Baltic
Dry Index. 1039 +37
Brent Crude 73.20
Spot Gold 2915 US 2 Year Yield 4.07 -0.06
US Federal Debt. 36.527 trillion!
From now on, the pound abroad is worth 14 per cent or so less in terms of other currencies. That doesn't mean, of course, that the Pound here in Britain, in your pocket or purse or in your bank, has been devalued.
UK Prime Minister Harold
Wilson. Liar.
In the stock casinos, more wobble. What if Warren
Buffet is right to be selling out of long held stocks?
But this time it’s different, right?
European markets head for higher open as traders focus on earnings
reports
Updated Wed, Feb 26 2025 12:41 AM EST
European markets are expected to open higher as
investors await more earnings releases Wednesday.
The U.K.’s FTSE 100 index is expected
to open 36 points higher at 8,681, Germany’s DAX up 127 points at
22,513, France’s CAC 30
points higher at 8,076 and Italy’s FTSE MIB 126 points higher
at 38,911, according to data from IG.
Earnings are in the spotlight Wednesday, with
releases set to come from Adecco
Group, AB InBev, E.On, Danone, Munich Re, Uniper, Stellantis, Wolters Kluwer, Aston Martin
Lagonda Global Holdings, Covestro and Deutsche Telekom. Data releases include
the latest German and French consumer confidence figures.
Asia-Pacific
markets traded mixed overnight, with sentiment weighed on by further
losses on Wall Street Tuesday after the U.S. consumer confidence reading came
in much
weaker than economists’ estimates.
U.S.
stock futures rose overnight, however, with investors awaiting
earnings from market bellwether Nvidia after
the closing bell Wednesday. The report could be the next catalyst for the
market.
European
markets live updates: stocks, news, data and earnings
Stock futures rise after S&P 500 posts fourth losing day;
Nvidia earnings loom: Live updates
Updated Wed, Feb 26 2025 7:36 PM EST
Stock futures rose on Tuesday evening following a
fourth-straight day of losses for the S&P 500. Investors are also awaiting
earnings from market bellwether Nvidia.
Futures tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose
85 points, or about 0.2%. Nasdaq-100
futures added 0.4%, while S&P 500 futures climbed
0.3%.
Stocks are coming off a weak
session. The S&P 500 tumbled
0.5%, and the Nasdaq
Composite lost nearly 1.4%. Both indexes logged their fourth
consecutive losing day. The 30-stock Dow was the outlier, with a
roughly 0.4% advance.
A weaker-than-expected consumer confidence reading
from the Conference Board weighed on stocks Tuesday. A raft of recent reports,
including disappointing retail sales numbers and a weak consumer sentiment
reading have spurred traders’ worries around the economy over the past week —
and the major averages have suffered.
Nvidia’s fourth-quarter earnings, due after the
closing bell Wednesday, could be the next catalyst for the market.
The report arrives at a pivotal time for Nvidia:
The emergence
of DeepSeek raised questions about the sustainability of the once-hot
artificial intelligence trade. The chip giant and other momentum plays are also
showing signs of fizzling, with Nvidia down more than 5% in 2025.
“I think as the earnings report comes out tomorrow,
my expectation is it’s going to be a lot like September,” NYU Stern School of
Business finance professor Aswath Damodaran said Tuesday on CNBC’s “Closing
Bell.”
“A replay of [the] September [quarter] where they
will beat analyst expectations, but the market is going to be disappointed
because the market seems to have set expectations higher than what analysts are
seeing for the company,” he added.
Other earnings reports out Wednesday include Lowe’s, TJX and Salesforce.
Economic data due on Wednesday include new home sales
and building permits. The main event for investors will be the release of the
personal consumption expenditures price index on Friday. The PCE is the Federal
Reserve’s preferred inflation gauge.
Stock
market today: Live updates
Tesla’s market cap sinks below $1 trillion as stock slumps more
than 8%
Published Tue, Feb 25 2025 3:44 PM EST Updated Tue,
Feb 25 2025 4:43 PM EST
Tesla’s postelection
pop has almost disappeared.
Shares of the electric vehicle maker plunged more
than 8% on Tuesday, pushing the company’s market cap below $1 trillion and to
its lowest since Nov. 7, which was two days after President Donald Trump’s election
victory.
The stock has plummeted 25% to start the year, while
the Nasdaq is down just 1.5%, and has slid more than 35% from its record close
on Dec. 16. CEO Elon Musk has
lost more than $100 billion in net worth over that stretch, though he is still
the world’s richest person, with a fortune valued at about $380 billion.
