Baltic
Dry Index. 1921 -49 Brent Crude 68.09
Spot Gold 3374 US 2 Year Yield 3.72 +0.03
US Federal Debt. 37.196 trillion
US GDP 30.182 trillion.
If I had foreseen Hiroshima and Nagasaki, I would have torn up my formula in 1905.
Albert Einstein
August 6th, 1945 might not be “a date that will live in infamy”, but August 9th, 1945 certainly is.
Was it really not a war crime to drop a second atom bomb on Japan’s only “Christian” city just three days after bombing Hiroshima?
Germany had fallen, Russia had entered the war against Japan, and Japan was about to unconditionally surrender as per desperate diplomacy after August 6th.
Almost 50,000 people, mostly non-combatants, instantly wasted for revenge?
How to Understand E=mc2
Last
Updated: February 24, 2025
In
one of Albert Einstein’s revolutionary scientific papers published in 1905,
E=mc2 was introduced; where E is energy, m is mass, and c is
the speed of light in a vacuum.[1] Since then, E=mc2 has
become one of the most famous equations in the world. Even people with no
background in physics have at least heard of the equation and
are aware of its prodigious influence on the world we live in. However, most
people do not exactly know what the equation means. In simple terms, the
equation represents the correlation of energy to matter: essentially, energy
and matter are but two different forms of the same thing.[2] This relatively
simple equation has altered the way we think about energy and provided us with
numerous technological advances.
More
How to Understand E=mc2: 7
Steps (with Pictures) - wikiHow
In the global stock casinos, more fallout from President Trump’s Great Global Tariffs disruption.
With AI coming for American and global jobs, H2 25 and all of 2026, is starting to look dangerously ugly.
But enough of sugar coating the global economy from me.
Asia markets trade mixed as investors digest
Trump's fresh tariff threats
Updated Wed, Aug 6 2025 11:54 PM EDT
Asia-Pacific markets traded mixed
Wednesday after losses on Wall Street as investors weighed weaker-than-expected
economic data as well as fresh tariff comments from U.S. President Donald
Trump.
“We’re going to be announcing [tariffs] on
semiconductors and chips, which is a separate category, because we want them
made in the United States,” Trump said on Tuesday stateside, adding that he’ll
announce the new plan “within the next week or so.”
Asia chip stocks fall after Trump says
tariffs on semiconductors and chips will be announced soon
Asian chip stocks fell after U.S.
President Donald Trump said
he will unveil new tariffs on semiconductors and chips as soon as next week.
Japan’s Tokyo Electron and Lasertec fell 3.46% and
1.82% respectively. Renesas
Electron lost 3.68%.
Shares of South Korean memory chipmakers
also fell. SK Hynix lost 2.09%, while Samsung Electronics lost 1.43%. Taiwan’s
TSMC stocks fell 2.17%.
“We’re going to be announcing on
semiconductors and chips, which is a separate category, because we want them
made in the United States,” Trump said during a lengthy
interview on CNBC’s “Squawk
Box.”
Trump said that the announcement will come
“within the next week or so.” He did not provide other details about the plan.
— Lee Ying Shan
Asia
markets live: RBI decision, Honda earnings
S&P 500 futures are little changed as
investors parse earnings reports: Live updates
Updated Wed, Aug 6 2025 7:38 PM EDT
S&P 500 futures were
near flat Tuesday night as investors analyzed the latest batch of corporate
earnings.
Futures linked to the broad market index
were down less than 0.1%, and Dow
Jones Industrial Average futures traded close to the flatline. Nasdaq 100 futures ticked
down about 0.2%, weighed down by a decline in Advanced Micro Devices.
In extended trading, Snap shares tumbled 15% after
revenue came in slightly
below expectations, while AMD fell about 5% after posting adjusted
earnings per share that missed estimates. On
the other hand, Arista
Networks rallied nearly 14% on a stronger-than-expected report.
