Wall Street started in the green on Monday after Moderna Inc. announced that early-stage trials of the COVID-19 vaccine gave positive results so far, adding it expects the final stage of the trials could begin in July. Also, the United States Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said that “there’s really no limit to what we can do with these lending programs that we have.” Yesterday, he also stated that that “in the long run, and even in the medium run, you wouldn’t want to bet against the American economy.” The Dow Jones Industrial Average opened 687 points or 2.92% higher at 9:30 am ET as Dow Inc led the gains, rising 7.72% at 9:32 am ET. The Nasdaq 100 rose 1.28% at 9:30 am ET with United Airlines Holdings jumping 11.80% at 9:34 am ET. The S&P 500 increased by 2.52% at 9:31 am ET. Royal Caribbean Cruises surged 11.96% at 9:32 am ET.
The euro jumped 0.26% to 1.08456 against the dollar at 9:32 am ET.
(Bloomberg) — The workings of passive investment indexes in times of crisis is already a subplot of the virus drama following histrionics in the oil market. It’s shaping up as a flashpoint in stocks, too, as overseers wrestle with pushing the eject button on wounded companies. It’s an urgent issue for the people who run benchmarks like the S&P 500, where dozens of companies are at risk of deletion, at least theoretically, after shares plunged in March. While guided by rules-based standards, index compilers must also grapple with the same judgment as everyone else in assessing the market right now: how much of the Covid impact will turn out to be permanent? “The S&P committee is going to have to decide how long they want to wait before ditching COVID-damaged companies,” said Nicholas Colas of DataTrek Research, who sees more than 30 companies teetering on the edge of removal. “The S&P 500 may be the world’s most-followed passive index, but COVID-19 and its aftermath is going to force its constructors into some very active choices.” Anyone needing a reminder of the importance of passive index construction need only look at the remarkable recovery in the S&P 500 since March, a rebound whose strength is largely ascribable to its weighting in technology and health-care stocks. Less appreciated is the impact of four dozen company ejections over the last three years, deletions that centered on retail, industrial and energy companies, which have struggled the most during the virus. An equal-weight basket made up of companies that were booted from the S&P 500 over the past three years (for reasons other than acquisitions) is down 47% this year, almost five times more than the benchmark’s 2020 decline, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Just five of the ousted firms have posted positive returns, while half have plunged 40% or more. Oil and gas companies including Chesapeake Energy Corp. and Transocean Ltd. are still off by 80% or more. Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. and Macy’s Inc. are down roughly 70%. Of course, these companies were already in some form of trouble before the coronavirus struck, hence their removal. But the fact that they belong to industries directly in the cross-hairs of the fallout, where demand is waning, has been lucky for anyone with passive exposure to the market in, say, an S&P 500 ETF. “It was more happenstance than actual foresight that those companies would end up getting worse,” said Keith Gangl, portfolio manager for Gradient Investments. Still, “just by the nature of having less energy and less consumer, that certainly has benefited the index.” Shifts in index composition are made as needed and “changes in response to corporate actions and market developments can be made at any time,” according to S&P Dow Jones Indices. Human judgment is part of the process, too: the committee aims to minimize turnover and doesn’t view crossing below thresholds governing, say, market capitalization, as a reason unto itself to boot a stock out. As it stands, a company must have a market-cap of at least $8.2 billion for S&P 500 consideration. Liquidity measures must also be sufficient, and the sum of total earnings over the past four quarters must be positive, along with profits in the most recent quarter. Most recently, Capri Holdings Ltd. — the company behind retail brands including Versace and Jimmy Choo — was removed from the S&P 500 on May 12 after it lost roughly $5 billion in market value this year. As Capri was transferred to the S&P Small Cap 600 Index, medical device company DexCom Inc. and Domino’s Pizza Inc. were added to the large cap gauge. Both companies have posted double digit gains in 2020. While market-cap standards “are reviewed from time to time to assure consistency with market conditions,” according to S&P methodology, consider what’s passed for small in the S&P 500 over the last 15 months. Market-cap guidelines for the large-cap gauge were raised to $8.2 billion on Feb. 20, 2019. After the latest stock rout, about a fifth of companies in the index no longer meet that standard. Much of the stock rebound that reached 30% from the March 23 bottom can be attributed to such consolidation. Resilience in megacaps, technology and health care was the salvation of bulls, but a growing schism ruled by automation between stock market “haves” and “have-nots” has provoked some concern worker rights and wealth inequality. Going forward, it’s likely that market concentration will only increase off the back of the Covid crisis, according to Megan Greene, senior fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School. “That will create more distortion in a lot of these indices,” Greene said by phone. “As we see a lot more market concentration, it’ll be harder to read what’s going on in the market.” Nick Note: Of course the indices always come back and stupid investors get wiped out. Every time the stock market wipes out investors got caught holding the empty bag. The way the trick works is the index managers quietly throw out the biggest losers and sneak in the current winners. Problem is investors do not have the option since they own the losers and are taking massive losses. Indices always come back because the fund managers control the game. the trick is you got to know how the game is played… and yes i do!
