Wagner Group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin said on Monday that the goal of his march on Rostov over the weekend was not to overthrow Russian leadership but to stop the destruction of his mercenary company, which was going to be absorbed into the regular Russian military in July. He said that none of the Wagner chiefs agreed to sign contracts with the Russian Defense Ministry but that they planned to reach Rostov on 30 June and hand over their military equipment to the local Defense Ministry headquarters.In his first social media post since he agreed to leave Russia, Prigozhin said the aim of the uprising was to “hold accountable those who made mistakes” in the war against Ukraine and that it revealed “serious security problems” in the country. He expressed regret that Wagner did not want to “show aggression” but that it was forced to target Russian aircraft after it was attacked with missiles, claiming 30 fighters died. He said the march toward Moscow was halted “to avoid spilling the blood of Russian soldiers.” NN:In Russia the way you “hold accountable those who made mistakes” in the war against Ukraine is with 25,000 blood thirsty cut throats armed to the teeth with machine guns, tanks and armored vehicles….. I am sure glad they were not planning violence!!
Putin extends retaliatory oil measures until end of 2023
Russian President Vladimir Putin signed on Monday an extension of the order that was created as a response to the West’s ceiling on Russia’s oil. The decree has been extended to the end of 2023. The order, which was drafted and approved back in 2022, and came into force in February 2023, prohibits the sale of the country’s oil and oil products to foreign parties that directly or indirectly implement the price cap introduced by “unfriendly countries.” Originally, the decree was supposed to expire on July 1, but the new date is now December 31. NN: One of the main arrows in Putin’s quiver is oil. He needs to use all the tools at his disposal.
Putin Barley Survived Coup…. For Now, In The Fight of His Life
- Wagner planned attack for months
- Got within 100 miles of Mpscow
- Little resistance along the way
- Regular Army troops joined column
- Prigozhin most popular man in Russia
- Putin Barely clinging to power
- Russia must win Ukraine otherwise revolution
- I tell you the shocking story of Why Wagner too the deal
- Prigozhin holed up in Ukraine
A VERY desperate Putin knows he cannot win a conventional war with his weakened military. More then ever he needs Wagner which he dismantled. He believes Russia (him) will not survive a loss in the Ukraine. So a very desperate Putin is about to unleash hell on the Ukraine. He will use every weapon at his disposal including tactical nuclear weapons. Damns will be breached. Europe’s largest nuclear power plant is about to have an “accident” as in meltdown. Food supplies from Russia and the Ukraine are halted and will stay that way. Soon oil and gas will be embargoed. Prigozhinis the most hunted man in the world. Number 1 on the FBI’s most wanted list. Interpol has a Red Letter out on him. And Putin has put a huge price on his head. This begs the question why did he march on Moscow and why did Warner take a deal? NN BlackMask Pod Cast:
You can’t have two winners
Putin Blinks First…. Wagner Group head Yevgeny Prigoz is the winner
Wagner Group head Yevgeny Prigozhin accepted the proposal put forward by Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko to halt the movement of its forces in Russia and take measures to de-escalate the situation with Moscow. According to the Telegram channel “Pool of the First” close to the press service of the Belarusian head of state, an agreeable solution has been formulated to address the situation, ensuring the safety of the Wagner fighters. The news comes after reports indicated that the forces are heading toward Moscow with the goal to overturn the military leadership in the country. NN: I am sure Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Russia’s top general, Valery Gerasimov, will be falling off their balconies. Their fate has been sealed. Wagner Group head Yevgeny Prigozhi is the winner.
BlackMask Market Update……. Russian Civil War has Strated
BlackMask Market News and Commentary:
A column of Rebel Troops Headed to Moscow
Led by Commander Yevgeny Prigozhin Wagner Army Marching to Moscow
https://youtu.be/7U7K0YSmgCI
In the above video that appeared on Telegram on Saturday showed mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin meeting with Russia’s Deputy Defense Minister Yunus-Bek Yevkurov and deputy chief of the General Staff Vladimir Alexeyev.
