BlackMask Breaking News

The Federal Reserve will start easing its vast support for financial markets this month, marking a highly anticipated policy change as central bank leaders grapple with major price increases in some parts of the economy but plenty of room to grow in the labor market. The Fed’s announcement, made after its two-day policy meeting Wednesday, comes as the economy continues to shift more than 18 months after the pandemic first hammered U.S. labor and financial markets. The S&P 500 and other stock indexes closed at record highs Wednesday amid fresh optimism about the economy’s direction, but other concerns persist, including inflation, supply chain issues and a disconnect between many unfilled jobs and unemployed workers. The coronavirus’s delta variant appears to be finally easing, leading to a pickup in hiring. But inflation concerns that the Fed has long labeled as “transitory,” or temporary, haven’t yet receded. Fed leaders Wednesday pointed to the persistence of “sizable price increases in some sectors,” and Chair Jerome H. Powell said at a news conference that inflation and related supply chain issues “will persist well into next year.” The Fed had provided extraordinary support to the economy since the height of the pandemic to help money flow through the economy, limit bankruptcies and try to stopgap the wave of layoffs that washed across the United States last year.  For months, the Fed had set the stage to start winding down this sprawling bond-buying program — which includes $120 billion a month in asset purchases — in November. Those purchases have helped stimulate the economy and made borrowing easier by holding down long-term rates, and the expectation was that the purchases will be fully drawn down before the Fed raises interest rates. On Wednesday, the Fed announced it would be cutting purchases by $15 billion each month. That decision reflected optimism within the Fed that the economy is on the right track. But tremendous uncertainty still hangs over the economy, especially when it comes to how long prices will keep rising faster than wages, a phenomenon many Washington policy makers did not expect to last so long. Following the Fed’s policy meeting, officials released a statement saying that the mismatch of supply and demand, plus the reopening of the economy, has contributed to high prices.

Powell said he didn’t expect that inflation will have a permanent imprint on the economy, and added that the central bank will use its tools “to make sure that doesn’t become a permanent feature of life,” especially for households most sensitive to higher prices for groceries, rent, gas and more.

Now that the Fed has started its long-awaited “taper,” the markets are hungry for signals about when the central bank will raise interest rates for the first time since the pandemic. But Powell emphasized patience, arguing that the Fed would wait to cool the economy down until as many people as possible have gotten back into jobs. He said that it is “certainly within the realm of possibility” that the economy could reach full employment by the second half of next year. But reflecting on the recent surge of the delta variant, which had a harsher toll on the economy than the Fed expected, Powell reiterated that “we have to be humble about what we know about this economy.”  “There’s still ground to cover to get to maximum employment, and we don’t want to stop that when there’s good reason to think — although it’s been delayed — that the economy will reopen if we do get past significant outbreaks of covid,” Powell said. NN: Stock market indices closed at new record highs. Celebrating the start of their destruction….. Their was nothing good in what the FED reserve announced……. In essence Quantum Easing  is over…. And it will be sooner they the markets think. Although the Fed refused to fess up publicly to the reality. They have no choice, begging for mercy along the way,  they will Will WILL raise interest rates 300 to 500 bases points. And when the markets gets a sniff of this it will devastating…

China is suffering its most widespread Covid-19 outbreak since the virus first emerged at the beginning of the pandemic in Wuhan in 2019.  The country’s new locally transmitted Covid cases have spiked to a near three-month high amid what the Chinese government called a ‘serious’ new outbreak of the highly infectious Delta variant. Now, more than 600 locally-transmitted cases have been found in 19 of the country’s 31 provinces, reports Bloomberg.  The National Health Commission confirmed on Wednesday 93 new local symptomatic cases for Tuesday, up from 54 a day earlier and the highest daily count since August 9 at the peak of China’s last major outbreak. Most of the local cases were found in Heihe, a city in the northern province of Heilongjiang, where 35 infections were recorded on Tuesday. Three new provinces detected cases: central Chongqing, Jiangsu and Henan, reported Bloomberg. The spread and rise in Covid infections comes despite the Chinese government enforcing tighter curbs to contain the cases.

