Baltic
Dry Index. 2121 -08 Brent Crude 71.26
Spot Gold 5210 Spot Silver 89.81
US 2 Year Yield 3.45 +0.02
US Federal Debt. 38.734 trillion
US GDP 31.187 trillion.
For more than two thousand years gold's natural qualities made it man's universal medium of exchange. In contrast to political money, gold is honest money that survived the ages and will live on long after the political fiats of today have gone the way of all paper.
Hans F. Sennholz
The good news, Nvidia rescued the stock casinos. The bad news, a private credit default is looming.
The worrying news, the BIS, the central banker’s central bank, is sounding the alarm over falling house prices.
What to do as month-end approaches and Comex silver first notice day arrives tomorrow.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 crosses 59,000 first the first
time as central bank board picks fuel ‘Takaichi trade’
Published Wed, Feb 25 2026 6:49 PM EST
Japan’s Nikkei 225 hit another record
Thursday fueled by “Takaichi trade,” while the broader Asia-Pacific markets
mostly climbed after tech stocks powered a Wall Street rally overnight.
The Nikkei 225 rose 1.1%, to an
all-time high of 59,199.31, extending its winning streak of record highs to a
third straight session. The broader Topix added 1.45%, also scaling a new peak.
On Wednesday, the Japanese
government tapped Ayano Sato of Aoyama Gakuin University and Toichiro
Asada of Chuo University as central bank board members, both dovish in
their policy stance which aligns with Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s approach
as well.
The two will succeed outgoing central bank
board members Asahi Noguchi and Junko Nakagawa, whose terms expire at the end
of March and in June, respectively.
Japanese equities have scaled multiple
record highs recently, buoyed by the so-called “Takaichi trade,” as investors
bet that the prime minister’s growth-oriented policies — viewed as an extension
of Abenomics — will lift stocks while pressuring the yen through looser
monetary policy and increased fiscal spending.
South Korea’s Kospi rose 1.65%, while the
small-cap Kosdaq advanced 0.57%.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.8%,
also hitting a record high in early trade.
Hong Kong Hang Seng index fell 0.62%,
while the CSI 300 lost 0.2%.
The Bank of Korea left its base rate
unchanged at 2.5%, in line with Reuters’ expectations.
Asian tech stocks rallied as
stronger-than-expected results from Nvidia eased concerns that momentum in
artificial intelligence sector was cooling.
Shares of South Korean chipmaking
giants Samsung Electronics and
SK Hynix jumped in early trade.
SK Hynix, which is a key supplier of
high-bandwidth memory used in AI applications to Nvidia, rose over 2%. Samsung Electronics, which has
been a decades-old partner of Nvidia, was up about 5%.
Other South Korean tech stocks also rose,
with components manufacturer LG Innotek surging almost 14%, while Seoul
Semiconductor soared 13%.
In Japan, the TOPIX Information &
Communication index climbed 2.6%, building on previous day’s 0.58% gain.
Overnight in the U.S., equities rose,
supported by Nvidia and Oracle, as stocks built on the
gains from the prior trading day.
The S&P 500 added 0.81% to
close at 6,946.13, and the Nasdaq
Composite advanced 1.26% to 23,152.08. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose
307.65 points, or 0.63%, to settle at 49,482.15.
Nvidia
posted fiscal fourth-quarter results that topped Wall Street
expectations, fueled by a 75% surge in revenue from its core data center
segment. Shares gained as much as 2% in extended trading following the release.
The company reported adjusted earnings per
share of $1.62, beating the $1.53 forecast from analysts surveyed by LSEG.
Revenue totaled $68.13 billion, above estimates of $66.21 billion.
Asia-Pacific
markets: Nvidia, Kospi, Nikkei 225, Hang Seng Index
Asia tech stocks rally as Nvidia earnings soothe
AI slowdown fears
Published Wed, Feb 25 2026 9:03 PM EST
Asian tech stocks rallied in early trading
on Thursday as stronger-than-expected results from Nvidia eased concerns that
momentum in artificial intelligence sector was cooling.
Shares of South Korean chipmaking
giants Samsung Electronics and
SK Hynix jumped in early trade.
