Baltic Dry Index. 4013 -119 Brent Crude 71.44
Spot Gold 1812
Coronavirus Cases 02/04/20 World 1,000,000
Deaths 53,100
Coronavirus Cases 02/09/21 World 219,283,660
Deaths 4,545,457
In the stock casinos, it looks like another mixed day. Will European markets take the lead?
After Ida’s remnants flooded New Jersey and New York City, will Wall Street’s opening be delayed? (Perhaps it’s time to retire the hurricane name Ida.)
Shares in Asia-Pacific mixed; Australia records higher-than-expected trade surplus in July
SINGAPORE — Shares in Asia-Pacific were mixed in Thursday trade as Australia reported a higher-than-expected trade surplus in July.
The S&P/ASX 200 in Australia shed 0.72%. Australia recorded a trade surplus of 12.117 billion Australian dollars (about $8.93 billion) in July, according to data released Thursday by the country’s Bureau of Statistics. That was much higher than the 10.2 billion Australian dollars surplus projected in a Reuters poll.
Elsewhere, mainland Chinese stocks were mixed, with the Shanghai composite up 0.55% while the Shenzhen component shed 0.316%. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index hovered fractionally higher.
Chinese regulators summoned and interviewed 11 ride-hailing firms asking them to rectify non-compliant behavior. Companies that were interviewed by the Ministry of Transport and other regulators included Didi and Meituan.
Meituan shares in Hong Kong were 0.63% higher by Thursday afternoon in the city. Shares of other Chinese tech firms in Hong Kong were also largely in positive territory: Tencent jumped 1.68% and Alibaba rose 2.3%. The Hang Seng Tech index advanced 1.33%.
In Japan, the Nikkei 225 gained 0.32% while the Topix index was fractionally higher. South Korea’s Kospi dipped 0.76%.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan slipped 0.13%.
In Covid vaccine developments, Moderna and Takeda Pharmaceutical announced Wednesday they were working with Japanese authorities to recall several batches after stainless steel contaminants were discovered in some vials. Takeda Pharmaceutical shares in Japan fell about 1% in Thursday trade.
More
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/09/02/asia-markets-australia-trade-data-currencies-oil.html
In Afghan rout news, does anyone in Washington have a clue?
Milley says it's 'possible' U.S. could help Taliban fight IS-K; Austin doubts
Sept. 1, 2021 / 5:15 PM
Sept. 1 (UPI) -- Army Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Wednesday it's "possible" the United States could work with the Taliban in operations against the Islamic State affiliate based in Afghanistan, but cautioned that the "ruthless" group may not change its ways.
He made the comments during a press briefing one day after the United States ended its withdrawal and evacuation from the country. The Taliban captured the capital of Kabul in the days leading up to the United States' departure.
When asked by reporters whether the United States would cooperate with the new Taliban-controlled government in counterterrorism operations against the Islamic State-Khorasan Province, Milley responded: "It's possible."
He cautioned, though, that it's unclear to what extent the Taliban may change their ways, calling them "a ruthless group."
RELATED Putin on U.S. war in Afghanistan: 'The outcome is zero, if not downright negative'
"Whether or not they change remains to be seen."
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, though, said he didn't expect cooperation to continue now that the evacuation mission is over.
"We were working with the Taliban on a very narrow set of issues, and that was just that -- to get as many people out as we possibly could," Austin said. "And so I would not make any leaps of logic to broader issues.
More
https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2021/09/01/Afghanistan-Taliban-Gen-Mark-Milley/3041630528323/
In hurricane Ida aftermath news, it’s proving hard to get a handle on damage to the offshore and onshore US oil and gas industry.
The remnants of Ida pound New York City.
Photos show black slick in water near Gulf oil rig after Ida
PORT FOURCHON, La. (AP) — Photos show what appears to be a miles-long oil slick near an offshore rig in the Gulf of Mexico after Hurricane Ida, according to aerial survey imagery released Wednesday by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and reviewed by The Associated Press.
