Baltic
Dry Index. 1830 -21 Brent Crude 59.92
Spot Gold 4456 Spot Silver 78.91
US 2 Year Yield 3.47 +0.01
US Federal Debt. 38.576 trillion US GDP 31.041 trillion.
"Let the jury consider
their verdict," the Judge said, for about the twentieth time that day.
"No, no!" said the Donald. "Sentence first–verdict
afterward."
"Stuff and nonsense!" said Alice loudly. "The idea of having the
sentence first!"
"Hold your tongue!" said the Donald, turning purple.
"I won't!" said Alice.
"Off with her head!" the Donald shouted at the top of his
voice.
With apologies to Lewis Carroll.
Not much need for my input this morning. Trump covets Greenland, which isn’t very green, while Europe’s politicians are determined to get into a real (nuclear?) war with Russia over Ukraine.
A world turned upside down yet again.
Crude oil slumps, Asian shares edge lower as
global tensions climb
January 7, 2026 2:04 AM GMT
TOKYO, Jan 7 (Reuters) - Crude futures
slid and resource shares climbed in Asian trading as markets absorbed the
impact of political upheaval in Venezuela and the fate of its petroleum
reserves.
Oil prices continued their slide after
U.S. President Donald Trump said Venezuela will be "turning
over" up to 50 million barrels of oil to be sold at its market price
following the toppling and
capture of the nation's leader.
Japanese shares weighed down regional
equity benchmarks, while commodity shares were broadly higher after an
overnight surge in industrial metals prices.
The dollar held gains as geopolitical
tensions from South America to China took centre stage while investors awaited
data in the United States for clues about the timing of potential interest rate
cuts by the Federal Reserve.
"The most likely outcome is a boost
to the global economy because of that oil," Michael McCarthy, CEO of
investment platform Moomoo Australia and New Zealand, said about the upheaval
in Venezuela. "Clearly it's a negative for the oil price itself, but
energy costs are key to your global economic outlook."
"The flip side to this is that the
increase in uncertainty for the geopolitical outlook might overwhelm any
positive economic benefits," he added.
U.S. crude fell 1.1% to $56.48 a barrel
and Brent fell to $60.22 per barrel, down 0.8% on the day. MSCI's broadest
index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan (.MIAPJ0000PUS),
opens new tab was down 0.2%. Japan's Nikkei stock index (.N225),
opens new tab slid 0.25%.
Australia's S&P/ASX 200 index (.AXJO),
opens new tab, heavily weighted by commodity producers, climbed 0.3%.
Caracas and Washington have reached
a deal to
export up to $2 billion worth of Venezuelan crude to the United States, Trump
said on Tuesday.
The arrangement follows a weekend strike
on Venezuela as well as comments by the White House that the U.S. was looking
at options to acquire Greenland and
the use of the U.S. military toward that goal was "always an option".
The dollar index , which measures the
greenback against a basket of currencies, was little changed at 98.60 after a
0.2% rally on Tuesday. The euro was steady at $1.169, while the yen weakened
0.05% to 156.73 per dollar.
Stocks in Tokyo were weighed down after
China announced the ban on exports of dual-use items to Japan that can be used
for military purposes, Beijing's latest move in reaction to a remark by
Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi about Taiwan.
U.S. share benchmarks brushed aside the
global tensions to reach record levels overnight. Copper soared to a record
high in the previous session while nickel jumped more than 10% as supply
concerns spurred gains in key industrial resources.
Looking ahead, a U.S. monthly employment
report on Friday will influence the market's monetary policy expectations,
which are currently pricing in two more Fed rate cuts this year. Ahead of that
are the JOLTS survey and ADP private payrolls on Wednesday.
In the Asian trading day, data showed
Australian consumer prices rose by less than forecast in November and core
inflation slowed slightly. A private sector survey in Japan showed the service
sector expanded last month at its slowest pace since May.
Spot gold fell 0.6% to $4,469.04 an ounce.
Copper declined 0.1% to $13,111.50 a tonne.
In early European trading, the pan-region
Euro Stoxx 50 futures were up 0.1% at 5,959, German DAX futures were up 0.2% at
25,099, FTSE futures were down 0.24% at 10,123.5. U.S. stock futures, the
S&P 500 e-minis , were flat at 6,987.5.