Wagner forces head to Moscow as tanks are spotted on highways and oil depot goes up in flames as militia’s chief Prigozhin mocks Putin call for ‘traitors’ to give themselves up
- Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin on Saturday declared his 25,000-strong force is in control of Rostov-on-Don and described his soldiers as ‘patriots’
- Putin responded by calling his actions a ‘betrayal’ of Russia as he appealed for soldiers to put their weapons
- Prigozhin made the move in fury at what he claimed was Moscow’s attack on his men, and said he intends to march to Moscow to take on defense chiefs
Russia’s Wagner militia forces are headed towards Moscow on Saturday after chief Yevgney Prigozhin initiated a military coup against Putin and his regime, which has seen the group take key cities and mock the President, who called them ‘traitors’ Moscow is on lockdown as troops dig in in preparation to defend the city. Prigozhin and his feared 25,000-strong Wagner militia have control of the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don, saying they are ‘ready to die’ as they vow revenge for a military strike from Putin’s forces that the mercenary leader says killed some of his men. The unit passed through the halfway city of Voronezh and have reached Lipetsk as they advance on Moscow, seeing negligible resistance. A huge oil depot was seen bursting into flames in the city, with a helicopter in the air at the time. Footage on social media has shown large convoys of troops heading north from Voronezh, thought to be Wagner mercenaries. They are also said to be on their way to other key cities including Krasnodar and Volgograd. Russia has responded by increasing security in Moscow, mobilising troops who are set to defend against the incursion, and calling for the military to rally around President Putin.
A message posted on the Wagner Telegram channel on Saturday said: ‘Putin made the wrong choice. All the worse for him. Soon we will have a new president.’
Prigozhin, who was once a confidant of Vladimir Putin before declaring war on Moscow’s military leadership last night, said in a video that the highest ranking officer at the command post had fled as soon as he learned that Wagner forces were approaching.
A Russian security source said Wagner fighters had also taken control of military facilities in the city of Voronezh, about 500 km (310 miles) south of Moscow. This would be significant as it marks the halfway point between Rostov and Moscow.
The governor of Russia’s Voronezh region said on Saturday that the army was taking ‘necessary military measures’ in the region as part of a counter-terrorist operation declared after an armed mutiny by the Wagner mercenary group. It is also being claimed that Wagner troops are on the outskirts of two other southern cities, Krasnodar and Volgograd – but this has not been verified. Pro-Putin forces on the outskirts of Moscow were meanwhile seen digging in against the Wagner coup army heading towards the capital. Multiple reports claimed Putin had left Moscow on Saturday afternoon, despite officials saying he was working in the Kremlin. A presidential plane linked to Vladimir Putin flew north from Moscow towards Tver before switching off its transponder, live flight data showed. Other business jets were seen making an exodus from the capital towards St Petersburg. Prigozhin said he had 25,000 troops under his command and would punish Russian military boss Shoigu in an armed rebellion, urging the army not to offer resistance: ‘This is not a military coup, but a march of justice.’ There were also claims that the 22nd GRU military intelligence special forces detachment went over to Prigozhin’s side. Wagner was meanwhile reported to have seized key military sites in Voronezh region as they progressed towards Moscow. Pro-Putin soldiers have set up road blocks on the way to Moscow and eyewitnesses have reported air strikes on the Wagner convoy heading north. NN: This is a big shit.. The fall of Putin may be in progress. This has serious disruptive market significant. I will be publishing a lot on this. AI and the news bots do not know how to analyze the market implications since their is nothing in their archive files they derive their artificial stupidness from.
Artificial Intelligence hysteria tech frenzy is another dot-com bubble
US investors’ tech-stock fever and recession skepticism are reminiscent of the dot-com bubble — and could end just as painfully, David Rosenberg has warned. The veteran economist and Rosenberg Research president listed a bunch of parallels between the internet mania at the turn of this century, and the current hype around artificial intelligence and other technologies, in a LinkedIn post this week. He pointed to extreme concentration in tech stocks, eye-popping valuations for some growth stocks, and investors shrugging off a crisis (the sudden collapse of Long-Term Capital Management then, the banking fiasco this time around.) The former chief North American economist at Merrill Lynch also highlighted the S&P 500’s resilience, the very tight labor market, the Federal Reserve raising interest rates sharply, the protracted yield-curve inversion, and widespread hopes among investors for a “soft landing” both today and before the dot-com crash. Rosenberg weighed in on AI and the dot-com craze too, suggesting that “both have enormous economic and productivity influences, but both also involved financial asset bubbles that popped in dramatic fashion.” Moreover, he cautioned that investors appear overly optimistic today, just as they were nearly 25 years ago. For example, they’ve roughly tripled Nvidia’s stock price this year, lifting its market capitalization to north of $1 trillion. They’ve also more than doubled the stock prices of Tesla, Meta, and other popular tech names too. “The