Baltic
Dry Index. 3037 -87
Brent Crude 95.39
Spot Gold 4466 Spot Silver 72.85
US 2 Year Yield 4.05 -0.03.
US Federal Debt. 39.211 trillion
US GDP 32.184 trillion.
The benefits of a tariff are visible. Union workers can see they are "protected". The harm which a tariff does is invisible. It's spread widely. There are people that don't have jobs because of tariffs but they don't know it.
Milton Friedman
In the stock casinos, hopium and an AI rethink?
Dinosaur Graeme sees an unsustainable gap between trillion dollar valuations and an ever growing harsher reality in the real national economies.
If today’s US jobs report disappoints, though that’s not expected by the US jobs experts, things could turn ugly fast on Friday and Monday.
In the private credit sector, things are already ugly:
Last week, Daniel Ivascyn, Pimco’s chief
investment officer, warned that higher losses were coming for the credit
industry.
“There’s a lot going on beneath the surface,” he said in a video shared by the company. “We are, we think, in the midst of the first sustained default or loss cycle in many, many years.”
Meanwhile, an ever more desperate President Trump to end his war on the global economy, is now proposing a meeting with Iran’s Supreme leader. A man he tried to assassinate on February 28th, and assassinated his father and close relatives on February 28th.
On Thursday, President Donald Trump said that he would be “honored” to meet Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, Iran’s Supreme Leader, “if it was to make a deal.” The U.S.-Iran war has dragged on into its fourth month, and the conflict between the two nations has been in a fragile ceasefire.
Bunker time.
South Korea stocks fall 5% as tech heavyweights
follow plunge in Wall Street’s AI-linked names
Published Thu, Jun 4 2026 7:48 PM EDT
South Korea stocks plunged Friday, leading
losses in the region, as the slump in Wall Street tech names overnight spread
into Asia, dragging benchmark indexes lower.
The Kospi was last down 5.01%, with
heavyweights Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix dropping 4.34% and 7.57%,
respectively. The small-cap Kosdaq index fell 4.14%.
In a move that could pressure South
Korea’s tech sector further, the country’s labor
minister urged its biggest technology companies to distribute more of
the gains from the AI-driven semiconductor boom with workers and suppliers,
saying record profits risk exacerbating income inequality.
Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 lost 1.53%.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 was 0.61%
lower.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index was down
0.81%, while the CSI 300 was marginally lower.
India’s Nifty 50 was slightly
higher, while the BSE Sensex was up 0.23%.
Overnight in the U.S., the Dow Jones Industrial Average rallied
to a fresh all-time high, while the Nasdaq Composite underperformed
as investors appeared to rotate out of chip names in favor of non-tech stocks.
The 30-stock Dow jumped 874.86 points, or
1.73%, to close at a record 51,561.93. The Nasdaq lost 0.09% and ended at
26,830.96, while the S&P
500 rose 0.41% to 7,584.31.
The rotation was sparked by a sell-off
in Broadcom that led
investors to pare exposure to AI-linked stocks. The chipmaker slid more than
12% after its fiscal
second-quarter revenue missed estimates. Chip names, which led the
latest leg higher in the market’s rally to record levels, fell broadly.
The VanEck Semiconductor ETF
(SMH) lost more than 1%. Arm Holdings shed more than
4%, while Micron Technology fell
close to 8%.
Stocks also came under pressure on Middle
East worries. Mixed messages have emerged recently out of negotiations to end
the war, which has upset global markets and caused oil and gasoline
prices to spike.
Asia
markets today: Nikkei 225, Kospi, Hang Seng Index, CSI 300, Nifty50
S&P 500 futures tick lower as Wall Street
awaits May jobs report: Live updates
Updated Fri, Jun 5 2026 9:52 PM EDT
S&P 500 futures ticked
lower on Thursday night as traders looked ahead to the release of May’s jobs
report.
Futures tied to the broad market index
slipped about 0.3%, while Nasdaq
100 futures dipped 0.5%. Futures tied to the Dow Jones
Industrial Average were little changed.
In Thursday’s after-hours trading session,
shares of Lululemon Athletica sank
11% after the athleisure company lowered
its full-year earnings and revenue guidance, citing headwinds. The
company’s outlook for its current quarter also came below what analysts were
expecting.