The government imagery, along with additional photos taken by the AP from a helicopter Tuesday, also show Louisiana port facilities, oil refineries and shipyards in the storm’s path where the telltale rainbow sheen typical of oil and fuel spills is visible in the water of bays and bayous.
Both state and federal regulators said Wednesday that they had been unable to reach the stricken area, citing challenging conditions in the disaster zone.
The NOAA photos show a black slick floating in the Gulf near a large rig with the name Enterprise Offshore Drilling painted on its helipad. The company, based in Houston, did not respond to requests for comment by phone or email Wednesday.
Aerial photos taken by NOAA on Tuesday also show significant flooding to the massive Phillips 66 Alliance Refinery along the bank of the Mississippi River, just south of New Orleans. In some sections of the refinery, rainbow sheen is visible on the water leading toward the river.
Asked about reports of levee failures near the refinery Monday, Phillips 66 spokesman Bernardo Fallas said there was “some water” in the facility and stressed that operations were shut down in advance of the storm. Asked Tuesday about potential environmental hazards emanating from the facility, Fallas referred a reporter to a statement on the company’s website saying its response is focused “on ensuring the safety and well-being of our employees and our surrounding communities.”
After the AP sent Phillips 66 photos Wednesday showing extensive flooding at its refinery and what appeared to be petroleum in the water, Fallas conceded by email that the company could confirm it had “discovered a sheen of unknown origin in some flooded areas of Alliance Refinery.”
----All told, seven Louisiana refineries remained shuttered Wednesday. Combined, they account for about 9% of all U.S. refining capacity, according to the U.S. Energy Department. Some refineries on the Mississippi River reported damage to their docks from barges that broke loose during the storm.
----Port Fourchon, which took a direct hit from the storm, is the primary service hub for hundreds of oil and gas rigs offshore. The port also contains oil terminals and pipelines that account for about 90% of the oil and gas production from the Gulf.
Photos taken by the AP from a chartered helicopter Tuesday, as well as the NOAA imagery, show extensive damage to the sprawling facility, including sunken vessels, collapsed structures and more than a dozen large overturned fuel storage tanks.
Ida’s winds, equivalent to an EF3 tornado, peeled the roofs off large steel buildings in the harbor and toppled metal light poles. Trucks, cranes and shipping containers were piled into jumbled heaps.
Chett Chiasson, the executive director of Greater Lafourche Port Commission, told the AP late Tuesday that the companies based at Port Fourchon were entering what would likely be a lengthy recovery phase. A top priority, he said, will be clearing roads and removing sunken vessels so boats can safely navigate the harbor.
https://apnews.com/article/business-environment-and-nature-8ebd69bcb484f3b07cd150a48068de73
Oil settles down 1% as U.S. refineries shut; Washington pushes OPEC to pump more
August 31, 2021
----Hurricane Ida, which made landfall in the United States on Sunday as a Category 4 hurricane, knocked out at least 94% of offshore Gulf of Mexico oil and gas production and caused "catastrophic" damage to Louisiana's grid. read more
Prices were pressured by concerns that power outages and flooding in Louisiana after Hurricane Ida will cut crude demand from refineries.
About 1.7 million barrels per day (bpd) of offshore oil production was shut, but that output may resume more quickly than many refining operations along the Gulf that lost power. Analysts at FGE said in a Tuesday note they expect roughly three-quarters of offshore output to resume by the end of the week.
----The Colonial Pipeline - the largest U.S. fuel line to the East Coast - restarted its main gasoline and distillate lines on Tuesday after shutting them ahead of the storm, but some refineries are reporting damage to their plants.
Royal Dutch Shell Plc (RDSa.L) said it found evidence of building damage at its 230,611 barrel-per-day (bpd) Norco, Louisiana, refinery, a company spokesman said on Tuesday. read more
"If refiners recover capacity in two to four weeks, then we should be OK. Beyond that, we will be driving inventory levels very low and prices may start to react meaningfully higher,” said Rebecca Babin, senior energy trader at CIBC Wealth.
