The SARS-CoV-2 virus that results in COVID-19 has been found to damage multiple organs beyond the lung. Interestingly, the SARS-CoV-2 spike (S) protein can be found circulating in the blood of COVID-19 patients. Experimental findings are demonstrating that the circulating S protein can bind to receptors resulting in inflammation and cell, tissue, and organ damage. Avolio et al. previously determined that the S protein acting through the cluster of differentiation 147 (CD147) receptor, and another unknown mechanism had detrimental effects on human cardiac pericytes (Clin Sci (Lond) (2021) 135 (24): 2667-2689. DOI: 10.1042/CS20210735). These findings support the notion that circulating SARS-CoV-2 S protein could contribute to cardiovascular disease independent of viral infection. Future studies are needed to determine the effect of the S protein on pericytes in other organs and evaluate the effectiveness of CD147 receptor-blocking therapies to decrease organ damage caused by the S protein. NN: We are seeing heart complications in people who have been infected with COVID 19. See the study from a credible source in PubMed below:
Fed’s Barkin says inflation drop won’t be ‘immediate, predictable’
Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond President Thomas Barkin said a strong labor market and stubborn inflation means the central bank may need to raise rates above 5%, though it may slow its pace of increases. “The market remains tight and that means there’s still more work to do,” Barkin said in an interview on CNBC Television on Friday, referring to jobs figures out earlier in the morning. “We need to do whatever we need to do with the rates to get inflation back to target, and so I start with inflation.” NN: their is no relief in sight!
Saudi Oil Assets at high risk of attack….. If it happens $200 here we come
According to several local and international news sources, Saudi Arabia has informed the U.S. of an imminent attack from Iran. This warning follows a report on Iranian state television showing Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, telling a group of students marking the anniversary of Iran’s 1979 seizure of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran that the modern U.S. is “very vulnerable” and that the country is no longer the world’s dominant power. These comments come at a time as well when Iran has been gripped by a wave of popular unrest following the death in police custody of Mahsa Amini, and when Iran has been censured by the U.S. for supplying drones to Russia for use in its invasion of Ukraine. What seems to have gone largely unnoticed, though, is that plans were already underway for Iran to launch such a strike against Saudi Arabia back at the beginning of October through its usual channel for such attacks – the Yemeni Houthis – against whom Saudi Arabia (together with support from the UAE, among others) has been fighting a de facto war since 2015. It is not, therefore, a question of whether such an attack will take place against Saudi Arabia, but rather, when, and what will the ramifications of it be? There are comments from the Houthis themselves, in early October, about what they are going to do, and precedents of their previous Iran-backed attacks on Saudi Arabia to work with. Back on 2 October, Houthi military spokesman, Yahya Saree, wrote: “If the Saudi and Emirati [UAE] coalition continue to deprive our Yemeni people access to their resources, our military forces can, with God’s help, deprive them of their resources.” He added: “As long as the American-Saudi aggression countries are not committed to a truce that gives the Yemeni people the right to exploit their oil wealth in favour of the salary of the Yemeni state employees, the armed forces give oil companies operating in the UAE and Saudi Arabia an opportunity to organize their situation and leave.” These comments focusing on Saudi Arabia’s oil infrastructure – the only basis of its global power and the money-making engine that allows it to fight its ongoing war against the Houthis – perfectly align with the targets of previous Houthi attacks on the country. Unfortunately for the Houthis, and for the global industrialised economies that are already trying to deal with rising inflation driven in large part by historically elevated oil and gas prices, such attacks have previously pushed oil prices higher in the short-term. Provided that the Houthi attacks did not completely obliterate Saudi Arabia’s oil infrastructure, which is almost impossible, given their wide dispersal across the country, then Saudi Arabia would benefit ultimately from these higher oil prices, as would Russia, and as would Iran. Only the Houthis would not. Nonetheless, as political points go, previous Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia have been very effective – much more than the Saudis ever publicly admit. The last major attacks were on 14 September 2019 when 10 Iranian-supplied drones were fired by the Houthis on a range of oil infrastructure targets in Saudi Arabia, with the result being direct hits on the oil processing facilities at Abqaiq, and Khurais, in the east of the country. Saudi Arabia’s official response to the attacks was broadly along the lines of ‘everything is fine, we will be back to full production really quickly, nothing more to see here, please move along’. The reality was starkly different and, as Richard Bronze, cross-energy analyst for global energy consultancy, Energy Aspects, in London, said at the time: “The Saudi statements may not contain any direct falsehoods as such but nor are they entirely being fulsome with the truth.” The net effect of the combined attack on Abqaiq and Khurais caused the temporary suspension of 5.7 million barrels per day (bpd) of oil from Saudi Arabia. This equates to well over half of Saudi Arabia’s actual crude oil production capacity, not the capacity figure that Saudi has plucked out of nowhere for geopolitical power purposes in recent years, and resulted in the biggest