Baltic
Dry Index. 806 +14
Brent Crude 75.40
Spot Gold 2912 US 2 Year Yield 4.26 Friday
US Federal Debt. 36.493 trillion!
The man who is a pessimist before forty-eight knows too much; if he is an optimist after it, he knows too little.
Mark Twain.
The US stock casinos and markets reopen later today after yesterday’s holiday celebrating President Trump Day.
Asian stock casinos are mostly higher this morning. Australia’s central bank, as expected, cut its key interest rate for the first time in four years.
In Saudi Arabia, Marco meets Sergey, with no European in sight, (well, except for Sergey.) Macron, Scholz, Starmer, Tusk, all missing and miffed.
Asia markets mostly rise as investors assess
Chinese President Xi's comments in a meeting with top executives
Updated Mon, Feb 17 2025 11:30 PM EST
Asia-Pacific markets mostly rose Tuesday,
a day after Chinese President Xi Jinping signaled support to the country’s
private sector and urged businesses to “show their “talents.”
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 was down
0.58%, after the Reserve Bank of Australia cut
rates by 25 basis points to 4.1%, in line with Reuters’ estimates. This
marks the RBA’s first rate cut in over four years.
The Australian dollar had strengthened
0.17% to 0.6342 against the dollar.
The yields on Australian 10-year
government bonds have dropped nearly 20 basis points since Jan. 13 to 4.450% on
Tuesday, according to LSEG data.
Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 was trading 0.66%
higher, while the broader Topix index advanced 0.61%.
South Korea’s Kospi was up 0.59%, while
the small-cap Kosdaq gained 0.15%.
Mainland China’s CSI 300 Index reversed
course to rise 0.4%.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index rose 2.05%.
The Hang Seng tech index climbed 3.04%, reversing course from its over 2%
Monday after Xi’s comments in a rare
closed-door symposium.
Indian markets started the day in negative
territory, after the benchmark Nifty
50 index snapped its eight-day losing streak with modest gains in the
previous session. The Nifty 50 was trading 0.2% lower, while the BSE Sensex
index was down 0.15%.
Singapore will be holding its first budget
under Prime Minister Lawrence Wong later in the day. Analysts are
expecting more support for both households and businesses as the
city-state gears up for a general election in November.
U.S. markets were closed due to a public
holiday. U.S. stock futures were higher
late Monday, as the major averages come off from a winning week.
Dow Jones Industrial Average futures advanced
106 points, or 0.2%. S&P
500 and Nasdaq 100
futures climbed 0.2% and 0.2%, respectively.
Asia markets live updates: Asia markets mostly rise; RBA expected to cut rates
In other news.
Fed Governor Bowman says more progress on
inflation is needed before further rate cuts
Published Mon, Feb 17 2025 12:07 PM EST
Federal Reserve Governor Michelle Bowman
said on Monday that while monetary policy “is now in a good place,” she wants
to see data reflect more progress on inflation before cutting interest rates
further.
“I would like to gain greater confidence
that progress in lowering inflation will continue as we consider making further
adjustments to the target range,” Bowman said in a speech at the American
Bankers Association.
Rising core goods price inflation since
last spring has slowed progress, Bowman said. While she expects inflation to
continue to decelerate this year, she said disinflation “may take longer than
we would hope.”
“I continue to see greater risks to price
stability, especially while the labor market remains strong,” Bowman
said.
The most recent consumer price
index showed inflation trended higher than expected in January, rising
0.5% month-over-month versus the Dow Jones estimate calling for a 0.3% rise.
This put the annual inflation rate at 3%, coming in above consensus forecasts
for 2.9%
The Fed maintained its target rate at a
range of 4.25% to 4.5% at its January policy meeting.
Bowman said Monday the current level is
appropriate for “allowing the Committee to be patient and pay closer attention
to the inflation data as it evolves.”
“The current policy stance also provides
the opportunity to review further indicators of economic activity and get
further clarity on the administration’s policies and their effects on the
economy,” continued Bowman.