In cryptocurrencies, bitcoin fell 0.8% to
$92,499.05, and ether declined 0.5% to $3,257.66.
Crude
oil slumps, Asian shares edge lower as global tensions climb | Reuters
Gold slides from 1-week high on profit-booking,
dollar strength
January 7, 2026 4:22 AM GMT
Jan 7 (Reuters) - Gold prices slid on
Wednesday as investors booked profits after prices briefly climbed to a more
than one-week high in earlier trade as a stronger dollar weighed on sentiment
across the precious metals complex ahead of key U.S. jobs data due this week.
Spot gold fell 0.7% to $4,466.19 per
ounce, as of 0330 GMT. Bullion touched a record high of $4,549.71 on December
26.
U.S. gold futures for February delivery
were 0.4% lower at $4,477.30.
"(Precious metals) have gone up
(quickly) this week and there's always a bit of profit-taking... the dollar has
also helped pressure prices," said GoldSilver Central managing director
Brian Lan.
The dollar moved in a tight range, near a
more than two-week high ahead of a slew of U.S. economic data, making
greenback-priced assets more expensive for other currency holders.
Investors expect at least two rate cuts by
the Fed this year, while they look to non-farm payroll data due on Friday for
more clues. . The JOLTS survey and ADP private payrolls data on Wednesday may
also set the tone for the market.
Federal Reserve Governor Stephen Miran,
whose term ends later this month, said on
Tuesday that aggressive U.S. interest rate cuts are needed to keep the economy
moving forward.
Non-yielding assets tend to do well in a
low-interest-rate environment and during times of geopolitical or economic
uncertainty.
On the geopolitical front, Caracas and
Washington reached a deal to
export up to $2 billion worth of Venezuelan crude to the United States,
President Donald Trump said on Tuesday, a move that would divert supplies from
China following what Venezuelan officials call a kidnapping of former president
Nicolás Maduro.
Spot silver lost 1.2% to $80.34 per ounce,
down from an all-time high $83.62 on December 29.
Spot platinum dropped 2.9% to $2,373.0 per
ounce, receding from a record high $2,478.50 last Monday. It gained more than
3% earlier in the session.
Palladium traded 2.5% lower at $1,777.22
per ounce.
Gold slides from 1-week high on profit-booking, dollar strength | Reuters
In other news, Greenland, Canada, Mexico,
next?
Trump discussing how to acquire Greenland, US
military always an option, White House says
January 7, 2026 12:31 AM GMT
WASHINGTON, Jan 6 (Reuters) - The White
House said on Tuesday that President Donald Trump is discussing options for
acquiring Greenland, including potential use of the U.S. military, in a revival
of his ambition to control the strategic island despite European objections.
Trump sees acquiring Greenland as a U.S.
national security priority necessary to "deter our adversaries in the
Arctic region," the White House said in a statement.
"The president and his team are
discussing a range of options to pursue this important foreign policy goal, and
of course, utilizing the U.S. military is always an option at the
commander-in-chief's disposal," the White House said.
Greenland has repeatedly said it does not
want to be part of the United States. Leaders
from major European powers and Canada rallied behind the Arctic
territory on Tuesday, saying it belongs to its people.
A U.S. military seizure of Greenland from
a longtime ally, Denmark, would send shock waves through the NATO alliance and
deepen the divide between Trump and European leaders.
The strong opposition has not deterred
Trump from reviewing how to make Greenland a U.S. hub in an area where there is
growing interest from Russia and China. Trump's interest, initially voiced in
2019 during his first term in office, has been rekindled in recent days in the
wake of the U.S. arrest
of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.
Emboldened by Maduro's capture last
weekend, Trump has voiced his belief that “American dominance in the Western
Hemisphere will never be questioned again,” and has put pressure on both
Colombia and Cuba.
He has also started talking about
Greenland again after putting it on the back burner for months.
A senior U.S. official, speaking on
condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations, said Trump and his
advisers are discussing a variety of ways to acquire Greenland.
IS GREENLAND FOR SALE?
Those options include the outright U.S.
purchase of Greenland or forming a Compact of Free Association with the
territory, the official said. A COFA agreement would stop short of Trump's
ambition to make the island of 57,000 people a part of the United States.