U.S. crude stocks fell by 4 million barrels, while gasoline inventories rose by 2.7 million barrels and distillate stocks fell by 2 million barrels, according to two market sources, citing American Petroleum Institute figures on Tuesday.
Official inventory data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration is expected Wednesday.
NYC National Weather Service issues first Flash Flood Emergency; wettest hour ever in Central Park
NEW YORK (WABC) -- It's a night unlike any other in
the history of New York area weather.
The National Weather Service Office serving New York City said Wednesday
evening this was the first time this office has ever had to issue a Flash Flood
Emergency, on a night in which Manhattan's Central Park saw the most amount of
rain ever to fall in a single hour.
The first Flash Flood Emergency ever issued by the New York office came Wednesday evening for Northeast New Jersey, which was followed by the second one ever put out by the New York City office, covering New York City itself.
"To
be clear... this particular warning for NYC is the second time we've ever
issued a Flash Flood Emergency (It's the first one for NYC). The first time
we've issued a Flash Flood Emergency was for Northeast New Jersey an hour ago,
the weather service, based in Upton, said in a tweet.
Massive
flooding across the area, State of Emergency in NJ
A Flash Flood Emergency advises people to move immediately to higher ground,
and avoid walking or driving through flood waters.
Central Park observed 3.15 inches of rain in one hour, from 8:51 pm to 9:51 pm.
That would make it the wettest hour in New York City record-keeping, dating
back to 1870. It smashed a record set just last month, on the night of Aug. 21,
when between 10 and 11 p.m., Central Park saw 1.94 inches.
Between Philadelphia and the Tri-State area, the remnants of Hurricane Ida have
unleashed flash flooding, tornado watches and warnings and historic amounts of
rain in an unprecedented evening of severe weather.
https://abc7ny.com/flash-flood-emergency-new-jersey-flooding-york-city-hurricane-ida/10993344/
Subway flooding leads MTA to suspend service
NEW YORK (WABC) --
The MTA suspended service as torrential rain flooded subways on Wednesday
night.
"This has been a historic and challenging night for the region, our customers
and transit workers," Janno Lieber, acting MTA Chair and CEO, said.
Some trains became
stuck after up to six inches of rain fell within hours. First responders safely
evacuated everyone.
"New Yorkers should not attempt to travel until further notice. We will be
deploying maximum pump capacity and surging workers into the system when it's
safe so that as this epic storm abates service can be restored as soon as
possible.," Lieber said,
Limited bus service was available for essential travel.
Check MTA.info for the
latest information before you travel.
Long Island Rail Road, Metro-North
Railroad and NJ Transit also suspended service because of the flooding
conditions.
RELATED | Monster tornado hammers South Jersey, destroys homes
https://abc7ny.com/mta-suspended-subway-flooding-nyc-ida/10993562/
New York City mayor declares state of emergency over historic flooding
Issued on:
New York Mayor Bill de Blasio declared a state of emergency over an 'historic weather event' in the city on Wednesday night as the remnants of Hurricane Ida brought heavy winds, tornadoes and flooding to the Northeast of the United States.
The mayor tweeted just before 11:30 p.m., saying, “We’re enduring an historic weather event tonight with record breaking rain across the city, brutal flooding and dangerous conditions on our roads.”
Torrential rains collapsed the roof of a U.S. Postal Service building, left cars and roads underwater and sent garbage floating through the streets of New York.
Social media posts showed homes reduced to rubble in a southern New Jersey county just outside Philadelphia, not far from where the National Weather Service confirmed a tornado Wednesday evening. Authorities did not have any immediate information on injuries.
Other video showed water rushing through Newark Liberty International Airport as the storm moved into New York on Wednesday night.