Officials have backed the government’s with officials still sticking to their Covid zero approach, with one expert insisting the current outbreak will be contained ‘within a month’. Zhong Nanshan, a leading expert in China’s respiratory disease research, told China Global Television Network that China will continue with its zero-transmission policy against Covid, because the global Covid fatality rate of 2% is too high. ‘I think the zero-transmission policy will remain in place for a long time,’ Nanshan said. ‘Exactly how long depends on the global and regional Covid-19 control situations in coming months.’  Strict restrictions are expected in the capital Beijing in the run-up to a key gathering of the highest-ranking members of the Communist Party next week. On Tuesday, China’s government urged citizens to stock up on daily necessities and for authorities to take steps to ensure adequate food supplies as the country adopts increasingly tight measures to contain the latest outbreak. A notice posted on the website of the Ministry of Commerce late on Monday urged ‘families to store a certain amount of daily necessities as needed to meet daily life and emergencies’. The directive made no mention of a food shortage or of whether the instructions were motivated by fears that Covid measures could disrupt supply chains or leave locked-down citizens in need of food. But China, which has kept its infection numbers relatively low through a Covid-zero strategy of border closures, targeted lockdowns and long quarantine periods, is increasingly adopting tough measures to contain the latest outbreak, especially ahead of the Beijing Winter Olympics beginning on February 4. On Tuesday, Beijing reported four cases of Covid-19 among one family – a couple, their daughter, and the daughter’s grandmother.   The cases triggered an instant response, with a major primary school and a secondary schools conducting Covid tests for all teachers and students. Another 16 schools suspending in-person classes on Tuesday.     By Tuesday morning, 596 people from the primary school and 1,329 people from the middle school had tested negative. The remaining people were waiting for results. The Commerce Ministry notice also told authorities to take measures to facilitate agricultural production, keep supply chains smooth, ensure that regional food reserves were adequate and maintain stable prices. The government has restricted some inter-provincial travel, ramped up testing, and urged people to postpone social gatherings like weddings and banquets. In an example of the extreme measures taken, the Shanghai Disneyland theme park closed temporarily from Sunday night and prevented visitors and park personnel from leaving until they underwent Covid testing, all due to a single coronavirus case. More than 38,000 people were tested as a result. NN: When you got a billion people packed asshole to elbow you better take extreme measures… A versus the European and US model where you close your eyeys and hope it will go away….. It won’t!!!

https://youtu.be/wZvm75xKklE

Investing.com – U.S. crude stockpiles rose more than expected last week at a time when uncertainty over the supply outlook continued to weigh on prices ahead of the OPEC+ Alliance’s meeting later this week. West Texas Intermediate, the benchmark traded at $83.06 a barrel on the news, after settling down 14 cents at $83.91 a barrel. U.S. crude inventories increased by 3.6 million barrels for the week ended Oct. 39. That compared with a build of 2.3 million barrels reported by the API for the previous week. Economists were expecting a build of about 1.6 million barrels. OPEC+ is expected to maintain its plans to gradually lift monthly production by 400,000 barrels per day despite pressure to ramp-up production to ease the energy crisis. The API data also showed that gasoline inventories fell by 552,000 barrels last week, and distillate stocks increased by 573,000 barrels. The official government inventory report due Wednesday is expected to show weekly U.S. crude supplies increased by about 2.2 million barrels last week. U.S. oil production for the week ending October 22—the last week for which the Energy Information Administration has provided data—stayed the same at 11.3 million bpd—still 1.8 million bpd below the all-time high of 13.1 million bpd reached right before the pandemic took hold in the United States. NN: This is the 6th week in a row inventories have increased. If we did not have enough oil inventories would be dropping…. They are not…. which means their is no oil shortage… Their is manipulation and their is hysteria. As a fundamental trader these are clarion calls to me.

https://youtu.be/HGxNmegYjAM

the above video from January  is Biden putting the screws to domestic oil . Biden now  turns to overseas producers after targeting domestic drilling

Team Biden had to play defense Monday after suffering a self-inflicted dent to his reputation ahead of the U.N. climate conference in Glasgow, Scotland, when he urged other major energy producers to pump more oil. Climate czar John Kerry insisted there was “no inconsistency” between the administration’s aggressive climate change position and Mr. Biden’s effort to persuade OPEC and Russia to open up supply amid a global energy crisis. “It’s just not inconsistent,” Mr. Kerry said in a conference call with reporters. “If it were, if he were asking them to boost their production over five years, I’d quit. But he’s not. He’s asking them to boost production in this immediate moment.” The day before, Mr. Biden played defense at the end of the Group of 20 meeting of leaders of industrial and emerging-market nations in Rome, where he made the plea for more fossil fuel. Although he agreed that “on the surface, it seems like an irony,” he said it wasn’t inconsistent at all. “But the truth of the matter is — you’ve all known; everyone knows — that the idea we’re going to be able to move to renewable energy overnight and not have — from this moment on, not use oil or not use gas or not use hydrogen is just not rational,” Mr. Biden said. He said that the world is “going to stop subsidizing those fossil fuels,” but that it wasn’t realistic to stop using them immediately. He added that “the idea that Russia and Saudi Arabia and other major producers are not going to pump more oil so people can have gasoline to get to and from work, for example, is not right.”

What galls his critics, led by Republicans, is the specter of Mr. Biden pleading with the OPEC nations and Moscow to turn on the spigots amid a pandemic surge in demand after taking a scythe to U.S. producers.

