Author: BlackMask Financial

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Dollar whipsaws as virus mutation rattles traders

SINGAPORE (Reuters) – The dollar was firm on Tuesday but traded well below peaks hit on a wild ride higher overnight, as a new coronavirus strain in Britain sent jitters through holiday-thinned currency markets. Sterling fell as much as 2.5% to $1.3190 as countries from Europe to Asia sealed off travel links with Britain to try and contain the highly-infectious mutation. Low liquidity exaggerated dollar gains in other currencies, too, as short sellers bailed out. But moves largely unwound as investors took their chance to buy in to the dollar’s downtrend. The pound, helped by a Bloomberg report which said the European Union was considering a compromise on fishing rights – a stumbling block to a trade deal – recovered to trade at $1.3418 in Asia, though it remained on edge as talks progress. The euro recovered to sit at $1.2229 on Tuesday after falling a cent to $1.2130. The yen was steady at 103.30 per dollar and the Australian and New Zealand dollars a little soft with the nervous mood, but well above overnight lows. “The euro found an abundance of buyers on the deep dip,” said Stephen Innes, Bangkok-based chief strategist at currency broker Axi. “The ‘short dollar’ clear-out is probably nothing more nefarious than stretched positioning getting taken out to the woodshed on Brexit scares. However, it shows the potential dangers of universally bearish dollar sentiment,” he said. Wagers on a falling dollar as the global COVID-19 recovery lifts world trade and commodity prices, tending to benefit export-driven economies and their currencies, is becoming an increasingly crowded trade as momentum funds pile in. The value of overall bets against the dollar eased a fraction last week, positioning data showed, but remains near nine-year highs struck in September. Against a basket of currencies the dollar is headed for a third quarterly loss in a row and is down 12.5% from a three-year peak in March. The dollar index was last at 90.145 having been as high as 91.022 overnight. Nerves over the new strain of coronavirus are keeping it above last week’s 2-1/2 year trough of 89.723. Together with a new outbreak in Sydney, that held the Australian dollar at $0.7566, 0.3% lower for the session, despite roaring retail sales figures.

Experts said there was no evidence that vaccines would not protect against the new virus variant, but Britain’s chief scientific adviser said that in the meantime tighter restrictions on public life in Britain were likely. Nick Bit:  What they forget to tell you the London strain of the virus HAS NOT BEEN TESTED on the golden shot vaccines rolling out. So What they should have said is they have not had enough evidence to conclude if the vaccines will stop this most contageous strain we have seen yet.

Investors are looking ahead to confidence data in the U.S. and Germany later on Tuesday and have been cheered by the expectation that stimulus checks could go out to Americans next week. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has warned that there are still “problems” in securing a trade deal with Europe, but financial markets remain hopeful that something can be struck before Britain’s exemption from tariffs expires on Dec. 31. Nick Note: I have a bad felling here. See the pool of people infected is skyrocketing. the more people infected the more mutations. And by natural selection the virus that can circumvent the golden shot will win.

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Vaxart’s oral vaccines represent advance in technology

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US army scientists examine new UK coronavirus variant to see if it might be resistant to vaccine

(CNN)Scientists at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research expect to know in the next few days if there’s a concern that the coronavirus vaccines might not work against a mutated variant of the virus that’s rapidly spreading in parts of England, according to the institute’s top vaccine researcher. While there’s always a worry that a vaccine won’t work if a virus mutates significantly, the Walter Reed scientists still expect the vaccine will be effective against this new variant, said Dr. Nelson Michael, director of the Center for Infectious Diseases Research at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research. “It stands to reason that this mutation isn’t a threat, but you never know. We still have to be diligent and continue to look,” Michael said. On Thursday, the Walter Reed team started examining genetic sequences of the new UK variant posted online by British researchers. They’re doing a computer analysis as a first step. “The computer analysis will allow us to gauge how much concern we should have,” Michael said. “Other teams around the world are doing this analysis, too.” If the computer analysis show there’s a concern, then studies would need to be done in the laboratory and in animals to more definitively determine if the vaccine will work on this variant.