Those moves follow a losing
day on Wall Street, marking the S&P 500′s fifth down day of
the last six and the Dow’s
sixth negative session of the past seven.
Tech stocks lagged in Tuesday’s session,
with the Nasdaq Composite sliding
nearly 0.7%. Small caps were able to buck the market downtrend, with the Russell 2000 climbing 0.6%.
“We just need some digestion,” said Keith
Lerner, co-chief investment officer at Truist Wealth, on CNBC’s “Closing Bell.” “Markets don’t
move in a straight line. … But, overall, I still think the underlying trend is
positive.”
Investors on Wednesday will monitor
earnings reports slated from Disney, Uber and McDonald’s before the bell,
followed by Airbnb, DoorDash and Lyft after the market closes.
While there’s no economic data of note expected Wednesday, traders will follow
speeches by Federal Reserve officials including Boston Fed President Susan
Collins and San Francisco Fed President Mary Daly during the day.
Stock
market today: Live updates
Stocks are sinking, and these 4 charts suggest a
deeper drop might be just getting started
Valuations returned to nosebleed territory
ahead of the seasonally weakest period for stock-market returns
Published: Aug. 5, 2025 at 4:49 p.m.
ET
U.S. stocks have stumbled since the start
of August, and a number of Wall Street strategists are warning that this might
be just a taste of a deeper selloff ahead.
For example, Julian Emanuel, chief equity
and quantitative strategist at Evercore ISI, said in a report shared with
MarketWatch that he is expecting a pullback of between 7% to 15% by
mid-October. Strategists at Deutsche Bank have also warned that stocks are
likely due for some weakness here, although they expected a more modest
retreat.
There are some silver linings. Emanuel
said the longer-term bull market probably isn’t in jeopardy, and that a deeper
pullback would ultimately invite dip buyers to do their thing.
The strategist has advised against dumping
stocks. Some investors might want to consider purchasing hedges to guard their
portfolios against any near-term weakness, he said.
But as major U.S. equity indexes again
finished in the red on Tuesday, here are a few charts investors might want to
keep in mind.
Valuations are back to nosebleed levels
The cyclically adjusted price-to-earnings
ratio, developed by Yale economist Robert Shiller, topped 38 in late July.
At that level, the gauge — better known as
the CAPE ratio — showed the S&P 500 had reached its priciest point since
late 2021.
Soon after that previous peak, stocks and
bonds alike were pummeled as the Federal Reserve embarked on its most
aggressive campaign of interest-rate hikes in decades. The S&P 500 would go
on to tally its worst calendar-year showing since 2008, FactSet data showed.
Emanuel isn’t expecting a repeat of 2022.
But high valuations leave stocks vulnerable to disappointing news, he said.
Seasonal weakness likely lies ahead
The two-month stretch between early August
and early October is typically the weakest of the entire calendar year for
stocks, according to BTIG’s Jonathan Krinsky.
September tends to be particularly rough.
The S&P 500 has, on average, fallen by 1.1% during the month going back to
1928, according to Dow Jones Market Data.
Recent economic reports, including
Friday’s dismal jobs report for July, have underscored signs of weakness in the
labor market. A disappointing reading on the ISM services index for July added
to investors’ fears of an economic slowdown on Tuesday.
The S&P 500 enters overbought
territory
One popular stock-market momentum gauge
has come off the boil after catapulting into overbought territory last month.
The 14-day relative-strength index for the
S&P 500 topped 76 on July 28, its highest reading since July 2024. Shortly
afterward, a selloff began that sent the index skittering to the edge of a
correction.
Any reading above 70 is generally
considered overbought. A correction is typically defined as a drop of 10% or
more.
Although the RSI has retreated from these
highs, Mark Hackett, chief market strategist at Nationwide, said in emailed
commentary that it remained just shy of overbought territory. That might mean
the latest pullback is just getting started.
