Baltic
Dry Index. 1975 +07 Brent Crude 73.77
Spot Gold 3413 US 2 Year Yield 3.97 +0.01
US Federal Debt. 36.988 trillion
US GDP 30.076
trillion.
The
nine most terrifying words in the English language are "I'm from the
government, and I'm here to help."
Ronald Reagan
In the stock casinos, complacency and callousness. Business as usual, even as President Trump has ordered the 12 million occupants of Tehran to leave.
“Everyone should immediately evacuate Tehran!”
A very dangerous day ahead. Yesterday there were rumours that Pakistan has threatened to nuke Israel if Israel uses nukes in Iran. Hopefully just wild rumours.
Asia-Pacific
markets trade mixed as investors assess Israel-Iran conflict; BOJ stands pat on
rates
Updated
Tue, Jun 17 2025 12:32 AM EDT
Asia-Pacific
markets traded mixed Tuesday, as investors assessed the Israel-Iran
conflict after U.S. President Donald Trump urged “everyone” to immediately evacuate Tehran. The president subsequently
left the Group
of Seven summit a day earlier due to the Middle East crisis.
Fitch
Ratings said that a spillover from the conflict “appears to be within the range
that can be absorbed at Israel’s ‘A’/Negative rating level.”
“The
fighting will remain contained between Israel and Iran, and will not persist
for more than a few weeks,” the ratings agency’s analysts wrote in a Monday
note.
Similarly,
Samy Chaar, chief economist and CIO Switzerland at Lombard Odier said the
confrontation between the two countries look very much controlled so far,
despite “market jitters” in commodity prices.
For now,
he sees “no sign of an irreversible escalation.”
“That
said, even without an escalation in the conflict, lingering uncertainty and
structurally higher energy costs retain the potential to slow economic growth
and push inflation higher,” Chaar wrote in a Tuesday note.
Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 added 0.58% while
the broader Topix index advanced 0.29%, after the Bank of Japan expectedly
stood pat on interest rates at 0.5%, as growth risks loom. The central
bank also said it would slow
the pace of government bond purchases from next April.
In South
Korea, the Kospi index
increased by 0.24% while the small-cap Kosdaq was flat.
Mainland
China’s CSI 300 index
dipped 0.15%, while Hong Kong’s Hang
Seng Index inched down 0.12%.
Over in
Australia, the S&P/ASX
200 benchmark fell 0.13% in choppy trade.
Meanwhile,
India’s Nifty 50 started
the day 0.29% lower, while the BSE Sensex index was down 0.15%.
U.S.
stock futures fell in Asian hours as investors continued to assess the
developments around the Israel-Iran conflict.
Overnight
stateside, all three key benchmarks rose on hopes for a positive resolution
to the Middle East conflict.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose
317.30 points, or 0.75%, closing at 42,515.09. Meanwhile, the S&P 500 advanced 0.94% to
end at 6,033.11, while the Nasdaq
Composite surged 1.52% and settled at 19,701.21.
Asia
stock markets today: live updates for June 17 2025
European markets
set to open sharply lower as Middle East conflict weighs on sentiment
Updated
Tue, Jun 17 2025 12:37 AM EDT
Good
morning and welcome to CNBC’s live blog covering European financial market
action and the latest regional and global business news, data and earnings.
Futures
data from IG suggests sharp falls across European markets at the open, with
London’s FTSE looking
set to open 52 points lower at 8,827, Germany’s DAX down 245 points at
23,447, France’s CAC 40 down
75 points at 7,665 and Italy’s FTSE MIB 329 points lower
at 39,568.
Global
investors continue to assess ongoing fighting between Israel and Iran tensions
after continued
missile attacks and airstrikes on Monday.
Oil
prices have risen on supply worries, and
the price of gold has also increased amid a flight to safe haven
assets after the conflict erupted last week.
Those
prices rose further overnight, and U.S.
stock futures turned lower, after U.S. President Donald Trump signaled
a further escalation in attacks could be coming as he urged Iranians to evacuate Tehran.
European
markets on Tues June 17: Stoxx 600, FTSE, DAX, CAC 40
In Israel v Iran war news, President Trump called for the immediate evacuation of Tehran. Is Israel ready to nuke Tehran?