US Democrats have launched an investigation into President Donald Trump’s firing of the state department’s internal watchdog. Inspector General Steve Linick was investigating Secretary of State Mike Pompeo for suspected abuse of office, reports say. But he was sacked late on Friday after Mr Trump said he no longer commanded his full confidence. The move prompted angry criticism from senior Democrats in Congress. They accused Mr Trump of retaliating against public servants who want to hold his administration to account. Mr Linick was the third official responsible for monitoring government misconduct to be dismissed in recent weeks. The former prosecutor was appointed by Mr Trump’s predecessor, Barack Obama, to oversee spending and detect mismanagement at the state department. On Saturday, top Democrats on the House and Senate Foreign Relations Committees questioned the timing of Mr Linick’s removal and announced an immediate investigation. “We unalterably oppose the politically-motivated firing of inspectors general and the president’s gutting of these critical positions,” Congressman Eliot Engel and Senator Bob Menendez said in a statement. They said Mr Linick had “opened an investigation into wrongdoing by Secretary Pompeo himself”, adding that his firing was “transparently designed to protect Secretary Pompeo from personal accountability”. Mr Linick had begun investigating allegations that Mr Pompeo had improperly used staff to run personal errands, US media report. Mr Trump sent a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in which he declared his intention to fire Mr Linick. Under federal law, the Trump administration must give Congress 30 days’ notice of its plans to fire an inspector general. It is expected that Mr Linick will leave his post after this time, with some reports suggesting a political ally of Mr Trump is being lined up to replace him. “It is vital that I have the fullest confidence in the appointees serving as inspectors general. That is no longer the case with regard to this inspector general,” Mr Trump said in the letter. Not long after Mr Linick’s dismissal was announced, Mr Engel, the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said Mr Linick had opened an investigation into Mr Pompeo.”Mr Linick’s firing amid such a probe strongly suggests that this is an unlawful act of retaliation,” he said in a statement. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Mr Linick was “punished for honourably performing his duty to protect the constitution and our national security”.
The late-night, weekend firing of State Department IG Steve Linick is an acceleration of the President’s dangerous pattern of retaliation against the patriotic public servants charged with conducting oversight on behalf of the American people. https://t.co/VavmuJpX25
— Nancy Pelosi (@SpeakerPelosi) May 16, 2020
Report
End of Twitter post by @SpeakerPelosi
It was the latest in a series of dismissals of independent government watchdogs. Last month, Mr Trump dismissed Michael Atkinson, the inspector general of the intelligence community. Mr Atkinson first alerted Congress to a whistleblower complaint that led to Mr Trump’s impeachment trial. Nick Note: YOUR dictator elect is moving with laser precision to silence any opposition. Weather you voted for him or not he owns you. See how easy it was for him to suck shut the US economy. The plan is to kill off the little guy so BIG business (with endless government loans) controls everything. Run hide flee while you still can. I am sorry i forgot you can’t flee because you can’t fly.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The day he declared the COVID-19 pandemic a national emergency, President Donald Trump made a cryptic offhand remark.
“I have the right to do a lot of things that people don’t even know about,” he said at the White House.
