BlackMask Breaking News

See the interview… Talk about putting perfume on a skunk!

Boeing Co. reported a smaller second-quarter profit that fell short of Wall Street expectations as its defense business weakened and it remained unable to deliver any of its 787 Dreamliner planes.

The giant aircraft manufacturer reported a profit of $193 million Wednesday, down 67% from the second quarter of last year, on a 2% drop in revenue. Boeing generated more cash than in the first quarter by delivering more planes than it has since the start of the pandemic, and it sold more services to airlines and other airplane operators.

However, Boeing remained unable to deliver one of its best-selling planes, the 787, while regulators review steps the company is taking to eliminate production problems.

Boeing is also faced with the threat of a strike Monday by about 2,500 workers at three of its defense plants in Missouri and Illinois. The machinists’ union is asking for increases in wages and retirement benefits after, it says, Boeing took away a pension plan. CEO David Calhoun said on CNBC that Boeing will continue to talk to the union and that a strike would delay deliveries to the Pentagon, although he did not give details. Revenue from Boeing’s normally steady defense business fell 10% in the second quarter compared with a year earlier, and the company took charges totaling $240 million for an unmanned refueling plane being developed for the Navy and its Starliner spacecraft, which is designed to ferry crews to the International Space Station. A Boeing spokesman said the charge for the Starliner was unrelated to the announcement Tuesday by Russia’s top space official that his country will pull out of the ISS program after 2024 and build its own orbiting station. Calhoun, who became CEO as Boeing’s financial situation worsened following two deadly of Max jets, said the results showed that “we are building momentum in our turnaround” while acknowledging that “it has been a long road.” In a note to employees, Calhoun highlighted an increase in the number of 737 Max jets rolling off the assembly line — 31 a month, although that figure could fluctuate. He also said Boeing “is in the final stages” of working with the Federal Aviation Administration to resume deliveries of the larger, two-aisle 787. Second-quarter net income was $160 million, but the gain attributable to shareholders was $193 million. That was down from $587 million a year earlier. Excluding adjustments for retirement plan expenses and other special items, the company lost 37 cents per share. Analysts expected an adjusted loss of 13 cents per share, according to FactSet. Total revenue slipped 2% to $16.68 billion, falling short of Wall Street’s forecast of $17.57 billion, despite an increase in airliner deliveries to 121 planes from 79 a year earlier. Boeing gets much of the purchase price upon delivery. Shares of Boeing, based in Arlington, Virginia, rose 3% in morning trading Wednesday.  NN:  The joke of all jokes is after a bleak earnings report… with more bad news coming in future quarters the Einsteins rallied the stock 3%… ANOTHER BIG HURT IS COMING….

US consumer confidence fell for the third month in a row in July as Americans continue to feel the pinch of inflation and worry about the spectre of a possible recession. The drop in the Conference Board Consumer Confidence Index in July followed a larger decline in June.

The Index now stands at 95.7, down 2.7 points from 98.4 in June. This is its weakest since February 2021.

The Present Situation Index — based on consumers’ assessment of current business and labour market conditions — fell to 141.3 from 147.2 last month. The Expectations Index — based on consumers’ short-term outlook for income, business, and labour market conditions — ticked down to 65.3 from 65.8. American consumers are feeling especially gloomy as high inflation has blunted their purchasing power and there is increasing talk of the possibility that the US will fall into a recession. “As the Fed raises interest rates to rein in inflation, purchasing intentions for cars, homes, and major appliances all pulled back further in July,” she adds. “Looking ahead, inflation and additional rate hikes are likely to continue posing strong headwinds for consumer spending and economic growth over the next six months.”

Retailers are already sounding the alarm, with Walmart on Monday cutting its quarterly and full-year profit guidance, saying inflation is causing shoppers to spend more on necessities such as food and less on clothing and electronics.

