Author: BlackMask Financial

The Nasdaq Composite has hit another record high, with high-growth technology stocks in the lead after weaker-than-expected private payrolls data raised hopes for an extended support from the US central bank. Technology stocks, which tend to benefit from a low-rate environment, were up 0.7 per cent, while sectors considered as bond-proxies such as utilities rose 1.2 per cent. Apple jumped 1.9 per cent to hit record highs, while Microsoft, Google, Amazon and Netflix gained one per cent. The ADP report, published ahead of the government’s more comprehensive employment report on Friday, showed US private employers hired far fewer workers than expected in August. “If we see employment slowing on Friday, the Fed is most likely to not hint at any tapering until jobs are back on track,” said Sam Stovall, chief investment strategist at CFRA. US Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell has suggested that an improving labour market will be a key factor affecting the decision for a tapering of its massive asset purchases. Wall Street’s main indexes have hit record highs recently, with the benchmark S&P 500 notching a solid 2.9 per cent rise in August as investors shrugged off risks around a rise in new coronavirus infections and hoped for the Fed to remain dovish in its policy stance. Another set of data showed US manufacturing activity unexpectedly picked up in August amid strong order growth, but a measure of factory employment dropped to a nine-month low, likely as workers remained scarce. Surveys earlier on Wednesday showed Asian and European factory activity lost momentum in August as the coronavirus pandemic disrupted supply chains. Economically sensitive energy stocks, materials and industrial stocks fell between 0.6 per cent and 0.9 per cent, keeping the S&P 500 and Dow subdued. Rate-sensitive banks fell as US government bond yields slipped. Wells Fargo fell 3.8 per cent, extending losses for a second day after report of US sanctions on the bank. In early trading on Wednesday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 45.90 points, or 0.13 per cent, at 35,314.83, the S&P 500 was up 5.74 points, or 0.13 per cent, at 4,528.42, and the Nasdaq Composite was up 84.99 points, or 0.56 per cent, at 15,344.22. Nick Note: As we discussed yesterday in Market News and Commentary we want to short the September rally. This will end badly for the Robin Hooders. Talk about a arrow in your ass…. They will be making a nice contribution to our wealth account.

Businesses in the U.S. created a lackluster 374,000 new jobs in August, a new ADP survey found, suggesting the delta strain of the coronavirus depressed hiring last month. The increase in private-sector jobs was weaker than expected. Economists surveyed by The Wall Street Journal had forecast a 600,000 increase. The ADP employment report sometimes acts as an early-warning system of sorts for the government’s more comprehensive employment survey that comes out a few days later. Yet the two reports also diverge quite sharply from time to time and that’s been especially true during the pandemic. In July, for example, ADP said 326,000 private-sector jobs were created. The Labor Department reported a much larger 703,000 increase. Forget the month-to-month differences between the ADP and Labor Department job reports. Both show a big increase in private-sector employment over the summer — more than 2 million new jobs. It’s no surprise. Companies have a record number job openings to fill and they are trying to hire workers in anticipation that the latest coronavirus flareup will fade.

To be sure, delta has spurred companies to exercise more caution, especially restaurants and other businesses that deal face to face to customers. And it’s caused some consumers to avoid large crowds again.

That probably helps explains the somewhat slow in hiring in August, a notoriously fickle month to assess because so many people go on vacation..Yet by and large, the economy has held up well and it’s still growing at a fairly strong pace. Nick Note: Obviously things are slowing. Delta is the elephant in the room….