rise in oil prices in a single day ever. It also set the stage for the same style of semantic trickery and obfuscation of true figures that have since become a noted feature of Saudi Arabia’s statements relating to its oil industry but were back then only in their relative infancy. Consequently, as the oil markets can expect exactly the same again whenever Iran thinks the time is right for the Houthis to launch similar attacks on Saudi Arabia – and that looks like being soon – it is apposite to look at what the Saudi reaction was in more depth. Saudi Arabia’s ‘spare capacity’. The Energy Information Administration (EIA) itself defines spare capacity specifically as ‘production that can be brought online within 30 days and sustained for at least 90 days’, whilst even Saudi Arabia has said that it would need at least 90 days to move rigs to drill new wells and raise production to the mythical 12 million bpd or 12.5 million bpd level. In any event, and as can be expected in the case of the next Houthi attack on the country, there is no way from either a technical or an engineering perspective that Saudi Arabia can have made any accurate assessment of how long it would take to get back to any particular capacity level back in 2019 either. As Energy Aspects’ Bronze said at the time: “Engineers we have spoken to have said that following an incident like this it would take several weeks just to assess the damage, never mind to begin doing anything about it, rather than the few days that the Saudis have taken and then announced the actual timeline – and a very short timeline at that – to bring back various stages of capacity.” Instead, in order to keep their exports up, the Saudis in 2019 drew down supplies to its domestic industry and reduced the amounts it sent to domestic refineries. Additionally, some buyers were warned of delays, and others were offered swaps with other grades. Another measure that Saudi Arabia took, denied by it at the time they supplied the market from various oil trading sources. NN: One big difference their are no alternative sources or supplies
Biden promises ‘no more drilling’ before crucial midterm elections
President Joe Biden made an apparently unscripted remark that there will be “no more drilling” under his watch, in response to someone in the crowd at his rally with Gov. Kathy Hochul (D-NY). The comments came after Biden wrapped up his official remarks at the election-themed event, which was intended to boost Hochul’s chances against her challenger, Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-NY).
“No more drilling,” he said, waving his hand with a back and forth motion. “There is no more drilling. I haven’t formed any new drilling.”
The person was holding up a sign that read, “5 more years of drilling is a lose lose!,” and could be heard yelling back at Biden about offshore leases. He responded, “that was before I was president. We’re trying to work on that to get that done. Thank you.” Biden then motioned that the person should write down her name. The two spoke afterwards, according to pool reports. The remarks could prove controversial, as gas prices have risen sharply during Biden’s time in office and some blame his anti-oil policies for contributing to the surge. The average price of a gallon of gas was $2.31 per gallon when Biden took office. It peaked above $5 per gallon this summer, and sits at $3.80 now, according to AAA. The rest of the event consisted of an election rally for Hochul, who faces a surprisingly strong challenge from Zeldin in blue New York. The rally took place at Sarah Lawrence College, located in the New York City suburb of Westchester County, with roughly 1,500 attendees. Hochul took the stage first and began firing up the crowd before joking, “I’m just a warm-up act for the president.” She promised that if Democrats in her state show up and vote she’ll easily win the election. Biden gave a version of what has become his standard stump speech this election, touting his accomplishments in office such as a gun control bill, the Inflation Reduction Act, an infrastructure bill, and efforts to combat climate change. He lumped Zeldin in with a group of “MAGA Republican” election deniers, saying that defeating him was necessary to preserve democracy. “Kathy’s opponent is one of those election deniers,” he said, repeating a claim that more than 300 Republican office seekers fit the description. “They’re not only trying to deny your right to vote, they’re trying to deny your right to have your vote counted … with these election deniers there are only two outcomes for any election — either they win or they were cheated.” Biden implored the crowd and everyone watching to go vote on Tuesday. “If y’all show up and vote, Democracy is sustained,” he said. Another big win with the college campus crowd came when Biden said GOPers want to block his student debt transfer, naming Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) and drawing boos. There was another unscripted moments during Biden’s remarks. He briefly tripped before saying “it’s black” to describe the object that caused his stumble. The President and the U.S. Administration had promised to halt oil and gas drilling on federal land and in federal waters during the campaign ahead of the 2020 presidential election. Just last week, President Biden said as the biggest oil companies were reporting record or near-record profits for Q3, “I think they have a responsibility to act in the interest of their consumers, their community, and their country; to invest in America by increasing production and refining capacity.” NB: what a fucking idiot,,, The only way to increase oil production is by drilling……. “They have the opportunity to do that — lowering prices for consumers at the pump. You know, if they don’t, they’re going to pay a higher tax on their excess profits and face other restrictions. My team will work with Congress to look at these options that are available to us and others,” President Biden said on October 31.
