Baltic
Dry Index. 1424 +24
Brent Crude 69.31
Spot Gold 2895 US 2 Year Yield 3.89 -0.10
US Federal Debt. 36.581 trillion!!
The "Magnificent Seven" cohort, once the stars of this bull market, led the declines Monday as investors dumped the group for perceived safer plays. Tesla tumbled 15% for its worst day since 2020, while Alphabet and Meta fell more than 4%. Artificial intelligence darling Nvidia lost 5%. Palantir, another once-loved stock by retail traders, was down 10%.
Was that it in the stock casinos or is the 2025 correction just getting started?
It’s far to early to call of course, but that giant roaring sucking sound is trillions of paper wealth disappearing from the US and global economy.
With a US government in the process of firing thousands of Federal workers, a seemingly tapped out US consumer, and the UK’s inept government’s tax policy of "recession or bust," it doesn’t look like this is a time to go long stocks in the USA, Canada, the UK or German recession led Europe.
Yesterday may not have been Black Monday 1987
2.0, but with US stocks alone losing an estimated four trillion dollars, it’s
time to start questioning where all the giant losses went, and which corporations’
business models just became unsustainable.
Dow tumbles nearly 900 points, Nasdaq
suffers worst day since 2022 as recession fears erupt: Live updates
Updated Mon, Mar 10 2025 4:36 PM EDT
A three-week market sell-off intensified
on Monday, with investors worried that tariff policy uncertainty would tip the
economy into a recession, something President Donald Trump did not rule out
over the weekend in an interview.
The S&P 500 shed 2.7%,
touching its lowest level since September at one point and closing at 5,614.56.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq
Composite saw the sharpest decline of the major averages, falling 4%
for its worst session since September 2022 and closing at 17,468.32. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped
890.01 points, or 2.08%, ending at 41,911.71.
The S&P 500 is off 8.7% from its
all-time high reached Feb. 19, and the Nasdaq Composite is off nearly 14% from
its recent high. A 10% decline is considered a correction on Wall Street.
The losses worsened as the day went on,
but the major averages came off their session lows just before the close.
The “Magnificent Seven” cohort, once the
stars of this bull market, led the declines Monday as investors dumped the
group for perceived safer plays. Tesla tumbled 15% for its
worst day since 2020, while Alphabet and Meta fell more than 4%.
Artificial intelligence darling Nvidia lost
5%. Palantir, another
once-loved stock by retail traders, was down 10%.
Worries have been increasing about the
economy over the past month, sparked initially by some soft data that appeared
to be in reaction to the tariff policy back-and-forth and then fueled further
by some recent comments by the White House.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Friday
told CNBC that there could be a “detox
period” for the economy as the new administration cuts government
spending. Then in an interview that aired Sunday, President Trump responded to
a question on Fox News about the possibility of a recession by saying the
economy was going through “a
period of transition.”
“What I have to do is build a strong
country,” Trump said. “You can’t really watch the stock market.”
Goldman Sachs slashed
its economic growth forecast in recent days because of the potential
tariff effects.
“We are in the throes of a manufactured
correction,” said Sam Stovall, chief investment strategist at CFRA Research. “I
say manufactured because it’s really based in response to the new
administration’s tariff programs, or at least threats of tariffs, and what kind
of an impact that will have on the economy.”
Signs of investors taking off risk were
evident everywhere on Wall Street. The Cboe Volatility index, a measure
of trader fear, jumped to the highest since December. Bitcoin tumbled back
below $80,000 and Treasury
yields declined.
The declines in the S&P 500 would have
been worse were it not for a rotation into some more defensive areas of the
market that have steady revenue and pay a dividend. Mondelez and Johnson & Johnson ended
the day slightly higher.
Stock
market news today: Live updates
Fintech stocks plummet as Wall Street worries
about consumer spending, credit
Published Mon, Mar 10 2025 4:56 PM EDT Updated
Mon, Mar 10 2025 5:27 PM EDT
It was a bad day for tech stocks, and a
brutal one for fintech.
As the Nasdaq suffered its
steepest decline since 2022, some of the biggest losers were companies that sit
at the intersection of Wall Street and Silicon Valley.
