And what's the strongest stock on NASDAQ today? Well its (FCEL) Fuel Cell Energy up 76.9%

Hydrogen bubble, short squeeze, climate motivation, or the next greatest thing in transportation? Perhaps all of the above?

The wealth gap persists: As seen in the figure below, Black and Hispanic family wealth has fluctuated relative to white family wealth from 1989 to 2020. Despite the ups and downs, the sizable gaps (represented by low ratios) have changed very little.

 Roku, perhaps also worth a graph today.

 Disney’s Mouse is looking happy😊

And GSAEmily is  ignoring the Democratic demand for a briefing..

Stonewalling transition,  is an act of willful sabotage to millions of Americans!

Can this individual really get away with endangering millions of lives scot-free ?

Well, what do you know? She’s come around – must have been this post!😏

 Notes Today:

• (Wired) - The FDA has scheduled its final review of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines for December 10. If they are granted emergency use authorization, distribution could begin within hours. But both vaccines quickly lose potency if they aren’t stored and transported at “ultra-cold” temperatures, which will make distributing them to small and isolated rural areas—where many vulnerable Americans live—a delicate operation. Pharmaceutical companies and other packaging manufacturers are working on tech solutions to bridge that gap.

• (Reuters) - Trump’s last-minute push to allow drilling in a pristine part of Alaska’s Arctic will be an early target for the next administration, according to Senator Tom Udall, a contender to lead the Interior Department under Joe Biden. 

• (Reuters) - Siemens Mobility and Deutsche Bahn have started developing hydrogen-powered fuel cell trains and a filling station which will be trialled in 2024 with view to replace diesel engines on German local rail networks. 

• Putin says he is not ready to endorse Biden. I’m not sure this dude gets a vote. 

• (WP) In a last-minute change before leaving office, the Trump regime finalized a rule Wednesday that will allow the U.S. Forest Service to log and otherwise manage 2,800 acres of forest in the West without an environmental review. 

• Bloomberg reports: households across the US are once again filling grocery carts brimful in the second round of panic buying. 

• It is refreshing when you read something about the US government (upcoming) and it makes you calmer instead of upsetting you. Have not experienced that in years.

• John Kerry:  America will soon have a government that treats the climate crisis as the urgent national security threat it is. I'm proud to partner with the President-elect, our allies, and the young leaders of the climate movement to take on this crisis as the President's Climate Envoy.

 Gold fell to new 4-month low below important support ..

South Korea Stock Market at record high.

South Korea has 30,733 Virus cases and 505 death (10 per million pop. The US has 791 per million pop.) and is set to enforce tougher virus curbs starting Tuesday to prevent another wave of the pandemic. 

America has 2.61 physicians per 1,000 people, ranking it 26th out of 35 countries in an OECD database. Not all of these professionals are best suited to meet the current crisis due to age and overspecialization. Bloomberg: 

 BTW Soy Stock to Use Ratio 

 Arizona is out of ICU beds.

You can’t escape breathing, eating and drinking microplastics even if you climbed Mount Everest to avoid it.

Bears Are Disappearing..

 Soybeans performing as advertised..

 Quick Overview is up to date

St. Louis Fed Financial Stress Index falls to -0.8328 in the week ended Nov. 13, its lowest level since May 2019 (0=normal stress). For more on how the index is constructed, see FRED: ow.ly/tnET50CpA19

 China's Containerized Freight Index  is at 6 year height

 Some Very Depressing Charts:

 

 Anyone interested in life expectancy?

• Commodities looking seriously undervalued.

 

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) screened over 1 million passengers Sunday, representing the highest number of passengers screened at TSA checkpoints since March 17, 2020.

•  And this From The Financial Times

Daily / Weekly Charts  - are up to date

Weekly / Monthly Charts - are up to date

•  In the Economist  - On Herd Immunity:

The British pound could become interesting in the next few days. 