The U.S. oil and gas industry continues to be frustrated with the mixed messages from the Biden Administration, which continues to blame oil companies for high gasoline prices and demands that oil firms “lower the prices for consumers at the pump.”
Commenting on President Biden’s remarks on gasoline prices and the threat that oil firms are “going to pay a higher tax on their excess profits and face other restrictions” if they don’t increase output, American Petroleum Institute (API) President and CEO Mike Sommers said last week, “Rather than taking credit for price declines and shifting blame for price increases, the Biden administration should get serious about addressing the supply and demand imbalance that has caused higher gas prices and created long-term energy challenges.” “Oil companies do not set prices—global commodities markets do,” API’s Sommers said. NN; what can i tell you. People get the leaders the deserve and pay a very high price for stupid…
World is on “highway to climate hell” and nations must “cooperate or perish,” U.N. chief warns summit
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who said the world “is on a highway to climate hell.”
Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt — The only way to “put an end to all this suffering” from “a highway to climate hell” is for the world to cooperate or perish, dozens of leaders were admonished as they gathered Monday for international climate talks. More than 100 world leaders will speak over the next few days to try to deal with a worsening problem that scientists call Earth’s biggest challenge. Nearly 50 heads of states or governments started to take the stage Monday in the first day of “high-level” talks at this year’s annual U.N. climate conference, known as COP27, with more to come in the following days. Much of the focus will be on national leaders telling their stories of being devastated by climate disasters, culminating Tuesday with a speech by Pakistan Prime Minister Muhammad Sharif, whose country’s summer floods caused at least $40 billion in damage and displaced millions of people. “The planet has become a world of suffering. … Is it not high time to put an end to all this suffering,” Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, the summit host, told his fellow leaders.”Climate change will never stop without our intervention. … Our time here is limited and we must use every second that we have.” NB: Really!! how does he know? El-Sisi, who called for an end to the Russia-Ukraine war, was gentle compared to a fiery United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who said the world “is on a highway to climate hell.” He called for a new pact between rich and poor countries to work more closely together, with financial help and phasing out of coal in rich nations by 2030 and elsewhere by 2040. He called on the United States and China – the two biggest producers of climate-changing emissions – to especially work together on climate, something they used to do until the last few years.
“Humanity has a choice: Cooperate or perish,”
Guterres said. “It is either a Climate Solidarity Pact – or a Collective Suicide Pact.” The World Meteorological Association issued a report at the summit Sunday saying, “The past eight years are on track to be the eight warmest on record, fueled by ever-rising greenhouse gas concentrations and accumulated heat. Extreme heatwaves, drought and devastating flooding have affected millions and cost billions this year.” The report said the “tell-tale signs and impacts of climate change,” such as the reate of sea level rise and glacial melting “are becoming more dramatic.” Still, the fire and brimstone displayed by Guterres may not have quite the impact as it might have in past meetings. Why? Because of bad timing and who isn’t showing up, is coming late or is dithering about it. Most of the leaders are meeting Monday and Tuesday, just as the United States has a potentially policy-shifting midterm election. Then the leaders of the world’s 20 wealthiest nations will have their powerful-only club confab in Bali in Indonesia days later. Add to that, “there are big climate summits and little climate summits and this was never expected to be a big one,” said Climate Advisers CEO Nigel Purvis, a former U.S. negotiator.
Leaders of two of the three biggest carbon polluting nations – China and India – appear to be skipping the climate talks, although underlings are here negotiating.