Stock trading app Robinhood tumbled 20%,
bitcoin holder Strategy fell
17% and crypto exchange Coinbase lost
18%. Much of the slide in those three stocks was tied to the drop in bitcoin, which fell almost 5%,
continuing its downward trajectory. The price of the leading cryptocurrency is
now down 19% over the past month, falling after a big postelection pop in late
2024.
Beyond the crypto trade, online lenders
and payments companies also fell more than the broader market. Affirm, which popularized buy now,
pay later loans, dropped 11%, as did SoFi, which offers personal loans
and mortgages. Shopify,
which provides payment technology to online retailers, fell more than 7%.
JPMorgan
Chase fintech analysts on Monday highlighted declining consumer
confidence as a potential challenge for companies that rely on consumer
spending for growth. In late February, the Conference Board’s consumer
confidence index slipped to
98.3 for the month, down nearly 7%, the largest monthly drop since August
2021. Walmart recently
reported a shift away from discretionary purchases, underscoring the potential
trouble.
“Our universe has modestly outperformed
the S&P 500 since the election, but sentiment has soured of late on
declining consumer confidence and signs of slowing discretionary spend,” the
JPMorgan analysts wrote.
The fintech sell-off follows a strong
rally in the fourth quarter, driven by Fed rate cut expectations and hopes for
a more favorable regulatory environment under the Trump administration.
Fintech
stocks plummet as Wall Street frets over consumer spending
Tesla shares plunge 15%, suffering steepest drop
in five years
Since peaking at $479.86 on Dec. 17, Tesla
shares have lost over 50% of their value, wiping out over $800 billion in
market cap.
March 10, 2025, 7:19 PM GMT
Tesla’s selloff on Wall Street intensified on Monday,
with shares of the electric vehicle maker plunging 15%, their worst day on the
market since September 2020.
On Friday, Tesla wrapped up a seventh straight week of losses, its
longest losing streak since debuting on the Nasdaq in 2010. The stock has
fallen every week since CEO Elon Musk went to Washington, D.C., to take on a major
role in the second Trump White House.
Since peaking at $479.86 on Dec. 17, Tesla
shares have lost over 50% of their value, wiping out over $800 billion in
market cap. Monday marked the stock’s seventh worst day on record.
Tesla led a broader slump in U.S. equities, with the Nasdaq
tumbling almost 4%, its steepest decline since 2022.
The downdraft in Tesla’s stock on Monday
was tied to uncertainty surrounding President Donald
Trump’s plans on tariffs. Canada and Mexico are key markets for
automotive suppliers, and increased tariffs, with the potential for a trade
war, will likely impact production and lead to higher prices.
Tesla is also dealing with brand erosion
due to Musk’s incendiary political rhetoric and his extensive work with the
Trump administration, where he’s leading up the so-called Department of
Government Efficiency. Musk, the world’s wealthiest person, has become the
public face of the administration’s effort to dramatically shrink the federal
government’s workforce, spending and capacity.
Meanwhile, Musk has used his social
network X to level accusations against judges whose decisions he didn’t like
and promoted false Kremlin talking points about Ukraine President Volodymyr
Zelenskyy.
Activists and former Musk fans have
protested at Tesla facilities throughout the U.S., and Tesla vehicles and
facilities have been the apparent targets of vandalism and arson attempts.
Repeated arson attempts and instances of vandalism occurred at a Tesla store
and service center in Loveland, Colorado, most recently on March 7, police told
CNBC.
Ben Kallo, an analyst at Baird, told
CNBC’s “Squawk
on the Street” on Monday that recent reports of vandalism could hurt
demand.
“When people’s cars are in jeopardy of
being keyed or set on fire out there, even people who support Musk or are
indifferent Musk might think twice about buying a Tesla,” Kallo said.
More
Tesla shares plunge 15%,
suffering steepest drop in five years
S&P 500 futures edges
up after recession fears triggered a market sell-off: Live updates
Updated Tue, Mar 11 2025 1:30 AM EDT
S&P 500 futures edged up
0.2% early Tuesday after concerns that a recession would hit the U.S. economy
sparked a broad sell-off on Monday.