During the day’s regular session, the
blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial
Average climbed 874.86 points, or 1.73% to a fresh record close.
The S&P 500 added
0.41%, while the Nasdaq
Composite slipped 0.09%, weighed down by a rotation out of the
technology sector.
“A lot of us would prefer a broadening of
the market, and when we say that I think it’s no longer broadening away from
Mag Seven, it’s really a broadening away from semi-cap equipment and
hardware,” said
Charles Kantor, senior portfolio manager at Neuberger Wealth, on CNBC’s “Closing Bell: Overtime”
on Thursday afternoon. “You had a little bit of that today, but the pipeline of
demand for stuff related to building out compute and data centers from now even
into 2030 is a powerful force.”
Investors are now looking ahead to
the May
nonfarm payrolls report, which will be released at 8:30 a.m. ET on Friday
morning.
Economists surveyed by Dow Jones expect
the latest data to show that just 80,000 jobs were added last month, which
would be lower than the average of 150,000 jobs over the prior two months. The
consensus also sees the unemployment rate holding steady from April at 4.3%.
On Thursday, President Donald Trump said that he would
be “honored” to meet Ayatollah Mojtaba
Khamenei, Iran’s Supreme Leader, “if it was to make a deal.” The U.S.-Iran
war has dragged on into its fourth month, and the conflict between the two
nations has been in a fragile ceasefire.
The S&P 500 is up less than 0.1% on
the week. This slight gain puts it on track for its 10th straight positive week
in a row, which would mark the longest positive streak for the index since
1985. The 30-stock Dow is poised to end the week up 1%, while the Nasdaq
Composite is heading for a loss of 0.5%
Stock
market today: Live updates
Blackstone restricts flagship fund withdrawals as
private asset fears reemerge
Published Thu, Jun 4 2026 8:40 AM EDT Updated
Thu, Jun 4 2026 11:07 AM EDT
Blackstone is
restricting withdrawals from its flagship Blackstone Private Credit, or BCRED,
fund following a spike in investor redemption requests, as fears over liquidity
pressures rattled private markets.
The asset management giant capped investor
withdrawals from the $79 billion nontraded business development company at 5%
of shares, after redemption requests hit 10% during the second quarter.
It comes after U.S.
private markets giants sold off on Wednesday after Switzerland’s Partners Group said it
was curbing
redemption requests in one of its European private equity vehicles.
Partners Group said on Thursday it was
prepared to restrict withdrawals in more of its funds, warning that the spike
in client withdrawals is now spreading from private credit into private equity.
Shares in Blackstone were up more than 5%
in late-morning trading Thursday. They fell about 4% on Wednesday during the
sell-off.
BCRED is one of the first major
semi-liquid private credit vehicles updating on investor redemption requests
during the second quarter.
The cap comes after BCRED saw client
redemption requests jump to a then-record of 7.9%, or about $3.8 billion, in
the first quarter.
Blackstone fulfilled 100% of those
requests by raising its quarterly cap and using employee capital to cover the
remaining amount.
The fund drew inflows of about $1 billion
during the first quarter, but ultimately recorded a net capital outflow after
covering withdrawals.
---- Last week, Daniel Ivascyn, Pimco’s chief
investment officer, warned that higher losses were coming for the credit
industry.
“There’s a lot going on beneath the
surface,” he said in a video shared by the company. “We are, we think, in the
midst of the first sustained default or loss cycle in many, many years.”
Blackstone
restricts flagship fund withdrawals
Tech Sector AI Firing Spree Has a Silver Lining
June 4, 2026 at 10:22 PM GMT+1
US tech companies last month announced the
most employee terminations in almost two years amid an increasingly frenzied AI
spending spree. Plans were unveiled in May to eliminate more than 38,000
positions, the most in the sector since August 2024. So far this year, the
industry has announced more than 123,000 cuts, up more than 65% from the same
period in 2025.
“The labor market is being
reshaped by technology in real time,” said Andy Challenger of outplacement
firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas. “AI is now the leading reason
companies give for cutting jobs.”
The (potential) good news? Those firms
are promising
more hiring than any other sector. More broadly, US employers overall have
announced more than 80,000 planned hires so far this year, which is better than
2024 and 2025, but still well below totals for the same period in each year
from 2019 to 2023.