Trump wasn’t just crowing. Dozens of statutory authorities become available to any president when national emergencies are declared. They are rarely used, but Trump last month stunned legal experts and others when he claimed — mistakenly — that he has “total” authority over governors in easing COVID-19 guidelines. That prompted 10 senators to look into how sweeping Trump believes his emergency powers are. They have asked to see this administration’s Presidential Emergency Action Documents, or PEADs. The little-known, classified documents are essentially planning papers. The documents don’t give a president authority beyond what’s in the Constitution. But they outline what powers a president believes that the Constitution gives him to deal with national emergencies. The senators think the documents would provide them a window into how this White House interprets presidential emergency powers.\ “Somebody needs to look at these things,” Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, said in a telephone interview. “This is a case where the president can declare an emergency and then say, ‘Because there’s an emergency, I can do this, this and this.’” King, seven Democrats and one Republican sent a letter late last month to acting national intelligence director Richard Grenell asking to be briefed on any existing PEADs. Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., wrote a similar letter to Attorney General William Barr and White House counsel Pat Cipollone. “The concern is that there could be actions taken that would violate individual rights under the Constitution,” such as limiting due process, unreasonable search and seizure and holding individuals without cause, King said. “I’m merely speculating. It may be that we get these documents and there’s nothing untoward in their checks and balances and everything is above board and reasonable.″ Joshua Geltzer, visiting professor of law at Georgetown University, said there is a push to take a look at these documents because there is rising distrust for the Trump administration’s legal interpretations in a way he hasn’t seen in his lifetime. The most publicized example was Trump’s decision last year to declare the security situation along the U.S.-Mexico border a national emergency. That decision allowed him to take up to $3.6 billion from military construction projects to finance wall construction beyond the miles that lawmakers had been willing to fund. Trump’s move skirted the authority of Congress, which by law has the power to spend money in the nation’s wallet. “I worry about other things he might call an emergency,” Geltzer said. “I think around the election itself in November — that’s where there seems to be a lot of potential for mischief with this president.” The lawmakers made their request just days after Trump made his startling claim on April 13 that he had the authority to force states to reopen for business amid the pandemic. “When somebody’s the president of the United States, the authority is total,” Trump said, causing a backlash from some governors and legal experts. Trump later tweeted that while some people say it’s the governors, not the president’s decision, “Let it be fully understood that this is incorrect.” Questions about Trump’s PEADs went unanswered by the Justice Department, National Security Council and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. Elizabeth Goitein, co-director of a national security program at the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law, said PEADs have not been subject to congressional oversight for decades. She estimates that there are 50 to 60 of these documents, which include draft proclamations, executive orders and proposed legislation that could be swiftly introduced to “assert broad presidential authority” in national emergencies. She said the Eisenhower administration had PEADs outlining how it might respond to a possible Soviet nuclear attack. According to the Brennan Center, PEADs issued up through the 1970s included detention of U.S. citizens suspected of being subversives, warrantless searches and seizures and the imposition of martial law. “A Department of Justice memorandum from the Lyndon B. Johnson administration discusses a presidential emergency action document that would impose censorship on news sent abroad,” Goitein wrote in an op-ed with lawyer Andrew Boyle published last month in The New York Times. “The memo notes that while no ‘express statutory authority’ exists for such a measure, ‘it can be argued that these actions would be legal in the aftermath of a devastating nuclear attack based on the president’s constitutional powers to preserve the national security.”’ Goitein said she especially worries about any orders having to do with military deployment, including martial law.
“You can imagine a situation where he (Trump) engineers a crisis that leads to domestic violence, which then becomes a pretext for martial law,” said Goitein, who insists she’s simply playing out worst-case scenarios. “What I worry about is the extreme interpretation under which he asserts the authority to declare martial law and take over all the functions of government, including running the elections.”
She also wonders if there is a PEAD outlining steps the president could take to respond to a serious cyberattack. Would the president aggressively interpret telecommunications law and flip an internet kill switch, or restrain domestic internet traffic? she asks. Nick Note: Be warned Trump is capable of anything. He will not leave office nicely.