Futures tied to the Dow Jones
Industrial Average reversed earlier losses to increase 0.3%, or by 126
points, while the Nasdaq 100 futures rose by 0.14%.
Nasdaq-100 futures remained
in the red, however, dropping 0.15%, albeit off earlier lows.
In after-hours action, shares of Delta Air Lines tumbled about
11% after the carrier slashed
its profit and sales forecast for the current quarter due to weaker
demand for U.S. travel.
Stocks sank during Monday’s session,
extending losses after the S&P
500 posted three consecutive negative weeks. The Nasdaq Composite saw its
worst day since September 2022. Meanwhile, the 30-stock Dow, which lost nearly 900 points,
closed below its 200-day moving average for the first time since Nov. 1, 2023.
“This is starting to feel like a
capitulation in the market,” Anastasia Amoroso, chief investment strategist at
iCapital, said on CNBC’s “Closing
Bell” on Monday. “We’ve been waiting for the market to, on a broad basis,
hit oversold levels, and I think we’re going to get there today. If not today,
most likely this week.”
The moves lower come as anxiety over an
impending recession rose on Wall Street. When asked about the possibility of a
recession, President Donald
Trump said during a Fox News interview that aired on Sunday that the
economy was going through “a
period of transition.” The remarks arrived after Treasury Secretary
Scott Bessent told CNBC on Friday that there could be a “detox
period” for the economy as the Trump administration slashes federal
spending.
Goldman Sachs also recently cut
its economic growth outlook due to the potential effects of Trump’s
tariff policy.
When it comes to the chances of a
recession hitting, Amoroso thinks fears are overblown.
“Why do we have a recession all of a
sudden? What indicators actually point to a recession?” she continued. “We have
a relatively strong payrolls report. We have consumer spending that is still
pacing 3% or 4%, so I don’t actually see the reasons to fear a recession at
this very moment.”
Investors are eagerly awaiting economic
reports due later in the week. Job openings data will be out on Tuesday. That
is followed by February’s reading of the consumer price index on Wednesday
morning and that month’s data for the producer price index on Thursday.
Stock
market today: Live updates
White House: Stock market plunge is not as
‘meaningful’ as business activity
Published Mon, Mar 10 2025 7:31 PM EDT Updated
Mon, Mar 10 2025 7:40 PM EDT
The White House on Monday downplayed the
weeks long stock
market sell-off, insisting that recent moves by business
leaders suggest a brighter outlook for the U.S.
economy.
“We’re seeing a strong divergence between
animal spirits of the stock market and what we’re actually seeing unfold from
businesses and business leaders,” a White House official told reporters Monday
afternoon.
“The latter is obviously more meaningful
than the former on what’s in store for the economy in the medium to long term,”
said the official, who was granted anonymity.
In economics, the term “animal
spirits” is used to describe situations where human emotions, rather than
pure logic, dictate investors’ decisions.
The White House appeared to be using the
term to suggest that the sell-off was being driven by irrational fears and
negativity.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell
nearly 900 points Monday and the Nasdaq clocked its worst
session since 2022, while the S&P
500 lost 2.7%.
The dismal
trading day extended and intensified a sell-off that
has now entered its third week.
But experts pointed to several factors
driving investors to shed stock, chief among them, massive 25% tariffs on
imports from Mexico and Canada. President Donald Trump imposed and
then paused these tariffs last month, only to re-impose and partially pause
them again last week.
Compounding the uncertainty around Trump’s
trade policy are the mass firings of thousands of federal employees, an effort
being overseen by billionaire Trump adviser Elon Musk.
The result was an abrupt reversal of the
aggressive optimism and high risk tolerance that helped drive huge market gains
late last year.
“You’ve certainly seen some of the animal
spirits that were fueling the stock market rally in the fall fading,” said
Scott Lincicome, vice president of general economics and trade at the
libertarian CATO Institute.
“Folks are now looking more at downside
risks, at potential higher prices, and also just all the uncertainty,”
Lincicome said in a recent interview with CNBC.
“And that, I think, can be directly traced
back to the president.”
Trump, for his part, has largely stopped
pointing to financial markets as barometers of the nation’s economic health,
something he regularly did during his first term in office.