At a press conference Saturday, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced new holiday lockdowns in parts of England that have seen the spread of the new mutation.
“There’s no evidence to suggest the vaccine will be any less effective against the new variant. Our experts will continue their work to improve our understanding as fast as we can,” Johnson said. The UK’s chief scientific advisor agreed. “Our working assumption at the moment from all of the scientists is that the vaccine response should be adequate for this virus,” Dr. Patrick Vallance said at the press conference.
The US Food and Drug Administration has authorized two vaccines, one by Pfizer and the other by Moderna. Both work by creating a genetic blueprint for the spikes that appear on the surface of the novel coronavirus. The immune system “sees” the spikes and learns how to launch an attack against it.
As with other new variants or strains of Covid-19, this one carries a genetic fingerprint that makes it easy to track, and it happens to be one that is now common. That does not mean the mutation has made it spread more easily, nor does it not necessarily mean this variation is more dangerous. Multiple experts in the genetics and epidemiology of viruses are noting that this one could be just a “lucky” strain that’s been amplified because of a superspreader event; it could be the mutation somehow makes it spread more easily without causing more serious illness; or it could just be by chance.
In August, the Walter Reed team published a study showing that the vaccines still worked against several other mutations of the coronavirus. The vaccines are still useful because viruses mutate constantly, but typically not in ways that would render a vaccine useless, said Dr. William Schaffner, an advisor to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on vaccines. Nick Note: All hope is lost if the coronavirus spike protein mutations make the golden shots roll out useless. AND that  MAY be what is happening. I have long warned about the curse of mutations. I believe the greatest error in the vaccine wars that ALL of the popular well funded and in roll out vaccines attract the virus in the same way. They attack 6 genes on the spike protein. I believe this is the fatal flaw. Here is why the spike proteins are the fastest mutation genes of the corona virus and i believe at some point these mutation would render the current crop of bigfarma billion dollar vaccines useless. Well hello kitty! At some point may be now. In the fastest spreading mutation yet what I call the London variant may end up rendering the billion dollar golden shots useless. They are admiring it is far more contagious. It is too early to tell if it is deadlier but my sniff it is. And my belief is to THEIR horror it will not be stopped by the current crop of golden shots. Its a story that is being suppressed. This is the last story i ever wanted to share with you.
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Heated Oval Office meeting included talk of special counsel, martial law as Trump advisers clash

https://youtu.be/PKky71DUR9g

(CNN)President Donald Trump convened a heated meeting in the Oval Office on Friday, including lawyer Sidney Powell and her client, former national security adviser Michael Flynn, two people familiar with the matter said, describing a session that began as an impromptu gathering but devolved and eventually broke out into screaming matches at certain points as some of Trump’s aides pushed back on Powell and Flynn’s more outrageous suggestions about overturning the election. Flynn had suggested earlier this week that Trump could invoke martial law as part of his efforts to overturn the election that he lost to President-elect Joe Biden — an idea that arose again during the meeting in the Oval Office, one of the people said. It wasn’t clear whether Trump endorsed the idea, but others in the room forcefully pushed back and shot it down. White House aides who participated in the meeting, including White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and counsel Pat Cipollone, also pushed back intensely on the suggestion of naming Powell as a special counsel to investigate voter fraud allegations Trump’s own administration has dismissed (or, as seems more feasible, hiring her in the administration for some kind of investigatory role). Powell has focused her conspiracies on voting machines and has floated the notion of having a special counsel inspect the machines for flaws. Another idea floated in the meeting was an executive order that would permit the government to access voting machines to inspect them. One person described the meeting as “ugly” as Powell and Flynn accused others of abandoning the President as he works to overturn the results of the election. “It was heated — people were really fighting it out in the Oval, really forceful about it,” one of the sources said. One of the sources described an escalating sense of concern among Trump’s aides, even those who have weathered his previous controversies, about what steps he might take next as his term comes to an end. Shortly after that meeting, Trump’s campaign staff received a memo from the campaign legal team on Saturday instructing them to preserve all documents related to Dominion Voting Systems and Powell in anticipation of potential litigation by the company against the pro-Trump attorney. The memo, viewed by CNN, references a letter Dominion sent to Powell this week demanding she publicly retract her accusations and instructs campaign staff not to alter, destroy or discard records that could be relevant. A serious internal divide has formed within Trump’s campaign following the election with tensions at their highest between the campaign’s general counsel, Matt Morgan, who sent the memo Saturday, and Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani. Though the campaign once distanced itself from Powell, Trump has been urging other people to fight like she has, according to multiple people familiar with his remarks. He has asked for more people making her arguments, which are often baseless and filled with conspiracy theories, on television.  Nick Note: i publish this story to assure you ITS A NOTHING BURGER! Trump is blowing smoke. IT WILL NEVER HAPPEN!!!!!!