Trump is
departing the G7 early as conflict between Israel and Iran shows signs of
intensifying
Updated
4:32 AM GMT+1, June 17, 2025
KANANASKIS,
Alberta (AP) — President Donald Trump abruptly left the Group of Seven summit
Monday, departing a day early as the conflict
between Israel and Iran intensified and the U.S. leader declared that
Tehran should be evacuated “immediately.”
World
leaders had gathered in Canada with the specific goal of helping to defuse a
series of global pressure points, only to be disrupted by a showdown over
Iran’s nuclear program that could escalate in dangerous and uncontrollable
ways. Israel launched an aerial bombardment campaign against Iran four days
ago.
At the
summit, Trump warned
that Tehran needs to curb its nuclear program before it’s “too late.” He said
Iranian leaders would “like to talk” but they had already had 60 days to reach
an agreement on their nuclear ambitions and failed to do so before the Israeli
aerial assault began. “They have to make a deal,” he said.
Asked
what it would take for the U.S. to get involved in the conflict militarily,
Trump said Monday morning, “I don’t want to talk about that.“
So far,
Israel has targeted multiple Iranian nuclear program sites but has not been
able to destroy Iran’s Fordo uranium enrichment facility.
----By
Monday afternoon, Trump warned ominously on social media, “Everyone should
immediately evacuate Tehran!” Shortly after that, Trump decided to leave the
summit and skip a series of Tuesday meetings that would address the ongoing war
in Ukraine and global trade issues.
As Trump
posed for a picture Monday evening with the other G7 leaders, he said simply,
“I have to be back, very important.”
More
Trump
to depart G7 early as Israel-Iran conflict shows signs of intensifying | AP
News
Israel-Iran
Conflict Begins to Disrupt Global Supply Chains
June 16,
2025 at 5:00 PM GMT+1
In
their fourth day of fighting, with no end in sight, ripples
from the
Israeli-Iranian conflict are beginning to rock global supply
chains. Some oil tanker owners and managers have paused
offering their vessels for Middle Eastern routes as they assess
the risks, fueling concerns over export flows from the region. The stability of
shipping in and around the Middle
East will be closely watched by markets in coming weeks.
The
region is home to about
a third of the world’s oil production, and major exporters such as Saudi
Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have little room to divert exports should
shipping be affected. Navigation signals
from more than 900 vessels in the Strait of Hormuz and the Persian
Gulf went awry over the weekend, creating confusion in the shipping chokepoint
as the fighting intensified
Meanwhile,
the United Nations nuclear watchdog convened
an emergency meeting to assess Israel’s attacks on Iranian nuclear
facilities, along with their disruption on oversight of the Islamic Republic’s
stockpile of near-bomb grade uranium. Experts assess that Tehran’s vast nuclear
infrastructure has been hobbled but isn’t destroyed.
The
conflict between Israel and Iran has shaped
the Middle East for decades. It was largely on a low
boil as the two sides attacked each other — mostly quietly and in
Iran’s case often by proxy — while avoiding a full-blown war. Now that it’s
entered into a hot phase, world markets are faced with charting new
territory. --Jonathan
Tirone
Israel-Iran
Conflict Begins to Disrupt Global Supply Chains - Bloomberg
Haifa oil
refinery shut down after sustaining heavy damage in Iran missile strike
Bazan
Group says power plant supplying steam and electricity to refinery heavily
damaged; 3 killed in missile strike
June 15,
2025
Israel’s
Bazan Group announced Monday evening that all operations at its Haifa Bay
refinery and subsidiaries have been shut down following a direct Iranian missile strike very early in the
morning. The company confirmed in a statement to the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange
that the attack caused significant damage, including to its on-site power
station. Three people were killed in the incident.
According
to the Energy Ministry, the attack struck a strategic facility and left the
power generation unit—critical to steam and electricity production—heavily
damaged. The ministry assured the public it is prepared to maintain national
fuel supply and estimated that repair work will take about 10 days.