Bloomberg says that Financial firms operating in the U.K. have already shifted about 7,500 staff and more than $1.6 trillion of assets to the EU. Meanwhile Boris says “get ready for a no-deal Brexit”. (However no-one believes a word Johnson says) 

•  Dow Trend is up to date - and declares DJI is  cheap.

While fear is running high.

•  Tanker Rates still strong - storage demand..

I think most daily charts are up to date. 

The weekly stuff should be up to date by tomorrow evening some time.

•  Italy - has the best borrowing terms since the year 1310.

Economist: Ivory Coast was named after the product of its abundant elephants. But data published in PLoS ONE , a journal, show how much has changed since colonial days. Researchers drew on dung counts, interviews with local experts and media reports to take the first census of Ivorian elephants in a decade. The situation is dire. They estimate that there are just 225 forest elephants left in the country, a fall of 86% since 1994. Worse, they could only confirm the presence of elephants in four of 25 protected areas.

 Moody’s downgrades UK one notch to Aa3 stable outlook from Aa2 with negative outlook on low growth, high debt and fractious policy environment. Expects govt debt to GDP ratio to peak at 112% by year-end. Sees govt deficit of 18.5% for this year and 7.4% for 2021.

• The China Containerized Freight Index Composite is making 5 year highs

 

 Quick Overview is up to date

• To cheer every body up - a picture of a new record. I can already hear  the blaring and screaming from the GOP next year , about the deficit -  should they fail in November.

• Or, perhaps, you would prefer this one - a bit further back.

•  Zero commissions, stuck at home, attempting to make ends meet...

•  
• FT: This was the week we witnessed the funeral of austerity. 
• The IMF and World Bank are urging richer countries to spend their way out of the pandemic, although some developing nations continue to face cuts 

• The U.S. budget deficit hit a record $3.132 trillion during fiscal 2020, more than triple the 2019 shortfall, as a result of massive coronavirus rescue spending, the U.S. Treasury said on Friday.
• The deficit more than doubled the previous record of $1.416 trillion in fiscal 2009, when the United States was battling a financial crisis. 

• Median weekly earnings of the nation's 109.7 million full-time wage and salary workers were $994 in the third quarter of 2020 (not seasonally adjusted). This was 8.2 percent higher than a year earlier, compared with a gain of 1.2 percent in the CPI-U.

• Boris Johnson just told the U.K. to prepare for a no-deal Brexit. 

• Japan plans to release Fukushima water into the Pacific Ocean 

• The Covid-19 treatment remdesivir has no substantial effect on a patient’s chances of survival, a clinical trial by the World Health Organization has found. 

• Retail sales above expectations at 1.9% - Good news on consumption at a time when many people have lost extra benefits.

• Global Clean Energy  - performing as advertised.

•  and so is Coal

The extra $600 per week in jobless benefits doubled the savings of unemployed Americans in July. However, a month after the payments ended, they burned through most of that. So, pointing out the obvious, unless new emergency funds are forthcoming, household spending will get tight. And so far, it seems not to be forthcoming.

 FT View: Joe Biden and Donald Trump have been exposed to unrelenting scrutiny. And yet neither will have as lasting an influence on US life as Amy Coney Barrett, who is cruising towards confirmation to the Supreme Court as something of an enigma..

 Cole Smead, president of Smead Capital Management, explaining in a CNBC interview on Thursday how "young, dumb" investors have created a "total nightmare" in the current climate.    "They are buying bullish call options that expire inside two weeks. There was ($500 billion) of bullish call options bought in a four-week stretch by small retail traders," Smead said. "In '99 it was $100 billion, in '07, it was $100 billion." 

• US Initial jobless claims climbed (unexpectedly) to 898,000, an increase of 53,000 from the previous week's revised level of 845,000.

• Housing appears to be a bright spot in the U.S. economy, but some data suggest a weaker outlook ahead for the sector.

 Priceless  response to the originalist Barrett:

•  And how's Trumps Trade War going?