The dramatic decline in the price of oil has led to massive investment reductions by U.S. oil and gas producers. We expect at least a 35 percent drop in such investment between the first and second quarters of 2020 in real (inflation-adjusted) terms, which will reduce nonresidential business fixed investment by 6 percentage points alone. The outlook for capital expenditures in 2020 is highly uncertain but skewed to the downside. The oil and gas sector has become increasingly important for U.S. business fixed investment. Between 2010 and 2019, the sector spent $1.2 trillion drilling and completing wells—increasing U.S. crude oil production by nearly 140 percent. Over that same period, the oil and gas sector’s share of U.S. nonresidential business fixed investment (an important component of gross domestic product) averaged 6.4 percent, nearly double prior-decade levels. Coming into 2020, many exploration and production firms faced an inability to produce attractive returns amid heavy debt burdens and an oversupplied oil market. Investors had grown skeptical of the sector. Even before the coronavirus (COVID-19) crisis and oil price collapse, firms had planned to cut annual capital expenditures 10–15 percent relative to 2019 levels. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and an oil-supply surge from Saudi Arabia, the benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil price dropped from $50–$55 per barrel in February to the $20s in late March. This is far below the $46 to $52 that companies on average need to profitably drill new wells, according to the Dallas Fed Energy Survey. Although hedging—using financial instruments in the oil futures market to ensure revenue—allows some firms more breathing room during low-price periods, the overall impact to revenue for many firms is shattering. On top of the problems with wellhead economics, many companies need to shut in existing production as oil storage capacity is reached. Global oil consumption is expected to drop from more than 100 million barrels per day in fourth quarter 2019 to 76 million barrels in second quarter 2020, according to the International Energy Agency. Consequently, refineries are processing significantly less crude oil. This backs up the flow of oil to the wellhead, which helped create “negative” prices in the oil futures market on April 20. Recent company announcements suggest declines in planned investments from 20 percent by some larger firms to nearly 100 percent by smaller ones. On balance, we estimate that these cuts sum to a decline of roughly 40 percent year over year. Most of the impact will be felt in second quarter 2020. Business contacts and announcements by public companies show firms ending oilfield activities very quickly, with capital expenditure cuts frontloaded mostly in the second quarter. Concerns about physical storage constraints will likely speed this process. Most companies have left the door open for additional cuts. Some mention that they may ramp up spending later this year if WTI prices go above $30 with an improved outlook. We expect industry capital expenditures to slide by about 35 percent during the second quarter That would be steeper than the declines experienced in first quarter 2016 (the last time WTI prices collapsed) and during the oil bust of 1986. The expenditure reductions are already evident in the U.S. rig count, which closely correlates with capital spending. Onshore rigs fell from 768 on March 6 to 359 as of May 8. While some companies can drop rigs immediately, others have contracts with drilling companies and leasehold obligations to fulfill before releasing rigs gradually over the next one to two months. For that reason, though the spending cuts will be largest in second quarter, they should continue into the third quarter. The decline in oil and gas capital expenditures will be a major drag on U.S. business fixed investment in second quarter 2020. We estimate that investment declines in the energy sector alone may lead to a 6.1-percentage-point decline in U.S. fixed investment in the second quarter. The drag from oil and gas investment is likely larger than the 2014–16 period when oil prices dropped by nearly two-thirds from peak to trough, and the sector pulled down U.S. nonresidential fixed investment by about 6 percentage points. Equally, the sector weighed heavily on business investment in 2009 during the Great Recession. Oil and gas investment in the second half of 2020 will depend on price expectations, global storage capacity and market conditions. Industry contacts stress that the trajectory of the pandemic and its implications for global oil consumption will influence firms’ planning. Most report a very uncertain outlook. The sudden reduction in spending also comes at a crucial time for the industry. While U.S. oil production growth was already on the verge of leveling off due in part to the steep output-decline rate of existing wells, the drilling slowdown makes it likely that U.S. output will struggle to reach its previous highs in coming years. Nick Note: Banker assholes and “high yield” Junk bond assholes are leaving greasy spots on their pin stripped suits and it ain’t oil. From Goldman Sacks up your money to Well Far Away Goes Your money have set up committees to take over what are worthless assets. Can you see those banker assholes try to run a wild cat rig… Its liquidation time and these wells will never come back into production. And the only way frackers are going to raise money is if they can figure out how to transport cocaine for drug cartels in the brand new shiney empty pipelines.
I told you their would be a vaccine even if their is no vaccine
Trump announces ‘Operation Warp Speed,’ says U.S. could have coronavirus vaccine by January
Likening it to the national push to build the atomic bomb during World War II, President Trump on Friday announced Operation Warp Speed, a government coordinating effort aimed at securing a coronavirus vaccine by the end of the year.