The official did not provide a potential
purchase price.
"Diplomacy is always the president’s
first option with anything, and dealmaking. He loves deals. So if a good deal
can be struck to acquire Greenland, that would definitely be his first
instinct," the official said.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio told
lawmakers that recent administration threats against Greenland did not signal
an imminent invasion and that the goal is to buy the island from Denmark
during a
classified briefing late on Monday for congressional leaders, two
sources familiar with the briefing said.
The Wall Street Journal first reported
Rubio's comment.
More
Trump
discussing how to acquire Greenland, US military always an option, White House
says | Reuters
The market has anointed Chevron the big Venezuela
winner. But oil majors face a long road before any payoff
Published Mon, Jan 5 2026 4:20 PM EST Updated
Mon, Jan 5 2026 5:26 PM EST
President Donald Trump’s call for U.S. oil
companies to rebuild Venezuela’s energy sector after the overthrow of President
Nicolás Maduro is easier said than done.
Chevron holds the advantage as the
only major U.S. oil company currently operating in Venezuela, according to Wall
Street analysts. ExxonMobil and ConocoPhillips left the
country after former President Hugo Chavez nationalized the industry and seized
their assets in 2007.
Venezuela has the largest proven crude oil
reserves in the world, at 303 billion barrels, according to the U.S. Energy
Information Administration. But a long and expensive road lies ahead for U.S.
oil majors to restore Venezuela to its peak production of 3.5 million barrels
per day reached in the 1990s.
“It’s a high-risk area for oil companies
to invest in,” said Arne Lohmann Rasmussen, chief analyst and head of research
at Global Risk Management.
It would require roughly $53 billion of
investment over the next 15 years to just maintain crude oil production level
of 1.1 million barrels per day, or bpd, according to estimates from consulting
firm Rystad Energy. The capital expenditures needed to reach 3 million bpd by
2040 would more than triple, to $183 billion, according to Rystad.
Certainty and stability
U.S. oil majors will want certainty about
who is charge in Caracas and how stable the government is, said Bob McNally,
founder of Rapidan Energy.
They will need to know whether the legal
and fiscal regime will last long term because energy investments are 30-year
projects, said David Goldwyn, who served as the State Department’s special
envoy for international energy affairs from 2009 to 2011.
The situation in Caracas right now is
anything but certain. Trump declared Saturday that the U.S. will run Venezuela
after Maduro’s overthrow. Secretary of State Marco Rubio appeared to
backtrack,
telling NBC News in a Sunday interview that the U.S. will use its leverage to
pressure Caracas to meet U.S. demands.
Vice President Delcy Rodriguez has assumed
power in Venezuela, pledging over the weekend that the government would defend the
country’s resources,
but later said Caracas sought to
cooperate with
the U.S.
A major question is whether Venezuela
could return to a regime similar to Maduro’s in the future and nationalize oil
assets again, said Global Risk Management’s Rasmussen.
Surplus reserves
U.S. oil majors will grapple with whether
it makes financial sense to invest tens of billions of dollars in Venezuela
when there is already so much oil in the world, said McNally, a former White
House energy advisor under President George W. Bush.
“There are plenty of reasons to think this
is going to be more of a long and winding road, rather than a quick shot,”
McNally said.
Chevron maintains joint ventures with
state-owned Petróleos de Venezuela through a special licensed issued by the
U.S. government. Those partnerships are responsible for about 23% of
Venezuela’s output, according to JPMorgan.
“The company would be in an advantaged
position to potentially scale future output as they have significant oil
resources in place through their JVs and have been a key developer of the
country’s energy infrastructure,” JPMorgan analyst Arun Jayaram told clients in
a Monday note.
Chevron shares climbed more than 5%
Monday.
Market sees
Chevron the big Venezuela winner. But oil majors face a long road
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.
Worrying update on mom-and-pop bankruptcies shows recession has begun
Published: 12:58, 4 January 2026 | Updated: 12:59, 4
January 2026
A frightening recession
indicator is flashing red — and Americans can see it all over Main
Street.
Experts told the Daily
Mail that a sudden surge in bankruptcies and store closures — hitting
mom-and-pop shops, small restaurants, and local retailers — could be an early
warning sign that the economy is starting to crack.
