Tome Lee is one of the millennials stock market cheer leaders. After the bubble burst he will be never seen again.
Equities on Wall Street traded higher in the premarket session on Tuesday, as fears of possible further shutdowns and negative impacts on the economy due to the Omicron coronavirus variant alleviated. The Dow Jones jumped 0.87% or 306 points at 4:21 am ET, while the Nasdaq 100 traded 1.73% higher at the same time. The S&P 500 increased 1.16% a minute later. The euro dropped 0.16% against the dollar to change hands for $1.12647 at 4:23 am ET. NN: The black Friday death plunge is over. The dippers got their 5% drop and its now time to buy again. The market is a master of setting up patterns to suck in the suckers and then the floor drop out from under them. The Omicron shut down fears have abated. These are the gyrations you see at bubble market tops. I expect new record highs in the stock market
PARIS, Dec 6 (Reuters) – Frace now has identified 25 positive cases of the Omicron COVID-19 virus variant, of which 21 were imported from people returning from Southern Africa, and four who were the result of local infection, Health Minister Olivier Veran said on Monday. Veran said the Omicron variant seems much more contagious than the Delta variant. He also said that France is aiming to start offering COVID-19 vaccination to all children aged 5 to 11 from December 20, provided health authorities give the go-ahead.
England has community transmission of Omicron variant, health minister says
LONDON (Reuters) – Britain’s health minister said on Monday there is now community transmission of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus across regions of England but it is too early to say if this will “knock us off our road to recovery”. Defending the introduction of stricter rules to slow the spread of the virus, Sajid Javid told parliament the government was “leaving nothing to chance” while scientists assessed the variant, which was first reported in South Africa last month. Javid said there are now 261 Omicron cases in England, 71 in Scotland and four in Wales – a total of 336. “This includes cases with no links to international travel, so we can conclude there is now community transmission across multiple regions of England,” Javid said.
Shares on Wall Street extended gains on Monday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average adding more than 600 points at one point. The rally continued as the investors seemingly managed to brush off some of the worries regarding the COVID-19 Omicron variant. Opposite to the stocks traditionally linked to the economic recovery, the technology shares, including Tesla and Nvidia, plunged, dragging the Nasdaq 100 in and out of the negative territory. The Dow Jones surged 593 points, or 1.72%, at 10:34 am ET, while the S&P 500 soared 1.01% at the same time. A minute later, the Nasdaq 100 was 0.14% in the green. The euro dropped 0.23% versus the dollar, selling for 1.12832 at 10:37 am ET. NN: the sheep heading for the slaughter have been trained to buy the dips. What the dipshits do not know is the fact it works until it doesn’t work
LONDON (Reuters) – Future pandemics could be even more lethal than COVID-19 so the lessons learned from the pandemic must not be squandered, one of the creators of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine said. “This will not be the last time a virus threatens our lives and our livelihoods,” Sarah Gilbert said in the Richard Dimbleby Lecture, the BBC reported. “The truth is, the next one could be worse. It could be more contagious, or more lethal, or both.” “We cannot allow a situation where we have gone through all we have gone through, and then find that the enormous economic losses we have sustained mean that there is still no funding for pandemic preparedness,” she said. “The advances we have made, and the knowledge we have gained, must not be lost.”
Negotiations between world powers and Iran over its nuclear program will spill over into a second week with the two sides still far apart. The U.S. gave a bleak assessment of the latest round of negotiations in Vienna, saying Iranian officials weren’t serious about reviving a 2015 accord that limited Tehran’s atomic activities in return for sanctions relief. “We can’t accept a situation in which Iran accelerates its nuclear program and slow-walks its nuclear diplomacy,’’ the U.S. State Department said. Iran on Sunday said it can’t be expected to stop expanding its nuclear work until there’s an agreement on the U.S. lifting economic sanctions. Tehran’s chief negotiator, Ali Bagheri Kani, presented European diplomats with amendments to existing draft documents from previous rounds of talks. The negotiations have stalled since June, when hardline cleric Ebrahim Raisi won Iran’s presidential election. European officials, who asked not to be named, expressed disappointment and concern with Tehran’s proposed amendments. “Time is limited,’’ the EU’s top envoy to the talks, Enrique Mora, said. “There is a sense of urgency.” The stumbling negotiations have sent Iran’s national currency to a record low against the U.S. dollar. Talks are set to resume in the middle of this week.
