Baltic
Dry Index. 1976 -15
Brent Crude 65.47
Spot Gold 3973 US 2 Year Yield 3.48 unch
US Federal Debt. 37.990 trillion
US GDP 31.537 trillion.
The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other peoples' money.
Margaret Thatcher
Due to technical issues, the next few updates will be briefer than usual.
Asia markets mostly slip as investors look to
Trump-Takaichi meeting in Japan
Published Mon, Oct 27 2025 7:48 PM EDT Updated 59
Min Ago
Asia markets fell across the board on Tuesday as
investors in the region look toward a meeting between U.S. President Donald
Trump and newly minted Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi.
Trump met Japan’s Emperor Naruhito after arriving
in Tokyo on Monday and will be the first foreign leader to hold talks with
Takaichi since she took office.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 retreated from
its record high on Tuesday, falling 0.15%, while the broad-based Topix was down
0.49%.
Other Asia-Pacific markets also fell, despite
gains on Wall Street that sent all three major U.S. indexes record
closing highs.
South Korea’s Kospi led losses in the
region, dipping 1.15%, while the small-cap Kosdaq fell 0.1%.
South Korea also reported its third-quarter
GDP numbers, which beat expectations and marked its fastest pace of
expansion in over a year.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 dipped
0.43%.
Hong Kong Hang Seng index was close to
the flatline, while mainland China’s CSI 300 bucked the trend and rose 0.28%.
China’s Sany Heavy Industry traded flat on its
Hong Kong trading debut Tuesday after raising HKD$12.36 billion ($1.59 billion)
in one of the city’s largest listings this year.
Overnight in the U.S., the S&P 500 climbed 1.23% to
6,875.16, its first close ever above the 6,800 level.
The Nasdaq Composite rallied
1.86% to 23,637.46, bolstered by a rise in Nvidia and other chip stocks.
The Dow Jones Industrial
Average jumped 337.47 points, or 0.71% to 47,544.59.
Key market catalysts loom ahead this week,
including Big Tech earnings, a Federal Reserve rate decision and a potential
China trade deal.
Asia
markets mostly slip as investors look to Trump-Takaichi meeting in Japan
Stock futures are little changed after major U.S.
indexes notch record highs: Live updates
Stock futures were little changed Monday
evening following a big rally to start the week.
Key market catalysts loom ahead this week,
including Big Tech earnings, a Federal Reserve rate decision and a potential
China trade deal.
Futures tied to the Dow Jones
Industrial Average added about 15 points. S&P futures were
basically flat, while Nasdaq
100 futures gained 0.1%.
Investors during Monday’s session cheered
cooling tensions between the U.S. and China ahead of a highly-anticipated
meeting between President Donald Trump and China President Xi Jinping on
Thursday. Both nations have agreed
on a framework for a potential trade deal, which addresses China rare earth
minerals restrictions, soybean purchases and TikTok.
The S&P 500 in the previous
session recorded its first-ever close above the 6,800 level, while the
tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite and
the Dow Jones Industrial
Average also closed at record highs. The Russell 2000 small-cap
benchmark finished at a new all-time high as well.
Tuesday marks the start of the two-day Fed
meeting, where the central bank is expected to cut rates for a second time this
year. Traders are also hoping for a signal from Fed Chair Jerome Powell on
Wednesday that the central bank will cut once more at its final meeting of the
year in December, partly driven by concerns about a weakening labor market. The
Fed is dealing with an economic data blackout given the ongoing U.S. government
shutdown.
Investors are also eyeing a slew of
upcoming earnings reports due Wednesday and Thursday from several “Magnificent
Seven” stocks, including Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta Platforms and Microsoft, which together account
for roughly one quarter of the S&P 500′s total value. So far, the
third-quarter earnings season is off to a strong start.
“Another batch of solid earnings, signs of
easing inflation pressures, firming rate cut expectations, and confirmation of
a President Trump-Xi meeting later this week underpinned the buying pressure,”
LPL Financial chief technical strategist Adam Turnquist said in a note.
