NYT: 

Trump administration officials passed when Pfizer offered in late summer to sell the U.S. government additional doses of its Covid-19 vaccine.

Now Pfizer may not be able provide more of its vaccine to the United States until next June because of its commitments to other countries, they said. 

Trump Admin. performing as expected!

Putin's former son-in-law bought shares worth $380m for $100, report says

A Russian businessman who was married to Vladimir Putin’s daughter received an estimated $380m (£283m) stake in a Russian petrochemicals company for just $100, an investigation by Russia’s iStories invest
igative outlet has claimed.

Notes Today: 

• The CME is launching a water futures contract linked to the $1.1 billion California spot water market.

• Japan's Leading Economic Index at 93.8 in October from previous 92.5  - highest in 16 month.

• Senate Republicans
  
  have invited a leading anti-vaxxer to be the lead witness at a Homeland Security committee hearing on Tuesday at a time when the US is preparing the largest-ever vaccination campaign to fight Covid.

• YoY China Exports rose 14.9% in November from previous 7.6%
• China Trade Balance rose to 507.1B in November from previous 401.75B 

• Bloomberg: Trump said his attorney Rudy Giuliani, who has been leading efforts to overturn the results of the Nov. 3 general election, has tested positive for the Covid-19 virus.

• Reuters: A new EU-UK trade agreement will “definitely” not come together on Sunday night, citing an official with the bloc who added that three most contentious issues remained unresolved.

• FT: New US stimulus bill could come as early as Monday 

• Economist: Global debt will reach $200trn by the end of this year, predicted S&P Global, which owns a credit-ratings agency. The amount is equivalent to 265% of the world’s GDP. But the firm said that the increase in the global debt-to-GDP ratio was not a crisis, provided interest rates remain low and covid-19 vaccines become widely distributed. 

• New Zealand just became one of the only countries in the world to declare Climate Change a global emergency.

 Capitalism, and can you afford it?  I certainly hope so!

US average hourly wage is $24.87 per  Trading Economics

So, with the S&P at $3699 divided by $24.87 you have to now work 149 hours to buy 1 share. This compares to some 30(or less) hours of work needed from  the 1950's to the  1980's to buy 1 share. What happened in the early 1980's ? - think about it. Besides, how many people do you know that actually earn $25, since, according to the Brookings institution, almost half of US workers between ages 18 and 64 are employed in low wage jobs. (The above # of course ignore the current covid disaster)

 Quick Overview is up to date

 Wall Street and finance workers could get COVID vaccines before most Americans

The American Bankers Association said it has asked for the CDC to designate financial services industry as “essential workers,” following guidelines issued by the Department of Homeland Security.

Some peoples sense of entitlement is just stunning!

Notes Today: 

• Bloomberg: U.K. and EU pause Brexit talks after intensive negotiations fail to resolve key issues, as PM Boris Johnson and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen schedule crisis call..

• A federal judge ordered the Trump administration to restore DACA to its pre-2017 status.

• US Nonfarm Payrolls rose by 245,000 in November vs. 469,000 expected   

• US Factory Orders rose by 1% in October vs. 0.8% expected - the sixth straight monthly gain. 

• The U.S. trade deficit widened 1.7% to $63.1 billion in October. 

• Germany Factory Orders MoM at 2.9%, above forecasts of 1.5% 

• Trump is doing his best to jam in the opening of oil and gas drilling in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.  The sale of leases is planned for 6 January 2021, just ahead of the inauguration of the US president-elect, Joe Biden, who opposes the move.

• Bloomberg: With a vaccine on the way, congressional failure to pass Covid relief now would put millions of jobs and thousands of small businesses at risk.

 

A must read article by Nicholas Kristof of the NYT regarding Pornhub. 

It’s one of the biggest websites in the world. Every month it attracts more visitors than Netflix, Yahoo or Amazon, and its corporate owners rake in vast sums of money.

Notes Today: 

• The US Labor Department said initial jobless claims dropped to 712,000, a decrease of 75,000 from the previous week's revised level of 787,000. 

• The British pound continues to outperform its rivals, despite comments that significant disagreements remain in the trade talks, and that the outcome was uncertain. 
  

• Warner Bros. (T) will send all its 2021 movies to HBO Max the same day they hit theaters. So, when are they going to get HBO Max onto the Roku platform? This century? The old HBO at $15 is on Roku, so why not the MAX - that also goes for $15?  Probably ATT smugness – at work. 
  

  
  
  
  

Despite Zuckerberg’s statement that he “does not want to be the arbiter of truth” of what is posted on the site - Facebook (AKA the plague on humanity) said it would remove posts that contain claims about Covid-19 vaccines that have been debunked by public health experts. WOW, if they "really" start removing BS it will be a shadow of its former self.

In Addition: A group of 20 to 30 state attorneys general is reportedly readying a suit against  Facebook. 

Notes Today:

• Costco  (COST) November sales rose 15.1% to 15.67 billion, the retailer said Wednesday. Online sales rose 71.3% in November and 86.4% in the quarter. Stock’s down – obviously.
  

• Australia AiG Performance of Construction Index rose from previous 52.7 to 55.3 in November
• Australia Commonwealth Bank Composite PMI came in at 54.9, above expectations.

