market pricing continues to
suggest expectations for two 25-basis-point reductions from the current 5.25%
to 5.5% range before the end of the year, according to LSEG data.
Auto stocks have meanwhile been rocked by the EU’s announcement of
planned higher tariffs on Chinese electric vehicle makers, and by a U.K.
probe into emissions claims.
On Friday, attention turns to Asia, where the Bank of Japan held its
benchmark interest rate steady, but suggested that it may be considering the reduction of its purchase of Japanese government bonds.
Japanese stock markets reversed losses after
the decision.
European
stocks: France weighs on Stoxx 600 index (cnbc.com)
In
other news, France trembles. The US deep
state covid 19 disinformation campaign. What else does the US deep state lie
about?
El
Nino over, get ready for the La Nina Atlantic hurricane season.
French markets caught in a storm as
bonds, bank stocks hit
June 14, 2024
LONDON (Reuters) - French markets endured another brutal sell-off on
Friday, as political uncertainty unleashed the biggest weekly jump in the
premium investors demand to hold French government debt since 2011 and bank
stocks tumbled.
France's Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire warned the euro zone's
second-biggest economy faces the risk of a financial crisis after being thrown
into turmoil by President Emmanuel Macron's decision to call snap elections.
Marine Le Pen's eurosceptic National Rally (RN), currently leading in
opinion polls, calls for a lowering of the retirement age and a protectionist
"France first" economic policy approach.
French banks were hit hard. The country's biggest three - BNP Paribas,
Credit Agricole and Societe Generale - have lost between 10-15% in value this
week, the most since the banking crisis of March 2023.
The premium investors demand to hold French government bonds over euro
zone benchmark Germany meanwhile rose to its highest level since 2017 at around
77 basis points.
It was set for a rise of roughly 25 bps this week, the biggest weekly
increase since 2011, when the euro zone was the throes of a sovereign debt
crisis that led to multiple government and bank bailouts worth trillions of
dollars.
"It's really hard to ignore the parallels from the situation of
2011-2012 in the sovereign debt crisis," Justin Onuekwusi, chief
investment officer at investment firm St. James's Place, said.
"If you go back to that period, very similar themes -- elections,
sovereign debt spreads, debt sustainability in focus with no real sign of
what's going to stop this momentum."
French state-backed finance body SFIL postponed a bond sale on Friday, a
lead manager memo seen by Reuters, in a sign of how market unease was rippling
out.
The CAC 40 was last down 1.4%, heading for a weekly loss of 5%, its
largest since early 2022, and underperforming the regional STOXX 600 index,
down just 1.8% for the week.
A decision by France's left wing parties to form a 'Popular Front' added
to selling pressure as it dents Macron's chances emerging victorious in the
election, analysts said.
The euro touched a one-month low at around $1.0690 and was last down
0.5%.
The possibility that the RN could win has compounded investor concerns
around France's fiscal discipline. The first round of voting takes place on
June 30.
More
French markets caught in a storm as bonds, bank stocks
hit (msn.com)
Pentagon ran secret
anti-vax campaign to undermine China during pandemic
The U.S. military
launched a clandestine program amid the COVID crisis to discredit China’s
Sinovac inoculation – payback for Beijing’s efforts to blame Washington for the
pandemic. One target: the Filipino public. Health experts say the gambit was
indefensible and put innocent lives at risk.
Filed
At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, the U.S. military launched a secret campaign to counter what it perceived as China’s growing influence in the Philippines, a nation hit especially hard by the deadly virus.
Pentagon ran secret anti-vax campaign to incite fear of China vaccines (reuters.com)
Global Inflation/Stagflation/Recession
Watch.
Given our Magic Money
Tree central banksters and our spendthrift politicians, inflation/recession now needs an entire
section of its own.
With El Nino
officially gone and a La Nina expected by July-September, will it be inflationary
or deflationary to the global economy?
El Niño is gone. La Niña expected soon. Here's why Florida,
hurricane-prone areas should care
Thu, June 13, 2024 at 6:14 PM GMT+1
It's official: El Niño is gone.
We're now under ENSO conditions.
And get ready, because chances are high La Niña will be here during the
peak of the 2024 Atlantic hurricane season.
----Let's explain what all
that means and why it's so important for Florida residents — or any location
prone to hurricanes — especially when it comes tropical cyclones.
El Niño, which means little boy
in Spanish, is a weather pattern in the Pacific Ocean that influences weather worldwide, NOAA said.
Warmer waters cause the Pacific
jet stream to move south, bringing drier and warmer conditions to the northern
U.S. and Canada. Along the U.S. Gulf Coast and Southeast, El Niño conditions
mean wetter weather with an increased potential for flooding.
Of particular interest to those
living in hurricane-prone areas: El Niño conditions (usually) mean a
"substantially decreased chance of experiencing a
hurricane."
El Niño contributes to more
eastern and central Pacific hurricanes and fewer Atlantic hurricanes.
Stronger wind shear in the
tropical Atlantic associated with El Niño also tends to mean fewer hurricanes
since those conditions help prevent storms from developing or growing stronger.
During El Niño, fewer hurricanes
develop from easterly waves moving off the African coast, especially during the
busiest months of hurricane season from mid-August through mid-October.
Looking back 30 years, Philip
Klotzbach, a meteorologist at Colorado State University who specializes in
Atlantic basin seasonal hurricane forecasts, said that during El Niño years,
there have been:
·
45 major hurricanes
·
91.75 major
hurricane days
NOAA announced "ENSO-neutral
conditions are present" across the eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean.
ENSO stands for the El
Niño-Southern Oscillation cycle.
If that didn't help much, let's
explain.