The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates the airport, tweeted at 10:30 p.m. that all flights were suspended and all parking lots were closed due to severe flooding. All train service to the airport also was suspended.
The National Weather Service recorded 3.15 inches of rain in New York’s Central Park in one hour, far surpassing the 1.94 inches that fell in one hour during Tropical Storm Henri on the night of Aug. 21, which was believed at the time to be the most ever recorded in the park.
New York's FDR Drive, a major artery on the east side of Manhattan, was underwater by late evening and subway stations and tracks became so flooded that the Metropolitan Transportation Authority suspended all service. Videos posted online showed subway riders standing on seats in cars filled with water.
Other videos showed vehicles submerged up to their windows on major roadways in and around the city and garbage floating down a street in Queens.
At the U.S. Open tennis tournament in Queens, television footage showed fans who had watched matches under the Arthur Ashe Stadium's retractable roof slogging through several inches of water as they left.
More
Global Inflation Watch.
Given our Magic Money Tree central banksters and our spendthrift politicians, inflation now needs an entire section of its own.
On trillions and trillions of Magic Money Tree fiat money, is Sri Lanka an outlier of where we are all headed?
US Debt Clock.
The interest on US official debt is now rising at $1,000 a second. In reality higher.
Sri Lanka raids sugar stocks as food shortages bite
Issued on: 01/09/2021 - 14:30
Sri Lankan government officials on Wednesday raided private warehouses to seize thousands of tonnes of sugar, a day after a state of emergency was declared over food shortages caused by a currency crisis.
A military officer put in charge of efforts to bolster food stocks said at least 13,000 tonnes of white and brown sugar were found in the raids.
"The objective is to prevent hoarding," Major General Senarath Niwunhella, who was named commissioner general of essential services on Tuesday, told AFP.
He denied the sugar was being confiscated.
"The government will pay a reasonable price to the importers based on the valuations provided to customs."
The general said importers had stockpiled sugar while market prices rose sharply.
"Today we started with sugar and will expand this action to other commodities like wheat flour and rice too if importers do not release their stocks to the market," he said.
The raids were concentrated on warehouses just outside the capital.
Experts have blamed the food crisis on a shortage of foreign exchange to import and maintain buffer stocks. Authorities have increased penalties for food hoarding.
Sugar was not easily available at the state-mandated price of 135 rupees ($0.67) a kilo (2.2 pounds), but could be bought in the black market for double the price.
Niwunhella said the seized stocks will be given to state-owned retail stores to sell for below the open market price.
There have also been sharp price rises for rice, onions and potatoes, while long queues have formed outside stores because of shortages of milk powder, kerosene oil and cooking gas.
The shortages come as the country of 21 million battles a fierce coronavirus wave that is claiming more than 200 lives a day.
More
https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20210901-sri-lanka-raids-sugar-stocks-as-food-shortages-bite
German retail sales slump signals weak start to third quarter
Published Wed, Sep 1 2021 4:10 AM EDT
German retail sales fell by far more than expected in July after two months of sharp increases, data showed on Wednesday, in a first sign that a consumer-driven recovery in Europe’s largest economy might be losing steam in the third quarter.
The Federal Statistics Office said retail sales dropped 5.1% on the month in real terms after a revised jump of 4.5% in June and an increase of 4.6% in May.
The July reading missed a Reuters forecast for a fall of 0.9%.
The monthly comparison was distorted heavily by the lifting of COVID-19 restrictions on shopping in most parts of the country in June, the statistics office said.
Retail sales - a volatile indicator often subject to revisions - edged down by 0.3% in real terms year on year, it added. Compared with February 2020, the month before the coronavirus crisis hit Germany, retail sales were up 3.8%.
The German economy returned to growth in the second quarter but bounced back less strongly than other euro zone countries as supply chain bottlenecks slowed industrial output.
Supply problems with raw materials and intermediate goods, coupled with rising COVID-19 cases because of the more contagious Delta variant, are driving companies to take a dimmer view of the coming months.