“Fundamental strength will be in the spotlight this week, as 30 companies in
the NDX report earnings.”
Nucor and Cadence Design Systems were
among a handful of stocks moving in after-hours trading on the back of their
earnings results. Amazon announced
it will begin layoffs on Tuesday that will amount to the largest cuts to its
workforce in the company’s history, CNBC reported,
adding to the slew
of job cuts seen in the tech industry this year.
Stock
market today: Live updates
OpenAI says U.S. needs more power to stay ahead of
China in AI: ‘Electrons are the new oil’
Published Mon, Oct 27 2025 4:38 PM EDT
OpenAI on
Monday said the U.S. needs to substantially ramp up its investment in new
energy capacity if it wants to stay ahead of China in the race to develop artificial intelligence.
The startup has been inking deals
for ambitious
infrastructure buildouts in recent months that will require massive
amounts of power. The sprawling data centers will push the boundaries of what
is possible in the U.S. during a time when the electric grid is already
under strain.
“Electricity is not simply a utility,”
OpenAI said in a blog post Tuesday. “It’s a strategic asset that is critical to
building the AI infrastructure that will secure our leadership on the most
consequential technology since electricity itself.”
OpenAI shared an 11-page submission with the White House Office of
Science and Technology Policy, in which it encouraged the U.S. to commit to
building 100 gigawatts of new energy capacity each year.
A gigawatt is a measure of power, and 10
gigawatts is roughly equivalent to the annual power consumption of 8
million U.S. households, according to a CNBC analysis of data from the
Energy Information Administration.
OpenAI said that China added 429 gigawatts
of new power capacity last year, while the U.S. added 51 gigawatts. The company
said this disparity is creating an “electron gap” that is putting the U.S. at
risk of falling behind.
“Electrons are the new oil,” OpenAI said.
OpenAI says
U.S. needs more power to stay ahead of China in AI
In other news.
Venezuela claims capture of CIA group,
accuses U.S. of plotting ‘false flag’ attack
By Antonio María Delgado October 27, 2025 9:58 AM
The Nicolás Maduro regime said Sunday
Venezuela has captured a group of alleged mercenaries with ties to the U.S.
Central Intelligence Agency and accused Washington and Trinidad and Tobago of
coordinating military exercises intended to provoke an armed confrontation in
the Caribbean.
In a statement released by Vice President
Delcy Rodríguez, the socialist government said the arrests revealed what it
described as a “false-flag operation” planned from waters bordering Trinidad
and Tobago, or from Trinidadian or Venezuelan territory, “to generate a
full-scale military confrontation” against Venezuela.
The regime’s announcement comes amid the
fast-growing buildup of U.S. forces in the Caribbean launched by President
Donald Trump to combat drug cartels. The administration has signaled that it
might soon authorize ground incursions into Venezuela to target the so-called
Cartel de los Soles, a narco-trafficking organization the U.S. claims is led by
Maduro himself.
The Venezuelan government did not release
any evidence or details about the alleged arrests, such as the number of
suspects, their nationalities, or when and where they were detained.
Caracas also linked the alleged plot to
military drills it claims are being carried out this week by Trinidad and
Tobago “under the coordination, financing, and control” of the U.S. Southern
Command, calling them “a hostile provocation and a grave threat to the peace of
the Caribbean.”
Accusations against Trinidad and Tobago
The statement accused Trinidad and
Tobago’s Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar of having “renounced the
sovereignty” of her country to act as a “military colony subordinated to U.S.
hegemonic interests.
“By aligning herself with Washington’s
militarist agenda, Persad-Bissessar not only seeks to attack Venezuela and
break our historical bonds of brotherhood, but also violates the United Nations
Charter, the CELAC declaration of Latin America and the Caribbean as a Zone of
Peace, and the principles of CARICOM,” the statement read.
The Maduro government said the alleged
military maneuvers are part of an effort to “turn the Caribbean into a space
for lethal violence and U.S. imperial domination.”
The Miami Herald could not independently
confirm the arrest of any group or the existence of coordinated operations
involving the CIA or the Doral-based U.S. Southern Command, which oversees
military operations in Latin America.