The Tech Sector’s AI Firing Spree : Evening Briefing Americas - Bloomberg
In other news, were Canada to join the EU, which arm and a leg would they demand?
Finland’s president says EU should expand to 40
states — including Canada
Published Thu, Jun 4 2026 1:00 AM EDT
HELSINKI, Finland — Finnish President
Alexander Stubb has outlined his vision for a much larger European Union, saying the
27-nation bloc needs to “think big” and seize the moment to project power on
the global stage.
Speaking at an energy conference in the
Finnish capital on Wednesday, Stubb said the EU should push to increase its
membership to 40 states and named the U.K., Canada, Turkey, Norway and Iceland
as potential candidates to join.
His comments come as the Trump
administration’s actions, alongside Russia’s war with
Ukraine,
prompt some countries to
reconsider the benefits of EU membership.
Stubb told the Eurelectric Power Summit
that “the window of opportunity” for EU enlargement “is quite short because
when the war in Ukraine ends and perhaps when the U.S. administration changes,
I don’t know, then people are going to take their foot off the gas pedal and
start heckling about unnecessary stuff again.”
Stubb added that “European strategic
autonomy or European geopolitical power” is “often based on size and scale and
I think the best European policy ever has been European enlargement.”
“In this moment, we need to think big and
geographically, we need to enlarge or at least create memberships which are
flexible enough to bring in a sum total of 40 European states — or even
non-European,” Stubb said.
The European Commission, the EU’s
executive arm, did not immediately respond to a request for comment from CNBC.
The EU is pursuing its largest enlargement
in a generation, with nine candidate
countries all
eyeing entry to the bloc over the coming years. Montenegro and Albania are seen
as the frontrunners among the Western Balkans, while Ukraine
and Moldova are moving
closer to
opening formal membership talks.
Finland’s president said the EU should
look to its western flank and bring the U.K., which left the bloc in 2020,
back into the fold, or at least “as close as possible.”
Canada should be considered as another
option, Stubb said. “Wouldn’t it be lovely if Canada was the 28th state of the
European Union rather than the 51st state of the United States?”
U.S. President Donald Trump has touted his
ambitions of annexing Canada. In a Truth Social post earlier in
the week, Trump wrote “51st state!” while sharing a Bloomberg
news article about Canada entering a technical recession for the first time
since 2020.
Canadian Foreign Minister Anita Anand has
previously said that the
country is looking to diversify its trade relationships and “really double down
on this middle power
initiative,”
referring to an idea laid out by Prime Minister Mark Carney at the World
Economic Forum earlier this year.
More.
Finland's Stubb
says EU should expand to 40 states, including Canada
Global Inflation/Stagflation/Recession
Watch.
Given
our Magic Money Tree central banksters and our spendthrift politicians.
Eurozone retail sales fell in April
June 4, 2026
Eurozone retail sales fell more than expected in
April as rising energy prices continued to erode consumer spending power,
adding to concerns that the currency area’s economy could contract in the
second quarter.
Volumes fell 0.4% from March, following an upwardly
revised 0.8% rise the previous month, according to data published Thursday by
the European Union’s statistics agency. The figure was weaker than the 0.3%
decline expected by a consensus of economists polled by The Wall Street
Journal.
The decline was driven by the sharpest fall in
automotive-fuel sales since August 2023. The data suggests that higher energy
prices triggered by the U.S. and Israel’s war with Iran are beginning to take a
toll on consumers across the currency area, even as the labor market remains
relatively resilient.
Consumer confidence improved slightly in May, but
remains near lows reached during the 2008 global financial crisis, highlighting
the strain facing households as fuel and other costs rise.
Economists increasingly see the weakness in
consumer spending as a sign that the eurozone economy may struggle to grow in
the second quarter.
“The drop in consumer confidence since the Iran war
began, together with the weakness in the business surveys, suggests that the
euro-zone economy might contract in 2Q,” Jack Allen-Reynolds, deputy chief
eurozone economist, said in a recent note.
While unemployment remains close to record lows,
wage growth is expected to slow this year, limiting households’ ability to
absorb higher prices.