•  Bloomberg: The U.S. House of Representatives approved legislation that could lead to Chinese companies including behemoths like Alibaba and Baidu getting kicked off U.S. exchanges if Washington regulators aren’t allowed to review their financial audits. The bill easily cleared the Senate in May. Trump is expected to sign it. 

• Snowflake Inc.’s (SNOW) Shares were down 9% after-hours Wednesday. The cloud company reported a Q3 net loss of $168.9 million, versus a net loss of $88.1 million, in the year-ago quarter. Revenue more than doubled to $159.6 million from $73 YoY. 
  

• People poured an estimated $81.8 billion into equity ETFs in November. 

• The U.K. became the first western country to approve a Covid-19 vaccine, with its regulator clearing the Pfizer-BioNTech shot ahead of decisions in the U.S. and European Union. Meanwhile, U.S. hospitalizations and deaths are totally out of control.
  
  
  

Notes Today:

• The Dow had its best month since 1987.
  

• U.S. prosecutors are investigating whether several individuals offered political contributions in exchange for a presidential pardon, according to an unsealed court document.

• US Residential construction rose 2.9% .
• US construction projects rose 1.3% in October.

• Joe Biden’s Treasury Secretary nominee and former Fed President Janet Yellen warned that America is battling a historic economic crisis and called for urgent policy action to avert a “self-reinforcing” downturn.

• A new push began in Congress to send federal aid to businesses, state and local governments slammed by the pandemic. So, 10-yearnotes are a bit higher, with 10-year yield last up 7.7 basis points at 0.9194%.

Thanks to the heroic efforts of health workers - a little bit of good news regarding the virus. While the overall US news is grim and getting grimmer daily, the % of people dying from the disease is now under 2%. That is down from over 6% in the spring. A development for which we should be most thankful.

Warren Buffett dismissed bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies as worthless in a CNBC interview on Monday. "Cryptocurrencies basically have no value," Buffett said. "They don't produce anything." "You can't do anything with it except sell it to somebody else," he added.Feb 24, 2020

Meanwhile, Bitcoin has shot to a record just as billions of institutional dollars have fled gold. (Gold’s at least good for a filling in someone’s tooth  😉) 

Notes Today:

• Bloomberg: Bank of America Corp. said that it won’t provide project financing for oil and gas exploration in the Arctic after facing opposition from environmentalists. 
  
• Scotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon on Monday ramped up her calls for a new Scottish independence referendum. 

• Bloomberg: Moderna Inc. requested clearance for its coronavirus vaccine in the U.S. after a new analysis showed it was highly effective in preventing Covid-19, with no serious safety problems.

  

• Japan's jobless rate rose to 3.1% in October.

• WSJ: The coronavirus was in the US in mid-December 2019, a few weeks before it was officially identified in China, according to CDC analysis of blood donation samples. This also matches waste water analysis that found virus earlier in Europe.

• Scott Atlas, Trump’s herd immunity dude (nothing but the finest people) is gone. And so is the herd immunity guy in Sweden. GR!

• Japans factory output jumped 3.8% MoM mainly due to strength in general machinery production and motor vehicle manufacturing.

• Japans Retail sales rose 6.4% YoY in October up for the first time in eight months.

• China, the first major economy to fully recover from the coronavirus crisis, said its  PMI rose to 52.1 in November from 51.4 in October. 

• About 3.2 billion people live in agricultural areas with “high to very high” water shortages and competition over resources is rising, the UN’s Food & Agriculture Organization said in a report. 

•  According to a Bloomberg article qanon is thriving, not just in the US, but also in Japan.  

 

 Besides lithium, batteries evidently also need copper.  

 Soybean Oil - worth a look?

Amazon has added 427,300 employees in 10 months, bringing its global work force to more than 1.2 million.

WP: Pennsylvania Supreme Court dismisses lawsuit against mail ballots with prejudice in another defeat for Trump

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court dismissed with prejudice a Republican lawsuit seeking to invalidate more than 2.5 million votes cast by mail in the general election, the latest in a string of legal defeats for the GOP as President Trump fails to undo his losses in key battleground states.

Notes Today:

• Sydney CBD surpassed 40 degrees Celsius (104 F) on Saturday while swathes of western New South Wales, South Australia and northern Victoria baked through even higher temperatures nearing 45 degrees. 

• Reuters: With just five weeks left until the United Kingdom finally exits the EU’s orbit on Dec. 31, both sides are calling on the other to compromise on the three main issues of contention - fishing, state aid and how to resolve any future disputes. 

• Mexico’s GDP rose 12.1% QoQ - the best going back to 1990

• Profits at Chinese industrial firms surged 28.2% YoY in October to 642.91 billion-yuan ($97.79 billion), National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) data showed on Friday, after rising 10.1% in September versus the previous year.

• China's unofficial restrictions on coal imports from Australia are having more than just an impact on miners down under, it's hurting steel producers in China and helping those elsewhere.
  

• An Iranian scientist was killed in an ambush near Tehran on Friday that could provoke confrontation between Iran and its foes in the last weeks of  Trump's presidency.