Overall though, the economy is sending mixed signals. On one hand, growth appears to be sputtering, home sales are falling, and economists warn of a potential recession ahead. But on the other hand, consumers are still spending, businesses keep posting profits, and the economy keeps adding hundreds of thousands of jobs each month. In the midst of it all, prices have accelerated to four-decade highs, and the Federal Reserve is desperately trying to douse the inflationary flames with higher interest rates. That’s making borrowing more expensive for households and businesses. The Fed has to a difficult path to tread, hoping to slow the economy enough to curb inflation, but without causing a recession. Many economists doubt that such a “soft landing” is possible. Both policymakers and economists are in uncharted territory having no experience in analysing the economic damage from a global pandemic and Russia’s war in Ukraine.  NN: The spin Mysters of Wall Street are in overdrive. Anyway you slice and dice it…. we are in a disaster de Jure….And the FED is not swayed by all this cries of pain from the streer…. with inflation running 400% over plan they have little choice

https://youtu.be/oWeBawdOUQM

We’re being warned about a dramatic increase in the COVID death rate; now ten times worse than it was with the original strain. We’ve almost hit one million new cases in the past month as the burden on the health system takes its toll.

We’re being warned about a dramatic increase in the covid death rate; now ten times worse than it was with the original strain. We’ve almost hit one million new cases in the past month as the burden on the health system takes its toll.

SYDNEY, July 16 (Reuters) – Australia will reinstate support payments for casual workers who have to quarantine due to COVID-19, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on Saturday, as a fresh wave of Omicron-driven infections sweeps the country. Australia is battling a major virus outbreak driven by the highly transmissible new Omicron subvariants, BA.4 and BA.5, with authorities warning it could lead to more people ending up in hospitals and further straining the health system.  “I want to make sure that people aren’t left behind, that vulnerable people are looked after,” Albanese told reporters after a snap meeting with state leaders. “No one (should be) faced with the unenviable choice of not being able to isolate properly without losing an income and without being put in a situation that is very difficult.” Albanese said the leave payments, that ended on June 30 and entitled workers to get up to A$750 ($510) for each seven-day quarantine period, will be restored and extended until Sept. 30. NN: their back. And it will be much worse this time

July 26 (Reuters) – Russian gas giant Gazprom (GAZP.MM) has sharply increased pressure in the pipeline that delivers Russian gas to Europe without prior notice, the Ukrainian state pipeline operator company said on Tuesday. Such pressure spikes could lead to emergencies including pipeline ruptures, and pipeline operators are obliged to inform each other about them in advance, the Ukrainian company said. Gazprom could not be immediately reached for comment. Russia has continued to pump gas through Ukraine even as the two countries are engaged in war. On Monday, Gazprom said its supply of gas to Europe through Ukraine was seen at 41.7 million cubic metres (mcm) on Monday versus 41.2 mcm a day earlier. At the same time, citing instructions from an industry watchdog, Gazprom on Monday said gas flows to Germany through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline – which bypasses Ukraine – would fall to 33 million cubic metres per day from Wednesday. That is half of the current flows, which are already only 40% of normal capacity. NN: Europeans may believe the war is in Ukraine…. Stupid war is war….. It will not be the first time Russia defeated Germany using the freezing winter weather as a weapon……

• Fed funds rate well below inflation weakens odds of a pause
• Bank has doubts that profit forecasts are realistic, too

The July stock-market rebound has emboldened bulls hoping prices will defy the gravity of the Federal Reserve’s escalating fight against inflation.  Don’t be fooled, though, Morgan Stanley Wealth Management’s Lisa Shalett said: It’s just another false dawn. The nearly 5% gain in the S&P 500 Index this month has been supported by speculation that inflation is peaking and the job market is cooling. If so, the theory goes, the Fed could have room even to start cutting interest rates early next year. But Shalett, the division’s chief investment officer, said that “while this theory may be directionally correct, stock market pricing seems premature.” In the past, she wrote in a note to clients Monday, the Fed hasn’t stopped tightening monetary policy until a key measure of inflation — the core personal consumption expenditure index — is below its benchmark overnight lending rate. That’s far from the case now. Even if the Fed pushes up its target rate to 2.5% on Wednesday, as expected, it would still be significantly below the rate of inflation. That index, which excludes volatile food and energy prices, was running at a 4.7% annual rate in May. “The latest bear market rally in our view is full of wishful thinking,” she wrote. “We worry that equity investors are conflating a peak in the acceleration of Fed policy with an end to Fed tightening.