Instead, the White House has touted a
series of recent commitments from business leaders to invest hundreds of
billions of dollars in the U.S. in the coming years.
Some of the biggest such pledges have come
from Apple, which
announced a $500 billion investment plan, Softbank, TSMC, and Eli Lilly.
In a separate statement on Monday
afternoon, White House spokesman Kush Desai said those industry leaders were
responding to Trump’s election victory and enthusiasm for his economic agenda.
“President Trump delivered historic job,
wage, and investment growth in his first term, and is set to do so again in his
second term,” said Desai.
White
House: Stock market plunge not as 'meaningful' as business moves
Next, in so you really, really, really want
to drive an EV, news.
Heathrow Airport travel chaos after 'electric car
explodes in tunnel'
10 March 2025
Passengers planning on flying this morning
from Heathrow Airport have been warned of delays after a car burst into flames
earlier this morning.
An electric car was seen on fire inside
one of the airport's tunnels this morning which connects Terminals 1, 2 and 3.
The M4 southbound between junctions 4 and 4a was closed as a result of the
blaze, sparking long delays for those on the ground and hoping to fly.
Emergency services were called to the scene at around 3am this morning to fight
the flames. The vehicle was totally destroyed, although there were no reports
of any injuries, and flights are still being delayed.
A spokesman for Heathrow Airport said:
“Due to an earlier vehicle fire, road access to Terminals 2 and 3 is partially
restricted. Passengers are advised to leave more time travelling to the airport
and use public transport where possible. Latest updates can be found on
Heathrow.com and our social media channels. We apologise for the disruption
caused.”
Heathrow Airport
travel chaos after 'electric car explodes in tunnel'
In other news.
Japan revises fourth-quarter GDP lower,
complicating BOJ’s interest rate outlook
Published Mon, Mar 10 2025 7:57 PM EDT
Japan’s economic growth slowed to 2.2% on
an annualized basis in the fourth quarter, complicating the central bank’s case
for a near-term interest rate as the country grapples with tepid domestic
demand.
The revised data came in lower than
economists’ median forecast and the initial
estimate of 2.8% growth.
On a quarter-to-quarter basis, GDP
expanded 0.6%, compared with a 0.7% growth in
preliminary data released
last month, the Cabinet
Office’s revised data showed on Tuesday.
On a year-on-year basis, the real GDP
growth rate was revised lower to 1.1% in the three months to December from the
preliminary reading of 1.2%, compared with the 0.7% rise in the third quarter.
The Bank of Japan is likely to keep policy
rate steady at its next policy meeting on March 18-19, Reuters
reported.
Yet the rate-setting board could be discussing another rate hike for as soon as
May, due to concerns about inflationary pressure from wage gains and stubborn
rises in food costs.
Following the data release, Japan’s Nikkei
225 index fell over 2%. The Japanese yen strengthened 0.32% to trade at 146.77
against the greenback. The government 10-year bonds rose with yields shedding
3.7 basis points to 1.538%.
As the central bank sought to normalize
its ultra-loose monetary policy last year, it has raised short-term interest
rates by a quarter percentage to 0.5% in January — its highest level
since the depth of global financial crisis in 2008.
Still, the upbeat GDP data “supports the
view that rates will face heightened upward pressure as monetary policy
tightens,” Sonal Desai, chief investment officer at Franklin Templeton Fixed
Income, said in a client note.
“The BoJ is likely to hike at least twice
more this year, but we are tilting to three,” Desai said, expecting the
terminal rates to “well be above 1%.”
‘Sticky inflation’
Bank of Japan Governor Kazuo Ueda
and other
members of the rate-setting board have signaled
further rate hikes if inflation moves durably toward its 2% inflation
target.
The country’s 10-year government bond
yields recently surged to
its highest level since October 2008, amid sustained inflation in the country,
a global sell-off in bonds, as well as central bank comments that it will
continue to taper Japanese government bond purchases.
Japan’s headline inflation has stayed above the
BOJ’s 2% target for 34 straight months, with the most recent figure in January
hitting a two-year high of 4%.