“Operation Warp Speed, that means big and it means fast,” Trump said from the White House Rose Garden. “A massive scientific and industrial, logistic endeavor unlike anything our country has seen since the Manhattan Project.”
Its objective is to finish developing and then manufacture and distribute a proven coronavirus vaccine as fast as possible. “We’d love to see if we can do it prior to the end of the year,” Trump said. “I think we’re going to have some very good results coming out very quickly.” The presentation was short on details but noted the initiative is evaluating roughly 100 vaccine candidates from all over the world and has identified more than 14 believed to be the most promising. Officials are working to narrow the list still further. “We have some really interesting choices to be made,” Trump said. The government is providing support and resources to safely expedite trials on those vaccine candidates, “moving on at record, record, record speed,” the President said. Trump confirmed the United States will invest in manufacturing all of the top vaccine candidates before they’re approved. Known as “at risk” production, the government will take on the financial costs, legal liability and clinical trial costs, with no guarantee of getting a usable vaccine. “That means they better come up with a good vaccine,” Trump said. Such extraordinary steps will allow the United States to have vaccine ready as soon as a specific candidate is signed off on as safe and effective by regulatory authorities. The military will be used to help distribute doses. ‘We’re getting ready so that when we get the good word that we have the vaccine, we have the formula, we have what we need, we’re ready to go, as opposed to taking years,” Trump said. Trump acknowledged the risk and expense but said, “we’ll be saving years if we do this properly.” The initiative brings together expertise from the National Institutes for Health, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Food and Drug Administration and other agencies.The partnership also joins the resources of the Department of Health and Human Services together with the Department of Defense. The national project will bring together the best of American industry and innovation, the full resources of the United States government and the excellence and precision of the United States military, Trump said. In order to make a vaccine available to the entire American population by January, the Food and Drug Administration mayissue an emergency use authorization. Such orders allow unapproved medical products to be used during a public health crisis, without the benefit of the validated testing that would normally take place. “We’re working for a fully approved vaccine but we’ll also use … all of our regulatory tools appropriate to bring vaccine available for the entire American population by January,” Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar said at the news conference. “There’s never been an emergency use authorization for a vaccine before because it’s by and large a technology that is given to healthy people,” said Thomas Bollyky, who directs the global health program at the Council on Foreign Relations.
“It’ll go away at some point, it’ll go away,” he said. “Vaccine or no vaccine, we’re back.”
Nick Note: I told you their WILL BE A VACCINE in fact 14 of them. How will they decide which ones will work: Simple who ever comes with the best lobbyists and biggest bags of money. Sorry “campaign contributions” And before the elections. All i can say is Scottie the dilithium crystals are melting! This makes our trades a slam dunk in my opinion!
The Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) today announced plans to protect U.S. national security by restricting Huawei’s ability to use U.S. technology and software to design and manufacture its semiconductors abroad. This announcement cuts off Huawei’s efforts to undermine U.S. export controls. BIS is amending its longstanding foreign-produced direct product rule and the Entity List to narrowly and strategically target Huawei’s acquisition of semiconductors that are the direct product of certain U.S. software and technology. Since 2019 when BIS added Huawei Technologies and 114 of its overseas-related affiliates to the Entity List, companies wishing to export U.S. items were required to obtain a license.[1] However, Huawei has continued to use U.S. software and technology to design semiconductors, undermining the national security and foreign policy purposes of the Entity List by commissioning their production in overseas foundries using U.S. equipment. “Despite the Entity List actions the Department took last year, Huawei and its foreign affiliates have stepped-up efforts to undermine these national security-based restrictions through an indigenization effort. However, that effort is still dependent on U.S. technologies,” said Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross. “This is not how a responsible global corporate citizen behaves. We must amend our rules exploited by Huawei and HiSilicon and prevent U.S. technologies from enabling malign activities contrary to U.S. national security and foreign policy interests.” Specifically, this targeted rule change will make the following foreign-produced items subject to the Export Administration Regulations (EAR):
(i) Items, such as semiconductor designs, when produced by Huawei and its affiliates on the Entity List (e.g., HiSilicon), that are the direct product of certain U.S. Commerce Control List (CCL) software and technology; and
(ii) Items, such as chipsets, when produced from the design specifications of Huawei or an affiliate on the Entity List (e.g., HiSilicon), that are the direct product of certain CCL semiconductor manufacturing equipment located outside the United States. Such foreign-produced items will only require a license when there is knowledge that they are destined for reexport, export from abroad, or transfer (in-country) to Huawei or any of its affiliates on the Entity List.