History suggests inflation needs to peak before the Fed will stop tightening, but that’s not all.” There are other reasons not to think the Fed will rush to stand down. Since another inflation gauge, the consumer price index, rose 9.1% in June from a year earlier, Shalett said, it would take month-over-month reports of 0% or even outright deflation to get it below the 5% level at which the Fed could “declare victory.”

Moreover, the modest uptick in unemployment claims from historically low levels is unlikely “enough to allow the Fed to declare mission accomplished and that the equity bear market is over,” she said.

Shalett’s view adds to the growing debate on Wall Street over whether equity prices hit bottom after June’s rout plunged the S&P 500 into a bear market. Earlier Monday, Ed Yardeni said the index’s plunge to a 3,666.77 low in June likely marked the trough of the 2022 downturn. Yardeni in March 2009 correctly called the market bottom when the benchmark index reached an intraday low of 666.79 — 3,000 points below this year’s trough, in what he calls another “devilish number.” Shalett argues that not only will the Fed tightening cycle persist longer than bulls appear to anticipate, but expectations for corporate-profit growth will also likely remain too high to support even diminished valuations. “One might make the case that the positive stock market reaction to second quarter earnings misses indicates an ‘it’s all in the price’ attitude,” she wrote. “However, we doubt that even if the Fed ends its tightening campaign with a fed funds rate of 3.2% in December that next year’s earnings will deliver the 8% year-over-year growth that is currently forecast, especially if the Fed is prompted to cut rates early next year as the futures market suggests.” NN: I feel like i am back in the who farted game we played as kids. Reality is the economy is far from bottoming, the stock market has at least 30% more work on the down side. And betting against a FED, that is blinded to all other data in its war on inflation that it sparked off is far far from over, its a fools game to bet against the FED. When interest rate hit 20% on the FED funds rate in the eighties, was a life changing event for me. And the earth is moving under my feet once again. DO NOT UNDERESTIMATE THE POWER OF CENTRAL BANKS. NOR THE FACT THEY ARE DEMON POSSESSED IN THEIR WAR AGAINST INFLATION!!

‘We see more volatility ahead until central banks take sides in the stark trade-off between growth and inflation they are facing,’ says BlackRock

The market’s view of interest rate hikes faces more volatility as long as central banks think they can tame high inflation without “crushing growth,” according to BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager.  “We see more volatility ahead until central banks take sides in the stark trade-off between growth and inflation they are facing,” said strategists at BlackRock Investment Institute in a note Monday. “We think the Fed will overtighten rates and cause acute damage to growth before pivoting.” The Federal Reserve will kick off its two-day policy meeting on July 26, with many investors expecting it to conclude with another large interest-rate hike in an effort to cool the hottest inflation in four decades.  “The Fed is set to raise rates by an additional 0.75% or more this week as it scrambles to raise the fed funds rate into restrictive territory to rein in inflation,” the BlackRock strategists said. A hike of three-quarters of a percentage point would take the fed funds rate to a target range of 2.25% to 2.5%. The market’s expectations for future policy rates of the Fed and European Central Bank have “swung up and down in the past year,” according to a chart in their note that cites Refinitiv data. The solid lines show “market expectations for 1-year rates in one year’s time based on interest rate swaps.”

“Market pricing for the fed funds rate jumped from near zero to almost 4% in June,” the strategists said. “That epic move was followed by a one percentage point drop in just a month’s time.”

Meanwhile, the Fed’s forecasts suggest it believes it can bring soaring inflation back to its 2% target without damaging growth. NB: hahahahahahahahHAHAHAHHHHHAAAAAAAAH

“Central banks think they can curb inflation and cause only a mild slowdown, whereas this is unlikely in reality, in our view,” the strategists wrote. They have been “ignoring the sharp trade-off they are facing: crush growth or live with some inflation.” In BlackRock’s view, a “soft landing” is unlikely and the Fed will pivot next year once the economic impact of its rate hikes becomes clear, according to their note.  “The market agrees,” the strategists said. “Rate projections now show the Fed cutting rates in 2023. That’s consistent with our view.” The U.S. stock market was trading mixed early afternoon Monday as investors look ahead to the Fed meeting and a wave of company earnings reports this week. NN: of course the US is in a recession…… Soon it will be called a depression… Of course Janet baby sweetheart treasury liar in chief  will deny it…….