LONDON/TOKYO (Reuters) – Global factory activity lost momentum in August as the ongoing coronavirus pandemic-disrupted supply chains, raising concerns faltering manufacturing would add to economic woes caused by slumping consumption, surveys showed on Wednesday. Many firms reported logistical troubles, product shortages and a labour crunch which have made it a sellers’ market of the goods factories need, driving up prices. While factory activity remained strong in the euro zone, IHS Markit’s final manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) fell to 61.4 in August from July’s 62.8, below an initial 61.5 “flash” estimate. “Despite the strong PMI figures, we think that lingering supply-side issues and related producer price pressures might take longer to resolve than previously expected, increasing the downside risk to our forecast,” said Mateusz Urban at Oxford Economics. In Britain, where factories also faced disruptions, manufacturing output grew in August at the weakest rate for six months. The United States likely suffered a similar slowdown, data is expected to show later on Wednesday. [GB/PMIM] Canada’s economy unexpectedly shrank last quarter and in July, official data showed on Tuesday – hurt by decreases in manufacturing, construction and retail trade – and Australia reported slower growth in the second quarter on Wednesday.Meanwhile, Southeast Asia – a low-cost manufacturing hub for many global companies – was hit particularly hard with factory activity shrinking in Vietnam, Indonesia and Malaysia because of virus outbreaks and output suspensions. And in a worrying sign for the global economy, China’s factory activity slipped into contraction in August for the first time in nearly 1-1/2 years as COVID-19 curbs, supply bottlenecks and high raw material prices weighed on output. China’s Caixin/Markit Manufacturing PMI fell to 49.2 in August, from 50.3 in July, breaching the 50-mark separating growth from contraction. The result was well below market expectations, underscoring the fragile nature of China’s recovery that had helped the global economy emerge from pandemic-induced doldrums. The private survey followed an official PMI on Tuesday, which showed the index falling in August but staying above the 50 mark.

“The elephant in the room for the long North Asia, short ASEAN view is China. This morning, the Caixin Manufacturing PMI followed yesterday’s official number South, falling under 50,” said Jeffrey Halley at OANDA.

“That rounds out a grim week for China’s PMIs as COVID-19 lockdowns and the same supply chain challenges the rest of the world is experiencing erode economic performance.” Export power-houses Japan, South Korea and Taiwan also saw manufacturing activity expand at a slower pace in August, a sign chip shortages and factory shutdowns in the region could delay a sustained recovery from the pandemic-induced slump. The surveys highlight the pandemic’s broadening damage in Southeast Asia, where soaring infections and subsequent lockdown measures have hurt both the service and manufacturing sectors.

Delta variant outbreaks in the region have caused supply chain headaches for the world’s largest manufacturers, many of which rely on auto parts and semiconductors made in low-cost bases such as Thailand, Vietnam and Malaysia.

“If the strict lockdown measures continue, Southeast Asia may find it hard to remain a global production hub,” said Makoto Saito, an economist at NLI Research Institute. Japan’s PMI eased and new export orders posted their first contraction since January. South Korea’s index fell to 51.2. In Vietnam and Malaysia, activity was hurt by lockdown measures and rising infections that forced some factories to suspend operations. Vietnam saw factory activity shrink while Malaysia’s PMI stood at 43.4 in August. Once seen as a driver of global growth, Asia’s emerging economies are lagging advanced economies in recovering from the pandemic’s pain as delays in vaccine rollouts and a spike in Delta variant cases hurt consumption and factory production. Growth in India’s factory sector activity slowed as persistent pandemic-related weakness weighed on demand and output, forcing firms to cut jobs again following a brief recovery in July. Nick Note: No need for lockdowns…. When they are suffocating or hooked up to a ventilator its kind-of hard to show up to work.

BERLIN, Sept 1 (Reuters) – German retail sales fell by far more than expected in July after two months of sharp increases, data showed on Wednesday, in a first sign that a consumer-driven recovery in Europe’s largest economy might be losing steam in the third quarter. The Federal Statistics Office said retail sales dropped 5.1% on the month in real terms after a revised jump of 4.5% in June and an increase of 4.6% in May. The July reading missed a Reuters forecast for a fall of 0.9%. The monthly comparison was distorted heavily by the lifting of COVID-19 restrictions on shopping in most parts of the country in June, the statistics office said. Retail sales – a volatile indicator often subject to revisions – edged down by 0.3% in real terms year on year, it added. Compared with February 2020, the month before the coronavirus crisis hit Germany, retail sales were up 3.8%.  T he German economy returned to growth in the second quarter but bounced back less strongly than other euro zone countries as supply chain bottlenecks slowed industrial output. Supply problems with raw materials and intermediate goods, coupled with rising COVID-19 cases because of the more contagious Delta variant, are driving companies to take a dimmer view of the coming months.  Bankhaus Lampe analyst Alexander Krueger believes that retail sales are likely to recover in the comings months, with the labour market strong and more companies scaling back short-time work schemes introduced during the pandemic. However, overall support for the economy from household spending could be less strong in the third quarter than many had hoped for, he added. Nick Note: kicking and screaming the whole way…. the global economy and supply chains will shut down for another round of corona mutation fun bypassing the 2 shot vaccine,.