President Donald Trump’s tariffs against
the U.S.’s largest trading partners have raised concerns among economists of
higher prices. Expectations for further interest rate cuts in 2025 have
weakened on Trump’s trade war. Traders are currently pricing in just a single
quarter-percentage-point rate reduction this year, according to CME Group Data.
Fed's
Bowman: More progress on inflation needed before more rate cuts
Southwest Airlines to slash 15% of corporate jobs
in ‘unprecedented’ move to cut costs
Published Mon, Feb 17 2025 5:00 PM EST Updated
Mon, Feb 17 2025 5:44 PM EST
Southwest
Airlines said Monday that it is cutting about 15% of corporate jobs,
or about 1,750 people, a move its CEO called “unprecedented” as the company
scrambles to cut costs.
The company said it expects savings from
the cuts of $210 million this year and about $300 million in 2026. The layoffs
will be mostly done by the end of the second quarter and include some senior
leadership roles, CEO Bob Jordan said in a staff note, which was seen by CNBC.
“This decision is unprecedented in our
53-year history, and change requires that we make difficult decisions,” Jordan
said in a news release. “We are at a pivotal moment as we transform Southwest
Airlines into a leaner, faster, and more agile organization.”
Southwest’s decision to slash jobs comes
several months after a settlement with
activist investor Elliott Investment Management, which won five Southwest board
seats, short of control. The firm had also pushed for Jordan to be replaced as
CEO, though it was not successful.
Other recent cost-cutting measures at
Southwest included a hiring freeze, a pause to the internship program and an
end to team-building “rallies,” a company tradition that dated back to 1985,
CNBC previously reported.
It has also aggressively cut unprofitable routes.
Last year, Southwest outlined a plan
to increase profits that included ditching its more than 50-year-old
open seating model in favor of assigned seats and creating a section with extra
legroom. It also recently launched overnight flights for the first time.
“We must ensure we fund the right work,
reduce duplicative efforts, and have a lean organizational structure that
drives clarity, pace, and urgency,” Jordan said in his memo on Monday.
The layoffs take effect in late April,
Jordan said, adding that most affected employees will not work but will still
receive salary, benefits and bonus until then.
Southwest Airlines to slash 15% of corporate jobs in 'unprecedented' move to cut costs
Finally, the Ukraine resources Trump covets.
Mapped: Where are Ukraine’s rare earth mineral
resources and why does Trump want them?
Tom Watling Mon 17 February 2025 at 11:43
am GMT
Donald Trump wants Ukraine to pay for
financial and military support by affording Washington access to the
country’s vast but untapped rare earth minerals.
The US president announced last week that
the war-torn country was on board with his plan, potentially worth hundreds of
billions of dollars.
“We're telling Ukraine they have very
valuable rare earths,” Mr Trump said. "I told them that I want the
equivalent of like $500 billion worth of rare earths, and they’ve essentially
agreed to do that.”
President Volodymyr
Zelenskiy has
said he is ready to do a deal with Mr Trump that
includes U.S. involvement in developing Ukraine's huge deposits
of rare earths and other critical minerals.
The Kremlin jumped on the comments, saying
it demonstrated the US is no longer willing to provide free aid to Kyiv, before
adding, what it was against Mr Trump giving any help to Ukraine whatsoever.
Below, we look at where these resources
are in Ukraine, and why Kyiv has struggled to mine these minerals.
What are Ukraine’s rare earths?
Ukraine is sitting on one of Europe’s
largest deposits of critical minerals, including lithium and titanium, much of
which is untapped. According to the Institute of Geology, Ukraine possesses
rare earth elements such as lanthanum and cerium, used in TVs and lighting;
neodymium, used in wind turbines and EV batteries; and erbium and yttrium,
whose applications range from nuclear power to lasers. The EU-funded research
also indicates that Ukraine has scandium reserves but detailed data is
classified.