Shortly after taking office, Mr. Biden canceled the Keystone XL pipeline project and placed a moratorium on new fossil-fuel leases on federal lands and waters, undercutting domestic production and depressing investment. Since January, U.S. gasoline prices have soared by 40%, creating pain at the pump for U.S. consumers and taking a toll on Mr. Biden’s poll numbers. “And, by the way, when the cost of a gallon of gasoline gets to above … $3.35 a gallon, it has [a] profound impact on working-class families just to get back and forth to work,” Mr. Biden said. “So, I don’t see anything inconsistent with that.” Kathleen Sgamma, president of the Western Energy Alliance, blasted what she described as the Biden administration’s “rank hypocrisy” on energy. “It’s rank hypocrisy to do everything to squelch American oil production, which sends working-class jobs overseas while asking Russia and OPEC to increase their production,” she said. “The effects of President Biden’s climate policies — high prices, scarcity, lost jobs — are already coming home to roost.” She said Americans could “expect more of the same if these policies are not reversed and the House’s reconciliation bill passes.” “American is following the misguided climate lead of Europe which will only boost our enemies in China and Russia who aren’t buying into failed policies that kill manufacturing and energy production,” Ms. Sgamma said.

Sen. John Barrasso of Wyoming, the ranking Republican on the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, accused Mr. Biden of “punishing America’s economy while pretending to protect the environment.”

“The president wants to kill abundant and affordable U.S. energy sources like oil, natural gas, and coal that Americans depend on,” he said in a Monday statement. “The White House’s plan is a recipe for disaster. It will result in skyrocketing power bills, less reliable energy, and fewer jobs for the American people. Shutting down the United States’ economy won’t fix climate change. It will only enrich China.” NN: Talk about shooting yourself in the dick. The Grennennieewinnees were convinced the age of fossil fuels was over. Of course with the world shut down energy demand collapsed… I was not the success of alternatives. But that is to difficult for climate change retards to comprehend. And all of a sudden demand started to return to normal and Wind farms and solar were revealed for the fraud they really are. And the US put a knife in the back of its oil industry. Rather then admiting their mistake and bringing back US oil. Biden et all are happy to go to our enemies for our energy needs,,, Like Russia and let Iran to get nukes and let the Kerry sell out continue

President Biden said he and other world leaders agree that diplomacy is the best way to keep Iran from gaining a nuclear weapons. He also blamed the U.S. exit from the Iran nuclear deal on former President Trump’s ‘very bad judgments.’

President Biden said  that the U.S. is “continuing to suffer” from former President Trump’s decision to pull out of the Iran nuclear deal. Mr. Biden’s comments come a day after he and three European leaders signaled that he was ready to return to the Obama-era deal that eased sanctions against Iran, in exchange for the country limiting its nuclear program and allowing inspections. “We’re continuing to suffer from the very bad judgments that President Trump made in pulling out of the [nuclear deal],” Mr. Biden said during a press conference at the end of the Group of 20 summit in Rome.

He said the future of the deal is dependent on whether the original partners in the deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA),  will “stick with us and make sure there is a price to pay economically” if Iran doesn’t return to the negotiating table.

Mr. Biden also vowed to “continue to respond” if Iran launches drone strikes or provokes the U.S. in any way. Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned Sunday on CBS’ “Face the Nation” that Iran’s nuclear program is “starting to be a problem” and that the U.S. and its allies have limited time to strike a deal with Tehran before it stockpiles enough material for a nuclear bomb. The nuclear deal was brokered in 2015 among the U.S., Germany, France, United Kingdom, China, Russia, and Iran. But Mr. Trump pulled the U.S. out of the deal three years later, imposing tough sanctions that have damaged Iran’s economy. In response, Iran bolstered its nuclear program, pushing it past previously agreed to limits under the Obama-era deal. On Saturday, the U.S., Germany, UK and France issued a statement that made it clear they wouldn’t ease sanctions until Iran scales back its plans to develop a nuclear weapon. Iran has repeatedly denied that it wants a nuclear weapon. “We are convinced that it is possible to quickly reach and implement an understanding on returning to full compliance and to ensure for the long term that Iran‘s nuclear program is exclusively for peaceful purposes,” the statement said. “This will only be possible if Iran changes course,” it added. “We call upon [Iranian President Ebrahim] Raisi to seize this opportunity and return to a good faith effort to conclude our negotiations as a matter of urgency. That is the only sure way to avoid a dangerous escalation, which is not in any country’s interest.”

The allies said they have a “grave and growing concern” that Iran has stepped up its pace of producing “highly enriched uranium and enriched uranium metal,” which have no civilian uses.

Tehran has yet to commit to a date to return to nuclear talks, which have been suspended since June, when Iranian President Ebrahim Raise came to power. Mr. Biden has repeatedly expressed his belief that the U.S. could return the deal, despite increased tensions between the two nations.  An Iran equipped with nuclear bombs would be a national security and foreign policy nightmare for the U.S. and its longstanding regional ally Israel. Such a development also would reshape the balance of power in the Middle East and immediately make Iran the region’s most influential player. NN: Biden will throw Israel under the bus. Why… He needs the oil   (to get democrats  reelected)  that Iran is eager to supply…. As far as the nukes…. He will send medical supplies to Israel after they get nuked……

United States Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said on Monday that the US economy is not overheating and that it is still some five million jobs short of the pre-pandemic levels