To prevent immediate adverse economic impacts on foreign foundries utilizing U.S. semiconductor manufacturing equipment that have initiated any production step for items based on Huawei design specifications as of May 15, 2020, such foreign-produced items are not subject to these new licensing requirements so long as they are reexported, exported from abroad, or transferred (in-country) by 120 days from the effective date.
Federal Register notice of the interim final rule is available here. Nick Note: Trump needs to get the heat off the fumbling around on stopping the coronavirus in the US. Solution China. After all its where the virus originated. Now blame the Chinese for infecting your non existent 5G connection. Its called a diversion!
WASHINGTON (AP) — Democrats have powered a massive $3 trillion coronavirus relief bill through the House, an election-year measure designed to brace a U.S. economy in free fall and a health care system struggling to contain a pandemic still pummeling the country. Friday’s 208-199 vote, with all but one Republican opposed, advances what boils down to a campaign-season display of Democratic economic and health-care priorities. It has no chance of becoming law as written, but will likely spark difficult negotiations with the White House and Senate Republicans. Any product would probably be the last major COVID-19 response bill before November’s presidential and congressional elections. The enormous Democratic measure would cost more than the prior four coronavirus bills combined. It would deliver almost $1 trillion for state and local governments, another round of $1,200 direct payments to individuals and help for the unemployed, renters and homeowners, college debt holders and the struggling Postal Service. “Not to act now is not only irresponsible in a humanitarian way, it is irresponsible because it’s only going to cost more,” warned House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. “More in terms of lives, livelihood, cost to the budget, cost to our democracy.”
Republicans mocked the bill as a bloated Democratic wish-list that was dead on arrival in the GOP-led Senate and, for good measure, faced a White House veto threat. Party leaders say they want to assess how $3 trillion approved earlier is working and see if some states’ partial business reopenings would spark an economic revival that would ease the need for more safety net programs. Republicans are also sorting through internal divisions and awaiting stronger signals from President Donald Trump about what he will support. “Phase Four is going to happen,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office, using Washington insider-speak for the measure. “But it’s going to happen in a much better way for the American people.” Trump and top Republicans like Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., are insisting the next measure should protect reopening businesses from liability lawsuits. The president is also demanding a cut to payroll taxes, but GOP leaders are not yet onboard. The daylong debate painted a Capitol scene that’s become common in the era of coronavirus, even as it remains disconcerting. The sparsely populated House floor was dotted with lawmakers and aides wearing protective masks and even gloves, though some Republicans lacked them. Many members looked shaggier and sported beards they had not worn weeks ago. Roll call votes lasted over an hour each because lawmakers were voting in small groups to limit crowding. To enhance the bill’s political impact, Democrats named their measure “The Heroes Act” for the payments it would provide front-line emergency workers. With more than 86,000 Americans dead, 1.4 million confirmed infections and 36 million filing unemployment claims in an frozen economy, Democrats saw GOP opposition as an easy campaign-season target. “Are you kidding me?” said Rep. Tim Ryan, D-Ohio, of Republican assertions that it was time to stop spending more money. “Where do you guys live? Food lines at our food banks around the block? In the United States of America?” Republicans saw the bill as a Democratic political blunder. They said overly generous unemployment benefits discouraged people from returning to work, and attacked language helping immigrants in the U.S. illegally get federal benefits. They also singled out provisions helping states set up voting by mail and easing the marijuana industry’s access to banks. “It may help the cannabis industry, but it won’t help Main Street,” said House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif. Pelosi pushed the measure through after overcoming party divisions aggravated by election pressures. Some moderate Democrats opposed the package for its price tag and politically fraught provisions like assisting marijuana businesses. A few progressive Democrats were upset because it did not do more, such as guaranteeing workers’ salaries and bolstering their health insurance coverage. Fourteen Democrats voted against the measure. Nearly all are centrists and number among the party’s most vulnerable lawmakers in November’s elections: freshmen from districts Trump won in 2016. Clearly, the bipartisan consensus that produced four previous coronavirus bills was crumbling quickly. Polls show GOP voters are satisfied with the federal response and aren’t agitating for more. Self-branded deficit hawks are citing the massive increase in the spiraling $25 trillion national debt. Some congressional aides said the Democratic bill’s real price tag could breach $3.5 trillion. A partial estimate of tax provisions alone revealed eye-popping costs: $412 billion to renew $1,200 cash payments to individuals, more than $100 billion to pay health insurance premiums for the unemployed and $164 billion to make an “employee retention” tax credit for businesses more generous. “This bill is nothing more than the Democratic policy agenda masquerading as a response to the coronavirus crisis,” said Rep. Tom Cole, R-Okla. Nick Note: Socialism won the day. People have bought into this shit hook, line and sinker. It was easy when they got the masse deep in debt living paycheck to pay check. Or in this case welfare check to welfare check.The great American socialist state will full government control and tracking has begun. They sure as shit did not waste this crises. Just like the other socialist states everybody gets a check. And government decides everything. WELCOME TO YOUR HORROR SHOW!