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FDA investigating allergic reactions to Pfizer vaccine reported in multiple states

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is investigating allergic reactions to the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine that were reported in multiple states after it began to be administered this week. Peter Marks, director of the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, told reporters late Friday that the reactions had been reported in more than one state besides Alaska and that the FDA is probing five reactions. “We are working hand in hand with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and we’ve actually been working closely with our United Kingdom colleagues, who of course reported the allergic reaction. I think we’ll be looking at all the data we can from each of these reactions to sort out exactly what happened, and we’ll also be looking to try to understand which component of the vaccine might be helping to produce them,” Marks said. “I think we have at this point the right … mitigation strategy with the availability of treatment for a severe allergic reaction being at the ready, and we’ll continue to monitor it very closely,” he added. Marks said the FDA was not certain what caused the reactions but indicated a chemical called polyethylene glycol, which is present in the vaccines produced by Pfizer and BioNTech as well as by Moderna “could be the culprit.” He added that the reaction some people have experienced could be more common than once thought. “We’ll obviously be monitoring very closely what’s going on. We’re working very closely with the CDC on these, and there have been meetings between the CDC and FDA pretty much every day this week making sure we’re keeping very close track of what’s going on,” he said.  The reports of allergic reactions in Alaska follow two similar cases reported last week in Britain, the first nation to approve Pfizer’s vaccine. The FDA’s current guidance says that most Americans with allergies should be cleared to take the vaccine but that people who’ve had severe reactions to other vaccines should not get vaccinated. It also said Friday that people with a history of severe allergic reactions to any components of the Moderna shot should avoid getting that vaccine. “FDA takes very seriously the safety of the medical products that we authorize and approve, and certainly in a vaccine setting, it’s one of the reasons Dr. Marks and his team, in collaboration with the CDC, has set up a very robust surveillance system for assessing safety. One of the things that FDA does very well and uniquely is really getting to the bottom of events like allergic reactions so we can completely understand the circumstances and better inform the public and also our regulatory decisions,” said FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn.  Nick Note: their are 2 choices drug companies commonly use as a preservative in vaccine .  Polyethylene glycol and Thimerosal which can cause anaphylaxis. PEG is used in ALL approved coronavirus vaccines. creating 2 potential problems in  vulnerable  people. One is an immediate allergic reaction that are being reported. the other is hypersensitivities to other drugs and yes even foods. The allegoric reaction to PEG and Thimerosal have been a growing scandal of the vaccine industry. And is the root of the antivav movement. It is not my place to debate that issue. A lot of things go into vaccines. Bottom line  it is recommended for baby boomers to get the vaccine even if it wears off in a year. BUT if you have any history of allergic reactions to anything YOU ARE AT RISK. You got to talk to your medical professional. And if you have any risk of a allergic reaction and decide to take the golden shot ONLY TAKE THE VACCINE IN A CONTROLLED MEDICAL ENVIRONMENT WITH FULL SUPPORT SERVICES. That meas not in the  Walmart parking lot. Not at the drug store and not at a clinic.

peg

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UK’s New strain of coronavirus spreads more quickly

LONDON (Reuters) – A new strain of COVID-19 identified in the United Kingdom can spread more quickly and urgent work is under way to confirm that it does not cause a higher mortality rate, England’s Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty said on Saturday.

“As announced on Monday, the UK has identified a new variant of Covid-19 through Public Health England’s genomic surveillance,” Whitty said in a statement.