“Real wage growth is slowing, real wages are
falling outright in some countries,” said Claus Vistesen, chief eurozone
economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics.
And any wage gains are increasingly being offset by
higher inflation, he added. With elevated prices at the pump, many households
are being left with less disposable income to spend in shops and restaurants.
Annual inflation accelerated to 3.2% in May from
3.0% in April and 1.9% in February. More concerning for policymakers, core
inflation—which excludes volatile food and energy prices—also picked up,
suggesting higher energy costs are beginning to spill over into other prices.
The increase in core inflation has reinforced
expectations that the European Central Bank will raise interest rates this
month as officials seek to prevent inflation expectations from becoming
unanchored. A hike in July also remains on the cards.
But policymakers face a tricky balancing act. For
now, the ECB appears likely to prioritize inflation risks. But with households
already pulling back on spending, the central bank’s room for aggressive rate
hikes may be limited.
“This weakens demand and then feeds disinflation,”
Vistesen said.
Eurozone
retail sales fell in April
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.
Fire at Southampton docks that destroyed electric Jaecoo SUVs
occurs weeks before China's strict new laws to tackle EV battery blazes
Updated: 00:35, 4 June 2026
A fire at Southampton docks on Wednesday
morning that destroyed
33 Chinese Jaecoo cars – many of
them £27,500 E5 electric SUVs – has occurred less than a month before China
introduces strict new battery safety standards to reduce risks of fire and
explosions in the fast-growing sector.
At the height of the incident, there
were 10 fire engines, two water carriers, an aerial ladder platform and support
vehicles on scene tackling the blaze, the fire service said.
The Jaecoo E5 went on sale in August
2025 and is the only all-electric model that Jaecoo – the fastest-growing
mainstream automotive brand in the UK – currently offers.
It remains unclear what triggered the
fire, which spread to other vehicles parked in close proximity – in some cases
leaving just charred remains. Jaecoo UK says the incident is 'under
investigation'.
But its timing could not be worse for
Chinese lawmakers ahead of a new 'no fire, no explosion' EV battery safety
rules arriving on 1 July.
Despite this week's worrying event,
experts say EVs are incredibly safe amidst ongoing claims that they are prone
to fires and more dangerous than internal combustion cars.
China's new battery fire rules
China's Ministry of Industry and
Information Technology has issued a set of technical standards for the
batteries in EVs and plug-in hybrid cars.
The new safety requirements are part of
a revised list of 294 national standards spanning 13 sectors for EV battery
safety.
These cover everything from energy
consumption to recycling and, crucially, safety.
The rules set out stricter mandatory
tests which will require companies to ensure their batteries won't catch fire
or explode within two hours of a 'thermal runaway' - the most common cause of
battery-related blazes.
This is the chemical chain reaction that
takes place inside a lithium-ion battery when a damaged or overheating
cell releases stored energy faster than it can dissipate. The uncontrolled heat
generation triggers a domino effect to other cells, spreading fire rapidly.
Due to the intense heat when the
materials inside the batteries burn, EV fires are typically much more difficult
to extinguish.
The new regulation also adds new tests
relating to crash impacts and tolerance of fast charging.
Seven government departments signed off
on the joint action plan, which has now been approved, published and will take
effect in a month's time.
China's new EV battery safety
regulations come into effect on 1 July.
What do new battery standards mean for carmakers?
Reports say that the Standards
Technology Department at the State Administration for Market Regulation expects
carmakers and battery producers to improve their cell structures and thermal
management to prevent fires and other thermal incidents.
It is not yet clear how these new
standards will be enforced, or what the penalties will be if an EV does still
catch fire.
EV batteries are already very safe, but
the new rules are expected to push manufacturers to further improve design and
safety systems.
This will likely increase development
costs, which in turn could have an impact on EV prices, as the battery is the
largest cost component.
More
Next, the
world global debt clock. Nations debts to GDP compared.
World Debt Clocks
(usdebtclock.org)
Another
weekend and yet another hyped “peace weekend,” or will it finally be third
“peace weekend” lucky? Have a great weekend everyone.
Tariffs that save jobs in the steel industry mean higher steel
prices, which in turn means fewer sales of American steel products around the
world and losses of far more jobs than are saved.
Thomas Sowell
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