In its statement, the Caracas regime
compared the supposed plan to historical events such as the USS Maine explosion
in Cuba in 1898 — one of the causes of the Spanish-American war — and the Gulf
of Tonkin incident near Vietnam in 1964, both of which preceded major U.S.
military interventions. The government said the alleged provocation follows the
same pattern and accused Washington of seeking “a pretext for war” in the
region.
More
Venezuela claims
capture of CIA-linked mercenaries | Miami Herald
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.
UK
rate cut hangs in the balance after latest inflation data
Published
Wed, Oct 22 2025 2:05 AM EDT
Another
interest rate cut from the Bank of England this year looks uncertain after the
latest U.K. inflation data came in cooler expected.
The
annual inflation rate was unchanged in September, coming in at 3.8% for the
third month in a row.
The
data, released by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) Wednesday, shows
that the financial squeeze on consumers and businesses remains high, but there
are hopes this could be the peak.
The
Bank of England forecast earlier this year that the consumer price index would
top out at 4% — double the central bank’s target — in September, before
gradually cooling into next year. Economists polled by Reuters had also
expected the rate to rise to 4% in the twelve months to September.
September’s
core inflation, which excludes more volatile energy, food, alcohol and tobacco
prices, rose by an annual 3.5% in the year to September, down from 3.6% in
August.
---- November rate cut
unlikely?
The
data is the last inflation reading before the BOE’s next meeting on Nov. 6.
Some economists believe the central bank could trim its benchmark interest rate
from the current level of 4% given lower-than-expected inflation data and
lackluster growth figures. Others think the central bank could maintain its
cautious stance, given that inflation remains sticky and the economic picture
is mixed.
The
latest GDP data showed the British
economy expanded by just 0.1% month-on-month in August.
George
Brown, senior economist at Schroders, noted Wednesday that the latest inflation
data could lead investors to reconsider expectations for a trim next month.
More
UK rate cut hangs
in the balance after latest inflation data
Inflation
stays hot as UK’s economic woes deepen
Wednesday
22 October 2025 7:19 am
Inflation
in the year to September remained sticky, new figures have shown, in further
evidence that the UK’s economic woes have deepened and hit Brits harder than
those in other countries.
September
was the third consecutive month that inflation hit 3.8 per cent, nearly double
the Bank of England’s two per cent target. It came below economists’
expectations.
Inflation
has now also been on an upward trend over the last year when inflation was 2.3
per cent in the month of Rachel Reeves’ first Budget.
Core
CPI inflation, which excludes food and energy
prices,
was 3.5 per cent, slightly below last month’s figure, while food price
inflation was 4.5 per cent over the year.
“A
variety of price movements meant inflation was unchanged overall in September,”
said ONS chief economist Grant Fitzner.
“The
largest upward drivers came from petrol prices and airfares, where the fall in
prices eased in comparison to last year.”
Chancellor
Rachel Reeves said: “I am not satisfied with these numbers. For too long, our
economy has felt stuck, with people feeling like they are putting in more and
getting less out.
“That
needs to change. All of us in government are responsible for supporting the
Bank of England in bringing inflation down.
“I
am determined to ensure we support people struggling with higher bills and the
cost of living challenges, deliver economic growth and build an economy that
works for, and rewards, working people.”
The
ONS latest publication provided further confirmation that the UK is suffering
from higher price growth than similar economies across the world.
The International
Monetary Fund (IMF) and
the OECD are two major global forecasters to predict that the UK will suffer
from higher inflation than any G7 country over the next two years.
Shadow
Chancellor Mel Stride said Reeves was “too weak to sort this mess out”
---- Sticky inflation rattles policymakers
Bleak
forecasts, plus worrying trends on food prices and energy costs across Britain,
have sharpened minds at both the Bank of England and the Treasury.
George
Brown, senior economist at Schroders, said high inflation should be a “wake-up
call for markets” who are still pricing in two more interest rate cuts next
year.
“High
inflation is at risk of becoming entrenched in the UK, due to a combination of
disappointing productivity and sticky wage growth,” Brown said.
