Author: BlackMask Financial

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Deepening Rout in Commodities Stokes Fears About World Economy

As coronavirus spreads around the globe, an array of commodities are falling alongside stock markets

The coronavirus outbreak has sparked one of the largest retreats in commodity prices in years, forcing investors to brace for even steeper declines and sending a warning signal about the world economy’s prospects in 2020. Raw materials sensitive to shifts in global growth have been among the hardest hit investments since the coronavirus began spreading around the globe and hurting travel and corporate activity. Oil prices have fallen 32% in less than two months and last week recorded their worst week since the financial crisis. Industrial metals from copper to aluminum are also taking a beating. Commodities started falling steadily after China reported its first death from the coronavirus in January and began taking steps to curb its spread, slowing the country’s economy early in the year. While stocks held up well at that time, materials fell because China is a critical source of demand, accounting for about half of global consumption of some commodities like copper. As the virus has spread to other countries, from Italy to South Korea, commodities have fallen alongside global stocks, sending the S&P 500 down 13% in the past seven trading sessions. The pain has extended to agricultural commodities including sugar and cotton. The broad selloff is a major concern for some analysts because commodity prices can provide a real-time indicator of activity in the world economy. The current slide reflects slumping demand and bloated inventories, a recipe for excess supply. Some investors worry the widespread selling of assets associated with risk also portends more pain ahead for stocks. In addition to monitoring the spread of the virus, investors this week will be watching purchasing managers index figures and data on U.S. hiring for February to gauge how much the world economy might slow this year. Some analysts say the longest-ever U.S. economic expansion is already in jeopardy. As U.S. crude oil skidded last week to its lowest level since December 2018, ending Friday at $44.76 a barrel, natural gas also extended a monthslong fall. Natural-gas futures dropped to a nearly four-year low of $1.68 a million British thermal units. The declines have been a boon for consumers who are paying less for gasoline at the pump and to heat their homes with natural gas this winter. But they are also threatening profits for energy-producing companies and nations like Saudi Arabia, some of which need higher prices to sustain their economies. “We see the oil and gas market as fundamentally oversupplied, with demand even further impacted by the coronavirus,” Continental Resources Inc. Executive Chairman Harold Hamm said on the company’s earnings call Thursday. Shares of the company are down 45% so far this year. Donald Morton, a senior vice president at Herbert J. Sims & Co. who oversees an energy trading desk in Haverhill, Mass., said he struggles to remember demand fears this severe in energy markets since the financial crisis more than a decade ago. While he thinks the drop has gone too far, he said the negative sentiment could keep prices down until the virus fears ebb. “What’s occurring is pretty dramatic,” he said. “I don’t think the price today is reflecting reality.” Many analysts expect the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries to deepen recent production cuts at a coming meeting, a move that could help stabilize oil prices if efforts to curb the spread of the coronavirus are successful. Still, steady shale output from the U.S. and production from nations outside OPEC have many traders preparing for oil inventories to remain well supplied moving forward.  During the selloff four years ago, fears that an economic slowdown in China would spark a recession pushed crude prices below $30 a barrel.

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Coronavirus unlikely to vanish next year-NIH’s Fauci

WASHINGTON, Feb 28 (Reuters) – A senior U.S. health official told lawmakers that the coronavirus that is spreading globally is unlikely to disappear next year and that many more cases should be expected in the United States, according to a source who attended a briefing on Friday.

Anthony Fauci, who heads the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious diseases, also told House of Representatives members in a closed briefing that the United States currently does not have enough coronavirus testing resources. Nick Note: do not let them blow blue sky up your ass. The US is prepared for this like a banana republic!

 

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Trump Calls Coronavirus Fear The Dems’ ‘New Hoax’ As More Cases Confirmed

President Donald Trump accused Democrats of a new “hoax” over criticism of his handling of the coronavirus threat, as US health officials reported Friday a fourth case of novel coronavirus of unknown origin, indicating the disease was spreading in the country. The latest case is a boy under 18 in Washington State who tested “presumptive positive” and is currently in home isolation in Snohomish County. The high school he attends will be shut until March 3 while it is deep cleaned, the Washington State Department of Health said. A positive test is treated as “presumptive” until the results have been confirmed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Earlier Friday, Californian health authorities said an older woman was confirmed infected with unknown origin — the second such case in the northern part of the state. “This new case indicates that there is evidence of community transmission but the extent is still not clear,” said Sara Cody, director of public health for Santa Clara County. “What we know now is that the virus is here, present at some level, but we still don’t know to what degree,” she added. The latest infections have heightened fears of an outbreak across the country. President Donald Trump and his administration have come under fire for a slow response to the coronavirus. Lawmakers say that his proposed $2.5 billion injection to boost defenses against the virus is not enough.