In the Middle East, practical cooperation is gradually replacing the old narrative of Israeli-Arab relations, allowing for agreements to be decoupled from the Palestinian conflict, Zev Chafets writes for Bloomberg Opinion. The change began with the Abraham Accords, that this month led to a energy-for-water deal between Israel and Jordan, the biggest pact between the two countries since they signed a peace agreement 27 years ago. The diplomatic significance here is hard to overstate, Chafets says. NN: Iran now has enough enriched uranium to build several bombs. If it were the Trump administration Iran’s facilitates would. up in Israel created smoke. But Biden and his bunch off merry lefty liberals have warned Israel to stand down. As far as the oil markets any hopes of sanctions lifted and vast amounts of Iranian oil coming to market have been shattered. Also please note Biden is looking the other way as Iran is delivering oil and distillates to N.Korea, Cuba and Venizewalla
this is the promotional video for the very cruise that returned with a boatload of infected passengers…. so much for their safety protocols
(Reuters) – A cruise ship set to dock in New Orleans with over 3,000 passengers has detected 10 cases of COVID-19 among its crew and guests, the Louisiana Department of Health said late on Saturday. The cruise ship Norwegian Breakaway, owned by Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd, departed New Orleans on a weeklong cruise on Nov. 28 and had stops in Belize, Honduras and Mexico, the health agency said. “NCL has been adhering to appropriate quarantine and isolation protocols,” the department said in a tweet. The ship is set to reach New Orleans on Sunday morning, according to its itinerary. Everyone on board will be tested for COVID-19 before leaving and will be provided with post-exposure and quarantine public health guidance by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). People who test positive for COVID-19 will either travel to their homes or self-isolate according to CDC guidelines, the health agency said. Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings did not immediately respond to a request for comment outside regular business hours. NN: Like it or not the plague is still with us. More infectios then ever. Which means crowd fests no mater how many toilet paper masks and hand washing just plain will not work. How do you isolate people plied with alachol on a floating gluttony barge. We are talking 5000 screaming mimes board proven stupid by the fact they got on board in the first place?
NEW YORK (Reuters) – The Omicron variant of the virus that causes COVID-19 likely acquired at least one of its mutations by picking up a snippet of genetic material from another virus – possibly one that causes the common cold – present in the same infected cells, according to researchers. This genetic sequence does not appear in any earlier versions of the coronavirus, called SARS-CoV-2, but is ubiquitous in many other viruses including those that cause the common cold, and also in the human genome, researchers said. By inserting this particular snippet into itself, Omicron might be making itself look “more human,” which would help it evade attack by the human immune system, said Venky Soundararajan of Cambridge, Massachusetts-based data analytics firm nference, who led the study https://osf.io/f7txy posted on Thursday on the website OSF Preprints. This could mean the virus transmits more easily, while only causing mild or asymptomatic disease. Scientists do not yet know whether Omicron is more infectious than other variants, whether it causes more severe disease or whether it will overtake Delta as the most prevalent variant. It may take several weeks to get answers to these questions. Cells in the lungs and in the gastrointestinal system can harbor SARS-CoV-2 and common-cold coronaviruses simultaneously, according to earlier studies. Such co-infection sets the scene for viral recombination, a process in which two different viruses in the same host cell interact while making copies of themselves, generating new copies that have some genetic material from both “parents.” This new mutation could have first occurred in a person infected with both pathogens when a version of SARS-CoV-2 picked up the genetic sequence from the other virus, Soundararajan and colleagues said in the study, which has not yet been peer-reviewed. The same genetic sequence appears many times in one of the coronaviruses that causes colds in people – known as HCoV-229E – and in the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) that causes AIDS, Soundararajan said. South Africa, where Omicron was first identified, has the world’s highest rate of HIV, which weakens the immune system and increases a person’s vulnerability to infections with common-cold viruses and other pathogens. In that part of the world, there are many people in whom the recombination that added this ubiquitous set of genes to Omicron might have occurred, Soundararajan said. “We probably missed many