The so called “core-core” inflation rate,
which strips out prices of both fresh food and energy and is closely monitored
by the BOJ, climbed slightly to 2.5% in January, hitting its highest rate since
March 2024.
Separate data from the internal affairs
ministry on Monday showed household spending
climbed 0.8% year on year in January, far below expectations for a 3.6%
rise, according to a Reuters poll.
“Sticky inflation and lackluster pay
growth will push real wage gains further into the distance and, with it, an
improvement in domestic consumption,” said Stefan Angrick, head of Japan and
frontier markets economics at Moody’s Analytics.
Capital expenditure, a barometer of
private demand, was revised upward to 0.6% growth quarter-on-quarter in the
October to December period, compared with a preliminary reading of a 0.5% rise.
Private consumption, which accounts for
more than half of Japan’s economy, was flat in the revised reading, compared
with 0.1% in the initial reading and the
0.7% rise in the previous quarter.
“The downward revision in consumer
spending is a bit negative as data to support the BOJ’s rate hikes, but it is
not likely to significantly change the assessment of the economy,” Masato
Koike, economist at SOMPO Institute Plus said in a note.
The BOJ is slated to release the corporate
goods price index for January on Wednesday, which measures prices of goods
companies charge each other. The gauge is expected to show a 0.1%
month-on-month decline, according to a Reuters poll, while jumping 4.0% from a
year earlier.
Japan revises Q4 GDP lower, complicating BOJ's interest rate outlook
German exports fall, industrial production rises
in January
10 March 2025
BERLIN(Reuters) - German industrial output
rose in January but exports plunged, suggesting the outlook for the euro zone's
largest economy remains anything but rosy.
German exports fell by 2.5% in January
compared with the previous month, data from the federal statistics office
showed on Monday. The result compared with a forecast 0.5% increase in a
Reuters poll.
The foreign trade balance showed a surplus
of 16.0 billion euros ($17.34 billion) in January, down from 20.7 billion euros
in December 2024.
Meanwhile, German industrial production
rose in January by 2.0% compared with the previous month, the federal
statistics office said. Analysts polled by Reuters had predicted a 1.5% rise.
German industrial orders in January fell
by 7% from the previous month, the federal statistics office said on Friday.
German exports fall, industrial production rises in January
The advantage of a free market is that it allows millions of decision-makers to respond individually to freely determined prices, allocating resources - labor, capital and human ingenuity - in a manner that can't be mimicked by a central plan, however brilliant the central planner.
Friedrich August von Hayek.
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.
In
the UK, get ready for the inept government created Great Recession of 2025. As
the government forces employers to cut jobs, the same government is about to
force thousands off welfare and into those now missing jobs.
Hiring
slump deepens as bosses brace for Reeves tax raid
10
March 2025
Businesses
are cancelling hiring plans and preparing to lay off workers as they brace for
the impact of Rachel
Reeves’s £40bn tax raid next month.
Ahead
of planned rises in the minimum wage and employer National Insurance (NI), new
data shows the jobs market is shrinking as companies
scale back investment.
According
to the report for KPMG and the Recruitment and Employment Confederation,
starting salaries are also rising at the slowest pace for four years.
It
found that demand for staff suffered “substantial declines” in February, with demand
for permanent roles falling for the 18th month in a row.
This
led to declining vacancies in almost all sectors.
“Recruiters
frequently cited that weaker
confidence around the economic outlook and rising payroll costs had led
firms to pause or cut back on hiring,” the report said.
At
the same time, a separate survey of small and medium-sized businesses found
that around one fifth – or approximately 300,000 – are planning to “reduce
headcount” to help cope with the NI rise.
Two
thirds of those surveyed estimated the increase would cost them more than
£10,000, with more than half planning to deal with this by raising prices, the
research for loan provider Iwoca found.
Firms
are also planning to trim hiring and cancel pay rises.
Seema
Desai, of Iwoca, said: “Based on our survey, rising employer NI contributions
are likely to result in slower wage growth and job losses among small and
medium-sized businesses.”
It
comes after leading businesses warned that the rise in employer NI
contributions, which will go from 13.8pc of pay to 15pc, is a “tax on jobs”.