The latest slide followed a report from Reuters on Monday that Tesla’s long-awaited upgrade to
its partially automated driving systems left owners disappointed. Many users
told the publication that Tesla’s “navigate on city streets” feature in China
fell short of Musk’s promises for self-driving technology.
Other EV makers in China, including BYD,
offer their partially automated driving systems for free or a much lower cost.
Xiaomi’s popular model SU7 includes the company’s equivalent technology as a
standard option for free.
The report out of China added to anxiety among Tesla
shareholders. Some of the concern has to do with the company’s performance and
some is specific to Musk, who is spending much of his time in Washington, D.C.,
leading President Trump’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency, or
DOGE.
Musk, along with his team in Washington, has gained
unparalleled access to government computer systems and taxpayer data, and the
president has enabled the billionaire to lead mass firings of workers in
agencies tasked with oversight of his companies, including Tesla.
Musk’s extremist political rhetoric and activism has
led opponents in various markets to organize protests, including at Tesla stores and service centers.
Tesla’s stock dropped earlier
this month on Trump’s announced plans for extensive tariffs on goods
from Canada, Mexico and China, which came alongside a decline in Tesla vehicle
registrations across Europe in January and February.
For the fourth quarter, Tesla reported earnings
and sales that missed analysts’ estimates, with automotive revenue dropping 8%
from a year earlier and operating income plummeting 23%. In the late January
report, the company cited reduced average selling prices across its aging
lineup of Model 3, Model Y, Model S and Model X vehicles as a major reason for
the decline.
According to the California New Car Dealers
Association, Tesla sales dropped 11.6% in the fourth quarter of 2024 in the
state, which had been Tesla’s biggest market domestically.
More
Tesla's
market cap sinks below $1 trillion as stock falls more than 8%
In other news.
Recession Fears Rise as US Consumer Confidence Falls
February 25, 2025 at 10:59 PM GMT
US consumer confidence fell
this month by the most since August 2021 on concerns about the outlook
for the broader economy, adding to a growing
stack of indicators that uncertainty over President
Donald Trump’s policies has Americans increasingly worried about their
economic future.
The Conference Board’s gauge of confidence decreased
7 points in February to 98.3, marking the third straight decline, data released
Tuesday showed. The figure was below all estimates in a Bloomberg survey of
economists. Stocks and bond yields fell after the report.
The drop in confidence was broad across age groups
and incomes. Consumers were more pessimistic about current and future
labor-market conditions as well as the outlook for incomes and business
conditions. Perceptions of present and future financial situations
worsened and the share
of respondents expecting a recession in the next year rose to a
nine-month high.
That pessimism has Americans cutting back their
spending: According to a new study from Wells Fargo, more than half of consumers
are delaying major life plans due to uncertainty over the economy and
the consequences of Trump’s tariff threats. Of those, about a third said they
were putting off buying a home while one in six have postponed education
plans—and one in eight have pushed back retirement. —Jordan
Parker Erb
US
Recession Fears Rise as Consumer Confidence Falls - Bloomberg
Alcoa CEO Warns 100,000 U.S. Industry Jobs at Risk Due to Trump’s
Proposed Tariffs on Steel, Aluminum
Chief Executive Bill Oplinger says company will
advocate for the Trump administration to allow for an exemption on Canadian
imports
By Connor Hart Updated Feb. 25, 2025 12:57 pm ET
Approximately 100,000 U.S. aluminum industry jobs
could be on the chopping block due to tariffs targeting the metal, according
to Alcoa AA -1.86%decrease; red
down pointing triangle Chief Executive William Oplinger.
The Pittsburgh-based aluminum company estimates that
a 25% tariff on aluminum imports would result in about 20,000 direct U.S.
industry jobs being cut and as many as 80,000 indirect jobs being eliminated,
Oplinger said Tuesday at the BMO Global Metals and Mining conference.
“We’re clearly advocating based on the fact that this
is bad for the aluminum industry in the U.S.,” Oplinger said. “It’s bad for
American workers.”
The U.S. aluminum industry directly employs more than
164,000 workers, according to the Aluminum Association, meaning about 12% of
jobs could be affected by the tariff. The industry supports nearly 700,000
direct, indirect and induced jobs, producing more than $228 billion in economic
output, according to the trade group.
The projection comes after President Trump earlier
this month announced 25% tariffs on imports of steel and aluminum to the U.S.,
effective in March. The proclamation has left aluminum buyers, which include
manufacturers of products like automobiles, beverage cans and home appliances,
scrambling to stock up on the metal.