Trump, however, has responded to criticism of his response to the coronavirus by blaming others. He said that Democrats were politicising the virus, even calling it the Democrats’ “new hoax”.

“They’re doing everything they can to instill fear in people, and I think it’s ridiculous, and I think they’re very disreputable,” he told reporters. According to the Centers for Disease Control more than 60 people are infected with the disease in the United States, the majority of them in California. The state’s governor Gavin Newsom said on Thursday 33 people had tested positive for the virus, and five of them had left California. Worldwide offically close to 90,000 people have been infected and over 3,000 have died. The UN has said that the window of opportunity for containing the virus is narrowing, while the World Health Organisation has announced that there is a high risk of the virus spreading worldwide. The escalating number of cases has sent stock markets tumbling, with Wall Street plunging to its worst week since the financial crisis. Tourism has plunged in economies around the world. Economists have forecast a drop in global growth to 2.4%, the slowest since the 2009 recession. Nick Note: Presidenta Bullshit Artist is the LAST person you want to listen to or worse yet in command of this pandemic….. WHY because with Trump noting matters but his quest to stay in power and get more. Unlike any president i have ever seen before Trump has tied his fortunes to the Stock Market  Star. The afore mentioned shooting star that  flamed brightly across the December record high sky’s only to flame out at the end of February. In what is so far the biggest stock market wipeout  since the 2008 financial crises. Trump is dead meat… the stock market took him up and it WILL take him down. Pay attention to who the Democratic party nominee is. Because that person will be the next president unless Trump declares martial law and suspends the constitution and elections…. AND he has the power to do that in a national emergency!

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Inside Trump’s frantic attempts to minimize the coronavirus crisis

WASHINGTON – Minutes before President Donald Trump  reassured a skittish nation about the coronavirus threat, he received a piece of crucial information: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had identified in California the first U.S. case of the illness not tied to foreign travel, a sign that the virus’ spread in the United States was likely to explode. But when Trump took to the lectern for a news conference intended to bring transparency to the spiraling global crisis, he made no explicit mention of the California case and its implications – and falsely suggested the virus might soon be eradicated in the United States. “And again, when you have 15 people – and the 15 within a couple of days is going to be down to close to zero – that’s a pretty good job we’ve done,” he said.

Trump’s playing down of the California patient at his news conference underscores the administration’s slapdash and often misleading attempts to contain not just the virus, but also potential political damage from the outbreak – which has tanked financial markets, slowed global commerce and killed some 3,000 people worldwide, including the first U.S. death, announced Saturday.

Since Trump touched down from a two-day trip to India early Wednesday morning, the administration struggled to cope with the fallout from the crisis – shaking up and centralizing its coronavirus response team under the leadership of Vice President Mike Pence, floating plans to stabilize the markets and publicly seeking to minimize the threat posed by the potential pandemic.

Interviews with nearly two dozen administration officials, former White House aides, public health experts and lawmakers – many speaking on the condition of anonymity to share candid assessments and details – portray a White House scrambling to gain control of a rudderless response defined by bureaucratic infighting, confusion and misinformation.

“It’s complete chaos,” a senior administration official said. “Everyone is just trying to get a handle on what the [expletive] is going on.”

Trump  grew frustrated as he watched the markets plummet and was particularly fixated on Nancy Messonnier, the director of the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, who in a briefing Tuesday warned that the virus’ spread to the United States was no longer a question of “if” but “exactly when this will happen.”