Bankhaus Lampe analyst Alexander Krueger believes that retail sales are likely to recover in the coming months, with the labour market strong and more companies scaling back short-time work schemes introduced during the pandemic.
However, overall support for the economy from household spending could be less strong in the third quarter than many had hoped for, he added.
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/09/01/german-retail-sales-slump-signals-weak-start-to-third-quarter.html
Covid-19 Corner
This section will continue until it becomes unneeded.
WHO says it is monitoring a new Covid variant called ‘mu’
The World Health Organization is monitoring a new coronavirus variant called “mu,” which the agency says has mutations that have the potential to evade immunity provided by a previous Covid-19 infection or vaccination.
Mu — also known by scientists as B.1.621 — was added to the WHO’s list of variants “of interest” on Aug. 30, the international health organization said in its weekly Covid epidemiological report published late Tuesday.
The variant contains genetic mutations that indicate natural immunity, current vaccines or monoclonal antibody treatments may not work as well against it as they do against the original ancestral virus, the WHO said. The mu strain needs further study to confirm whether it will prove to be more contagious, more deadly or more resistant to current vaccines and treatments
Mu “has a constellation of mutations that indicate potential properties of immune escape,” the WHO wrote in its report Tuesday.
More
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/09/01/who-says-it-is-monitoring-a-new-covid-variant-called-mu.html
Coronavirus: New Covid strain Mu lands in UK with 55 cases in England so far
Wednesday 1 September 2021 10:58 am
A new Covid mutation called Mu has been detected in the UK, as 55 cases have been identified in England so far.
The new strain, which first popped up in South America, has been designated a variant of interest by the World Health Organisation (WHO), according to various reports this morning.
Mu, or B.1.621, was first identified in Colombia and cases have been recorded in South America and various European countries, including the UK.
The WHO’s weekly bulletin on the pandemic said the variant has mutations suggesting it could be more resistant to vaccines, as was the case with Beta, but that more studies would be needed to examine this further.
“Since its first identification in Colombia in January 2021, there have been a few sporadic reports of cases of the Mu variant and some larger outbreaks have been reported from other countries in South America and in Europe,” the WHO said.
“Although the global prevalence of the Mu variant among sequenced cases has declined and is currently below 0.1 per cent, the prevalence in Colombia (39%) and Ecuador (13%) has consistently increased.
“The epidemiology of the Mu variant in South America, particularly with the co-circulation of the Delta variant, will be monitored for changes.”
There are currently four coronavirus variants of concern, as deemed by the WHO, with the Alpha variant – first recorded in Kent – seen in 193 countries, Beta in 141, Gamma in 91 and Delta in 170 countries, while Mu is the fifth variant of interest.
https://www.cityam.com/coronavirus-new-covid-strain-mu-lands-in-uk-with-55-cases-in-england-so-far/
Covid could trigger a spike in dementia cases, says Alzheimer’s experts
Published Tue, Aug 31 2021 8:01 PM EDT
SINGAPORE — The world may not be prepared for an impending wave of dementia and the additional cases that Covid-19 could bring, according to a group representing over 100 Alzheimer’s and dementia associations globally.
The Alzheimer’s Disease International is urging the World Health Organization and governments around the world to “urgently fast track research on the potential impact of COVID-19 on increasing dementia rates.”
It says the pandemic could cause a significant rise in the number of dementia patients in the long term, as some research has shown that Covid infections can increase a person’s likelihood of developing dementia and cause dementia symptoms to show up earlier.
Dementia generally refers to a deterioration in the brain that impairs memory, thoughts, behavior and emotion. Alzheimer’s disease is the most common form of dementia, and there is currently no cure for dementia.
In the short term, “dementia rates may drop temporarily as a result of the high number of deaths of people with dementia due to COVID-19, with between 25 to 45 percent of all COVID-19 deaths estimated to be of those with dementia,” the London-based group said in a media release Wednesday.