smug complacency in 2000 looks eerily similar to what we have on our hands today,” Rosenberg said, adding that a recession is “coming sooner than you think.” He noted the inverted yield curve is signaling a 99% chance of a recession, and based on past economic cycles, that may mean the downturn arrives before the end of this year. The longtime market commentator also suggested that government stimulus during the pandemic inflated household savings, which have cushioned the impact of steeper borrowing costs and staved off an economic downturn so far. They “acted as an antidote to the Fed rate hikes, but this Energizer Bunny is starting to run out of gas,” he said, pointing to deteriorating business outlooks at several major US retailers and restaurants. Rosenberg suggested a deteriorating economy could spur the Fed to begin cutting rates by the fourth quarter of this year. Moreover, historic inflation could turn into deflation as the US money supply contracts and bank credit continues to decline, he said. The Rosenberg Research chief has been sounding the alarm on asset prices and the US economy for several months. He told Insider in February that the S&P 500 might bottom at 3,000 points — 31% below its current level — and house prices could plunge 25% from their peak last year. NN BlackMask Blog:
These Two ugly Words Will LOSE More Money Then Any Words ever Spoken
Powell said returning US inflation to 2% is crucial
Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said returning US inflation to 2% is crucial to support the long-term health of the US economy, and that more interest-rate increases may be needed this year. Policymakers feel “it will be appropriate to raise rates again this year, and perhaps twice,” if the economy performs about as expected, even as they’ve been hiked to an appropriately restrictive level, Powell told the Senate Banking Committee Thursday. The Fed chair said it is working families who suffer most directly and quickly from high inflation. “It is for the benefit of those people and all other people that we need to restore 2% inflation in this country on a sustained basis,” he said. “We are committed to getting inflation under control and a strong majority of the committee feels that we’re close, but there’s a little further to go with rate hikes.” Two-year treasuries declined further as he spoke, while the dollar gained against a basket of currencies. Powell was on Capitol Hill for a second day, presenting the Fed’s semiannual economic update to Congress.
He repeated the message he shared with the House Wednesday that the central bank was laser focused on reducing elevated inflation back to target despite Democrat lawmakers’ concerns that tighter credit will push up unemployment.
Fed officials held rates steady last week after 10 straight increases, giving themselves more time to evaluate how the economy is responding to recent banking stress and higher borrowing costs. The move left the Fed’s benchmark rate steady in a range of 5% to 5.25%. But fresh economic projections released at the meeting show policymakers see interest rates rising by another 50 basis points this year, according to the median forecast. “We don’t want to do more than we have to, but we do think — overwhelmingly, people on the committee do think — that there are more rate hikes coming, but we want to make them at a pace that allows us to see incoming information so we make good decisions,” Powell said. Fed Governor Michelle Bowman reinforced Powell’s hawkish remarks earlier Thursday, telling a Fed Listens event in Cleveland that “additional policy-rate increases will be necessary” to curb inflation that is still unacceptably high. Powell said Wall Street’s biggest banks will bare the brunt of US regulators’ moves to raise capital requirements for lenders, and that they could face an increase of about 20% in what they have to set aside. The long-awaited changes are part of an international overhaul of capital rules that started more than a decade ago in response to the financial crisis of 2008. The issue became more stark — and political — this year with the collapse of several banks in the US. NN: Its makes you wonder what they are shooting on Wall Street. Let me explain. You have an entire generation of people at the trading desks who only know 0% interest rates. Every time the economy stumbles all they see is massive stimulus. They do not know what higher interest rates and for that matter a recession is, They are completely blindside…. Sorry Tommy and Kathy, enjoy the good life while it lasts.
Crude oil plunges over 3% on economic uncertainty in spite of new sanctions on Russia
BRUSSELS, June 21 (Reuters) – European Union governments agreed on Wednesday to an 11th package of sanctions against Russia over its invasion of Ukraine, aimed at stopping other countries and companies from circumventing existing measures. The new package, tweeted by Sweden as EU president, forbids transit via Russia of an expanded list of goods and technology which might aid Russia’s military or security sector. The biggest novelty, diplomats said, was enabling restrictions on the sale of sensitive dual-use goods and technology to third countries that might sell it on to Russia. Names of such countries can be added to an annex of the EU sanctions regulation with unanimous agreement of all 27 members. EU officials have long been concerned about a surge of demand for EU products from Russia’s neighbours like Armenia, Kazakhstan or Kyrgyzstan and from the United Arab Emirates, Turkey or China. Moscow justifies the war on Ukraine as an existential battle for its own security and says the West is failing in an aggressive attempt to strangle its economy and crush its power. The EU package extends the suspension of EU broadcasting licences of five Russian state-controlled media.