SK Hynix, which is a key supplier of
high-bandwidth memory used in AI applications to Nvidia, rose over 2%. Samsung Electronics, which has
been a decades-old partner of Nvidia, was up about 5%.
“This is a positive read through for many
of the Asia supply chain players including SK Hynix, Samsung, and many others
given the explosion of data center demand,” said Dan Ives, senior equity
research analyst at Wedbush Securities.
Other South Korean tech stocks also rose,
with components manufacturer LG Innotek surging almost 14%, while Seoul
Semiconductor soared 13%.
In Japan, the TOPIX Information &
Communication index climbed 2.6%, building on previous day’s 0.58% gain.
Software firm Trend Micro jumped 5.95%,
while Sony Group rose
over 3.86%. SoftBank
Group added 5%.
Andrew Jackson, head of Japanese equity
strategy at ORTUS Advisors, said that flows will continue to favor AI-linked
names, suggesting potential upside for Japanese gallium nitride and silicon
carbide plays such as Fuji Electric, as investors position for sustained
data-center buildouts. The company’s shares were up 1.7%.
Nvidia reported that revenue for its
fiscal fourth quarter climbed 73% to $68.13 billion from a year earlier,
beating analysts’ estimates for $66.21 billion. The company now gets over 91%
of sales from its data center unit, which houses its market-leading artificial
intelligence chips.
Dan Niles, portfolio manager at Niles
Investment Management, said the current setup still favors semiconductor
infrastructure names over software, noting Nvidia remains “really the king of
the infrastructure for all of this.
Japanese chip firms Advantest and Renesas, however, were 2.35%
and 1.75% lower, respectively.
Asia
tech stocks rally as Nvidia earnings soothe AI slowdown fears
Wall Street Turns Its Fearful Gaze to Private
Credit
February 25, 2026 at 10:52 PM GMT
Last week was all about how advances in
artificial intelligence appear to be methodically undercutting the future of a
growing number of industries, companies, products and jobs. This week it seems
Wall Street’s fearful gaze has turned to the potential calamities AI might
wreak upon private credit.
Yesterday, Saba Capital’s Boaz Weinstein sounded the alarm about private credit. Now it’s UBS
Group. A few weeks ago, analysts at the bank laid out a worst-case scenario for defaults in the private credit
sector. Their outlook just became more grim.
UBS strategists said private credit could
see default rates surge as high as 15%—two percentage points more than the firm
forecast less than a month ago—if AI triggers an “aggressive” disruption among
corporate borrowers.
Direct lenders that took a lead role in
financing software companies in recent years now look dangerously exposed to
AI’s impact, stirring comparisons to the 2008 financial crisis. “What is new: a
clearer catalyst,” the UBS strategists said. “Rapid, severe AI disruption.”
Wall
Street Turns Its Fearful Gaze to Private Credit: Evening Briefing Americas -
Bloomberg
Private Credit Fears Deepen With UBS Warning of
15% Defaults
This content was published on February 25,
2026 - 13:10
(Bloomberg) — A few weeks ago, analysts at
UBS Group AG laid out a worst-case scenario for defaults in the private credit
sector. Their outlook just became more grim.
Strategists including Matthew Mish say
private credit could see default rates surge as high as 15%, two percentage
points more than the firm forecast less than a month ago, if artificial
intelligence triggers an “aggressive” disruption among corporate borrowers.
“What is new: a clearer catalyst — rapid,
severe AI disruption,” according to the UBS strategists Tuesday.
Direct lenders that took a lead role in
financing software companies in recent years now look dangerously exposed to
AI’s impact, stirring comparisons to the 2008 financial crisis. Some estimates
suggest that the firms have 40% of all sponsor-backed loans tied up in the
software industry.
Warnings about the $1.8 trillion industry
have been building in recent days, triggered by Blue Owl Capital Inc.’s
decision to permanently shut the gates on one of its funds and to sell assets.
The move sparked a $2.4 billion drop in its market value, and dragged down the
shares of other private credit players including Ares Management Corp.,
Blackstone Inc. and Apollo Global Management Inc.
The UBS report published Tuesday noted
that private credit defaults are currently between 3% and 5% and that signs of
strain such as interest paid-in-kind (PIK) are nearing post-pandemic highs.
