Baltic Dry Index. 2084 -20 Brent Crude 63.90
Spot Gold 4150 US 2 Year Yield 3.58 +0.03
US Federal Debt. 38.179 trillion
US GDP 31.567 trillion.
People of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public, or in some contrivance to raise prices…. But though the law cannot hinder people of the same trade from sometimes assembling together, it ought to do nothing to facilitate such assemblies, much less to render them necessary.
Adam Smith, The Wealth Of Nations, 1776.
Stocks, more bubble or wobble?
Gold soaring, front running more Fed easing and a Trump proposal to give Americans a Trump tariff windfall of $2,000. Helicopter money inflation be damned. $5,000 gold next.
In another Trump dollar debasement proposal, the 50 year mortgage.
If I didn’t know better, I would think President Trump was actively promoting global dollar debasement.
Asia markets mixed as revived AI trade lifts Japan
and South Korea stocks
Published Mon, Nov 10 2025 6:37 PM EST
Asia-Pacific markets traded mixed Tuesday
after Wall Street gains on revived artificial intelligence optimism and growing
hopes that the U.S. government shutdown will end soon.
On Monday stateside, Nvidia stocks jumped 5.8% to
lead gains on the S&P 500. Other tech stocks rallied, including Google
parent Alphabet, which
advanced 4%, and Microsoft,
which added 1.9% to end its eight-day losing streak.
Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 index climbed
0.91%, while the Topix index was 0.52% higher. AI-related stocks were among the
top movers, with conglomerate SoftBank adding 3.57%
and chipmaker Renesas
Electron jumping 4.35%.
Shares of Orix rose 0.49% after
the Japanese financial conglomerate announced Tuesday a partnership with Qatar’s sovereign
wealth fund, Qatar Investment Authority, to launch a $2.5 billion private
equity fund.
The fund will invest in Japanese
companies, “primarily targeting business succession, privatization of listed
companies, and carve-outs,” valued at least 30 billion yen (about $200
million), Orix said in a press release. Orix and QIA will
contribute 60% and 40%, respectively.
Japanese tech giant Sony Group’s shares rose
more than 6% after it reported second-quarter
earnings beat and announced a share buyback of up to $648 million. The
company’s operating profit jumped 10% compared to the same period last year,
while revenues rose 5%, driven by gains from its Imaging & Sensing
Solutions and Music segments.
South Korea’s Kospi index rose 1.94%,
extending gains for a second straight day after leading an AI recovery rally
across the region Monday. Index heavyweights Samsung Electronics added 4.97%
while SK Hynix soared 4.62%. The small-cap Kosdaq was up 1.38%.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.25%.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index fell 0.2%,
while the mainland’s CSI 300 index dropped 0.67%.
Shares of Chinese electric vehicle
maker Xpeng skyrocketed
as much as 15% to hit its highest level since late 2022, after it launched robotaxis
and humanoid robots with self-developed AI chips at its event last Wednesday.
The company’s shares had jumped more than 16% in Monday’s session.
India’s Nifty 50 was up 0.17%, while the
Sensex index was flat in early trading.
U.S. equity futures were little changed in
early Asian hours.
Overnight, the Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed
381.53 points, or 0.81%, to end at 47,368.63. The S&P 500 gained 1.54% to
settle at 6,832.43, while the Nasdaq
Composite advanced 2.27% to finish at 23,527.17.
Asia-Pacific
markets: AI trade, Nikkei 225, Hang Seng Index
1 big thing: The problem with a 50-year mortgage
November 10, 2025
Today, we have some fun with
mortgage math, inspired by the Trump administration floating 50-year home loans
as a possible solution to housing affordability.
The Trump administration has an idea
to make buying a house more affordable — using the government's control over
the mortgage finance system to offer home loans that can be paid off over a
much longer time.
The big picture: The arithmetic of
loan amortization, however, means that buyers taking out a 50-year mortgage
would lose a key advantage of the more traditional loan product, while not
saving that much month-to-month.
- With
a traditional mortgage loan, a homeowner steadily pays down debt and
builds equity. A 50-year mortgage would involve very little paydown of
debt over the first couple of decades.
- The
50-year loan would likely carry a higher interest rate than widely
available 30-year mortgages, limiting the savings on the monthly payment.
Driving the news: "Thanks to
President Trump, we are indeed working on The 50 year Mortgage — a complete
game changer," wrote Federal
Housing Finance Agency director Bill Pulte on X over the weekend.
By the numbers: Consider someone
taking out a $500,000 home loan. The current rate on a 30-year mortgage is
6.22%, per Freddie Mac. For these calculations, let's assume that a 50-year
loan's interest rate exceeds the 30-year by the same margin that the 30-year
rate exceeds a 15-year rate.