“We are asking the American public to prepare for the expectation that this might be bad,” Messonnier said at the time. Trump is furious over what he considered an alarmist response by his administration and also thought he was being treated unfairly by the media. He was eager to inject his own voice into the unfolding drama and scheduled the White House news conference for Wednesday evening. When Trump stepped in front of the cameras he offered an account that was, by turns, misleading and sanguine. “Well, I don’t think it’s inevitable,” Trump said, contradicting Messonnier and the health officials who spoke after him Wednesday. “It probably will, it possibly will. It could be at a very small level or it could be at a larger level. Whatever happens, we’re totally prepared.” Republican senators have voiced a variety of concerns. They fretted about the administration’s level of preparation to date, communication failures with Capitol Hill and, in the words of Appropriations Committee Chairman Richard Shelby, R-Ala., the “lowball” funding request. Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah – a target of Trump’s ire for his vote to convict the president of an impeachment charge – was among those who stood in the private briefing to register objections. “One, I’m very disappointed in the preparation that’s been done over the last few years anticipating the potential of an outbreak of substance,” Romney said in an interview later. “We’ve had SARS, we’ve had MERS, Ebola,” Romney continued, rattling off previous global outbreaks. “We should have stockpiled the kind of protective gear that our medical professionals will need and our citizens will need, and we haven’t. And looking forward, the [spending] number that’s being suggested strikes me as being inadequate to the level of risk.” Trump did not, however, name a single “czar,” as some previous administrations have done during health emergencies. The president decided against that option after worrying that bringing in a person from outside the administration might be seen as a failure – and wondering whether such a person would be loyal to him, according to those familiar with the debate.

Azar, who had previously been in charge, found out about his de facto demotion just moments before Trump publicly announced it. But two senior administration officials said Azar found it empowering to have the vice president formally join the response. “He’s not in control anymore, and that’s clear,” a senior HHS official said of Azar, who remains chairman of the administration’s coronavirus task force. “You need HHS at the table – he’s just not going to be the one guiding the administration through the response.” The decision to tap Pence and streamline all communication through the vice president’s office was primarily driven by a potent combination of a lack of leadership and structure inside the White House, four senior officials said, as well as a faulty CDC coronavirus diagnostic test, botched and conflicting messaging from senior health officials, and Trump’s obsession with the falling financial markets, two senior administration officials said. Many HHS employees fretted that financial concerns, rather than public health considerations, were dictating the administration’s response, one of the officials added. Some of Pence’s own advisers wondered whether having Pence in charge was a good idea, given the messy situation and a lack of experience in his office on the topic. But, ever loyal, the vice president accepted the role assigned by Trump.

Another failure in the U.S. response has been a faulty CDC coronavirus diagnostic test. The United States has tested far fewer people than other nations have, and the criteria for who gets tested remained exceedingly narrow until Thursday.

When Pence finally took over the response midweek, he hosted a Thursday meeting at the HHS that some officials said was intended to undermine Azar and make clear that Pence was now in charge; others described it as a show of support. The combination of Azar, Birx and Pence all in leadership roles, however, also prompted a new round of confusion among officials struggling to determine how the response would be run.

Continue reading “Inside Trump’s frantic attempts to minimize the coronavirus crisis”

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Stock markets suffer worst week since financial crisis [AFP] AFP•February 29, 2020 Face masks have become hot items in stores and pharmacies from Seoul to Sao Paulo

New York (AFP) – Global stocks slumped again Friday to mark the largest weekly drop since the 2008 global financial crisis over fears the coronavirus could wreak havoc on the world economy. Crude oil prices tumbled as well and analysts said central banks, especially the US Federal Reserve, might have to shift into crisis-resolution mode with urgent interest rate cuts. Frankfurt headed the losses in Europe, shedding almost 3.9 percent as the market closed. Leading European stock markets have lost more than 10 percent in just one week, with London’s FTSE 100, which fell by 3.4 percent on Friday, dropping 11.3 percent. Wall Street also had another difficult day, with the Dow finishing down 1.4 percent at 25,409.36, which meant a drop of more than 12 percent for the week.

But US indices cut their losses after Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell released a statement saying the US economy remains “strong” but vowing to “use our tools” to provide support if needed.

The markets in Shanghai, Sydney and Tokyo all closed down 3.0 percent, while Jakarta shed more than four percent.

“The panic mode is full on,” said Ipek Ozkardeskaya, senior analyst at Swissquote Bank.