The leader of the other top polluting country – President Biden – is coming days later than most of the other presidents and prime ministers on his way to Bali. United Kingdom Prime Minister Rishi Sunak was initially going to avoid the negotiations, but public pressure and predecessor Boris Johnson’s plans to come changed his mind. New King Charles III, a longtime environment advocate, won’t attend because of his new role. And Russia’s leader Vladimir Putin, whose invasion of Ukraine created energy chaos that reverberates in the world of climate negotiations, won’t be here. “We always want more” leaders, United Nations climate chief Simon Stiell said in a Sunday news conference. “But I believe there is sufficient (leadership) right now for us to have a very productive outcome.” In addition to speeches given by the leaders, the negotiations include “innovative” roundtable discussions that “we are confident, will generate some very powerful insights,” Stiell said. The leaders showing up in droves are from the host continent of Africa. “The historical polluters who caused climate change are not showing up,” said Mohammed Adow of Power Shift Africa. “Africa is the least responsible, the most vulnerable to the issue of climate change and it is a continent that is stepping up and providing leadership.” “The South is actually stepping up,” Adow told The Associated Press. “The North that historically caused the problem is failing.” Monday will be heavily dominated by leaders of nations victimized by climate change, not those that have created the problem of heat-trapping gases warming up the atmosphere by burning fossil fuel. It will be mostly African nations and small island nations and other vulnerable nations that will be telling their stories. And they are dramatic ones, droughts in Africa and floods in Pakistan, in places that could least afford it. For the first time in 30 years of climate negotiations, the summit “should focus its attention on the severe climate impacts we’re already seeing,” said World Resources International’s David Waskow. “We can’t discount an entire continent that has over a billion people living here and has some of the most severe impacts,” Waskow said. “It’s pretty clear that Africa will be at risk in a very severe way.” Leaders come “to share the progress they’ve made at home and to accelerate action,” Purvis said. In this case, with the passage of the first major climate legislation and $375 billion in spending, Mr. Biden has a lot to share, he said. While it’s impressive that so many leaders are coming to the summit, “my expectations for ambitious climate targets in these two days are very low,” said NewClimate Institute’ scientist Niklas Hohne. That’s because of Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, which caused energy and food crises that took away from climate action, he said. NN:
World is on “highway to climate hell” and nations must “cooperate or perish,” U.N. chief warns summit
I am ready to perish…. Ill take my chances. Besides India, China and the US are not on board… So if the UN is right its game, set, match…
Fed’s Collins Says Premature to Judge How High Rates Need to Go
Another speech from another doctoral economist asshole!
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The Boston Fed chief says more tightening will be needed
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Smaller rate moves can help reach ‘sufficiently restrictive’
Boston Federal Reserve Bank President Susan Collins said monetary policy is entering a new phase that could require smaller rate increases while officials figure out how high rates need to go to crush inflation, but she did not rule out another 75 basis-point increase. “With rates now in restrictive territory, I believe it is time to shift focus from how rapidly to raise rates, or the pace, to how high — in other words, to determining what is sufficiently restrictive,” Collins said Friday in remarks prepared for a virtual event organized by the Brookings Institution. Collins spoke days after the Fed lifted interest rates by 75 basis points for the fourth straight time. The move brought the benchmark rate to a target range of 3.75% to 4%. Fed Chair Jerome Powell told reporters after the two-day policy meeting that officials could soon move to smaller interest rate increases while ultimately taking rates to a higher level than previously expected.
“It is premature to signal how high rates should go,” she said, while noting that the Fed’s September rate forecasts “can be taken as a starting point of my current thinking, with the possibility of a higher path depending on incoming information.” NB: Reread this quote and tell me what the fuck does that shit mean. Remember this is coming from a voting member of the FED and part of the Fed Funds target setting committee. She sounds very confused to me.
Officials in September projected rates at 4.4% by the end of this year and 4.6% in 2023, according to their median forecast. The Boston Fed chief said that with interest rates now at restrictive levels that could slow growth, monetary policy is entering a new phase that could require smaller rate moves as policymakers balance their efforts to tame inflation with the risks that they tighten too much and spark a deep downturn. But she said another jumbo-sized hike should remain among the options on the table..
“In thinking about how to reach the level of the funds rate at which the Committee will deem appropriate to hold policy, I believe it is important for us to consider the various options for policy moves,” she said. “This will include 75 basis points, as well as smaller increments. I note that a 50 basis-point move was considered a large move in the past.”