As it stands, the U.S. is short of 4 million metric
tons of aluminum annually, and the deficit is made up largely through imports
from Canada and Mexico, Oplinger said.
The company said it will also advocate for an
exemption on Canadian imports, which would allow two-thirds of the metal
consumed in the U.S. to continue to come across the border without a tariff, he
said.
Alcoa has some idle capacity in the U.S., though it
is “very old, very inefficient capacity that has not been run in a number of
years,” Oplinger said. There are significant costs associated with restarting
these operations, and uncertainty surrounding the tariff, such as how long it
would be in place, makes executing strategies difficult.
“We make decisions around aluminum production that
have a horizon of 20 to 40 years,” he said. “We would not be making an
investment in the United States based on a tariff structure that could be in
place for a much shorter period of time.”
Under current conditions, Oplinger said a tariff
waged against Canada would most likely cause more global aluminum production to
shift to Europe. In order to support more U.S.-based aluminum production, Alcoa
would need to secure a cheap, low-cost energy source, he added.
Companies reliant upon the metal for manufacturing
have issued their own warnings on the planned tariff, whose costs will likely
be passed onto American consumers, according to analysts.
Aluminum can maker Ball said earlier
this month it was working to renegotiate deals with its suppliers, adding that
the tariff would dampen its current outlook. Chief Executive Dan
Fisher said higher costs would weigh on consumers, stifling demand and
slowing growth as consumers are already stressed.
Coca-Cola Chief Executive James
Quincey said the tariff could make its sodas more expensive, and added the
company will consider bottling more of its products in glass and plastic
instead.
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.
Top
German bosses want government formed fast amid fresh signs the once-mighty
economy is on its knees
24
February 2025
German
business leaders have called for a government to be formed quickly amid further
signs the once-mighty economy is on its knees.
After
an election that saw the country shift to the Right, Friedrich Merz looks
likely to lead a coalition between his victorious centre-Right CDU party and
the Social Democrats.
Hopes
of a more pro-business approach sent the euro higher against the dollar while
the flagship Dax stock market index rose 0.3 per cent in Frankfurt.
But
according to the latest report from Munich-based think-tank Ifo, business
confidence continues to falter following two years of economic decline that has
seen Germany dubbed ‘the sick man of Europe’.
Carsten
Brzeski, an economist at bank ING, said the report shows ‘the economy remains
stuck in stagnation’.
Business
leaders said Germany could not afford any delay as companies suffer from high
costs, red tape and intense competition from overseas.
‘We
don’t need any further discussions, the problems are well known – we need
implementation now,’ said Roland Busch, chief executive of engineering and
industrial giant Siemens.
Christian
Sewing, chief executive of Deutsche Bank, the country’s largest lender, said:
‘Germany now needs a government that is able and willing to act – and
quickly.
'The
challenges facing our country are enormous. The economy urgently needs a fresh
start with fundamental reforms.’
German
business morale stagnates in February ahead of election
24
February 2025
BERLIN
(Reuters) -Business morale in Germany unexpectedly stagnated in February, a
survey showed on Monday, dealing a tough hand to a future government after
Sunday's election in which parties promised to lift Europe's top economy out of
a perpetual downturn.
The
Ifo institute said its business climate index remained flat at 85.2 in February
after revising the January reading up slightly to the same figure.
Analysts
polled by Reuters had forecast a second monthly rise in the reading to 85.8.
Sunday's
election delivered a win to the conservative CDU/CSU opposition of Friedrich
Merz, who has promised to cut red tape, encourage investment and bring down
energy prices to boost Germany's shrinking economy.
Ifo's
current conditions index fell unexpectedly to 85.0 in February from 86.0 in
January, while the expectations index rose to 85.4 from 84.3, according to the
Munich-based institute's monthly survey of some 9,000 companies.
COALITION
TALKS
"The
German economy is in waiting," said Ifo president Clemens Fuest, as the
country enters a phase of government-building talks in which a grand coalition
appears the most likely outcome.
Analysts
have pointed to some signs of stability on the horizon but also warned that a
strong opposition made up of parties on the far left and right may complicate
efforts for reform, for example of the country's debt rules that limit
spending.
"It
is important that the new government takes swift action to stimulate the
economy. The prerequisite for this is that there are rapid coalition
negotiations with a positive outcome," said Thomas Gitzel, chief economist
at VP Bank Group.
"The
figure emphasises that the German economy has hit rock bottom and that
growth-friendly reforms are urgently needed," said Jens-Oliver Niklasch,
senior economist at the LBBW bank, adding however that sluggish foreign trade
was not a problem easily solved domestically.