More
Trump Throws $2 Trillion Market Into Doubt
With One Firing
August 5, 2025 at 11:09 PM GMT+1
A $2 trillion market for securities linked
to US inflation data could be the first area of Treasuries that
would crack if the US Bureau of Labor Statistics is politicized,
according to bond investors.
Since President Donald Trump fired
BLS chief Erika McEntarfer on Friday following a jobs report that
showed unemployment rising on his watch, investors have fretted that the
unprecedented move could erode trust in government data. Even before Trump’s
outburst, questions were being raised about how long America’s “gold
standard” system for economic data could withstand his effort
to centralize power by collapsing firewalls meant to
protect independent agencies.
The result of that happening to the BLS
could be catastrophic when it comes to asset prices. Indeed, the very fact of
McEntarfer’s dismissal, and the scrutiny that awaits her replacement and the
agency’s subsequent actions, may have already done irreparable
damage.
That link is perhaps most acute in
Treasury inflation-protected securities, where the face value of a bond is
adjusted based on the consumer price index, which is calculated by the BLS.
Interest payments are based on that floating principal.
And US price growth is very much in the
spotlight, with a July CPI report due next week and economists expecting both
annual headline and core readings to remain above the Fed’s 2%
target. While Trump has persistently called for the Federal Reserve to cut
interest rates, there are signs his
tariffs are reigniting inflation.
“The integrity of this data is at least as
important as the employment data,” said Michael Feroli, chief US economist at
JPMorgan. “Here, even seemingly innocuous technical changes can
matter.” —Jordan
Parker Erb
Trump
Throws a $2 Trillion Market Into Doubt With One Firing: Evening Briefing -
Bloomberg
In other news.
Top analyst says the next 5 years could see ‘no
growth in workers at all’ and sends a warning about the fate of the U.S.
economy
Mon, August 4, 2025 at 8:45 PM GMT+1
As the U.S. labor market shows clear signs
of stalling, one of Wall Street’s leading strategists is sounding a sharp
warning: With America’s workforce in a demographic crunch and historic changes
in immigration policy underway, it is “quite possible that the next five years
will see no growth in workers at all.”
The implications, according to David
Kelly, chief global strategist at JPMorgan Asset Management, are profound for
the Federal Reserve and for investors—chief among them, the need for
exceptional caution before lowering interest rates.
Kelly used his regular “Notes on the Week
Ahead” research note to survey the implications—perhaps assess the
damage—of Friday’s
shocking jobs report,
which revised downward job creation in May and June by 258,000 jobs.
Furthermore, employers added just 73,000 jobs in July, well below the 110,000
consensus estimate. This left the average monthly increase for the past quarter
at a paltry 35,000 jobs. The unemployment rate ticked up to 4.2% in July, as
both employment numbers and labor force participation slipped further.
Kelly also highlighted signs of tightness
in the labor market, namely the decline in the labor participation rate from
62.65% in July 2024 to 62.22% in July 2025. That translates to almost 1.2
million fewer people ages 16 and over who are working or actively looking for a
job.
Kelly commented on these signs of labor
tightness as pivotal context for the wider question of the labor supply in the
economy, with long-running trends implying that the Federal Reserve and embattled
Chair Jerome Powell will
face major challenges fighting inflation going forward—meaning ever-slimmer
chances of the all important rate cut the market wants so much.
The worker problem in the economy
The aging population and declining labor
participation also speak to a deeper, structural challenge that will persist
well into the future.
According to Census projections, he noted
the working-age population will actually contract in coming years without
immigration returning to previous levels.
Kelly highlights the Census prediction
that the population ages 18 to 64 would actually fall by over 300,000 people in
the year ending July 2026, and continue to fall at roughly that pace through
2030. He notes that the retirement wave and recent changes to major immigration
programs are further sapping labor supply, reducing potential growth.