But over the longer term, the number of people with dementia “could rise significantly due to the neurological impact of COVID-19,” it added.
Since the coronavirus first emerged in China in late 2019, more than 217 million cases of Covid-19 have been reported — and over 18 million were detected in the last 28 days, according to official data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.
---- More should be done to understand the link between Covid dementia, said the Alzheimer’s Disease International (ADI).
“Many dementia experts around the globe are seriously concerned by the link between dementia and the neurological symptoms of COVID-19,” said Paola Barbarino, chief executive of ADI.
The group’s Medical and Scientific Advisory Panel, made up of global experts on dementia, has set up a working group to study that link and make recommendations on how to deal with the problem.
Dr. Alireza Atri, a cognitive neurologist and chair of the advisory panel, said he’s “particularly concerned” about the effects the so-called long Covid. That includes symptoms such as loss of taste and smell, “brain fog” or a loss of mental clarity, as well as difficulties with concentration, memory and thinking, he added.
More
Next, some vaccine links kindly sent along from a LIR reader in Canada. The links come from a most informative update from Stanford Hospital in California.
World Health Organization - Landscape of COVID-19 candidate vaccines. https://www.who.int/publications/m/item/draft-landscape-of-covid-19-candidate-vaccines
NY Times Coronavirus Vaccine Tracker. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/science/coronavirus-vaccine-tracker.html
Stanford Website. https://racetoacure.stanford.edu/clinical-trials/132
Regulatory Focus COVID-19 vaccine tracker. https://www.raps.org/news-and-articles/news-articles/2020/3/covid-19-vaccine-tracker
Some other useful Covid links.
Johns Hopkins Coronavirus resource centre
https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html
Rt Covid-19
Centers for Disease Control Coronavirus
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/index.html
The Spectator Covid-19 data tracker (UK)
https://data.spectator.co.uk/city/national
Technology Update.
With events happening fast in the development of solar power and graphene, I’ve added this section. Updates as they get reported.
Can a piece of sticky tape stop computer hackers in their tracks?
New steps towards quantum communications say ‘yes’
Date: August 30, 2021
Source: University of Technology Sydney
Summary: Researchers have taken the fight to online hackers with a giant leap towards realizing affordable, accessible quantum communications, a technology that would effectively prevent the decryption of online activity. Everything from private social media messaging to banking could become more secure due to new technology created with a humble piece of adhesive tape.
Quantum communication is still in its early development and is currently feasible only in very limited fields due to the costs associated with fabricating the required devices. The TMOS researches have developed new technology that integrates quantum sources and waveguides on chip in a manner that is both affordable and scalable, paving the way for future everyday use.
The development of fully functional quantum communication technologies has previously been hampered by the lack of reliable quantum light sources that can encode and transmit the information.
In a paper published today in ACS Photonics, the team describes a new platform to generate these quantum emitters based on hexagonal boron nitride, also known as white graphene. Where current quantum emitters are created using complex methods in expensive clean rooms, these new quantum emitters can be created using $20 worth of white graphene pressed on to a piece of adhesive tape.
These 2D materials can be pressed onto a sticky surface such as the adhesive tape and exfoliated, which is essentially peeling off the top layer to create a flex. Multiple layers of this flex can then be assembled in a Lego-like style, offering a new bottom up approach as a substitute for 3D systems.
TMOS Chief Investigator Igor Aharonovich said: "2D materials, like hexagonal boron nitride, are emerging materials for integrated quantum photonics, and are poised to impact the way we design and engineer future optical components for secured communication."
In addition to this evolution in photon sources, the team has developed a high efficiency on-chip waveguide, a vital component for on-chip optical processing.
Lead author Chi Li said: "Low signal levels have been a significant barrier preventing quantum communications from evolving into practical, workable models. We hope that with this new development, quantum comms will become an everyday technology that improves people's lives in new and exciting ways."