generations of recombinations” that occurred over time and that led to the emergence of Omicron, Soundararajan added. More research is needed to confirm the origins of Omicron’s mutations and their effects on function and transmissibility. There are competing hypotheses that the latest variant might have spent some time evolving in an animal host. In the meantime, Soundararajan said, the new findings underscore the importance of people getting the currently available COVID-19 vaccines. “You have to vaccinate to reduce the odds that other people, who are immunocompromised, will encounter the SARS-CoV-2 virus,” Soundararajan said. NN: A long time ago i learned when you have nothing to say say nothing. In this world of constant news editors have fallen in the trap of always having something to report. The pressure to publish means that their product is minimal at beast. Right now this new mutation is much the topic of news reports mostly speculation. I do not have enough information to give you an opinion never mind a strategy. So i have put on my librarian hat and am doing a deep dive. Thieu is a lot published little of it peer reviewed… And a lot of bullshit. So give me this next week and ill soon have something serious for you…..
Ireland will reintroduce some Covid-19 restrictions for the Christmas period following “very stark” advice from health officials. Restrictions will be in place from December 7 to January 9, including new limits on household gatherings, the country’s Taoiseach Micheal Martin said. It comes amid concern about increased socialising at Christmas and the threat posed by the new Omicron variant of coronavirus. In a national address on Friday, Mr Martin said: “The risks associated with proceeding into the Christmas period without some restrictions to reduce the volume of social contacts is just too high.” Among the measures taking effect from next Tuesday include strict social distancing requirements for bars and restaurants. The rules will mean the hospitality sector will largely revert to the situation preceding October 22, with a maximum of six adults per table and no multiple table bookings. Mr Martin also said there will now be a maximum of 50 per cent capacity at entertainment, cultural, community and sporting events, with all those attending fully seated. Use of the Covid-19 pass will also be extended to gyms, leisure centres, hotel bars and restaurants. Visits to private homes, he said, should be limited to people from a maximum of three households, although he acknowledged the need for “flexibility”. “My message this evening is a difficult one,” he said. “I understand and I share the disappointment and frustration this will cause for many of you.” Mr Martin said that the appearance of the new Omicron variant as the holiday season approaches is a major cause for concern. But he said: “This is not about going back to the days of lockdowns. “Across the country, very many people in the hospitality and entertainment industries will be bitterly disappointed by this news. “Many of them will be fearing for their livelihoods. “I want to reassure them that, just as we have done since the beginning of the pandemic, the government will stand by them and ensure that they have the financial supports necessary to weather this latest storm and to stay intact until we are out of it.” Earlier, the government was warned that the number of Covid-19 cases could surge to 15,000 a day after Christmas if the Omicron variant becomes dominant. The National Public Health Emergency Team (Nphet) said that the new variant could drive up cases during increased social activity over the Christmas period. In a letter to the government, Nphet said that greater socialising combined with the impact of Omicron could pose a “very real but as yet unquantifiable risk” to the management of Covid-19 over the coming weeks. Health officials said this presents “serious challenges” for the weeks ahead and that it is “impossible” to quantify the level of risk and its impact. In the letter, chief medical officer Dr Tony Holohan said that if social contact can be maintained at current levels or marginally decreased, the level of infections per day will remain below 5,000. However, if social contact increases to levels seen in December last year, cases could surge to between 6,000 and 8,000 cases per day in early January. If infection-induced immunity is low or evaded by the new variant, a “very large surge is possible”, with a peak of about 8,000 to 15,000 cases per day, Nphet added. In a pessimistic but “plausible scenario”, Nphet said that between 750 to 1,300 people could need hospital care and up to 400 people would require critical care. This week, the government agreed to new rules on travel in which all people entering Ireland will be required to show a negative result on a professionally administered antigen test 48 hours before arrival, or on a PCR test 72 hours before arrival. The rules also apply to travellers from the UK. Ireland has so far confirmed one case of the new Omicron variant.