https://youtu.be/7qhhJxESoEo

BEIJING (Reuters) – China’s factory activity slipped into contraction in August for the first time in nearly 1-1/2 years as COVID-19 containment measures, supply bottlenecks and high raw material prices weighed on output in a blow to the economy. The slowdown in the manufacturing sector underscores the fragility of the ongoing economic recovery and the impact of strict coronavirus curbs in the country, backing expectations Beijing will roll out more support measures to revitalise growth. Two separate official surveys released on Tuesday showed China’s factory activity grew at a slower pace, while the services sector slumped into contraction. The Caixin/Markit Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) fell to 49.2 last month, from 50.3 in July, breaching the 50-mark that separates growth from contraction. The result was well below expectations by analysts polled by Reuters, who had forecast the index at 50.2. New export orders tumbled into contraction for the first time since February, while factories laid off more workers than they hired.  The strict lockdown measures of China’s “zero-cases” approach to COVID-19 controls successfully squashed an outbreak of the more infectious Delta variant across several provinces in August, but also hit economic activity.

“The latest COVID-19 resurgence has posed a severe challenge to the economic normalization that began in the second quarter of last year,” said Wang Zhe, senior economist at Caixin Insight Group, in comments released alongside the data.

Many analysts expect the central bank to deliver a further cut to the amount of cash banks must hold as reserves later this year to lift growth, on top of July’s cut which released around 1 trillion yuan ($6.47 trillion) in long-term liquidity into the economy. A sub-index for production fell to 47.7, the slowest pace of expansion since February last year at the height of the pandemic, while another sub-index for new orders slipped to 48.0. Companies reported COVID-19 restrictions had dampened demand and led to sourcing difficulties. A shortage of chips has also been crimping manufacturing. “Due to the lack of chips this year, the demand for auto parts has decreased,” said an auto parts exporter in eastern China’s Suzhou surnamed Huang. “Our factory has been continuously reducing production, and in July and August, I heard that some factories stopped production. At the moment it looks like chips will continue to be in short supply,” he said.

An index of confidence in the year ahead stood steady. Input and output prices continued to rise and at a faster pace.

“Authorities need to take a holistic view and balance containing COVID-19, stabilizing the job market, and maintaining stability in supply and prices,” Caixin’s Wang said. Nick Note: I am watching the slow down and inflation circle the globe…

Exclusive to the WSI and Pandemic Informer. Nick Note: I want to be clear here. Its a fact that the covid19 virus originated in bats. The bat species Rhinolophus macrotis (horseshoe Bat) is not in Wuhan but from Yunnan province.

A very rare species.  It was never sold in the Wuhan Market. It is also a fact that the Chines bat lady Dr Lee was in the caves in Yunnan  province and captured the big-eared horseshoe bats….

because they carried 71% antibodies of what you know as covid19  virus, the most of any bat species. They collected live specimens from the remote secret cave where this particular  species was found and brought them to the Wuhan lab for experimentation IE genetic engineering.. In fact Zhengli Shi confirmed the finding:

AND ITS NOT JUST GUNS… GIRLS TOO!

https://youtu.be/ZkrNxzUkeB8

As videos emerged of Taliban fighters carrying US-made M4 and M18 assault rifles and M24 sniper weapons, the US conceded it does not have the “complete picture” while adding that “a fair amount of it has fallen into the hands of the Taliban”. “Obviously, we don’t have a sense that they are going to readily hand it over to us,” Jake Sullivan, White House National Security Advisor said. Taliban fighters were seen reportedly climbing on American Black Hawk helicopters as the Afghan troops were pushed back from major areas in Afghanistan.

There were also reports of the Taliban having taken control of US Humvees which were used extensively by the American troops during the Afghanistan operations.