“We
expect the Bank of England will keep interest rates on hold until the end of
2026 and we wouldn’t rule out its next rate move being upward.”
Monetary
Policy Committee (MPC) members have clashed on whether they believe the UK was
set to suffer from higher inflation for the foreseeable future.
Both
chief economist Huw
Pill and
external member Catherine Mann have indicated they will opt for interest rates
to be kept at four per cent at the next meeting in November given fears that
price growth expectations remained elevated.
In
a speech last week, Pill urged the Bank to change its guidance language to to
cutting rates at a more “cautious pace”.
More
Inflation stays
hot as UK’s economic woes deepen
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.
Amazon goes nuclear with new modular reactor plant
By David Szondy October 20, 2025
In the shadow of a service outage that affected millions of users,
outside of Richland, Washington, internet commerce giant Amazon is building the
first of a series of modular nuclear power stations to protect its data
services from outages.
We tend to think of Amazon as a place to order ramen bowls or
concrete vibrators, but it's also the dominant global provider of internet data
services through its Amazon Web Services (AWS), which as of 2025 has an annual
revenue of over US$123 billion. It's for this reason that the recent outage
that impacted over 1,000 companies is such a big deal and why Amazon and other
tech companies are investing in restarting or constructing nuclear power plants
to provide their data centers with a round-the-clock, reliable source of power
with zero emissions.
However, there's more to the Amazon announcement than the company
going nuclear or the fact data centers have quickly become such major assets
that they need their own bespoke power source. It's also another example of
major companies backing the rapid deployment of Generation IV reactor
technology to meet the surging energy demands expected in the coming decades.
For the new power plant, Amazon is using X-Energy's Xe-100 Small
Modular Reactor (SMR), which will be installed near Energy Northwest's existing
Columbia Generating Station in Washington State.
The Xe-100 is a High-Temperature Gas-cooled Reactor (HTGR) that is
fueled by TRISO-X , a proprietary Tristructural-Isotropic particle fuel made up
of grains of uranium wrapped in layers of carbon and ceramics and then bundled
into spherical pebbles. These are fed through a hopper into the reactor vessel
to produce a self-regulating fission reaction and are cooled by helium gas that
carries off the heat to a heat exchanger to generate steam for electrical
generators. As the fuel is used up, it is collected at the bottom of the
vessel.
The small Xe-100 reactors only produce 80 MWe of power. That seems
small, but these SMRs are much smaller and simpler than conventional reactors,
which allows them to be mass produced in factories and then trucked to the
site. In addition, this design makes for smaller land footprints and eliminates
the need for the extremely expensive civil engineering works required for
earlier reactor designs.
Another big advantage is that the SMR plants can be easily scaled
up and down to meet requirements by adding or removing reactor modules.
Decommissioning and disposal is also easier because the modules, once powered
down and defueled, can be removed in whole for dismantling.
According to Amazon, the Cascade Advanced Energy Facility will
begin construction by the end of the decade and will be operational in the
2030s. The facility will consist of four reactors producing a total of 320 MWe
and has the potential to expand to 12 reactors pumping out 960 MWe. If the
initiative is successful, Amazon plans to introduce an overall 5 GW of nuclear
power to the US by 2039 – enough to power 3.8 million homes.
"This project isn't just about new technology; it's about
creating a reliable source of carbon-free energy that will support our growing
digital world," said Kara Hurst, Amazon’s chief sustainability officer.
"I'm excited about the potential of SMRs and the positive impact they will
have on both the environment and local communities."
Source: Amazon
Amazon Goes
Nuclear: SMRs Power AWS Data Centers Reliably
Next, the
world global debt clock. Nations debts to GDP compared.
World Debt Clocks
(usdebtclock.org)
Let us never forget this fundamental truth: the State has no
source of money other than money which people earn themselves. If the State
wishes to spend more it can do so only by borrowing your savings or by taxing
you more. It is no good thinking that someone else will pay - that 'someone
else' is you. There is no such thing as public money; there is only taxpayers'
money.
Margaret Thatcher
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