Chinese refineries increased their run rates by 11 percent last month as the country began to emerge from the months-long lockdown prompted by the coronavirus outbreak that became a pandemic.
At 13.1 million bpd, the April run rates were also higher than the average for the same month in 2019.
The news indicates a marked improvement in oil demand, at least from refineries in the world’s top oil importer. Even the four-month average for January to April was not much lower than the year-earlier period: that average was about 12.28 million bpd, according to Reuters calculations, down by 3.4 percent from the average for January to April 2019. Given the massive change in oil demand from a year ago, the reduction in run rates was indeed modest. To compare, in February, at the height of the outbreak in China, refinery run rates fell to the lowest in six years, at some 10 million bpd. At the same time, refiners took advantage of the oil price rout to stock up on cheap oil while the rout lasted. Now, refinery runs are expected to continue to rise as industrial activity in China recovers to normal levels. Capacity utilization rates at independent refiners rose to 73 percent last month, according to data cited by Reuters, which was a record high. Meanwhile, at state refiners, utilization rates have increased to an average of 79 percent this month.
Refiners in China could use a pickup in oil demand for sure. Last year teapots added 900,000 bpd in new refining capacity, raising concerns about excess in that department. Total refining capacity on the world’s largest oil importer stood at 17.2 million bpd as of the end of 2019, and if refiners stick to their plans, it should continue rising. Nick Note: Buy the shit out of oil. Demand is fixing to soar. Its a pretty simple way to get rich. Buy when their is blood in the streets. And when you talk about blood you are talking about the slaughter in the oil industry.
WASHINGTON (AP) — As businesses reopened Friday in more of the U.S., an overwhelming majority of states still fall short of the COVID-19 testing levels that public health experts say are necessary to safely ease lockdowns and avoid another deadly wave of outbreaks, according to an Associated Press analysis. Rapid, widespread testing is considered essential to tracking and containing the coronavirus. But 41 of the nation’s 50 states fail to test widely enough to drive their infections below a key benchmark, according to an AP analysis of metrics developed by Harvard’s Global Health Institute. Among the states falling short are Texas and Georgia, which moved aggressively last month to reopen stores, malls, barbershops and other businesses. As health authorities expand testing to more people, the number of positive results should shrink compared with the total number of people tested. The World Health Organization and other health researchers have said a percentage above 10% indicates inadequate testing. South Korea, a country praised for its rapid response, quickly pushed its positive cases to below 3%. Most governors are moving ahead with unlocking their states, even in cases where they are not meeting broad guidelines recommended by the White House. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has set a goal of 30,000 tests per day as his state launched one of the nation’s most aggressive reopenings on May 1. He never set a firm date on when the state would hit the 30,000 mark, but for most of May, the daily testing numbers have fallen well short of that. Local leaders say tests are still in short supply. El Paso officials have pleaded with the governor to postpone easing up any more business restrictions in light of the COVID-19 cases there surging 60% over the past two weeks. The first stage of reopening in Maryland was scheduled to take effect Friday evening, when some retail stores will be allowed to reopen and a stay-at-home order lifted. But some of the hardest-hit parts of the state, including the suburbs of Washington, D.C., extended restrictions for residents and businesses. Maryland averaged 4,265 tests per day this week, compared with about 4,900 the previous week. Nearly 22 percent of people tested positive in Maryland on average over the last seven days. Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan made headlines last month when the state acquired 500,000 test kits from a South Korean company in a confidential deal, but Maryland has not had all the components needed for testing — like swabs — to meet demand. Hogan said Maryland just received swabs this week from the Federal Emergency Management Agency. “We requested 350,000,” Hogan said Wednesday. “They’ve committed to 225,000, and I think we got 75,000 yesterday with another 125,000 that are supposedly days away, along with the tubes and the stuff that goes with them. So it’s not enough, but it helps us.”