"El Niño and La Niña are two
opposing climate patterns" which scientists call the El Niño-Southern
Oscillation cycle," NOAA said. Simply put, ENSO is made up of two phases:
La Niña and El Niño. If you count the time when neither is present, then you
have ENSO-neutral.
Both El Niño and La Niña change ocean temperatures and
atmospheric circulation in the tropics, which have global impacts on weather, and typically last nine
to 12 months. On average, El Niño and La Niña events occur every two to seven
years, with El Niño generally occurring more frequently than La Niña."
That's a good thing when it comes
to Atlantic hurricanes. Here's why.
La Niña, which means little girl
in Spanish, has the opposite effect of El Niño.
During a La Niña year, winter
temperatures are warmer than normal in the South and cooler than normal in the
North. La Niña can also lead to a more severe hurricane season.
La Niña contributes to fewer
eastern and central Pacific hurricanes and more Atlantic hurricanes.
More
Covid-19
Corner
This section will
continue until it becomes unneeded.
Are We Headed
for Another Summer COVID-19 Wave?
June 13, 2024
Just in time for summer
vacation season, COVID-19 seems to be creeping back in the U.S.
Nationally, the amount of
SARS-CoV-2 virus in wastewater is still low, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention (CDC), but levels have
been gradually increasing in recent weeks. COVID-19 hotspots have already
emerged in parts of the Northeast, West, and South, as well as Hawaii,
wastewater data show.
The
increase is apparently driven by the so-called FLiRT
variants, which began circulating in the
U.S. earlier this spring. FLiRT variants now account for the majority of new
U.S. cases, according to CDC monitoring, and seem
to be driving an increase in transmission as well as a 16% rise in
COVID-related emergency-department visits. Hospitalization and death rates are,
for now, holding steady.
It’s not surprising that the
U.S. would see a summer COVID-19 spike, says Dr. El Hussain Shamsa, an
internal-medicine physician at University Hospitals in Ohio. In fact, as a
2023 study that Shamsa co-authored
shows, that’s been the pattern in previous years: a big winter wave, followed
by smaller upticks in the spring and summer.
In their study, Shamsa and
his colleagues concluded that that pattern can’t be totally explained by
external factors like weather, human behavior, or public-health campaigns,
which suggests there’s something inherent to the virus that makes
it flare at certain times of year.
“That’s what you see in many different types of viruses,” Shamsa says.
But why does COVID-19 seem to spread throughout
much of the year, when other common respiratory viruses—like those that cause
the flu and common cold—are predominantly fall and winter problems? The science
isn’t settled, and not all experts are convinced those patterns will hold true
in the future.
SARS-CoV-2 is still a new virus that’s evolving
quickly, says Ilan Rubin, a postdoctoral research fellow at the Harvard T.H.
Chan School of Public Health’s Center for Communicable Disease Dynamics. It’s
possible that it will settle into a more traditional seasonal pattern over
time, with most of its spread concentrated in winter, Rubin says.
More
Are We Headed for Another Summer COVID-19 Wave?
(msn.com)
Technology Update.
With events happening
fast in the development of solar power and graphene, I’ve added this section.
Wells Fargo Fires Employees Over "Mouse
Jigglers"
THURSDAY, JUN 13, 2024 - 04:40 PM
In the era of hybrid work, with employees splitting
their time between two days in the office and three days working remotely,
employers have ramped up using productivity monitoring software. However,
employees have outsmarted some of these surveillance programs with gadgets
like mouse movers, otherwise known as 'mouse jigglers.'
The popularity of mouse jigglers has exploded
on TikTok in the last several years. Firms have been cracking down on these
devices following a surge in fake work activity, which has weighed on
productivity.
Wells Fargo, in a new disclosure with
the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, first reported by Bloomberg,
had terminated over a dozen employees in its wealth- and
investment-management unit for their use of mouse jigglers.
They were "discharged after review of
allegations involving simulation of keyboard activity creating the impression
of active work," according to the disclosures.
On Amazon, some of the top-ranking mouse jigglers
sold have thousands of reviews and range in price between $6 and $25.
Google Trends shows a massive search spike for these devices in
2022.
The bank's Finra disclosure does not indicate
whether the employees were fired for faking work at home or in the office. It's
unclear how the employees were caught, and if the bank opted to use other forms
of surveillance to catch the employees faking work.
Major banks, including JPMorgan Chase
and Goldman Sachs, were among the most aggressive institutions in ordering
workers back to the office after the government enforced lockdowns.
The jiggler is just proof of the unintended
consequences of remote working. Instead of employers micromanaging their
workforce with mass surveillance, perhaps implementing baseline objectives for
them...
Wells Fargo Fires Employees Over "Mouse Jigglers" | ZeroHedge
Next, our
latest new section, the world global debt clock. Nations debts to GDP compared.
World Debt Clocks (usdebtclock.org)
This
weekend’s music diversion. Vivaldi again. Approx. 10 minutes.
Vivaldi
- Concerto for violin, organ and strings in F major (RV 542); Anton Hansch
(1813-1876)
This
weekend’s chess update. Approx. 11 minutes.
They
Need Less Than A Minute || Alireza vs Hikaru || Bullet Chess Championship
Superfinal 2024.
This
weekend’s final, YouTube diversion. More
on EV fires. Approx. 8 minutes.
NEW
DATA! EV Owners HAD ENOUGH As EVs Are Catching Fire in HUGE Numbers!
NEW DATA! EV Owners HAD ENOUGH As EVs Are Catching
Fire in HUGE Numbers! (youtube.com)
With few exceptions, democracy has not brought good government to new developing countries. What Asians value may not necessarily be what Americans or Europeans value. Westerners value the freedoms and liberties of the individual. As an Asian of Chinese cultural backround, my values are for a government which is honest, effective and efficient.
Lee Kuan Yew. First Prime Minister of Singapore.
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