While the Fed’s rate moves are hitting the housing market, inflation is still near the highest levels in 40 years. The labor market also remains tight, with the US economy adding 261,000 jobs in October, significantly above the 193,000 jobs expected, according to Labor Department data released earlier on Friday. Investors now see the Fed taking rates higher but with more incremental moves. Markets are pricing in a 50 basis-point hike in December, but they see rates peaking above 5.1% next year, according to pricing in futures markets. Fed officials will release new projections for rates and the economy when they meet again on Dec. 13-14. NN: SLOW DEMAND she says. Well how do you do that. Pretty simple for a person with a million dollar a year combines salary. Why you fuck people who have to earn a HONEST living. By driving the economy into a depression. I see Fed Funds hitting 6% in this insanity. I know how to make you money… at least i think so. Lock in the ever higher rates and pray for everyone else…… Fed Funds from zero to six in a year……..how about a 10% THIRTY YEAR MORTGAGE RATE FOR ADDED FUN
New stock-market lows ahead
Killing Keystone was really Really REALLY STUPID!
- KeystoneXL could’ve weakened the bargaining position of OPEC and Russia this year.
- The U.S. would be less vulnerable to OPEC supply cuts and price swings if KeystoneXL would’ve been completed.
- The U.S. can’t afford to have policies that are hostile to North American energy companies. The U.S. is rapidly depleting our Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) and is now begging Saudi Arabia and OPEC not to cut oil production. This is a result of the unintended — but predictable — consequences of U.S. energy policy that is often hostile to domestic energy companies. US energy policy is often undermined by well-meaning but naïve people. They fought for years against the on-again, off-again Keystone XL pipeline, which was ultimately canceled by the Biden Administration. The cancellation of the Keystone XL pipeline was naïve because of the belief that by canceling it, the oil wouldn’t be developed and it would help in the fight against climate change. Meanwhile, alternatives would come to the rescue, rendering the pipeline completely unnecessary. The reality is that Keystone XL could have delivered oil from our friendly neighbor to the north, that would have added to global oil supplies. It would have transported oil from Canada and from the Bakken Formation in the U.S. It would have moved more oil than we get from either Russia or Saudi Arabia — and nearly as much oil as we got from OPEC last year. That means it would have weakened the bargaining position of OPEC and Russia when it came to withholding oil from the market (or in Russia’s case, sanctioning them). If not for all the holdups on the pipeline extending back to the Obama Administration, the pipeline expansion would have been completed by about now. American policies that our hostile to North American energy companies hurt development here, and it has put America a very dangerous position: Draining the Strategic Petroleum Reserve in what will be a failed attempt to control prices, while begging Iran, Venezuela, Saudi Arabia and OPEC to produce more oil. NN: Insanity!! 65% of the worlds electricity is generated by fossil fuels. Reality is fossil fuel generation has INCREASED as the world embraces natural gas for electric generation. And wind and solar have failed. Because of the fact that they make no economic sense and require hugh government subsidizes. The sun does not shine sufficiently through clouds and their is no sun at night. Wind is fickle and not predictable. due to wind deficits and heavier then normal cloud cover…..
Seoul sends 80 jets to respond to 180 N. Korean aircraft
- South Korea scrambled 80 fighter jets Friday after North Korea massed forces
- Around 180 North Korean aircraft were tracked close to the border with South
- Comes amid spiralling tit-for-tat escalations that show no sign of slowing down
- US and South fear that Kim Jong-un is building up to first nuclear test since 2017
South Korea has scrambled dozens of fighter jets after more than 100 North Korean aircraft massed near the disputed border between the two nations today. Seoul sent 80 jets – among them F-35A stealth fighters – after sensors picked up 180 of Pyongyang’s aircraft massing inland and off the east and west coasts. It is just the latest in a spiral of tit-for-tat escalations between the rival Koreas that earlier this week saw them fire missiles close to each others’ territorial waters. North Korea is furious at joint US-South Korean aerial drills taking place on its borders that it believes are a rehearsal for an invasion. Washington and Seoul say the war games are defensive and in response to a flurry of North Korean missile tests that they fear will end with a nuclear test. South Korea scrambled 80 fighters including F-35 stealth jets (pictured) after North Korea massed 180 warplanes near the disputed border region ‘Our military detected around 180 North Korean warplanes’ mobilised in Pyongyang’s airspace, Seoul’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said, adding that Seoul ‘scrambled 80 fighter jets including F-35As’ while jets in the joint drills were also ‘maintaining readiness’. Shortly