"A
real improvement in the economy can only be expected in the second half of the
year at best. For the current year, we continue to expect a renewed contraction
in economic output," Niklasch added.
Europe's
largest economy is smarting from two consecutive years of decline. Another
contraction in 2025 would mark the longest period of weakness in the country's
post-war history.
German business
morale stagnates in February ahead of election
Imminent recession? DOGE’s mass layoffs spark fears of broader economic ripple effect
February
23, 2025 Story by Daria Solovieva
The
teams at Doge, which is run by Tesla CEO Elon Musk, have targeted agencies
including the Department of Agriculture, the Consumer Financial Protection
Bureau, the Department of Education, the Department of Energy, the Department
of Health and Human Services, the Department of Homeland Security, Internal
Revenue Service, National Park Service, Department of Veterans Affairs and U.S.
Agency for International Development (USAID).
At
least 85,000
federal workers have
been impacted so far, with tens of thousands being fired or accepting “deferred
resignation.” At the Office of Personnel Management alone, an estimated about
75,000 federal employees took the offer as of last week, the AP reported.
While most
Americans support the idea of making the government run more efficiently,
the way these layoffs are carried out is raising concerns about the immediate
and long-term impact on the U.S. economy.
“It
seems almost unavoidable at this point that we are headed for a deep, deep
recession,” Jesse Rothstein, an economist and professor at UC Berkeley, in
a viral
post on
Bluesky on Tuesday. “Just based on 200k+ federal firings and pullback of
contracts, the March employment report (to be released April 4) seems certain
to show bigger job losses than any month ever outside of a few in 2008-9 and
2020.”
Rothstein,
who served as a top economic advisor in the Obama administration, was quick to
note that it’s not the layoffs themselves, but the workers’ lost productivity
that presents a concern.
“Even
greater damage will be done by the loss of federal government productivity,” he
said. “The workers who are losing their jobs were worth more than they were
being paid! We are all poorer when roads, planes and food are unsafe, when
parks are closed.”
“Their
absence is going to make the government run less, not more, efficiently”
While
the exact number of how many layoffs are still to come is uncertain, with
estimates up to 75% of the total
federal workforce, their immediate impact could become more regional, some
economists suggest.
“The
direct macroeconomic effects of these layoffs will be localized and small in
the aggregate,” says Neale Mahoney, an economics professor at Stanford
University, noting that roughly 1.5 million are laid off in a typical month.
Like
Rothstein, Mahoney is concerned about the long-term productivity effect on the
broader economy and safety of U.S. aviation, health care and other industries
that the laid-off federal works helped to keep on track.
“I'm
concerned about the downstream consequences on the functioning of the
government,” he told Salon. “The people who have been laid off
— FAA aviation
safety assistants, USDA specialists
battling bird flu, IRS
workers helping
people navigate tax season — quietly help the government work for everyday
people. Their absence is going to make the government run less, not more,
efficiently.”
More
Imminent recession? DOGE’s mass layoffs spark fears of broader economic ripple effect
Covid-19
Corner
This section will continue until it becomes unneeded.
COVID-19 vs. Vaccine Myocarditis: The Surprising Findings That Could
Change Treatments
February 24, 2025
Scientists explored the differences in heart
inflammation caused by COVID-19, anti-COVID-19 vaccines, and other viral
infections.
Their findings reveal that immune responses vary
significantly, with post-COVID-19 myocarditis showing a stronger, more
aggressive immune reaction than other types. These insights could lead to more
personalized treatments, improving care for patients affected by different
forms of heart inflammation.
Heart Inflammation: A Deeper Look at Myocarditis
Heart inflammation, known as myocarditis, can vary
depending on its cause. A research team led by Dr. Henrike Maatz at the Max
Delbrück Center in Berlin examined the immune response in different types of
myocarditis. Their study, published today (February 24) in Nature
Cardiovascular Research, compared myocarditis caused
by SARS-CoV-2 infection, mRNA vaccines, and non-COVID-19 viral
infections. The findings revealed distinct immune signatures for each type.
“We found clear differences in immune activation,”
says Maatz, co-lead author. “This knowledge might help to develop new and more
personalized therapies that are tailored to specific types of inflammation.”
A Unique Opportunity During the Pandemic
Myocarditis can result from infections, autoimmune
disorders, genetic factors, and, in rare cases, vaccination. While COVID-19
primarily affects the respiratory system, it is also known to cause heart
damage. In some children and young adults, SARS-CoV-2 infection can trigger
multisystem inflammatory syndrome, with myocarditis being a key complication,
though this remains uncommon.