Speaking at the iConnections Global Alts
conference in Miami Beach, activist investor Boaz Weinstein — whose Saba
Capital is seeking to snap up stakes in three Blue Owl Capital funds at a steep
discount to their stated value — warned of the “wheels coming off” in private
credit.
More
Private
Credit Fears Deepen With UBS Warning of 15% Defaults - SWI swissinfo.ch
In other news, resource nationalism arrives.
Governments are rushing to hoard critical minerals
as the ‘resource nationalism’ era arrives
Published Tue, Feb 24 2026 6:00 PM EST
A new race to secure critical minerals is
unfolding across the global economy.
From Washington’s proposed $12 billion
Project Vault stockpile to expanding buffers in Asia and the European
Union, governments are moving to secure access to metals increasingly viewed as
essential to national security and industrial policy.
“In metals and minerals is where the
newest wave of stockpiling is most visible,” said Patrick Schröder, senior
research fellow at Chatham House. Governments are seeking to reduce exposure to
concentrated supply chains and export controls, he said.
In the U.S., officials recently outlined a
roughly $12 billion strategic mineral reserve dubbed Project Vault. The
initiative aims to bolster supply-chain resilience for American industry by
building stockpiles of rare earths and other essential metals for
electrification, defense and advanced manufacturing.
Project Vault complements other
initiatives such as the “Forum on Resource Geostrategic Engagement (FORGE),” a
partnership to coordinate critical mineral policy pricing and projects, as well
as Pax Silica, which centers on safeguarding the AI-related supply chain.
Australia
in January announced plans
to formalize a state-backed stockpiling strategy through an $800 million
strategic critical minerals reserve, prioritizing antimony, gallium and rare
earth elements.
The European Union is also advancing
plans to build a joint reserve of critical raw materials under its
RESourceEU strategy. Italy, France and Germany are expected to lead the effort,
Reuters reported earlier this month, citing sources familiar with the matter.
As recently as last weekend, India and
Brazil agreed to deepen
cooperation on
critical minerals and rare earths, as New Delhi seeks to diversify supply
sources and reduce reliance on China. The pact is aimed at strengthening
bilateral trade and building more resilient supply chains for materials
critical to clean energy, technology and defense industries.
South Korea earlier this year rolled out
a comprehensive
critical minerals strategy backed by about $172 million in state support.
Under this strategy, the government plans to expand stockpile volumes and
infrastructure.
“We certainly see a shift to a more
resource nationalist mindset amongst many countries,” said Schröder. “At this
point, it’s a slippery slope and strategic stockpiling could become hoarding
when measures become coercive, lack transparency and become weaponized.”
‘Resource nationalism’ in the works?
The strategic pivot marks what several
analysts describe as a structural shift in commodity policy.
“Metal supply chains are fragile,” said
Ewa Manthey at ING, pointing to years of underinvestment, long timelines for
permits, and geographic concentration. In earlier cycles, high prices typically
spurred faster mine supply and reduced the need for strategic inventories, she
said.
“Today, even with high prices, new supply
is slow and uncertain, so inventories themselves are becoming part of the
supply strategy,” Manthey added, characterizing the move to harbor clearly
“nationalist elements.”
----Historically, stockpiles were
largely emergency buffers against temporary disruptions or price spikes, said
industry watchers. Today’s initiatives are more explicitly driven by a need to
buffer against geopolitical factors, Schröder said, reflecting a broader shift
in how resource security is framed as industrial strategy and national
security, rather than just crisis management.
“This commodities stock building cycle is
different from past episodes,” Anushree Ganeriwala, global analyst at the
Economist Intelligence Unit, said.
“Previous commodity cycles were largely
driven by traditional supply-demand imbalances or weather shocks. What is
different now is that policy and geopolitical risks are shaping market
outcomes directly.”
Goldman Sachs in February characterized
the recent surge in commodity demand for gold and industrial metals as
“insurance-type demand.”
“We are still in the early stages of it,”
Scott-Gray said. “Governments now treat supply chains as national security
infrastructure, not purely commercial flows.”
Governments are
rushing to hoard metals in 'resource nationalism' era
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.