- That
translates to a 6.94% rate on the 50-year loan — which would then have a
monthly payment of $2,985, only $83 less than the 30-year mortgage.
Zoom in: In the early decades of the
loan's repayment, the 50-year borrower's payments would almost entirely go to
interest, paying down the debt much more slowly.
- After
five years, for example, the 30-year borrower would have paid off $33,481
of the loan balance, versus $6,707 for the 50-year borrower.
- After
three decades, when the 30-year mortgage is fully paid off, the 50-year
borrower would still owe about $387,000.
Between the lines: One of the
benefits of a traditional mortgage loan is that it incorporates forced saving,
as you gradually grind down your debt. The 50-year loan lessens that benefit.
- A
person who buys a house in their 30s stands to own it free and clear as
they hit retirement age. Or if they sell sooner, they will have
accumulated equity that they can use toward their next home.
- A
50-year product would more closely resemble an interest-only mortgage,
where there is no amortization of the balance for some defined period,
like the first five or seven years of the loan term.
Reality check: An interest-only
loan can make sense for certain borrowers, such as those with lots of deferred
compensation or a lumpy income. But it carries significant risk for both the
borrower and the lender, as the world learned the hard way in 2007-2008.
- The
risk is that a 50-year mortgage product would have the same downsides.
The bottom line: If the
administration succeeds in introducing this product, borrowers who take a
50-year loan will find themselves paying down debts much more
slowly than those who use conventional loans, while saving only a little on
their monthly payments.
In other news, with the big three polluters, China, India and the USA not attending, a week of meaningless hot air lies ahead. With 50,000 junketeers attending, poor Belem and Belemites.
COP30 gets underway in Brazil — and a Trump-shaped
hole is hanging over the climate summit
Published Mon, Nov 10 2025 1:20 AM EST
U.N. climate talks get underway in Brazil
on Monday, with delegations from almost every country set to convene on the
outskirts of the Amazon rainforest to discuss how to tackle the climate crisis.
The administration of U.S. President Donald Trump will be one
notable absentee, however. The White House has confirmed it does
intend to send any high-level representatives to the summit, marking an
unprecedented absence of U.S. officials at the conference.
Roughly 50,000 delegates are expected to
attend the 30th edition of the U.N. climate conference, known as COP30, with
talks set to run through to Nov. 21.
Anna Aberg, research fellow at the
Environment and Society Centre at Chatham House, a London-based think tank,
said it was likely a positive for the international community that the Trump
administration won’t send any officials to Belem.
“It’s, of course, really unfortunate that
the Trump administration has withdrawn the U.S.
from the Paris Agreement for a second time … and that they are pursuing
this very forceful anti-climate agenda both in the U.S., and increasingly also
overseas,” Aberg told CNBC by telephone.
“In light of this, I think it is just as
well that they’re not sending any senior officials to COP to be honest because
I don’t know what they would have been able to contribute given the way Trump
is talking about climate change.”
Trump’s views on the climate crisis are
well known.
The U.S. president has repeatedly described
global heating as a “hoax” and speaking at the U.N. General Assembly in late
September, said that climate
change was the “greatest con job ever perpetrated on the world.”
Trump also urged other
countries to shift away from renewable energy. “If you don’t get away from the
green energy scam, your country is going to fail,” Trump said on Sept. 23.
Chinese President Xi Jinping and Indian
Prime Minister Narendra Modi are among some of the other heads of state
expected to skip the talks, although both countries are set to send delegations
in their place.
What’s on the table at COP30?
The annual U.N. climate summit is seen as
a prime opportunity for the international community to move from setting
decarbonization targets to delivering on them.
Some of the core issues set to be
discussed include a push to deliver on national climate commitments (NDCs), a
transformation of the global financial system, ramping up adaptation measures
and taking steps to protect nature.
The conference comes at a time when the
impacts of climate change have become increasingly clear — even as
the issue has slipped down the immediate geopolitical agenda.
More
COP30 in Brazil: A
Trump-shaped hole is hanging over the climate talks
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.
More
on that Great AI Bubble. Approx. 6 minutes.
AI
bubble could destroy the economy: Marcus
AI bubble could destroy the economy: Marcus - YouTube
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.
Approx. 7 minutes.
Good News for Battery Progress!
Next, the
world global debt clock. Nations debts to GDP compared.
World Debt Clocks
(usdebtclock.org)
It is the maxim of every prudent master of a family, never to
attempt to make at home what it will cost him more to make than to buy...What
is prudence in the conduct of every private family, can scarce be folly in that
of a great kingdom.
Adam Smith, The Wealth Of Nations, 1776.
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