The COVID-19 pandemic provided researchers at the
Max Delbrück Center, the Berlin Institute of Health at Charité (BIH), and
Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin with a rare opportunity to study how
myocarditis differs at the cellular and molecular levels based on its cause.
----Distinct
Immune Activation and Cell Behavior
Researchers at the Max Delbrück Center performed
single-nucleus RNA sequencing (snRNA-seq) on biopsied heart tissue to
study gene expression and to create transcriptional profiles of each cell.
These profiles served to identify the different cell types of the heart. They
examined the molecular changes in each cell, and the abundance of the different
cell types in three different sets of myocarditis tissue: COVID-19 positive
samples, cases caused by mRNA vaccines, and non-COVID-19 heart inflammation
caused by viral infections before the pandemic.
Unexpected Differences in Immune Response
They found that while some gene expression changes
were similar across the three groups, there were significant differences in
levels of immune cell gene expression. What’s more, transcriptional profiles
also showed that immune cells differed in abundance, depending on the cause of
the myocarditis.
“Such differences were unexpected,” says Dr. Eric
Lindberg, co-lead author of the paper, former postdoc in the Hübner lab, who
now heads a research group at the LMU hospital in Munich. The researchers for
example found that post-vaccination, CD4 T-cells were more abundant whereas
post SARS-CoV-2 infection, CD8 T cells tended to be more dominant. In the
non-COVID-19 myocarditis samples, the CD4 to CD8 cell ratio was about 50/50, he
adds. Gene expression data suggested that the CD8 T cells in the post-COVID-19
group also appeared to be more aggressive than in non-COVID myocarditis. The
researchers also found a small population of T cells present in post-COVID-19
myocarditis that have previously only been observed in the blood of severely
sick COVID-19 patients.
“Together, these findings suggest a stronger immune
response in post-COVID-19 myocarditis compared to pre-pandemic forms of
myocarditis, while the myocardial inflammation appeared to be milder in
post-vaccination,” says Professor Norbert Hübner of the Max Delbrück Center and
Charite – Universitätsmedizin Berlin, corresponding author on the paper and a
principal investigator at the DZHK. Although the sample size from patients with
post-vaccination myocarditis was small, the results are in line with other studies
of post-vaccination myocarditis, Hübner adds.
Implications for Treatment and Future Therapies
Being able to differentiate between inflammation
caused by different kinds of infections and vaccination paves the way to
improve treatment tailored to specific types of inflammation, says Maatz. Based
on the research, one could develop new therapies to control the side effects of
vaccines, for example, she adds.
More
COVID-19 vs.
Vaccine Myocarditis: The Surprising Findings That Could Change Treatments
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.
New
Graphene Energy Saving Solution Sends Shares Of This Micro Cap Higher
24 February 2025
The constant improvement in
fuel efficiency continues to be the holy grail for car companies as higher fuel
efficiency means a vehicle can travel farther using less fuel, reducing costs
and environmental impact.
Today, shares of Graphene
Manufacturing Group Ltd. (TSX-Venture: GMG) (OTCQX: GMGMF) are moving higher on
the news of the company’s multi-year performance testing of G® Lubricant, a
graphene liquid concentrate additive designed to enhance the performance of
diesel and gasoline (petrol) engines. According to the Company, the product has
the potential to reshape the future of the global liquid fuels industry.
G® Lubricant is a graphene
liquid concentrate that can be added to any mineral or synthetic oil used in an
internal combustion engine and has been shown to increase fuel efficiency by up
to 8.4% in a diesel engine.
Over the past four years, the
Company has conducted environmentally controlled testing of G® Lubricant in
internal combustion engines monitored and verified by The University of
Queensland.
GMG's Chairman and Director,
Jack Perkowski, commented: "G® Lubricant's performance, which demonstrates
an 8.4% improvement in fuel efficiency using only a very small amount of
graphene in an easy to use graphene concentrate, is a 'Category Creator' that
has the potential to redefine the multi trillion dollar liquid fuels market.
The fact that only 1% of G® Lubricant is needed to achieve such savings
provides a very attractive value proposition for fleet owners."
More
New Graphene Energy Saving Solution Sends Shares Of This Micro Cap Higher
Next, the
world global debt clock. Nations debts to GDP compared.
World Debt
Clocks (usdebtclock.org)
The
ambition of the present Labour government is that every worker in the country
will have a greater than average income.
Dodgy Socialist,
UK Prime Minister Harold Wilson.