In
her October Budget, Ms Reeves, the Chancellor, also announced an increase to
the National Living Wage and changes that will see minimum pay for 18 to
20-year-olds equalised with all other adults over time.
Neil
Carberry, the REC’s chief executive, said: “Enabling companies to grow is at
the heart of our prosperity. The Chancellor must use the spring statement to
build their confidence in growth.
“At
the moment, though, things are still slow as companies hold their breath in the
face of significant cost rises from April with changes to National Insurance
and the National Living Wage.
“Getting
the Industrial Strategy flying is a key part of this, for the whole economy,
not just key sectors – as is addressing policies in the Employment Rights Bill
so they do not prove to be a brake on growth.”
Hiring slump
deepens as bosses brace for Reeves tax raid
Welfare
cuts 'coming soon', minister says
09
March 2025
Labour
are aiming to get hundreds of thousands of people off welfare and back into
work as part of plans to save money from the public purse, a minister has told
Sky News.
Reducing
the cost of the welfare state has been a long-term goal for successive
governments, with the Conservatives also looking to cut spending before being
ejected from office last year.
Speaking
to Sunday Morning
With Trevor Phillips, Chancellor
of the Duchy of Lancaster Pat McFadden said: "We are the Labour Party. The
clue is in the name.
"We
cannot be relaxed about every year, hundreds of thousands more people going on
these benefits."
The
government is looking to find billions of pounds of savings as it seeks to
balance the public finances - especially after committing to an increase in
defence spending.
Mr
McFadden said: "We do have a package of welfare changes coming.
"It
will come pretty soon. This area of disability benefits is really important.
"Let
me just set out for you and your viewers what is happening here: We have over
nine million people of working age in the country who are not working, and some
of those are earlier retirees and so on, but about 30% of those are people on
long-term sickness benefits, about 2.8 million people.
"The
cost of this has gone up by about £20bn in the past few years.
"Furthermore,
the 'do nothing' trajectory, if you like, is for it to rise to over 4 million
people by the end of the decade.
"That's
not fair on the people involved, and it's not fair on the taxpayer.
"So
yes, we do have to act on this to make sure that we give everyone in the
country the opportunity to work."
Welfare cuts
'coming soon', minister says
The
history of government management of money has, except for a few short happy
periods, been one of incessant fraud and deception.
Friedrich
August von Hayek.
Covid-19
Corner
This
section will continue until it becomes unneeded.
What
did the UK's top scientist know of China lab leak theory?
09
March 2025
Lord
Vallance was facing questions last night over a controversial meeting that led
to the Covid 'lab leak' theory being dismissed.
Patrick
Vallance,
the chief scientific adviser during the pandemic, took part in a multinational
teleconference in February 2020, after which it is alleged scientists began
dismissing the Chinese lab-leak hypothesis as implausible.
The
meeting is in the spotlight again after Robert Redfield, an infectious diseases
expert who headed a key US public health body when the pandemic erupted,
accused American and British intelligence agencies of a clandestine campaign to
shut down concerns over a possible laboratory leak.
Covid's
origin is a hotly contested topic and the idea of a lab leak, once dismissed as
a conspiracy theory, has gained traction.
Former
minister Steve Baker said Lord Vallance 'should be fully transparent about what
he knew and why he chose to be among those who avoided inconvenient questions'.
Dr
Redfield, a world-renowned virologist, told The Mail on Sunday he was now '100
per cent' convinced that Covid-19 was the
result of scientists becoming infected while carrying out high-risk experiments
to boost the infectivity of bat viruses.
They
are thought to have been working in low-biosecurity labs in the Chinese city
of Wuhan.
Dr
Redfield fears security services secretly 'pulled a lot of the strings' to
protect their agents inside China's military-linked laboratories and that
exposing the leak would also bring too much scrutiny on the lab and potentially
expose active operatives.
He
believes that Anthony Fauci, former presidential adviser and influential US
doctor, worked with the heads of US and UK research funding bodies to push the
theory of natural transmission from animals on sale in a Wuhan market to
humans.
The
purpose, he claims, was to cover up their support for controversial 'gain of
function' research, which is when organisms are genetically altered to help
predict emerging infectious diseases.