Researchers at Harvard University have calculated that the U.S. needs to test a minimum of 900,000 people per day to safely reopen the economy, based on the 10% positivity rate and several other key metrics. That goal is nearly three times the country’s current daily testing tally of about 360,000, according to figures compiled by the COVID Tracking Project website.
“The fact that testing has become the Achilles’ heel that has made it hard for us to have a great national response to this pandemic is a tragedy,” said Dr. Ashish Jha, director of Harvard’s Global Health Institute. “I’d like us to have a massive amount of ubiquitous testing so that, of all the things we need to worry about, testing isn’t one of them.” President Donald Trump insisted again this week that his administration had “met the moment” and “prevailed” on testing, even as he continued to shift responsibility for the effort to the governors. Administration officials said they will provide states with enough testing supplies to conduct about 400,000 tests per day in May and June. But that’s still less than half the total recommended by the Harvard team. Only nine states met the daily rate recommended by Jha and his colleagues, according to the AP analysis. Most of those states are large and rural, such as Montana, Alaska, North Dakota and Wyoming. Meanwhile, states with some of the biggest testing shortfalls, including New York and New Jersey, have signaled they will keep stay-at-home orders in place or only partially ease restrictions. “I really do feel there are dangers here opening up without enough tests, but I don’t feel it’s a uniform danger everywhere in the country,” Jha said. In New York, Gov. Andrew Cuomo will allow many smaller cities and rural regions of upstate New York to gradually reopen first, industry by industry, in areas that have been spared the brunt of the coronavirus outbreak. The first wave of businesses includes retail — though only for curbside or in-store pickup — along with construction and manufacturing. Cuomo also announced that beaches would be allowed to open in time for the Memorial Day weekend. New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy will let individual shore towns decide when it comes to reopening beaches. His long-awaited guidance Thursday directed them to set occupancy limits, require 6 feet (2 meters) of space between beachgoers, except family members or couples, and prohibit groups of 10 or more from congregating on the beach. Beaches also reopened this week in Los Angeles County, with masks required. North Carolina is among the states that have made major progress on testing, reporting on Friday an all-time high of more than 12,000 additional tests completed compared with the previous day. But the state’s seven-day rolling average of just over 6,000 tests is still well below the 11,000 daily tests recommended by Harvard’s team. The testing increases over the past few weeks contributed in part to Gov. Roy Cooper and state leaders feeling comfortable with easing his stay-at-home order May 8. In the West, Grand Canyon National Park reopened Friday to allow visitors in for day trips but not overnight. By 7:30 a.m., more than two dozen people were enjoying viewpoints along the South Rim. Signs went up reminding tourists to keep their distance from one another and stay in groups of less than 10. Park employees also were giving friendly reminders. “It’s mostly self-awareness, but we are still encouraging the same guidelines” as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Grand Canyon spokeswoman Lily Daniels said. Volume of testing isn’t the only concern. The Food and Drug Administration said late Thursday that it was investigating preliminary data that suggested a rapid COVID-19 test used daily to test Trump and key members of his staff can miss infections. Trump expressed confidence in the test from Abbott Laboratories. Worldwide, there have been more than 4.4 million coronavirus infections reported and 300,000 deaths, while nearly 1.6 million people have recovered, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University. Nick Note: The most politicized disease in human history. It will be used to make you a slave. You can test yourself for the symptoms. Take you temperature often. And monitor your blood oxygen (SpO2) levels. If you have a fever and your Oxy levels drop below 90 assume you have the disease and get yourself to a doctor. We have sent to subscribers a Oxymeter that i bought in bulk 3 months ago. Its a free gift. We have sold NO coronavirus supplies. We have given away a pile of stuff. And donated millions in tests, supplies, medicines and supported several clinics.