after South Korea announced the decision to extend the joint drills on Thursday, Pyongyang launched three more short-range ballistic missiles, calling the move ‘a very dangerous and wrong choice’. Hours later, the North fired 80 artillery rounds that landed in a maritime ‘buffer zone’, Seoul’s military said. The barrage was a ‘clear violation’ of the 2018 agreement that established the buffer zone in a bid to reduce tensions between the two sides, Seoul’s Joints Chiefs of Staff said. It came after Pyongyang fired about 30 missiles on Wednesday and Thursday, including an intercontinental ballistic missile and one that landed near South Korea’s territorial waters for the first time since the end of the Korean War in 1955. The rival Koreas and their respective leaders – Yoon Suk-Yeol (left) and Kim Jong-un (right) – are locked into a spiral of escalation that shows no sign of abating US defence secretary Lloyd Austin described Pyongyang’s ICBM launch as ‘illegal and destabilising’, and Seoul and Washington vowed to pursue new measures to demonstrate their ‘determination and capabilities’ against the North’s threats. Experts and officials have said Pyongyang is ramping up its tests in protest over the US-South Korean drills. Washington and Seoul have repeatedly warned that Pyongyang’s recent launches could be a precursor to a nuclear test, which would be its seventh. Pyongyang has called the joint air drills, dubbed Vigilant Storm, ‘an aggressive and provocative military drill targeting’ North Korea and threatened that Washington and Seoul would ‘pay the most horrible price in history’ if it continued. The North’s latest launches come as South Korea is in a period of national mourning after more than 150 people – mostly young women in their 20s – were killed in a crowd crush in Seoul on Saturday. Pyongyang’s provocations, ‘especially during our national mourning period, are against humanity and humanitarianism’, Lee Hyo-jung, a vice spokesperson at Seoul’s unification ministry, said on Friday. North Korea has held a recent flurry of missile tests including dozens fired on the same day this week amid fears Kim is gearing up for a nuclear test ‘The government strongly condemns North Korea for continuing threats and provocations, citing our annual and defensive drills, raising tensions on the Korean peninsula,’ she said, blaming the current tension on Pyongyang’s ‘reckless nuclear and missile development’. In addition to extending Vigilant Storm through Saturday, Seoul’s military announced that the annual Taegeuk exercise – which focuses on ‘improving wartime transition performance’ and crisis management – would be held next week. The computer-simulated exercise will be carried out to strengthen ‘the ability to carry out practical mission capability in preparation for various threats such as North Korea’s nuclear weapons, missiles, and recent provocations’, it said. NN: Kim Yon NumChuck knows weakness. He is the hot date in town. Russia wants his missiles and Iran wants his Nukes. And China guarantees his safety.
WTI climbs to over $90 per barrel….. china easing lockdown restrictions
Oil jumped above $90 a barrel as commodities and stocks in Asia rallied on optimism over China potentially easing its Covid restrictions. West Texas Intermediate futures surged almost 3%, putting crude on track for a second weekly advance, after rumors circulated on social media that China may change its Covid Zero policy. Oil got a further boost from news that the nation is working on plans to scrap a system that penalizes airlines for bringing virus cases into the country. China is the world’s biggest crude importer.
China’s Covid Zero strategy relies on lockdowns and mass testing to stamp out infections and has weighed heavily on the nation’s economy this year. Bank of China International Ltd. estimates the country’s oil demand will decline by 400,000 barrels a day in 2022 due to virus curbs. Chatter about easing Covid Zero earlier in the week sparked gains across commodity markets and prompted the country’s top health body to say the strategy remains the overall approach to fighting Covid-19.
“The market senses something is on the go here, thinking where there is smoke, there is fire,” said Stephen Innes, managing partner at SPI Asset Management. “No one wants to be late to the China re-opening party.”
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Oil futures have swung in a wide arc in recent sessions along with broader market trends and shifts in the dollar, while lackluster trading volumes have led to more volatility. Investors are also grappling with a tightening supply outlook and concerns over a global economic slowdown. Saudi Arabia trimmed its oil prices for December sales to Asia, highlighting some concern over the outlook for demand. The kingdom sells most of its crude under long-term contracts to the region. However, the OPEC+ alliance will make sizable cuts to output from this month, which will be followed by European Union sanctions on Russian crude flows from December. NN: China will soon be back consuming more energy then ever before. This will only exasperate the fossil fuel shortages. China is the worlds largest importer of fossil fuels….. They are not buying into the Greeneieewinnieee wet dream. They have signed not a single climate accord….