----The
attack, which had not been publicly disclosed until Energy Minister Eli Cohen’s
announcement in the evening, came as a surprise to some in Israel’s defense
establishment. It is unclear whether the incident would have become public
knowledge had Bazan not been a publicly traded company legally obligated to
report material events.
Haifa oil refinery shut down
after sustaining heavy damage in Iran missile strike
In other
news, is China’s economy starting to recover?
China’s May
retail sales grow at fastest pace since December 2023 as subsidies help boost consumption
Published
Sun, Jun 15 2025 10:11 PM EDT
China’s
retail sales in May grew at their fastest rate since late 2023, as government
subsidies helped boost consumption, with analysts calling for stronger policy
support to sustain the recovery.
Retail
sales last month jumped
6.4% from a year earlier, data from
National Bureau of Statistics showed Monday, sharply beating analysts’
estimates for a 5% growth in a Reuters poll and accelerating from the 5.1% growth in the
previous month.
The spike
in sales growth comes as a welcome respite for the world’s second-largest
economy that has been struggling with persistent deflation.
Linghui
Fu, NBS spokesperson, attributed the improving consumption in May to the
ongoing consumer goods trade-in program, a surge in online shopping ahead of
the “618” e-commerce event and a rise in foreign tourists as the country
expanded its visa-free entry list to include more countries.
However,
he added that it has been “particularly challenging” for China’s economy to
maintain stable growth since the second quarter, naming heightened uncertainty
in trade policies among factors dragging growth. Fu made the comments at a
press conference following the data release.
The
country’s industrial output slowed
to 5.8% year on year in May from 6.1% in the prior month.
The latest reading came in slightly weaker than analysts’ expectations for a
5.9% rise.
Fixed-asset
investment, reported on a year-to-date basis, expanded
3.7% this year as of May from a year
earlier, undershooting Reuters’ forecast for a 3.9% growth and slowing
from a 4% growth in the first four months. Within the fixed-asset investment,
the contraction in property investment deepened, falling 10.7% in the first
five months, government
data showed.
“The rise
of retail sales came as a surprise,” said Zhiwei Zhang, president and chief
economist at Pinpoint asset management, while cautioning that the falling
property prices could dampen consumer sentiment.
A separate
release Monday by the NBS showed prices
of new homes in the more affluent tier 1 cities continued to decline, falling
1.7% in May from a year ago, while those in tier 2 and tier 3 cities dropped
3.5% and 4.9%, respectively.
The NBS
official noted that more work was needed to stop the slump in real estate
market.
A tariff deal
reached by Beijing and Washington in
mid-May gave temporary relief to the country’s exports, prompting some
businesses to frontload shipment while doubling down on alternative markets.
Both sides struck a 90-day truce to roll back most of the triple-digit levies
added on each other’s goods in early April.
Commerce Secretary
Howard Lutnick told CNBC last week that
U.S. tariffs on Chinese imports will stay at their current level of 55%.
more
China retail
sales, industrial output, fixed asset investment in May
Another tower block fire. Eight years after the Grenfell Tower fire in London, developers are still putting flammable cladding on tower blocs. While the world’s attention was focused on the Air India plane crash an even bigger disaster was avoided in Dubai. Approx. 10 minutes.
Mass
Evacuation in Dubai! Marina Skyscraper Fire Shocks the World, Panic in the
Streets
Mass Evacuation in Dubai! Marina Skyscraper Fire Shocks the World, Panic in the Streets - YouTube
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.
Hair
Stylists Are Bracing For A Recession — And Noticing A Hot New Trend With
Clients
June
15, 2025
The
latest recession
indicator?
The number of “recession blondes” walking around with their natural roots
showing.
President
Donald Trump has played coy about the possibility of his tariffs causing a
recession, telling NBC News earlier this month that any economic pain would
just be part of a “transition
period.” But
hairdressers and others in the beauty industry are already seeing hints of a
recession, as business tapers off, and clients let their hair grow long and
uncolored.
Kayla
Lofaro, a hair stylist and owner of Discotheque Salon in the
Silver Lake neighborhood of Los Angeles, says she’s definitely feeling some
bumpiness because of Trump’s economic “transition.”
The
dip in clients mirrors the drop-off her salon experienced during the writers’
strike in
2023, when many of her clients in the entertainment industry were temporarily
laid off and stopped coming in.