Fed’s dilemma: inflation, growth, and
political pressure
This squeeze comes at a time when the
Federal Reserve is under immense political pressure to lower interest rates,
with President Trump and his allies calling for easier money to offset the
effects of new tariffs and support flagging markets.
Yet Kelly argues the central bank must
tread carefully, as cutting rates into a structurally tight labor market risks
spurring wage and price inflation rather than accelerating economic growth.
He observed that U.S. economic growth has
averaged 2.1% per year since the beginning of the 21st century, largely driven
by a 0.8% annual increase in the workforce.
“Starting from a point of roughly full
employment, given the continued retirement of the baby boom and considering the
possibility that deportations and voluntary departures of immigrants entirely
offset new immigration in the next few years, it is quite possible that the
next five years will see no growth in workers at all,” he added.
If this happens, the economy will grow
more slowly, Kelly predicted, “but will only be capable of growing more
slowly without igniting higher inflation.”
For the Fed, the message is clear, he
adds: Be extremely cautious about any rate cuts. For investors, it’s a warning
to temper expectations for rapid economic gains or a sustained bull market
driven by easy money. In other words, American “exceptionalism” isn’t a given,
going forward.
Investors, Kelly said, “should no longer
bet broadly on a strongly rising U.S. economic tide or lower interest rates.”
Nagasaki and Hiroshima remind us to put peace first every day; to work on conflict prevention and resolution, reconciliation, and dialogue; and to tackle the roots of conflict and violence.
Antonio Guterres
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.
Global
uncertainty gives rise to new strategies in consumer and retail
5
August 2025
Amid
escalating geopolitical tensions and fresh tariffs, consumer goods and retail
leaders are examining their portfolios, marketing channels and supply chains
For
the retail and consumer goods industries, the global market continues to shift
by the month – or week, or day. Waves of economic uncertainty and geopolitical
tension, as well as the Trump administration’s gamut of proposed, enacted and
rolled-back tariffs, threaten to upend supply chains, increase costs and
compromise businesses’ ability to deliver quality products in a timely fashion.
In
response, retail and consumer goods companies are re-evaluating their
strategies with regard to product portfolios, marketing efforts, supply chain
and operations. As they consider ways to move forward, retail leaders must
balance their actions against ever-present novel risks. “The global markets
feel a bit like a snow globe,” says Alexia Williams, Managing Director and Head
of Corporate Coverage, UK & Ireland, at Standard Chartered. “One that keeps
getting shaken every day.”
A
new era in consumer and retail
Retailers
realise their operations are always subject to disruption, but lately the
industry’s only constant has been change. In the wake of
the Covid-19 pandemic, for instance, retailers hurried to reorient their
marketing and buying experience towards a surge in consumer luxury spend – as
the leading luxury goods companies grew bigger
and more profitable than ever. But the post-Covid luxury boom has been
subject to a slight contraction over the past two years, balanced with stronger
growth in the resale market, offering retailers an opportunity to team up with
third parties or build out an in-house pre-owned offering, says Williams.
Inflation
has dulled the results of such investments: the US Consumer Price Index saw
increases of
over 9 per cent in the middle of 2022. Inflation began to stabilise during the
second half of 2023 and reached levels of around 3 per cent or lower by
mid-2024,
but relief was short-lived. President Trump’s return to office in 2025 brought
new uncertainties in the form of rapidly changing tariff policies, threatening
to send costs soaring. Accordingly, the consumer market turned tepid. “Spending
is very much on a short leash,” says Williams.
Three
core themes have bubbled to the surface in 2025. A subsection of consumer
called the “prosumer” has emerged, more price-sensitive and strategic in their
buying behaviour, seeking out affordable options. With the cost of living on
the rise, citizens are also cutting back on non-essential purchases, including
big-ticket items such as furniture and home appliances, but also smaller items
like clothing and accessories. More than half of US adults – 54
per cent –
expect to spend less on travel, dining out or entertainment in 2025 than they
did in 2024, Bankrate found. “The squeeze is obviously worse on lower incomes,”
says Williams. Finally, there has been a continued rise in multifunctional,
sustainable products, with Gen Z and millennials showing
particular interest.