In
theory, the research can help scientists get a head start on developing
treatments for viruses. But critics warn that it poses a massive risk to human
health – if the pathogens ever escape.
Dr
Redfield, a key figure in the US response to the pandemic as the then-director
of the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, said any scientists
questioning the natural transmission theory were labelled as conspiracy
theorists.
More
What did the UK's top scientist know of China lab leak theory?
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.
Campaigners
oppose battery farm plan over toxic fire risk and wildlife fears
09 March 2025
A group is campaigning
against the erection of a battery energy storage system (BESS) covering five
acres of woodland, which they say would pose a toxic fire risk to residents and
the environment.
Root-Power (North) applied
to Hyndburn Council last year for planning permission to
build a 60 megawatt BESS on land at Knuzden Moss Farm off Stanhill Road, Oswaldtwistle.
More than 40 objections have been submitted to the
council from residents. Concerns raised include fears over a battery fire
breaking out and releasing toxins into the atmosphere and its impact on
wildlife.
Residents also have raised
concerns about the BESS being proposed to be built on greenbelt land. They say
the plans are incompatible with the peaceful nearby country park and the area
would be disturbed by the BESS’ visual impact and noise.
However, Root-Power say the
site will benefit from biodiversity and adds 120,000 homes in the area would be
able to access power for two hours in the event of a blackout.
The company also states the
site will be beneficial to the local economy. The site lies within a parcel of
woodland and the project will connect into the adjacent National Grid
substation.
The plant would include 14
battery clusters, substations and transformers with two car parking spaces, two
water tanks and a fire hydrant housed within a compound.
Chris Burke, of Accrington Residents Association, said: “This planning application is shocking
and deeply concerning.
“BESS’s contain potentially
highly flammable and explosive lithium batteries. Concerns around electric
vehicles (EV) catching fire due to thermal runaway are very current. A battery
fire can become very fierce in a short space of time, leading to the release of
toxins with added risk of explosion, and is very difficult to extinguish.
“Fire chiefs have expressed
deep concern and governments need to warn the public EVs are an explosive fire
hazard because they also contain lithium batteries.
“The public have a right to
be alerted to the dangers posed by lithium batteries contained in renewable
projects which are not just appearing in Oswaldtwistle but across the country.”
He continued: “Greenbelt land should be preserved and when batteries are at the
end of life there is nowhere to dump them.
“Not only would the BESS be a
blot on the landscape, if a fire happens, it would put visitors to Brookside
Community Country Park at risk as well as the animals in the area. Toxins
released will go into the soil and the land would be unusable after, so we
can’t grow food there.
“In the event of a BESS fire,
water used as an extinguisher would exacerbate the fire.
“There is evidence water
contributes to producing the toxic gases associated with the fumes produced by
a BESS fire and water being used to attempt to extinguish these fires produces
explosions.”
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Campaigners oppose battery farm plan over toxic fire risk and wildlife
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Investigation
into huge fire at battery recycling depot continues
3 March 2025
An investigation into the
cause of a huge fire in Wythenshawe is continuing today. Police and fire service
experts returned to the scene of the blaze on the Roundthorn Industrial Estate.
The fire broke out at Portable Battery
Recycling Limited just after 8am on
Sunday. Today the blackened shells of vehicles destroyed in the blaze could be
seen in the yard of the premises.
The fire has yet to be
categorised by the emergency services as they try to establish whether the fire
was due to arson or an accident.
On its website, the company
describes itself as "the UK’s only specialist portable battery recycler,
with an aim to transform the way portable batteries are collected and recycled
across the UK, whilst providing the most competitive and compliant collection
service."
It adds: "We guarantee
an efficient and cost-effective solution for the collection, storage, recycling
and disposal of waste batteries, ensuring you are fully compliant with current
legislation and regulations."
The fire led to some homes in
the area being evacuated and other residents were advised to keep doors and
windows closed. A huge pall of black smoke could be seen for miles.
Ten fire engines were sent to
the incident and road closures were put in place for several hours. Footage
showed a fireball erupting from the premises and residents reported hearing
popping noises and loud bangs.
More
Investigation into huge fire at battery recycling depot continues
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Friedrich August von
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