Spend twenty minutes per week browsing Investment Tools and you will be better informed than most financial experts!
Wednesday, April 28, 2021
Tuesday, April 27, 2021
Tristan Harris from the Center for Humane Technology testified at a Senate hearing on algorithms in
social media, saying that the business model of major platforms is designed specifically to keep Americans ‘addicted, outraged, polarized, narcissistic and disinformed’
Sunday, April 25, 2021
Notes today:
- Turkey’s Central Bank Head Says Crypto Regs Coming
- Residents of Baar, Switzerland pay about 7.5% in personal taxes per 100,000 Swiss francs ($109,450) of income.(Bloomberg)
Saturday, April 24, 2021
This week, the Bloomberg Agriculture Spot Index — which tracks key farm products — surged the most in almost nine years, driven by a rally in crop futures.
Tuesday, April 13, 2021
Notes today:
- China's exports climbing more than 30% YoY adding to signs that the global economic recovery is progressing well.
- In March, the CPI for All Urban Consumers rose 0.6 % on a
seasonally adjusted basis, rising 2.6 % over the last 12 months, not seasonally
adjusted. The index for all items less food and energy increased 0.3 % in March
(SA); up 1.6 % over the year (NSA).
- Real average hourly earnings for all employees decreased 0.8 % over the month in March
- Amazon supports a hike in the U.S. corporate tax rate as part of an infrastructure overhaul, CEO Jeff Bezos said, after facing withering criticism from the White House, Congress and on social media.
- 6.8m+ doses of the J&J vaccine have been administered in the U.S. CDC & FDA are reviewing data involving 6 reported U.S. blood clot cases. So the risk from the J&J vaccine is 1 in 1,000,000.
- “If you're wondering why people are still receiving Christmas cards in April, the answer is Louis DeJoy.”
Sunday, April 11, 2021
Looking at the parabolic rise of lumber I suppose the market thinks that there are not enough houses for sale.
Btw, Invitation Homes (INVH a Blackstone offshoot REIT) owns a little over 80,000 single-family rentals. (weekly chart below)
Saturday, April 10, 2021
The CME plans to launch a futures contract for lithium, seeking to capitalize on growing demand for a metal that helps to power electric vehicles.
The contract will be for lithium hydroxide delivered to China, South Korea and Japan, where most batteries globally are produced, CME said Thursday. If the futures contract is approved by regulators, it will begin trading on May 3.
Thursday, April 08, 2021
Wednesday, April 07, 2021
While 10 Year Notes have gone up the Dow Jones is still undervalued by some $21,000. Explanation here.
Notes today:
- World finance chiefs agree on Wednesday to boost reserves at the International Monetary Fund by $650 billion and extend a freeze on developing countries’ debt servicing to help them deal with the coronavirus.
- Germany and France welcomed a promise by U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen to work on a global corporate minimum tax rate as a step towards making a landmark deal achievable, but low-tax Ireland voiced reservations.
- Bloomberg: Expanding on the tax proposals released last week in President Joe Biden’s $2.25 trillion economic package, the Treasury said the changes, over a decade, would bring back about $2trillion in corporate profits into the U.S. tax net, with about $700 billion in federal revenue streaming in from ending incentives to shift profits overseas.
Tuesday, April 06, 2021
The electricity usage of bitcoin is now above that of Sweden.
China is pinned to generate 130.5 million metric tons of carbon emissions by 2024 from mining bitcoin
(One more Tulip that's not sustainable!)
Notes today:
- The people of Greenland have voted to oust a government that was planning to welcome foreign companies eager to tap the island’s rare-earth metals.
- New York approves online sports betting.
- McConnell warns corporate America to stay out of politics but adds that he is not talking about political contributions.
- Coronavirus latest: California targets full reopening of economy by mid-June.
- The International Monetary Fund raised its 2021 growth forecast from 5.5% to 6%, a rate unseen since the 1970s.
- German Finance Minister Olaf Scholz welcomed a pledge by U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen to work on a global corporate minimum tax rate, adding that a deal among more than 140 countries could be possible by summer.