As
these trends take shape, retailers are navigating an erosion of consumer
confidence tied to the uncertain nature of tariffs – and the pricing
fluctuations they could bring if companies pass on the cost. With news
headlines changing by the day, Williams says, customers have at times engaged
in short-term panic buying. “Then they sit on their hands, reining in.”
More
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.
Graphene Oxide in Concrete: How the Nano-Scale is Revolutionizing
the Macro-scale
August 4, 2025
Researchers have boosted concrete strength by nearly 60 % using a
mix of graphene oxide and steel fibers. This could be a non-destructive way to
improve durability in modern construction.
A recent study published in Nano
Express investigated the effect of combining graphene oxide with
micro-steel fibers (SF) on concrete's mechanical performance. The study also
examined how non-destructive ultrasonic pulse velocity (UPV) testing could
reliably predict the strength and internal quality of the concrete.
The approach treats graphene oxide not just as a passive filler,
but as an active additive with the potential to improve concrete's structural
health and long-term durability.
Graphene Oxide and Micro-Steel Fibers
Graphene oxide stands out in material development due to its
large surface area and strong chemical reactivity. This makes it a useful
nucleation site for hydration products during cement setting, and helps to
refine the microstructure of concrete, sealing pores and increasing strength.
Graphene oxide has been shown to enhance tensile and compressive
strength of concrete even in small amounts, by accelerating hydration and
reducing porosity. Steel fibers, meanwhile, are already widely used to improve
fracture resistance, toughness, and crack control in concrete.
Related Stories
Graphene oxide improves hydration and matrix density, and SF
provides mechanical reinforcement. This study shows how their dual
integration dramatically improves concrete strength.
The Experimental Setup
To test their effects, the team prepared multiple concrete and
mortar mixes with different proportions of graphene oxide (0.02 % to 0.08 %)
and micro-steel fibers (0.3 % to 0.8 %). Graphene oxide was
synthesized in-house using the Modified Hummers Method, producing a highly
oxidized and water-dispersible form of graphene ideal for cement integration.
Graphene oxide dispersions were mixed with cement and
superplasticizers to ensure even distribution. Standardised procedures (IS
10262:2019) guided the mix design and specimen preparation. Concrete samples
included 100 mm cubes and 100 × 200 mm cylinders, all cured under controlled
conditions.
The resulting mechanical strength was assessed through compressive
and split tensile tests. Non-destructive UPV tests were conducted to evaluate
internal homogeneity and quality, while microstructural analysis was carried
out using Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy (FE-SEM) and
Micro-Computed Tomography (Micro-CT).
What the Results Showed
The standout formulation, 0.06 % graphene oxide (GO) combined with
0.5 % SF, showed almost a 60 % increase in compressive strength over the
control samples. Researchers attribute this improvement to two main effects:
GO's ability to densify the cement matrix by promoting hydration and
sealing pores, and SF’s capacity to bridge cracks and enhance toughness.
The graphene oxide also seemed to delay crack initiation and
growth, enabling a more ductile failure mode with finer, distributed cracking,
ideal for structural applications that demand load resilience.
UPV tests backed up the mechanical findings. Pulse velocity
strongly correlated with compressive strength (R2 ≈ 0.97),
especially in GO-SF hybrid mixes, highlighting UPV’s reliability as a
non-invasive quality indicator.
More
Graphene Oxide in
Concrete: How the Nano-Scale is Revolutionizing the Macro-scale
Next, the
world global debt clock. Nations debts to GDP compared.
World Debt
Clocks (usdebtclock.org)
Of
thousands of others, nearer the centre of the explosion, there was no trace.
They vanished. The theory in Hiroshima is that the atomic heat was so great
that they burned instantly to ashes - except that there were no ashes.
Wilfred Burchett
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