“The coronavirus outbreak has certainly hit businesses, and it might have a longer-than-expected negative impact on company earnings and global growth,” she added. Meanwhile, the Japanese yen continue to benefit from its status as a haven investment in times of economic uncertainty, making solid gains against the dollar. Yields on 10-year US Treasuries hit new all-time lows. Concern that global crude demand will crash meanwhile sent oil prices down again: in London, Brent crude fell 3.2 percent, while the US benchmark WTI crude dropped 4.9 percent. “Another day, another sell-off,” remarked analyst Stephen Brennock at energy consultancy PVM Associates. “Risk assets took a significant step lower… as market players continued to squirm with unease over the growing coronavirus crisis.” In addition to central banks, governments also faced pressure to provide support. French Economy and Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said the virus would be considered “a case of force majeure for companies,” meaning they would not be penalized if they failed to meet deadlines on public contracts. The virus has now proliferated worldwide, emerging in every continent except Antarctica, and prompting governments and businesses to curb travel and public gatherings. On Friday, Nigeria reported the first new coronavirus case in sub-Saharan Africa, as the World Health Organization warned against the “fatal mistake” of complacency. Iceland reported its first case too. The Geneva International Motor Show was the latest major event to be canceled after Switzerland banned large gatherings. The virus has killed more than 2,800 people and infected more than 84,000 since late December

New York – Dow: DOWN 1.4 percent at 25,409.36 (close)

New York – S&P 500: DOWN 0.8 percent at 2,954.22 (close)

New York – Nasdaq: FLAT at 8,567.37 (close)

London – FTSE 100: DOWN 3.2 percent at 6,580.61 (close)

Frankfurt – DAX 30: DOWN 3.9 percent at 11,890.35 (close)

Paris – CAC 40: DOWN 3.4 percent at 5,309.90 (close)

Milan – FTSE MIB: DOWN 3.6 percent at 21,984.21 (close)

EURO STOXX 50: DOWN 3.7 percent at 3,329.49 (close)

Tokyo – Nikkei 225: DOWN 3.7 percent at 21,142.96 (close)

Hong Kong – Hang Seng: DOWN 2.4 percent at 26,129.93 (close)

Shanghai – Composite: DOWN 3.7 percent at 2,880.30 (close)

Dollar/yen: DOWN at 108.06 from 109.59 at 2200 GMT

Euro/dollar: UP at $1.1029 from $1.1001

Pound/dollar: DOWN at $1.2821 from $1.2887

Euro/pound: UP at 86.00 pence from 85.36 pence

Brent Crude: DOWN 3.2 percent at $50.52 per barrel

West Texas Intermediate: DOWN 4.9 percent at $44.76 per barrel

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Person in Washington state first in US to die from new virus

Santa Clara County Public Health Department Director Dr. Sara Cody speaks during a news conference in San Jose, Calif., on Friday, Feb. 28, 2020. Santa Clara County health officials confirmed a second case of unknown origin of the novel coronavirus. (Anda Chu/Bay Area News Group via AP) A person has died in Washington state of COVID-19, state health officials said Saturday, marking the first such reported death in the United States. State officials issued a terse news release announcing the death, gave no details and scheduled a news conference. A spokesperson for EvergreenHealth Medical Center, Kayse Dahl, said the person died in the facility in the Seattle suburb of Kirkland, but gave no other details.President Donald Trump described the  person as being a woman in her late 50s and having a high medical risk. He said healthy Americans should be able to recover if they contract the new virus. Washington Gov. Jay Inslee said in a statement the person who died was a man from Washington state, but then issued another one removing the gender and describing the individual as “a Washingtonian.” “We will continue to work toward a day where no one dies from this virus,” the governor said.
Washington state and King County health officials said “new people (have been) identified with the infection, one of whom died.” They did not say how many new cases there are.