Mr Zelensky has been
trying to develop these resources, estimated to be worth more than £12
trillion, based on figures provided by Forbes Ukraine, for years.
In 2021, he offered outside investors tax
breaks and investment rights to help mine these minerals. These efforts were
suspended when the full-scale invasion started a year later.
Anticipating the notoriously transactional
Mr Trump might take an interest in this, Mr Zelensky then placed the mining of
these minerals into his victory plan, which was drawn up last year.
The minerals are vital for electric
vehicles and other clean energy efforts, as well as defence production.
Estimates based on government documents
suggest that Ukraine’s resources are also highly varied. Foreign Policy found
that Ukraine held “commercially relevant deposits of 117 of the 120 most-used
industrial minerals across more than 8,700 surveyed deposits”.
Included in that is half a million tonnes
of lithium, none of which has been tapped. This makes Ukraine the largest
lithium resource in Europe.
More
Mapped: Where are Ukraine’s rare earth mineral resources and why does Trump want them?
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.
Australia’s
central bank cuts rates for the first time in more than four years, flags
economic uncertainties
Published
Mon, Feb 17 2025 10:32 PM EST
The
Reserve Bank of Australia on Tuesday cut benchmark interest rates for the first
time in over four years, finally joining ranks with other major global central
banks, as softening inflation allows room for easing policy.
The
RBA cut rates by 25 basis points to 4.10%, marking its
first easing since November 2020, when the central bank cut its key rate to a
record low, as it battled a slowing economy during the pandemic.
“While
today’s policy decision recognises the welcome progress on inflation, the Board
remains cautious on prospects for further policy easing,” the RBA board members
said in the statement.
The
statement signaled the central bank’s intention to keep “any further withdrawal
of monetary restriction” gradual, Abhijit Surya, senior APAC economist at
Capital Economics said in a note.
As
the RBA sounded a hawkish tone, Surya forecast the ongoing easing cycle to be
“short-lived,” penciling in only two rate cuts in the current cycle, pegging
the terminal cash rate at 3.60%.
The
central bank had held its policy rate steady at 4.35% since November 2023,
following an extended period of 13 rate hikes to tame inflation.
The
Tuesday decision was in line with market expectations, with government bonds
rallying in recent weeks on anticipation of an interest rate cut. The yields on
Australian 10-year government bonds dropped nearly 20 basis points since Jan.
13 to 4.450% on Tuesday, according to LSEG data.
The
RBA has lagged behind major global central banks that kicked off an easing
cycle late last year.
In
its last policy meeting in December, the central bank said
it was more confident that inflation was declining and that might allow it to
ease policy at some stage.
Australia’s
inflation over the 12 months through the December quarter eased to 2.4%, compared with
2.8% in the 12 months through September quarter, the Australian Bureau of
Statistics data showed. The RBA has pegged its medium term inflation target
between 2% and 3%.
More
Rachel Reeves faces fresh blow as one in three businesses planning to cut jobs this year
17
February 2025
Confidence
among UK employers has taken a significant hit, with a new report revealing
that one in three businesses are planning to cut
jobs in
2025 due to rising employment costs.
A
new survey of over 2,000 employers found that Chancellor Rachel
Reeves's planned
increases to National
Insurance Contributions
(NICs) and the national minimum wage are heavily impacting hiring decisions.
The
Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) warned that these
changes could stifle growth, with many businesses planning redundancies or
scaling back recruitment to offset rising expenses.
Peter
Cheese, chief executive of CIPD, said: "These are the most significant
downward changes in employer sentiment we've seen in the last 10 years, outside
of the pandemic. Employer confidence has been impacted by planned increases to
employment costs and employment indicators are heading in the wrong
direction."
From
April, larger businesses will face increased National Insurance Contributions,
with thresholds dropping from £9,100 to £5,000 and rates rising from 13.8% to
15%. The British Retail Consortium has estimated that this
change could cost UK retailers £2.33 billion
The
CIPD's study revealed that 33% of businesses expecting higher employment costs
intend to reduce their workforce, while two in five plan to raise prices to
manage the financial burden.