'The little guys are
going to start falling first,' Joe Barsalona, a Delaware-based bankruptcy
lawyer at Pashman Stein Walder Hayden, said.
A recession is coming. I
agree with economists that the increase in small business bankruptcies is a
canary in a coal mine.'
Small business owners say
they're being crushed by rising costs.
Shop rents are climbing,
products are more expensive to put on retail shelves, and cash-strapped
Americans are spending less as they swap pricier local goods for cheaper options at Walmart and Amazon.
The shift is aggravating
concerns that billion-dollar corporations, buoyed by soaring stock prices and
bumper profits, are operating in a very different economy than small businesses.
'Small business people
might be short on money, but you won't find a big box store that will work as
hard as us to try and stay in the game,' said Kelly Vore, whose 119-year-old shop closed on Christmas Eve.
She said small businesses
often rely on owners putting their own finances on the line to keep the doors
open — something major corporations rarely need to do.
'Every small business
owner will tell you we probably went a little further than we should just to
survive,' she said.
'Our formula was always
snug — we were never rolling in abundant cash. Everything is just much more
expensive than when I took over.'
Inside America's small business worries
Despite last-ditch
efforts from owners, Subchapter V bankruptcies, a restructuring program created
for small businesses, are on the rise.
The bankruptcy filing,
introduced in December 2019, is for companies with less than $3.4million in
debt. That means it exclusively represents the smaller shops that line
America's Main Streets.
By the start of December,
2,221 US businesses had filed for Subchapter V bankruptcy, according to new
analysis from economists at The
Kobeissi Letter.
That was already more
small business bankruptcies than the 2,211 filings through all of 2024, even
with weeks still left on the calendar.
The filings still
represent a small fraction of America's roughly 33 million small businesses,
but economists say the acceleration — not the raw number — is what's raising
alarms.
And the trend has gotten
worse in the back half of 2025. In August alone, roughly 200 small businesses
entered bankruptcy court — a 17 percent jump compared to the same month last
year.
'US small business
bankruptcies are surging as if there is a recession,' analysts at
The Kobeissi Letter wrote in a December 6 post on X.
Barsalona said Subchapter
V is really effective for small businesses that are trying to keep their doors
open. It's cheaper than Chapter 11 filings and normally keeps the business in a
small founder's control.
But, he warns that the
increase is a worrying sign for the broader economy.
More
Worrying update on mom-and-pop bankruptcies shows recession has begun |
Daily Mail Online
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.
More on a problem that will only get
worse year by year.
Volvo EX30 owners warned over battery fire risk
Volvo
smallest all-electric car has been identified with a possible fire-related
battery issue
5 Jan 2026
Some Volvo EX30 owners have been asked to limit their charging
to 70 per cent to reduce the risk of battery-related fires.
Having been approached by a Volvo EX30 owner who received a warning message from
their car about the possibility of a fire, Auto Express contacted Volvo UK. The
company responded: “Volvo Cars has identified a potential issue with
high-voltage battery cells manufactured by a particular supplier on certain
model year 2024-2026 EX30 Single Motor Extended Range and Twin Motor
Performance cars.
“In rare cases, the battery can overheat
when charged to a high level, which could in a worst-case scenario lead to a
fire starting in the battery.” A recall will be put in place soon, according to
Volvo, with the firm adding: “We are contacting all affected owners to ask them
to limit their cars’ maximum charge level to 70 per cent. We will contact them
again as soon as a fix is available.”
Volvo added that not all EX30s are
affected and the issue does not involve other Volvo models. The SEA2 platform
that underpins the EX30 is similar to the one found in the Smart #1 and #3, although the 69kWh NMC battery in the EX30 Single
Motor Extended Range and Twin Motor Performance cars is different to the 66kWh
unit found in Smart’s models.
In addition to its statement, Volvo
reiterates that “while the number of reported incidents is very small –
representing around 0.02 per cent of the cars we have identified as potentially
affected – and we have no reports of related personal injuries, we are treating
it very seriously”.
Volvo EX30 owners warned over battery fire risk | Auto Express
Next, the
world global debt clock. Nations debts to GDP compared.
World Debt Clocks
(usdebtclock.org)
Neither a state nor a bank ever have had unrestricted power of
issuing paper money without abusing that power.
David Ricardo
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