“Los
Angeles is still reeling from the effects of the strike, and we’re definitely
feeling the economic downturn now,” Lofaro told HuffPost. “Usually, I have
clients that maintain their color every six to eight weeks but now that is
stretching to about three to four months. A lot of clients are also skipping
haircuts and just getting color.”
Lofaro
opened her salon at the height of the COVID pandemic, so she knows how to
weather hard times like these.
“Something
that we did during COVID, that we will most likely do during these current unprecedented
times, is to hold ‘specials’ for the month, like free haircuts with any color
service,’” she said.
When
times are tough financially, Lofaro knows that beauty is bound to take a
backseat.
During
the Great Depression, women staved off buying new clothes or going in for
costly hair treatments but still bought lipstick when they could swing
it.
That
phenomenon ― where sales of relatively affordable luxury goods like lipstick
increase during economic downturns ― became known by economists as the “lipstick
effect,” or
the “lipstick
index.”
Beauty
routines are becoming more low maintenance now, too. Like before, instead of
cutting back on discretionary spending entirely, women on TikTok are
sharing ways they’re keeping up appearances while avoiding paying a small
fortune at salons: There’s tons of videos on how to apply lash extensions or
press‑on nails yourself, and guidance on how to get an (almost perfect) DIY
spray tan.
And
then there’s the aforementioned “recession blonde” and “recession brunette”
trend: To save money, women are letting their hair grow out darker at the root
and blending it out with lighter, more golden shade toward the bottom. Maybe
they’ll go in for a balayage or highlight treatment once or twice a year, which
gives them a more lived in look that doesn’t need to be touched up so
regularly.
More
Hair Stylists Are
Bracing For A Recession — And Noticing A Hot New Trend With Clients
The old believe everything, the middle-aged suspect everything,
the young know everything.
Oscar Wilde
Covid-19
Corner
This
section will continue only occasionally when something of interest occurs.
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.
Government
officially announces what will be included in the Future Homes Standard this
year — and it’s good news for solar power
16
June 2025
Solar
panel plans for all new homes confirmed as government begins finalising Future
Homes Standard, sparking mixed reactions
The UK government has confirmed that the Future Homes Standard will be published this
autumn, making it clear that new homes will require solar panels as standard.
The announcement forms part of the government’s wider
Plan for Change, aimed at improving energy efficiency, reducing carbon
emissions, and lowering energy bills for future homeowners.
While many industry experts and consumers have welcomed
the move as a step toward cleaner energy and cost savings, some have raised
concerns about potential challenges for builders and buyers as these new
regulations take effect.
Solar panels to be standard on new homes
The upcoming standard will amend building regulations
to explicitly promote rooftop solar, making it a mandatory for all new homes across the UK.
The government says this will spark a "rooftop revolution", helping families
save hundreds of pounds on energy bills annually.
A typical existing home with solar panels could already
save about £530 per year based on current energy prices - these savings will
now be unlocked from day one for new homeowners.
Energy Secretary Ed Miliband called the measure “common
sense,” stating: “So many people just don’t understand why this doesn’t already
happen. With our plans, it will.”
Low-carbon heating also part of the plan
Beyond solar, the Future Homes Standard includes
mandatory low-carbon heating solutions like heat pumps, alongside high energy efficiency standards.
These upgrades will not only lower bills but also
reduce reliance on fossil fuels, aligning with broader net-zero targets.
Planning rules have already been relaxed to support
this transition: homeowners can now install a heat pump within one metre of their property boundary without needing planning permission - a move expected to remove a key barrier cited by nearly a third of
potential heat pump customers, according to Octopus Energy.
More
Solar panels will
be part of Future Homes Standard, government confirms | Homebuilding
Next, the
world global debt clock. Nations debts to GDP compared.
World Debt
Clocks (usdebtclock.org)
Government is not a solution to
our problem, government is the problem. ... Government does not solve problems;
it subsidizes them. Government's view of the economy could be summed up in a
few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. If it
stops moving, subsidize it. ... The problem is not that people are taxed too
little, the problem is that government spends too much.
Ronald Reagan
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