Amy Reynolds of the Washington state health department said in a brief telephone interview: “We are dealing with an emergency evolving situation.” Health officials in California, Oregon and Washington state worried about the novel coronavirus spreading through West Coast communities after confirming at least three patients were infected by unknown means. They had not visited an area where there was an outbreak, nor apparently been in contact with anyone who had. The number of coronavirus cases in the United States is considered small. Worldwide, the number of people sickened by the virus hovered Friday around 83,000, and there were more than 2,800 deaths, most of them in China. Most infections result in mild symptoms, including coughing and fever, though some can become more serious and lead to pneumonia. Older people, especially those with chronic illnesses such as heart or lung disease, are especially vulnerable. Health officials think it spreads mainly from droplets when an infected person coughs or sneezes, similar to how the flu spreads. The patients — an older Northern California woman with chronic health conditions, a high school student in Everett, Washington, and an employee at a Portland, Oregon-area school — hadn’t recently traveled overseas or had any known close contact with a traveler or an infected person, authorities said. Earlier U.S. cases include three people who were evacuated from the central China city of Wuhan, epicenter of the outbreak; 14 people who returned from China, or their spouses; and 42 American passengers on the Diamond Princess cruise ship, who were flown to U.S. military bases in California and Texas for quarantining. Convinced that the number of cases will grow but determined to keep them from exploding, health agencies were ramping up efforts to identify patients. The California Department of Public Health said Friday that the state will receive enough kits from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control to test up to 1,200 people a day for the COVID-19 virus — a day after Gov. Gavin Newsom complained to federal health officials that the state had already exhausted its initial 200 test kits. Santa Clara County in the San Francisco Bay Area reported two cases where the source of infection wasn’t known. The older woman was hospitalized for a respiratory illness, and rapid local testing confirmed in one day that she had the virus, health officials said. “This case represents some degree of community spread, some degree of circulation,” said Dr. Sara Cody, health officer for Santa Clara County and director of the County of Santa Clara Public Health Department. “But we don’t know to what extent,” Cody said. “It could be a little, it could be a lot.” “We need to begin taking important additional measures to at least slow it down as much as possible,” she said.Cody said the newly confirmed case in Santa Clara County is not linked to two previous cases in that county, nor to others in the state. The Santa Clara County resident was treated at a local hospital and is not known to have traveled to Solano County, where another woman was identified Wednesday as having contracted the virus from an unknown source. Dozens of people had close contact with the Solano County woman. They were urged to quarantine themselves at home, while a few who showed symptoms of illness were in isolation, officials said. At UC Davis Medical Center at least 124 registered nurses and other health care workers were sent home for “self-quarantine” after the Solano County woman with the virus was admitted, National Nurses United, a nationwide union representing RNs, said Friday. The case “highlights the vulnerability of the nation’s hospitals to this virus,” the union said. Earlier Friday, Oregon confirmed its first coronavirus case, a person who works at an elementary school in the Portland area, which will be temporarily closed. The Lake Oswego School District sent a robocall to parents saying that Forest Hills Elementary will be closed until Wednesday so it can be deep-cleaned by maintenance workers. Washington state health officials announced two new coronavirus cases Friday night, including a high school student who attends Jackson High School in Everett, said Dr. Chris Spitters of the Snohomish County Health District. The other case in Washington was a woman in in King County in her 50s who had recently traveled to South Korea, authorities said.

Both patients weren’t seriously ill.

But health officials aren’t taking any chances. Some communities, including San Francisco, already have declared local emergencies in case they need to obtain government funding. In Southern California’s Orange County, the city of Costa Mesa went to court to prevent state and federal health officials from transferring dozens of people exposed to the virus aboard a cruise ship in Japan to a state-owned facility in the city. The passengers, including some who tested positive for the virus and underwent hospital care, had been staying at Travis Air Force Base in Northern California. On Friday, state officials said the federal decided it no longer had a crucial need to move those people to the Fairview Developmental Center in Costa Mesa. That’s because of the imminent end of the isolation period for those passengers and the relatively small number of persons who ended up testing positive, officials said. The new coronavirus cases of unknown origin marks an escalation of the worldwide outbreak in the U.S. because it means the virus could spread beyond the reach of preventative measures like quarantines, though state health officials said that was inevitable and that the risk of widespread transmission remains low. Federal officials think the coronavirus is spread only through “close contact, being within 6 feet of somebody for what they’re calling a prolonged period of time,” said Dr. James Watt, interim state epidemiologist at the California Department of Public Health. Peter Beilenson, Sacramento County’s health services director, said he expects even those who test positive to become only mildly ill.