To curb the practice of ships loading Russian crude oil or petroleum products at sea, the package bans access to EU ports for ships which engage in ship-to-ship transfers if there is cause to suspect the cargo was of Russian origin.
The package adds a further 71 persons and 33 entities to those banned from the EU and with EU assets frozen, for involvement in illegal deportation of Ukrainian children to Russia. The deal, in the making since April, had been held up by objections from Hungary and Greece over the listing by Ukraine of some of their companies as sponsors of war, because they did business with Russia or in other ways contributed to Moscow’s war effort. Overnight, Ukraine removed the five Greek shipping firms from its list, securing the backing of Athens for the package. Hungary backed the new sanctions even though its OTP bank stayed on the Ukrainian list, but said it would return to the issue when the EU discusses a new tranche of money for Ukraine from the European Peace Facility, diplomats said. Another controversial issue, which held up Germany’s backing, was the inclusion in the draft of the names of eight Chinese companies, which the EU believes were selling Russian goods that could help its war. The names were leaked in early May and since then, after high-level contacts between the European Commission and China, Beijing made a commitment to put pressure on these companies to stop their activities, diplomats said. As a result, five were taken off the list. The three remaining, registered in Hong Kong and little known, were suspected of being Russian-owned, diplomats said. NN: The noose gets tighter. Businesses do not want to lose access to the EU market.
Stocks Slip as Powell Leans Into Hawkish Message………….. Fed’s Powell: Pause in rate hikes likely temporary
US stocks fell with bonds as Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell warned that higher rates would be needed to combat inflation, thwarting bets that the US central bank was nearing the end of its tightening cycle. The S&P 500 extended its slide into a third day, if the losses hold it will be the longest such losing streak since early May. FedEx Corp. tumbled after the economic bellwether’s outlook fell short of analyst consensus estimates on weakened demand. The Nasdaq 100 fell close to 1% as AI names weakened with Nvidia Corp. dropping 2.9%. Two-year Treasury yields, considered the most sensitive to interest rates, rose to 4.7%. Fed Chair Jerome Powell reiterated his warning that higher rates are needed to combat inflation. “We will continue to make our decisions meeting by meeting, based on the totality of incoming data and their implications for the outlook for economic activity and inflation, as well as the balance of risks,” he said in prepared remarks for his semi-annual report to Congress. Policymakers kept interest rates unchanged at their meeting last week, their forecasts imply around two additional quarter-point rate hikes or one half-point increase. Since then, money markets have been attaching roughly 80% odds to a quarter percentage point hike in July. “The Fed is content to champion the no cuts narrative as the primary messaging,” Ian Lyngen, head of US rates strategy at BMO Capital Markets wrote in a note. “Keeping July and September as live meetings is an effective way of distracting investors from their prior preoccupation with pricing in rate cuts by year end.”
The second-quarter stock rally has hit a wall as investors lose their enthusiasm amid crowded bullish positioning, narrow breadth, stretched valuations, and hawkish Fed signals.
“The positioning and the chasing is no longer likely to be the big tailwind that it was or the last six or seven weeks. That’s why, things go parabolic, they don’t do so in perpetuity,” Anastasia Amoroso, chief investment strategist at iCapital, told Bloomberg Television. “If the right catalyst comes along, they tend to correct, at least partially. And I think we’re looking at a catalyst this week, which is potentially hawkish Fed Chair Powell.” “The recent upside breakout in US equities has left many investors scratching their heads in search of fundamental justification,” according to Bank of America strategists including Nitin Saksena
. “We see signs of an asset bubble in the making rather than a ‘rational’ rally.”
The dollar steadied, while the pound fell and Bitcoin rallied above $29,000.
Fed’s Powell: Pause in rate hikes likely temporary
United States Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said on Wednesday that the central bank believes further raises in interest rates would be appropriate “somewhat further by the end of the year” as a part of its efforts to reduce inflation in the country to its target of 2%, to which there is still “a long way to go.” In the speech Powell will give at his testimony before Congress later in the day, which the Fed shared, the chair pointed out at the visible “effects of our policy tightening on demand in the most interest rate–sensitive sectors of the economy. It will take time, however, for the full effects of monetary restraint to be realized, especially on inflation.” Commenting on inflation, Powell noted that while it showed some signs of moderation recently, “pressures continue to run high.” Still, he added that “longer-term inflation expectations appear to remain well anchored.” NN: All I can say is Kathy and Tommie should be very very careful. This stock market rally is doomed.