Mr
Cheese noted that sectors like retail and hospitality, which employ large
numbers of people, will be particularly affected.
He
added: "If the Government's plans are to succeed, it's vital they set out
how they will help businesses to support growth and investment, and it's
important this support is felt across the economy."
Meanwhile,
a separate survey showed a sharp decline in confidence among small businesses.
The
Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) found that in the fourth quarter of 2023,
small business confidence was at its lowest point outside of the pandemic.
A
survey of nearly 1,400 small firms revealed that those in accommodation and
food services were especially pessimistic, citing barriers to growth such as
economic challenges, high taxes, and labor costs.
Tina
McKenzie of the FSB said: "Small firms are understandably nervous about
their prospects as 2025 gets under way.
"The
upcoming Employment Rights Bill is a major source of stress for small firms,
with nine in 10 business owners saying they are concerned about its
introduction. This is undoubtedly contributing to the very subdued confidence
levels seen in our research."
The
Employment Rights Bill, introduced to Parliament in October 2024, aims to
overhaul employment laws to create a fairer workplace.
Key
provisions include banning zero-hours contracts, mandating sick pay from the
first day of illness and enhancing protections against unfair dismissal.
However,
small business owners are concerned about the impact on operational
flexibility, particularly
proposed changes to unfair dismissal rules that would allow employees to
take their employer to a tribunal from day one on the job.
She
added: "On the plus side, the Government's plans to reduce late payment -
a long-standing source of financial strain for small firms - cannot come soon
enough."
Rachel Reeves faces fresh blow as one in three businesses planning to cut jobs this year
Covid-19
Corner
This section will continue until it becomes unneeded.
Social media censorship of COVID vaccine injury discussion led to
suicides, families, advocates say
"The
suicides are a result of not knowing there is support, not being able to reach
out for help to access the support that does exist and being removed from
support networks that were some people's only lifeline," Brianne Dressen
said.
Published: February 13,
2025 11:01pm Updated: February 14, 2025 5:56pm
Social media censorship
of COVID-19 vaccine injuries prompted by the Biden administration led to
suicides, according to vaccine victims and their advocates.
Many people have experienced
injuries from COVID vaccines, and some of them were unable to find support,
says a U.S. senator and other advocates for vaccine victims. Social media
censorship made it difficult for these victims to connect with support groups
online, which resulted in some committing suicide.
Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis.,
told the “Just the News, No Noise” TV show on Tuesday that Facebook is in the process of sending him
information regarding the censorship of COVID vaccine injury groups.
“We have heard from
representatives of Facebook,” Johnson said. “They understand now that they need
to take this very seriously. And the reason they need to is what they did,
apparently on the direction of federal officials, is they took down these group
chats of the vaccine-injured – people that were being gaslit, they were being
ignored by their own health providers, they couldn't get treatment, they were
suffering severe adverse events, and the only sense of support they had was
through these Facebook chat groups
“And after my panels [on
COVID], those chat groups were taken down, and the result of that is people
committed suicide. They had no support whatsoever, they were in utter despair,
and the result of Facebook's action, at the behest of the federal officials,
was that people took their own lives,” he continued.
Johnson said that he
wants Facebook to tell him “what happened, who within their organization
participated, why they participated in taking down these groups repeatedly, and
at whose direction from the federal government was this.”
“Who in the federal
government forced this censorship on Facebook, and as result, resulted in the
deaths of American citizens who were injured by the vaccine that was pushed and
mandated on them?” he asked.
Johnson, chairman of the
Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, sent a letter last week to Meta
CEO Mark Zuckerberg, demanding he turn over Facebook's records on its alleged censorship of COVID-19 vaccine-injured people.
Facebook has been accused
of censoring posts about injuries from the COVID vaccines, and even allegedly
shutting down support groups for people who claimed they were injured by the
vaccines.