2,000
jobs axed as Aussie tech billionaire's company announces 'AI transformation'
25
February 2026
WiseTech
Global is set to sack almost one third of its workforce as its chief executive
claims the 'era of manually writing code as the core act of engineering is
over'.
WiseTech
CEO Zubin Appoo revealed on Wednesday an 'AI transformation
program' would result in about 2,000 jobs getting the axe this year.
Mr
Appoo said it would be a 'phased headcount reduction, initially in product
and development and customer service, by up to 50 per cent'.
He
claimed the AI program would make the company more efficient.
'We
recognise this will be difficult for our people. We're communicating these
planned changes to our team following announcement to the market in line with
our disclosure obligations,' he said.
'This
decision was not taken lightly, but it is necessary to ensure we remain
disciplined, nimble, competitive and future ready.'
The
redundancies are believed to be scheduled for this financial year and into
next.
----The
logistics software developer, worth around $14.45 billion, employs around 7,000
people.
It
comes as the Commonwealth Bank also announced this week their plan to lay off
300 Australian, despite recording a $5 billion profit just weeks ago.
The
Finance Sector Union said the decision will affect teams across retail,
business and institutional banking, and human resources, with the majority of
roles impacted in technology.
'A
recent survey of CBA workers found job security is a major concern for 72 per
cent of staff,' the Finance Sector Union said in a statement.
More
2,000 jobs axed as
Aussie tech billionaire's company announces 'AI transformation'
Jamie Dimon says AI is already reshaping JPMorgan Chase’s workforce as
bank plans ‘huge redeployment’
Published Tue, Feb 24 2026 3:00 PM EST Updated Tue,
Feb 24 2026 4:33 PM EST
JPMorgan
Chase CEO Jamie Dimon said
the bank is taking steps to address the impact of artificial intelligence on
its workers, and part of what he said should be a broader societal response to
the potentially disruptive nature of AI.
Dimon described at an investor
meeting late Monday his bank’s internal plans to shift employees
into new roles as automation accelerates.
“We already have huge redeployment plans for [our]
own people,” Dimon said. “In fact, we spoke about it today, and we have to up
that a little bit so we can take people who are displaced — and we have
displaced people from AI — and we offer them other jobs.”
JPMorgan, the world’s biggest bank by market cap,
has the industry’s largest annual tech budget at nearly $20 billion. Its
executives have outlined
an ambitious agenda to become “fundamentally rewired” for
the AI era.
Even at this early stage, the bank’s workforce
provides a snapshot of what happens when corporations employ AI technology,
including models from OpenAI and Anthropic,
which are both used by
JPMorgan’s AI portal.
The bank’s head count was roughly unchanged
at 318,512 over the past year, but there were changes
below the surface: Operations and support staff fell by 4% and 2%,
respectively, as the firm added 4% to roles that involve catering to clients
and generating revenue.
It did that by using technology to boost the number
of accounts that each operations employee can handle (up 6%), reducing the
per-unit cost to deal with fraud (down 11%) and making their software engineers
10% more efficient, according to the bank’s presentation.
JPMorgan has doubled the use cases for generative
AI this year, focusing on customer service and the firm’s technology workers,
Chief Financial Officer Jeremy Barnum said at the investor meeting.
A JPMorgan spokeswoman declined to elaborate on
Dimon’s comments about plans for redeployment.
Disruption risk
When an analyst on Monday asked if Dimon was
concerned about the risk of widespread unemployment because of AI — one of
several fears circulating as every AI model update seemed to wallop the shares
of public companies in recent weeks — Dimon had this response: “We are going to
deploy AI as best we can to do a better job for our customers.”
The CEO has previously likened the potential impact
of AI to that of electricity or
the printing press.
Beyond the “huge redeployment plans” for his bank,
Dimon expressed concern that the rapid adoption of AI could put entire
professions out of work.
As a thought experiment, what if autonomous trucks
were introduced overnight, he asked.
“Would you do it if you put 2 million people on the
street?” Dimon asked. “That next job is $25,000 a year, stocking shelves.”
Businesses and governments need to begin planning
for this risk now, with ideas including assistance and training for displaced
workers, he said.