LONDON (Reuters) -COVID-19 vaccines made by Pfizer and Moderna that use mRNA technology provide the biggest boost to antibody levels when given 10-12 weeks after the second dose, a new British study has found. The “COV-Boost” study was cited by British officials when they announced that Pfizer and Moderna were preferred for use in the country’s booster campaign, but the data has only been made publicly available now. The study found that six of the seven boosters examined enhanced immunity after initial vaccination with Pfizer-BioNTech’s vaccine, while all seven increased immunity when given after two doses of AstraZeneca’s vaccine.
“A third dose will be effective for many of the vaccines we’ve tested and in many different combinations,” Professor Saul Faust, an immunologist at the University of Southampton and the trial’s lead, told reporters.
The study, published late on Thursday, found that a full dose or half dose of Pfizer or a full dose of Moderna gave a strong boost to both antibody and T-cell levels, regardless of whether the person initially received Pfizer or AstraZeneca. “All four of the vaccination regimes most widely deployed in the UK lead to essentially the same levels of immunity and are likely to be equally effective,” said Professor Eleanor Riley, immunologist at the University of Edinburgh. She added that a policy change in booster gaps was also supported by the data. “These data support the JCVI (vaccine committee) decision earlier this week to bring forward booster doses to 3 months after the second vaccination.” When AstraZeneca, Novavax, Johnson & Johnson and Curevac were given as boosters, they increased antibody levels for either initial vaccine, albeit to a smaller degree, the study found. However, while Valneva boosted antibodies in people initially vaccinated with AstraZeneca, it did not provide a boost for Pfizer. The COV-Boost study pre-dated the spread of the emergent Omicron variant of concern, and Faust said he had shared samples with the UK Health Security Agency to generate data on Omicron. The study did however find that booster shots also helped to generate a broad T-cell response against the Beta and Delta variants, which may play a key role in longer-term protection. A separate study by Imperial College London into how initial exposure to SARS-CoV-2 shapes immune responses, also published late on Thursday, similarly found a good T-cell response to both Alpha and Delta after infection followed by vaccination.
November jobs report misses forecasts as US adds just 210,000 new jobs amid supply-chain nightmare
The US added just 210,000 jobs in November, badly missing the median estimate of 550,000 payrolls.
The unemployment rate tumbled to 4.2% from 4.6%. That came in below economist estimates.
The report shows hiring slowing as the Delta wave subsided and Omicron fears emerged.
Nonfarm employment in the United States increased by 210,000 in November, data released by the country’s Bureau of Labor Statistics showed on Friday. The figure came in significantly below market expectations. The unemployment rate was down 0.4 percentage points from the previous month, landing at 4.2% in November. The labor force participation rate was up 0.2 percentage points to 61.8%. The workforce grew the most in the professional and business services sector, with 90,000 jobs gained. Transportation and warehousing employment rose by 50,000, followed by the construction and manufacturing sectors that each added 31,000 jobs. Average hourly earnings for all employees on private nonfarm payrolls rose by 8 cents from October to reach $31.03 in November, translating to a year-on-year increase of 4.8%. The report shows hiring slowing dramatically from October’s revised gain of 546,000. November was expected to extend the fall’s healthy job growth after the Delta wave hammered hiring through the summer. Yet new headwinds stood in the way of blockbuster gains. Virus case counts picked up through the month after sliding through October. The supply-chain crisis eased somewhat but remained a risk to the recovery. The various bottlenecks possibly delayed hiring plans at affected firms.