And the latest Covid leaders are? Florida "leading" and Texas!

As Covid cases rise in Florida, Governor DeSantis digs at Fauci with merchandise .. But perhaps the merchandise with the best sales potential are the drink koozies and T-shirts that say “Don’t Fauci My Florida”.

• Joe Biden and Facebook (FB the plague on humanity) engaged in a testy spat about misinformation, as America’s Centres for Disease Control and Prevention described a surging covid-19 caseload with 99.5% of new patients unvaccinated.

 

It’s all mostly luck!

The results are something of an eye-opener. Their simulations accurately reproduce the wealth distribution in the real world. But the wealthiest individuals are not the most talented (although they must have a certain level of talent). They are the luckiest. 

Quick Overview is up to date

Lumber keeps on crashing. 

Home Depot etc. evidently still not buying. Deflation?

Notes today:

• Reuters: U.S. Retail sales rose 0.6% last month. Data for May was revised down to show sales falling 1.7% instead of declining 1.3% as previously reported. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast retail sales dropping 0.4%. 

• (Reuters) -Binance said on Friday it had stopped selling digital tokens linked to shares. 

• Covid is surging, and LA County has reinstated mask mandates for all. Case numbers are climbing across most of the country as the Delta variant spreads among "unvaccinated" people. Arkansas, Missouri, Florida and Nevada are experiencing full-fledged outbreaks.

• (Reuters) - China's long-awaited national carbon emission trading scheme (ETS) opened at 48 yuan ($7.42) per tonne on Friday, according to reports from Chinese media. 

• The Federal Reserve will probably end up requiring banks to conduct tests to judge their vulnerability to the effects of climate change, Chairman Jerome Powell proposed. 

• Bloomberg: Benchmark global hog futures have surged more than 25% in Chicago this year on strong demand and higher feed costs. By contrast, pork prices in China have slumped more than 50% on increased supplies as domestic herds rebound from African swine fever. U.S. pork is now more expensive than domestic meat after tariffs and freight. 

• The WSJ reported Thursday that chip giant Intel Corp. INTC is exploring a $30 billion deal to buy GlobalFoundries.

• Moderna’s (MRNA) next act is using mRNA against flu, Zika, HIV, and cancer. 

 Marine Traffic

 I'll take my chances!

Courtesy of pxmolina

• Inflation hits 13-Year High in the US
• Britain’s inflation rate rose to 2.5% in June, far exceeding expectations ..

• China's gross domestic product was up 7.9% YoY

• World Health Organization (WHO) says that the Lambda variant has now been found in 29 countries, and it classified it as a “global variant of interest,". It may lead to a two-to-threefold reduction in vaccine-triggered antibodies, compared with the original COVID-19 strain. 

• The Tennessee Department of Health will halt all adolescent vaccine outreach – notjust for coronavirus, but all diseases – amid pressure from Republican state lawmakers, according to an internal report and agency emails obtained by the Tennessean. If the health department must issue any information about vaccines, staff are instructed to strip the agency logo off the documents.. Dark Ages!
• People who are not vaccinated are bearing the vast majority of disease burden, making up over 99% of hospitalizations and deaths.

• Bloomberg: Global vaccinations of seafarers are going too slowly to prevent outbreaks on ships from causing more trade disruptions, endangering maritime workers, and potentially slowing economies trying to pull out of pandemic slowdowns.

• A key crop waterway in Argentina, the biggest exporter of soy meal, is the driest since 1944, driving buyers to its neighbor and rival Brazil.

• Here is a 52-week money challenge, where you put away $1 to start and continue to increase your savings each week by $1; at the end of the year, you’ve set aside $1,378 with minimal pain. (From Erin Lowry @ Bloomberg)

Oats: American farmers are now expected to harvest their smallest oats crop in records that go back to 1866.

HGX: regression to the mean ?

Latest Dow Theory Prediction:

Should the DJI close below 33,165 "and" the DJT close below 14,413  our Dow Theory interpretation will be bearish.

 

Quick Overview is up to date.

 

Notes today:

• Finance ministers of the Group of 20 major economies meeting in Italy have failed to agree on a climate pledge to achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, according to people familiar with the matter.
• Meanwhile: Temperatures in Death Valley, California, reached a beyond belief 130 degrees Fahrenheit (54.4 Celsius) on Friday.

• China cut is reserve requirement ratio by 0.5% releasing 1 Trillion Yuan in liquidity to boost its economy. This is the first time since the height of the pandemic in 2020.

• A British regulator said on Friday that banks clearing gold trades in London could apply for an exemption from tighter capital rules due in January 2022, removing what some said was a threat to the functioning of the market.

• Concern is rising about the fast-spreading delta variant of the virus. The Alpha, Beta, Delta, and Gamma variants have already made the VOC list.  Lambda may be next ..

• President Joe Biden on Friday signed an executive order that the White House bills as an effort to target anticompetitive practices in tech, health care and other parts of the economy while boosting workers' wages and consumer protections.

• The GDPNow model estimate for real GDP growth (seasonally adjusted annual rate) in the second quarter of 2021 is 7.9 percent on July 9, up from 7.8 percent on July 2. After this week’s releases from the Institute for Supply Management and the U.S. Census Bureau, the nowcast of second-quarter real gross private domestic investment growth increased from 4.7 percent to 5.1 percent.

• All three major US averages notched record closes on Friday,

Some say the world will end in fire,

Some say in ice.

From what I’ve tasted of desire

I hold with those who favor fire.

But if it had to perish twice,

I think I know enough of hate

To say that for destruction ice

Is also great

And would suffice.

-- Robert Frost 

 Wow, used car prices dropping 😏

 

Quick Overview is up to date

BS looks to be increasing exponentially - in lots of places!

Bloomberg: Crypto Scammers Rip Off Billions as Pump-and-Dump Schemes Go Digital

 

Quick Overview is up to date

 Voting Rights

Bloomberg: Prices paid to suppliers rose to its highest level since 1979.