“Society’s got to think through what it wants to do
if this becomes that kind of problem,” Dimon said. “Now is the time to start
thinking about it.”
JPM CEO
Jamie Dimon says AI is reshaping workforce, bank plans 'huge redeployment’
Canada's housing market suffers largest price decline among major
economies, says BIS
House prices, adjusted for inflation, fell 5% in
the third quarter from a year earlier
Published Feb 24, 2026
Canada’s residential housing
market has experienced the largest decline in housing
prices among similar advanced economies, according
to the Bank for International Settlements (BIS).
House prices in Canada, adjusted for inflation,
fell five per cent in the third quarter from a year earlier, said a new report
from BIS, which is the bank for 63 global central banks.
China also experienced a five per cent decline,
while prices in Finland fell four per cent. Other countries that experienced
residential price declines include New Zealand, Israel, Romania, Austria and
Hong Kong.
Overall, inflation-adjusted prices were “stable” in
advanced economies (AEs), BIS said, adding that a few major economies drove
“the global decline in real house prices in aggregate terms. In fact, most AEs
and emerging market economies recorded price growth,” it said in a release.
Looking past the quarterly data, home prices in
Canada plummeted 18 per cent in nominal or actual money terms from the first
quarter of 2022 to the third quarter of 2025, outpacing a 17.8 per cent decline
in China during the same period, BIS data showed. South Korea had the
third-largest decline at 6.8 per cent, followed by a 6.2 per cent decline in
Germany and a six per cent decline in Sweden.
Home prices in the United States and the United
Kingdom rose 12.3 per cent and 8.9 per cent respectively.
More
Canada's
housing market suffers largest price decline | Financial Post
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.
Advanced Battery Power 2026: International Experts Meet in Münster
to Shape the Future of Battery Technologies
The
international conference Advanced Battery Power 2026, taking place from April
14 to 16, 2026, will once again bring together leading experts from academia,
industry, and applied research to discuss current developments and future
directions in advanced battery technologies. 80 presentations, 250 posters, and
40 exhibitors are planned.
February 24, 2026
As one of Europe’s established
specialist conferences in the field of electrochemical energy storage, Advanced
Battery Power focuses on the entire battery value chain, ranging from materials
research and cell chemistry to battery system design, production processes,
applications, and recycling concepts. The conference is held entirely in
English and is aimed at a highly specialized professional audience. The
conference will be chaired by Prof. Martin Winter from the University of
Münster and Prof. Dirk Uwe Sauer from RWTH Aachen University, both of whom are
renowned battery experts. Professional.
The three-day program features
international keynote speakers, peer-reviewed scientific and technical
presentations, and poster sessions highlighting cutting-edge research and
industrial innovation. Core topics include, among others, next-generation battery
materials, lithium-ion and post-lithium technologies, solid-state batteries,
cell and module design, performance and lifetime optimization, safety,
sustainability, and circular economy approaches.
The conference will start on April 14,
2026, at 1:00 p.m. and conclude on April 16, 2026, at 3:00 p.m. To complement
the on-site event, technical online seminars will be offered on April 13, 2026,
providing in-depth insights into selected focus topics.
Running in parallel on April 15–16,
2026, the Vehicle-to-Grid Conference will address the interaction between
battery systems, electric mobility, and energy infrastructure. In addition, the
accompanying exhibition “Kraftwerk Batterie” offers companies, research
institutes, and start-ups a platform to present new technologies, products, and
services, fostering direct exchange between developers, manufacturers, and
users.
A key networking highlight is the
conference evening on April 15, 2026, held at the Jovel Music Hall in Münster,
including the presentation of the Best Poster Awards.
Advanced Battery Power 2026 is targeted
at battery researchers, engineers, system developers, production specialists,
and decision-makers from industry and research institutions who are actively
shaping the future of energy storage technologies. Further details on the
program, speakers, and registration are available at www.battery-power.eu.
Next, the
world global debt clock. Nations debts to GDP compared.
World Debt Clocks
(usdebtclock.org)
I see a great future for gold and silver coins as the currency
people may increasingly turn to when paper currencies begin to disintegrate.
Murray Rothbard
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