- Alexei Navalny jokes TB would be a relief as he is moved to sick ward.
Meanwhile, Ruble not doing so hot. Moving trains with 240 mm mortars and tanks etc. to either Crimea or Donbass may not help much either.
Monday, April 05, 2021
Notes today:
- Bill Browder @Billbrowder
- BREAKING: Alexei Navalny moved to prison hospital with severe respiratory infection. This is the next step in Putin’s slow motion assassination of him. Now that Navalny’s in their custody they can continue this without anyone ever knowing what’s happening.
- The total market value of cryptocurrencies pushed past $2
trillion for the first time, after doubling in about two months. Come get your Tulips!
Tulips, fresh beautiful tulips here! -- To the MOON.
- Bloomberg: Because of swaps, people learned that Bill Hwang exists and was worth $20 billion at the exact moment they learned he lost it al. (Very funny - Bloomberg humor - I suppose)
- FT: The same identity politics that Boris Johnson used so effectively in the 2016 Brexit referendum is now fuelling calls for Scottish independence: a desire for self-determination, a distrust of a distant ruling elite, and a clamour for 'control'.
- The Texas Rangers are playing in front of a sold-out crowd of 40,000 today for its home opener. If sold-out this will be the largest attended event in the country since the COVID pandemic began. So, I suppose no need to worry about covid in Texas. Fourth wave? what’s that?
Sunday, April 04, 2021
Saturday, April 03, 2021
Friday, April 02, 2021
Notes today:
- Jailed Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalnysaid he’s started a hunger strike to pressure prison authorities to provide him with medical care instead of “torturing” him with sleep deprivation.
- Coinbase Global, the outfit that’s closely intertwined with bitcoin, plans to go public on April 14.
- The CME announced it will expand its suite of crypto derivatives with the introduction of a new Micro Bitcoin futures contract on May 3. The Micro Bitcoin futures will be one-tenth the size of one bitcoin.
- MLB is taking its ball and heading out of Georgia. 👍
- Apple’s Tim Cook joined the chorus of business leaders who have belatedly come out in support of voting rights – others include: Coca-Cola, Delta, American Air, American Express, JPMorgan, Citigroup, Microsoft, ATT..
- I suppose we’ll find out if they meant what they said. If companies, and they hold the cards, stick to their guns Georgia etc. are likely to back down. Being on the right side of history is good business.
QuantumScape (QS) said it has successfully met the technical milestone that was a condition to close for the investment of an additional
$100 million byVolkswagen . The milestone requiredVolkswagen to successfully test the latest generation of QuantumScape’s solid-state lithium-metal cells in their labs inGermany . (Long way to go but so far so good)The US economy added 916,000 jobs in March, a greater number than forecast and more than the 468,000 positions created in February. The unemployment rate fell to 6% from 6.2% in February.
Wednesday, March 31, 2021
Notes today:
- Microsoft wins US army contract for augmented reality headsets worth up to $21.9bn.
- Coke and Delta denounce Georgia voting restrictions - Finally!!
- Richmond Fed. President Thomas Barkin said he is very “bullish” on the U.S. economy this year and expects household savings accumulated during the COVID-19 pandemic to help fuel growth in 2022 and 2023 as well. “People just have a lot of money in their pockets,”
- Japan factory output shrank 2.1% from the previous month in February, dragged down by falls in production of cars, electrical machinery.
- Chinas non-manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) surged to 56.3 from 51.4 in February.
- President Joe Biden announced a $2.25 trillion infrastructure plan over an 8-year period including $621 billion for transportation and $580 billion for manufacturing. To pay for the plan, Biden proposed to raise the corporate income tax to 28% from 21%..
- On a monthly basis, pending home sales shrank 10.6 percent, the second consecutive month of declines.
Tuesday, March 30, 2021
AT&T said Trump's tax cut would create jobs – now it's laying off thousands of workers
(And, so far, the stock’s performance is still dismal anyway).
Sunday, March 28, 2021
Viacom CBS (VIAC) I go fishing and this is what happens to one of the biggest media co. in the world. 😲