Silencing anything critical of the COVID cartel and
the vaccines
The alleged censorship
was recently chronicled in the November 2024 book, "Worth a Shot?", which claimed that within five days of Johnson's
roundtable on COVID vaccine injuries in 2021, a large support group for injured
people on Facebook was unexpectedly closed.
The book also claimed
that users who posted about their vaccine injuries were
"shadow-banned" on the platform, meaning their posts were not as
visible, and warnings would be added to posts on the injury that “urged the
viewer to go to Facebook’s Community Guidelines to get accurate information
about the COVID vaccine," said Johnson.
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.
IIT-Delhi
Research Shows Thin Graphene Shields Glass From Mechanical & Chemical
Damage Underwater
17
February 2025
New
Delhi: Ever noticed how something as simple as cleaning raindrops off
your eyeglasses, wiping a windshield or removing spilled water from a glass
tabletop can leave unsightly marks?
These
everyday scenarios reveal the vulnerability of glass, which, despite its
transparency and functionality, is prone to surface damage during routine use.
Moving
in the direction of addressing this challenge, the Indian Institute of
Technology (IIT), Delhi has demonstrated that about a nanometre-thick graphene
-- by virtue of its exceptional chemical shielding and mechanical strength --
can remarkably improve the durability of glass exposed to water.
A
research paper, titled "Graphene Mitigates Nanoscale Tribochemical Wear of
Silica Glass in Water", has been published in the "Nano, Micro,
Small" journal.
Statement
Of Professor At The Materials Science & Engineering Department, IIT Delhi
According
to Nitya Nand Gosvami, Professor at the Materials Science and Engineering
Department, IIT-Delhi, surprisingly, the water surrounding us in the form of
humidity or moisture makes things even worse.
"For
example, windshield wipers sweeping dusty glass during a rainy drive can create
microscopic scratches as tiny dirt grinds against the surface. Similarly,
cleaning a glass table or eyewear lens with a damp cloth may seem harmless, but
water molecules can promote and seep into micro-scratches, wearing out the
glass at a molecular level.
"These
water-driven processes, though often invisible, are a hidden enemy of glass,
reducing its strength, lifespan and reliability," Gosvami told PTI.
He
explained that repeated scratch tests carried out by the researchers at the
nanoscale revealed that just a few layers of graphene can transform fragile
silica glass into a damage-resistant surface in water by preventing severe
wear.
"Despite
the ubiquitous use of glass, its simultaneous susceptibility toward
scratch-induced defects and atmospheric hydration deteriorates its mechanical
and chemical durability. Here, it is demonstrated that the deposition of a
few-layer graphene provides unprecedented wear resistance to silica glass in
aqueous conditions.
"To
this extent, nanoscale scratch tests were carried out on graphene-glass
surfaces via contact-mode atomic force microscopy with chemically inert and
reactive tip," Gosvami said.
A
Simple Yet Practical Solution
The
research highlights a simple yet practical solution for creating ultra-durable
glass coatings, particularly for moisture-sensitive applications, such as
smartphone screens, camera lenses, automotive windshields, solar panels and
even optical instruments exposed to humid or wet environments.
"Interestingly,
zero wear was observed when scratched with both hard diamond and reactive
silicon countersurfaces, despite the latter being aggressively corrosive to
glass. Molecular simulations reveal the secret behind graphene's effectiveness
-- it prevents the chemical 'sticking' of glass to reactive bodies sliding in
the presence of water.
"This
shielding ability of graphene protects the glass from combined physical and
chemical damage," said N M Anoop Krishnan, Professor at IIT-Delhi's Civil
Engineering Department.
IIT-Delhi Research
Shows Thin Graphene Shields Glass From Mechanical & Chemical Damage
Underwater
Next, the
world global debt clock. Nations debts to GDP compared.
World Debt
Clocks (usdebtclock.org)
The
most likely way for the world to be destroyed, most experts agree, is by
accident. That’s where we come in; we’re computer professionals. We cause
accidents.
Anon.
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