“As a result of the rapid spread of the new variant, preliminary modelling data and rapidly rising incidence rates in the South East, the New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory Group (NERVTAG) now consider that the new strain can spread more quickly.” Nick Note: I am sad to have to tell you a dirty little secret. The Golden shot vaccines will last a year at the most before the antibodies die off. But their is more.The corona virus will mutate and the antibodies the vaccines creates will not recognize the mutated spike protein. Here is a dirty little secret. All the vaccines develop antibodies against the mutating cronavirus spike protein. So the fastest mutating part of the coronavirus is what they target. In the rush to market they discovered the DNA sequencing of said spike was easier to target. This will prove to be the biggest mistake in vaccine history. They should have gone after the shell protein. And from what i have seen it has not mutated. But what the fuck do i know i am just the librarian.

 

spike protien

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Congress averts shutdown; fight continues over pandemic aid

WASHINGTON (AP) — Congress passed a two-day stopgap spending bill Friday night, averting a partial government shutdown and buying yet more time for frustratingly slow endgame negotiations on an almost $1 trillion COVID-19 economic relief package. The virus aid talks remained on track, both sides said, but closing out final disagreements was proving difficult. Weekend sessions were on tap, and House leaders hoped for a vote on Sunday on the massive package, which wraps much of Capitol Hill’s unfinished 2020 business into a take-it-or-leave-it behemoth that promises to be a foot thick — or more. The House passed the temporary funding bill by a 320-60 vote. The Senate approved it by voice vote almost immediately afterward, and President Donald Trump signed it late Friday. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said both sides remain intent on closing the deal, even as Democrats launched a concerted campaign to block an effort by Republicans to rein in emergency Federal Reserve lending powers. The Democrats said the GOP proposal would deprive President-elect Joe Biden of crucial tools to manage the economy.

Negotiations continued into Friday night but an agreement wasn’t likely before Saturday, lawmakers and aides said. House lawmakers were told they wouldn’t have to report to work on Saturday but that a Sunday session was likely. The Senate will be voting on nominations.

The $900 billion package comes as the pandemic is delivering its most fearsome surge yet, killing more than 3,000 victims per day and straining the nation’s health care system. While vaccines are on the way, most people won’t get them for months. Jobless claims are on the rise. The emerging agreement would deliver more than $300 billion in aid to businesses and provide the jobless a $300-per-week bonus federal unemployment benefit and renewal of state benefits that would otherwise expire right after Christmas. It also includes $600 direct payments to individuals; vaccine distribution funds and money for renters, schools, the Postal Service and people needing food aid. Democrats on Friday came out swinging at a key obstacle: a provision by conservative Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., that would close down more than $400 billion in potential Federal Reserve lending powers established under a relief bill in March. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin is shutting down the programs at the end of December, but Toomey’s language goes further, by barring the Fed from restarting the lending next year, and Democrats say the provision would tie Biden’s hands and put the economy at risk. Nick Note: I am covered up researching the economic influence the coronavirus has on society and markets. The forces at work are costly and therefore major economic events of earth changing proportions. And clearly demonstrate the global failure of leadership[. Two key events are guiding my trade analysis. The stimulation which in a macro seance will do little to change the seen and unforeseen changes in global trade and money flows. And the second  fact that the great white hope the previewed solution to this great plague the  vaccines roll out  represents. And its coming failure as the super spreading virus mutations will effect the outcome. The  afore mentioned vaccine failure will come to light when mutations render the vaccines useless. So i want to trade the records we are seeing in global stock markets that will end in tears as two more events unfold. And that is the  the bubble markets bursting. That will occur when reality sets in driven by the vaccine f and stimulus failure which  is a joke and will not alter the ongoing economic failure.

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Ivermectin 3.5 bilion doses of this medicine has been given. Its a life saver!

Ivermectin has shown promise against Covid-19 in a clinical trial and patients receiving a five-day course of ivermectin have shown an early viral clearance and improvements of blood biomarkers compared with other two groups.

icddr,b on Monday organised a dissemination seminar to share preliminary findings of a recently concluded study that evaluated the safety and efficacy of ivermectin in combination with antibiotic doxycycline or ivermectin alone for the treatment of confirmed mild cases of Covid-19 in a hospital setting in Dhaka.

The randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial evaluated orally administered ivermectin alone (12mg once daily for 5 days), ivermectin single dose (12mg) in combination with doxycycline (200mg stat doxycycline on day 1 followed by 100mg 12 hourly for next 4 days) compared with placebo among 68 hospitalised patients with Covid-19 in Dhaka.Patient distribution was 22, 23 and 23 in each group respectively. The participating hospitals were Mugda Medical College and Hospital; Kurmitola General Hospital, Dhaka, Bangladesh, and Dhaka Medical College & Hospital.

The study demonstrated that patients in the five-day ivermectin group were 77% more likely to have early viral clearance on day 14 compared to those who received ivermectin and doxycycline (61%) and placebo (39%).

It also showed that on day 3, eighteen percent (18%) of the patients in the group treated with ivermectin alone began to show viral clearance compared to ivermectin plus doxycycline (3%) and placebo (3%), while on day 7 it stood at 50%, 30% and 13% respectively. The odds of improvement in clinical status with the 5-day treatment course of ivermectin versus ivermectin and doxycycline, and placebo were also favourable, trending toward reduction of severity of infection indicated by improvement in the blood biomarkers. The C-reactive protein (CRP), Lactate Dehydrogenase (LDH) and Ferritin levels notably dropped from the baseline to day 7 in the ivermectin alone group compared to other two groups. The antiparasitic drug is found to be safe and has shown, at best, a modest benefit for mild coronavirus. The study findings have been published in the International Journal of Infectious Diseases (IJID) on 2 December 2020.Nazmul Hassan MP, Managing Director, Beximco Pharmaceuticals Limited graced the seminar as the chief guest while Professor Dr Syed Modasser Ali, former Advisor to the Prime Minister and Chairman, Bangladesh Medical Research Council (BMRC) as special guest and was connected via online; and Dr Tahmeed Ahmed, acting Executive Director and Senior Director, Nutrition and Clinical Services Division (NCSD) at icddr,b were present among others at the seminar. Dr Wasif Ali Khan, Senior Physician Scientist of Enteric and Respiratory Diseases at icddr,b and the principal investigator of the study presented the study findings. He said, “Although the study sample was small to derive at any solid conclusion, the results provide evidence of potential benefit of the early intervention with ivermectin for the treatment of adult patients diagnosed with mild Covid-19. The findings also conform to other global studies on ivermectin as a treatment for Covid-19.” Nazmul Hassan, “We’re pleased to support the clinical trial of ivermectin, which is an attempt to find an effective and affordable treatment to fight against the Covid-19 pandemic. We’re happy that the treatment regimen shows promise and that will indeed strengthen our fight against Covid-19 and help avoid many untimely deaths.” Dr Tahmeed Ahmed has expressed his gratitude to Beximco Pharmaceuticals Ltd. DGHS, DGDA, BMRC and participating hospitals for supporting the study.

“It’s extremely important to find an affordable and easy-to-use treatment option to fight against this pandemic in low- and middle-income countries like Bangladesh. We believe a larger clinical trial with ivermectin may help facilitate decision makers to include it in the Covid-19 treatment protocol and we’re exploring for support,” he said. National public health experts, representatives from the DGHS, DGDA, BMRC, icddr,b, BPL and media were also present at the seminar. The study, conducted during July-September 2020, was funded by Beximco Pharmaceuticals Ltd, and the company also provided all the drugs used in this trial.

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Pfizer says ‘millions’ of vaccine doses are waiting to be shipped — but the government hasn’t told them where to go

 

It’s no secret that there aren’t enough Pfizer vaccine doses for every American who wants one. But there are at least a few million more sitting in a warehouse, waiting for the government to decide where they’re headed, Pfizer said. After receiving emergency use authorization from the Food and Drug Administration last week, Pfizer said Thursday that it has since shipped out the 2.9 million vaccine doses the U.S. government told the company to distribute.

Pfizer “has millions more doses sitting in warehouses awaiting instructions for where to ship” Bloomberg reports. Pfizer also denied it was the cause of shipping delays some states complained about, saying it’s the federal government causing the holdup.