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Coronavirus survive on surfaces up to 10 hours

Feb 28 (Reuters) – As a new coronavirus spreads quickly around the world, U.S. health officials say they are “aggressively” assessing how long it can survive on surfaces to better understand the risk of transmission. Based on what is known about similar coronaviruses, disease experts say the new outbreak of the virus, named COVID-19, is mainly spread from person to person through coughing or sneezing. Contact with fecal matter from an infected person may also transmit the virus. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says it may be possible for a person to become infected by touching a surface or object that has the virus on it and then touching their own mouth, nose or eyes. An analysis of 22 earlier studies of similar coronaviruses, including Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) and Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) published online this month in the Journal of Hospital Infection, concluded that human coronaviruses can remain infectious on inanimate surfaces for up to nine days at room temperature. However, they can quickly be rendered inactive using common disinfectants, and may also dissipate at higher temperatures, the authors wrote. It is not yet clear, however, whether the new coronavirus behaves in a similar way. “On copper and steel it’s pretty typical, it’s pretty much about two hours,” CDC Director Dr. Robert Redfield told U.S. lawmakers on Thursday, referring to how long the new coronavirus may be active on those types of materials. “But I will say on other surfaces – cardboard or plastic – it’s longer, and so we are looking at this.” The agency said there is likely a very low risk of spread from products or packaging that are shipped over a period of days or weeks at ambient temperatures. A CDC spokeswoman, in an emailed statement, said the agency is still looking into how contagious the virus can be when deposited on more common, everyday surfaces. The Food and Drug Administration this week said it has no evidence that COVID-19 has been transmitted from imported goods, but the situation remains “dynamic” and the agency said it will assess and update guidance as needed. “The important big take-home message is that this is probably a small proportion of the transmission of respiratory viruses,” said Dr. Timothy Brewer, professor of epidemiology and medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles. “Out in the community, these viruses are probably not surviving for a long time on surfaces.” Brewer explained that such viruses tend to survive the longest in low-temperature, low-humidity environments, “that is why you see lots of respiratory viruses during the winter.”

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Stock markets are headed for a 40 percent plunge, says economist who predicted financial crisis

The end of a very rough week for U.S. markets brought a worrying prediction. While one expert warned fallout from the global coronavirus outbreak could be “worse than the financial crisis” of 2008, the economist who correctly predicted that very crisis is now saying the idea of a major global recession “doesn’t sound too farfetched.” Nouriel Roubini, a New York University business professor and market prognosticator who foretold the housing bubble burst, told Yahoo Finance on Friday to expect “severe” consequences as the coronavirus continues to rattle markets. How severe? He told Der Spiegel it could be worse than investors even believe at this point, predicting “global equities to tank by 30 to 40 percent this year.” He said people “prefer to believe in miracles,”

(President Trump’s prediction is  the coronavirus will “disappear … like a miracle,”)

People don’t realize the “simple math” tells us that realistically, a squeezed Chinese economy will mean downturns around the globe. “This crisis will spill over and result in a disaster,” said Roubini. Roubini, who is often nicknamed Dr. Doom for his frequent pessimistic predictions, also saw doom and gloom for Trump’s future as president as a result of any economic strife. Asked by Der Spiegel, Roubini said Trump would likely try to benefit politically from the outbreak, but “will lose the election, that’s for sure.” Pointing to past incumbent presidents getting ousted amid geopolitical tensions that damaged the economy, he said “The Democratic field is poor, but Trump is dead. Quote me on that!” Though the week just saw a 3,500-point drop for the Dow Jones Industrial Average, Roubini warned: “It is far from being over.” Nick Note: I am on record this is the big one!

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Shortage In Chinese Products Could Mean Empty Shelves In U.S.

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) – The label “Made in China” is more common on store shelves than “Made in America.” Means  “Literally, empty shelves in Target and Walmart as early as April,” predicts David Iwinski, a local China business consultant who once ran a factory in China. Most retail stores are likely to have shortages because the coronavirus in China is hampering the manufacture of products shipped to America. Some 780 million Chinese people currently have travel restrictions, keeping many from their jobs, Iwinski told KDKA money editor Jon Delano on Friday. “The factories that have opened in the non-restricted zones, they’re reporting to me worker levels at 40 to 45 percent. Sixty percent of their people can’t get back.” “Apple announced already having shortages of iPhones. Nike has announced that they’re going to have shortages and clothing is coming in short supply now.” “Amazon has a number of products that are simply unavailable.” Over $560 billion worth of products come from China. While some of these products have alternative sources in other countries, many are exclusively from China — everything from electric blankets to video game consoles, from cooking appliances to baby carriages.

