Reuters Exclusive: Russian operation masqueraded as right-wing news site to target U.S. voters - sources

The website predominantly focused on U.S. politics and current events, republishing articles from conservative media and paying real Americans to write about politically-sensitive issues. A network of accounts posing as editors and journalists then promoted the articles on social media sites favoured by right-wing users.

•  The EU has launched legal action against the UK after Boris Johnson failed to respond to Brussels’ demand that he drop legislation that would overwrite the withdrawal agreement and break international law. 

• The Institute for Supply Management (ISM) said on Thursday its index of national factory activity fell to a reading of 55.4 last month from 56 in August, which was the highest level since November 2018. Despite last month’s dip in the index, September marked the fourth straight month of growth. 

• Initial claims for state unemployment benefits decreased 36,000 to a seasonally adjusted 837,000 for the week ended Sept. 26.

 

 

• Hotter………………………………………….

• 
  Bloomberg: October promises not only rising coronavirus infection rates, but a new tsunami of job losses all over the globe. Airlines are preparing to lay off tens of thousands of workers starting Thursday unless they get additional federal aid. Walt Disney said it would slash 28,000 workers from its slumping resort business. Royal Dutch Shell is to cut as many as 9,000 employees while German auto-parts supplier Continental AG may layoff or move 30,000 jobs. In America, talks between Congressional Democrats and the White House on a second bailout that could help preserve airline jobs have resumed, but Wall Street didn’t seem all that optimistic about the prospects for a deal. —David E. Rovella

• USDA On-farm June 1 corn stocks down by 158 million bushels, off-farm down by 47 million bushels.

• USDA For wheat, on-farm stocks fell 3.4 mbu and off-farm stocks fell 12.5 mbu.

• We found it all: Goldcorp's former chairman, Ian Telfer, the once head of a huge multinational miner says “we've found all the gold. There is no more. "Are we not looking for it? Are we bad at finding it? Or have we found it all?"” My answer is we found it all. I don't think there are any more mines out there, or nothing significant. And the exploration records indicate that." 
• Assuming that the guy knows what he is talking about - this would be historic! On the other hand, this could be like the Peak Oil prognostications of the 1980s. So perhaps all gold miners must do is, copy oil drillers, and drill sideways. (joke) Or perhaps he is  just talking his book.

 

• The Conference Board Consumer Confidence Index® increased in September, after declining in August. The Index now stands at 101.8 (1985=100), up from 86.3 in August.
• As usual they didn’t ask me, but what are these people drinking or smoking?

 Really good question - please post the answer.

World leaders pledge to halt Earth’s destruction ahead of UN summit

• A New York Times report shows that President Trump used tax strategies that are unavailable to most Americans. Households in the middle 20 percent paid an average of about three times what Trump reportedly paid in 2016 and 2017.

• Working through Facebook,(AKA the plague on humanity) the Trump campaign in 2016 set out to deter 3.5 million BlackAmericans from voting.
• Four individuals, including the partner of one of the victims of the deadly Kenosha, Wisconsin, shootings, have filed a lawsuit against Facebook, the suspected gunman Kyle Rittenhouse and two leaders of online groups.

  

• LONDON The number of British entrepreneurs looking to "buy" citizenship from countries offering visa-free access to the European Union has risen sharply, investment migration firms say, as prospects of a post-Brexit trade deal between Britain and the bloc darken.

 

• FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Pension funds for truckers, teachers and subway workers have lodged lawsuits in the United States against Germany’s Allianz,(ALIZF) one of the world’s top asset managers, for failing to safeguard their investments during the coronavirus market meltdown.

• Welt am Sonntag: Siemens Energy mulls plan for exiting coal activities - (and another Co. is wising up)

 

• (DB) Italy’s 30y yields have hit fresh low this week at 1.75% despite rising debt. Italy debt/GDP is on course to 160% when the new draft budget is presented early next week up from 135% at the end of 2019.
• An Italian cardinal whose former office has been embroiled in a financial scandal resigned suddenly Thursday from his Vatican post and renounced his rights as a cardinal, a surprise escalation of an affair that has overshadowed that Holy See for the last year.

  

• Reuters: China’s recovery has been gaining momentum as pent-up demand, government stimulus and surprisingly resilient exports propel a rebound. Industrial firm profits grew 19.1% year-on-year in August to 612.81 billion yuan ($89.8 billion), the statistics bureau said. That compares with a 19.6% increase in July and is the fourth straight month of profit growth.