The vast majority of Americans have said they’ll get the coronavirus vaccine, with many ready to take it as soon as possible. So far, there are only enough doses available to start vaccinating people in nursing homes and frontline health care workers, whom the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention agreed to prioritize. The U.S. bought 100 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine over the summer. But the Trump administration reportedly turned down Pfizer’s offer to sell the U.S. more doses a few months later, meaning Pfizer may not be able to get another shipment to Americans until summer 2021. The U.S. did buy another another 100 million Moderna vaccine doses last week. Nick Note:. Wait the vaccine boondoggle is coming. Sub zero refrigeration, a second shot in 3 weeks, and it may not give immunity after a year or less. What exactly is their to celebrate.

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SEC charges Robinhood, company agrees to $65M settlement

AMATEUR HOUR VIDEO

  • The SEC charged Robinhood with deceiving customers about how the stock trading app makes money and failing to deliver the promised best execution of trades.
  • Robinhood agreed to pay a $65 million civil penalty, without admitting or denying SEC’s findings.

The Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday charged Robinhood with deceiving customers about how the stock trading app makes money and failing to deliver the promised best execution of trades.

Robinhood agreed to pay a $65 million civil penalty, without admitting or denying SEC’s findings. A lawyer for the company said the practices “do not reflect Robinhood today.”

The Silicon Valley start-up, which has eventual plans to go public, has raised more than $1 billion in funding in 2020, lifting Robinhood’s valuation to $11.7 billion. “Between 2015 and late 2018, Robinhood made misleading statements and omissions in customer communications, including in FAQ pages on its website, about its largest revenue source when describing how it made money — namely, payments from trading firms in exchange for Robinhood sending its customer orders to those firms for execution, also known as ‘payment for order flow,’” the SEC said. “One of Robinhood’s selling points to customers was that trading was ‘commission free,’ but due in large part to its unusually high payment for order flow rates, Robinhood customers’ orders were executed at prices that were inferior to other brokers’ prices,” the statement added. The millennial-favored trading app is best known for pioneering the “commission-free trading.” Robinhood, and the rest of the online brokerage industry, rely on what’s known as payment for order flow as their profit engine in lieu of commissions.

Taking payments for order flow from Wall Street firms is a controversial, but legal practice done by most electronic brokers. For Robinhood, it’s the biggest revenue source. Robinhood received $180 million in payments for trades in the second quarter, according to an SEC filing.

The SEC order found that Robinhood provided inferior trade prices that cost customers $34.1 million, even after considering the savings from not paying a commission. “Robinhood provided misleading information to customers about the true costs of choosing to trade with the firm,” said Stephanie Avakian, director of the SEC’s Enforcement Division.  “Brokerage firms cannot mislead customers about order execution quality.” Market makers such as Citadel Securities or Virtu pay e-brokers like Robinhood for the right to execute customer trades. The broker is then paid a small fee for the shares that are routed, which can add up to millions when customers trade as actively as they have this year. Robinhood has experienced record growth in 2020 due to the unprecedented market volatility from the Covid-19 pandemic. Robinhood posted a record 3 million new customers in the first four months of 2020. “The settlement relates to historical practices that do not reflect Robinhood today,” said Dan Gallagher, Robinhood’s chief legal officer at Robinhood. “We recognize the responsibility that comes with having helped millions of investors make their first investments, and we’re committed to continuing to evolve Robinhood as we grow to meet our customers’ needs.” A Robinhood spokesperson added: ”We are fully transparent in our communications with customers about our current revenue streams, have significantly improved our best execution processes, and have established relationships with additional market makers to improve execution quality.” The SEC’s charges came a day after Massachusetts regulators filed a complaint accusing the trading app of predatory marketing on inexperienced investors. The complaint cites Robinhood’s “aggressive tactics to attract inexperienced investors, its use of gamification strategies to manipulate customers, and its failure to prevent frequent outages and disruptions on its trading platform.” Nick Note: Please observe they did not admit wrongdoing AND they are charged not with screwing their clients to the wall. Au Contraire….. they were charged with not disclosing the screwing. Robin Hood and the like that turns trading into a video game will make us a killing.