In fact, Proctor & Gamble just announced that Chinese materials impact 17,600 different finished products.

Other product shortages are expected in clothing, computers, cell phones, shoes and even toys.

Nick Note: The supply chain is broken, the pipeline filled with the things you use everyday is emptying out.  Stock up today. Pay special  attention to your medicines.  Stock up! STOCK UP! You are entering a brand new world. In a bygone era people filled up their pantries.  And the average American had enough food to  last at least  to the next growing season. Today most people are good till the next pizza delivery or grubhub order!  Now if you think other suppliers are going to step into the gap.. think again because South Korea and even Viet Nam are sucking shut.

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Number of coronavirus cases from unknown source growing in U.S.

Three new presumptive cases were reported Friday on the West Coast, with patients in Oregon, Washington and California, but it’s not clear how they were infected.

Three new presumptive cases were reported Friday on the West Coast, with patients in Oregon, Washington and California, but it’s not clear how they were infected.
Three new confirmed or presumptive cases of the coronavirus illness COVID-19 contracted from an unknown source were reported Friday, bringing the total number of what could be “community spread” cases in the United States to four. The patients from these four cases have no known travel history or exposure to someone who had traveled or been infected. Not all four have been confirmed by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention testing, but they tested positive locally.

 New cases were reported in Washington state, Oregon and California on Friday. Earlier this week, a patient at a Sacramento hospital with no known source of infection was confirmed by CDC testing to have the illness. The case in Washington state in Snohomish County involves a high school student, health officials said. The student is said to be doing well and did not attend classes after developing symptoms earlier this week. “There was no travel history associated with this case. Our team is still in the midst of the contact investigation, so we do not yet know the possible source of infection,” Snohomish Health District Health Officer Dr. Chris Spitters said. Spitters urged the public to remain calm and informed. Oregon health officials said Friday that someone who had spent time in an elementary school tested positive for COVID-19 in a local test, and the source of that infection is not yet known. Contact tracing is being conducted and is a top priority, Oregon Health Authority Director Pat Allen said. The CDC test to confirm is pending. It is the first presumptive case in Oregon. Health officials say they are prepared for cases of the coronavirus illness in the state. On Friday, the Santa Clara, California, county health department said that a COVID-19 case confirmed there involved an adult woman who does not have a travel history nor any known contact with a traveler or infected person. “This new case indicates that there is evidence of community transmission, but the extent is still not clear,” Dr. Sara Cody, health officer for Santa Clara County and director of the County of Santa Clara Public Health Department, said in a statement. “I understand this may be concerning to hear, but this is what we have been preparing for. Now we need to start taking additional actions to slow down the spread of the disease.” “Community spread” is a term used when someone is infected but the source is unknown. Previously much of the focus seemed to be on people who had visited such places as Wuhan, China, where the outbreak began, or who had been in close contact with people who were infected. The CDC adjusted its testing guidance this week to include people with symptoms but with no identified source of exposure. The first case of COVID-19 in the United States which may involve community spread was confirmed by a CDC test on Wednesday. That patient is at UC Davis Medical Center in Sacramento, California, and involves a woman from Solano County, officials have said.   The CDC said in a statement Friday it is aware of the cases announced Friday, and that it is prepared “Unprecedented, aggressive efforts have been taken to contain the spread and mitigate the impact of this virus. CDC and federal partners have been preparing for the detection of additional instances of person-to-person spread of COVID-19 for weeks,” the centers said in a statement. Officials have stressed that the best defense against contracting the novel coronavirus that causes the COVID-19 illness is preventative measures including washing hands with soap and water; routinely cleaning frequently touched surfaces and objects; and covering coughs and sneezes, among other measures. Nick Note: I understand that many Trumpers believe this is a nothing burger…. I am told many fundamental Christians believe people will be cured by the “laying on of hands” I am all for faith healing….. But its better not to get infected in the first place… Don’t want to waste miracles………. This is a Pandemic… and COULD become a modern PLAGUE….. My hands are cleaned you have been warned and i am now free to cash in big time. PRAISE THE LORD and pocket the cash!!