  

• (WP) And then there’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Over the years, the Israeli leader has developed a reputation among the staff at the U.S. president’s guesthouse for bringing special cargo on his trips to Washington: bags and suitcases full of dirty laundry, according to U.S. officials familiar with the matter. The clothes are cleaned for the prime minister free of charge by the U.S. staff, a perk that is available to all foreign leaders but sparingly taken advantage of given the short stays of busy heads of state.

 

 

 

• Sorry, no updates currently, way too busy reading about Trumps Taxes.

 

    Bloomberg: Jeffrey Gundlach The DoubleLine Capital chief executive    officer tweeted an invitation for real estate agents in “low tax, well governed” U.S. states to call him, as he openly pondered leaving his Los Angeles base.                          

(Great, more room for us! One could get a little annoyed with these self-centered, greedy, never ever enough people that are sponging off 100’s of years of innovation and infrastructure, invented and built by others before them. And then complain about a max marginal tax rate of 12.3%)

• Biden Plan Will Create 7 Million More Jobs Than Trump
• Moody’s Analytics, an economic-research firm, has published an economic forecast weighing the effects of Joe Biden and Donald Trump’s proposals. It finds Biden’s plan would produce dramatically faster job growth and higher wages for most workers.

• The Chinese Containerized Freight Index is making a 5 year high at 1007.44

 

• With all this stimulus (Worldwide), will inflation be back in force if and when the economy is back on its feet?
• Buyers of Treasury Inflation Protected Securities appear to think so. (Weekly chart)

 

Fed Total  Assets:

 Quick Overview is up to date

•  Median sales price for new houses sold in the US

 

• New home sales rose 4.8% to a 1.011-million unit pace. This marks the first time since November 2006 that the pace of new home sales topped 1-million units and is the strongest pace since September 2006. Moreover, sales were revised sharply higher for the prior month and have averaged a 939,000- unit pace over the past three months.”

 

• Fed's Bullard: Inflation could rise to 2% as soon as next year. He also prognosticated that  the “U.S. economy within reach of full recovery this year”.
• Fed's Kaplan forecasts Q3 GDP to expand 30% annualized and for the unemployment rate to end the year at 7.5%.

 

• Recent speculation has it that the Fed may not print money and cut rates with quite the eager abandon that had been expected. This wouldn’t be good news for the U.S. economy, as it would raise rates, and make gold and risk assets - less popular..

 

• Can a fiscal stimulus be thrashed out relatively soon? Nope -  doesn’t look like it.

 

• Vaccine optimism is slowly fading too.  Even if we get a positive vaccine approved over the next couple of months, the forecasts from Good Judgement Inc. has declined from 70% to 52% that 25-million people will be inoculated before the winter wave is over. 

 

• (Reuters) - The World Bank’s private-sector arm has introduced new climate change conditions for its investments in commercial banks to encourage the lenders to wind down support for coal projects in Africa and Asia. The International Finance Corporation (IFC), which owns equity stakes in many large commercial banks in emerging markets, hopes the restrictions will trigger other investors to exit the coal sector.

 

• CME Group CME and Nasdaq NDAQ announced a plan to launch the Nasdaq Veles California WaterIndex futures contract, which will have a settlement price based on its namesake index, late in the fourth quarter of this year, pending a regulatory review.
• The contract will allow investors to hedge price risks in the spot water market and better manage price swings, says Tim McCourt, CME Group’s global head of equity products and alternative investments.

• The Bank of Mexico,  unanimously agreed to trim the benchmark rate by 0.25 basis points to 4.25%, for what was its 11th consecutive cut since August 2019.

•  Bloomberg: Less than an hour after U.S. President Donald Trump took to the virtual floor of the United Nations General Assembly and slammed China for its environmental record, China’s President Xi Jinping stunned the climate community by pledging that it would become carbon neutral by 2060. The two nearly back-to-back speeches provided a marked and powerful contrast. There are still many questions to be answered about the Chinese plan — most importantly how the country will define carbon neutrality. But the bare fact that China, by far the world's biggest source of greenhouse gas emissions, has set out a net-zero pledge ahead of the U.S. shows how hard Beijing is striving to put itself at the center of global politics and the economic shift to clean energy — something Washington has been unwilling to do.
  

•  The City Council of Ann Arbor, Michigan voted unanimously to decriminalize all psychedelic plants and fungi on Monday night. It’s an expansive move that will allow banned substances including ayahuasca, peyote, mescaline, and psilocybin, better known as “magic mushrooms,” in the area — and one that, like the decriminalization of cannabis in a growing number of areas, could potentially spark a showdown with federal authorities.