LONDON (Reuters) – Oil rose further above $84 a barrel on Friday, within sight of a multi-year high hit this week, as expectations that OPEC and its allies will keep supply tight countered rising U.S. inventories and the prospect of more Iranian exports. Algeria said on Thursday that a crude output increase by OPEC and its allies in December should not exceed 400,000 barrels per day (bpd) because of market uncertainties and risks. The alliance, which is gradually unwinding last year’s record output cuts, meets on Nov. 4. “Supply will therefore continue to play catch-up with demand in the immediate term,” said Stephen Brennock of oil broker PVM. “In short, OPEC+ is intent on continuing to act as a key pillar of price support.” Brent crude rose 11 cents, or 0.1%, to $84.43 a barrel by 1213 GMT and U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude slipped 8 cents, or 0.1%, to $82.73. Both benchmarks touched multi-year highs on Monday. Crude has surged in 2021 as economies recover from the COVID-19 pandemic, but prices are on track to fall this week, with Brent facing its first weekly decline in about two months. This week’s U.S. inventory figures showed crude stocks rose by a more than expected 4.3 million barrels. Iran, meanwhile, has said that talks on reviving the international deal on its nuclear programme will resume by the end of November, bringing it a step closer to boosting oil exports. “The sharp rise in U.S. crude oil stocks and the expectation of nuclear talks being resumed with Iran have temporarily eased concerns about supply to some extent,” said Commerzbank’s Carsten Fritsch. The heat also came out of the rally because of easing concern over high coal and natural gas prices that have spurred fuel-switching in power generation. British and European gas prices continued to fall on Friday after Russian President Vladimir Putin said Russia could start pumping gas into European storage. NN: The back of this rally has not been broken just yet. But their sure as hell IS a lot of straw piling up on the donkeys back…… OIL IS A GREAT TRADE
Euro zone inflation exceeds forecasts; hits another 13-year high
In the above video you will see how the EU is dancing around the inflation crises. Like in the US the central bankers have little choice so they pretned and HOPE inflation will some how go away by itself… That is not going to happen
FRANKFURT (Reuters) – Euro zone inflation shot past expectations in October to hit a 13-year high, worsening a policy headache for the European Central Bank, which has consistently underestimated consumer price growth over the past year. Inflation in the 19 countries sharing the euro rose to 4.1% in October, up from 3.4% a month earlier and ahead of a consensus forecast of 3.7%. It was driven by higher energy prices, tax hikes and growing price pressures from supply bottlenecks that are constraining industrial production, particularly in car manufacturing, data from Eurostat showed on Friday. The figure is the highest since July 2008 and equals the fastest rate since the data series, known as the harmonised index of consumer prices, was launched in 1997. Energy prices alone were up 23% compared to a year earlier, making by far the biggest contribution to inflation. Services, which had shown anaemic price growth for years, saw inflation of 2.1%. At 4.1%, consumer price growth is now more than twice the ECB’s target and will likely accelerate further in the coming months before a slow retreat next year when some technical one-off drivers get knocked out of year-earlier figures, analysts and ECB policymakers predict. But all indicators suggest that inflation will decline more slowly than policymakers once thought, raising the risk that high prices, even if temporary, would become entrenched in wages and corporate pricing structures. Indeed, ECB President Christine Lagarde took a more cautious tone on inflation on Thursday, warning that supply disruptions would last longer than once thought, keeping consumer price growth higher for longer and putting pressure on wages. Underlying prices, a key focus for policymakers as they exclude volatile food and energy prices, also accelerated above the ECB’s target. Core inflation excluding food and fuel prices and a narrower measure that also excludes alcohol and tobacco products, both picked up to 2.1% from 1.9%. Adding to inflation concerns, an ECB survey on Friday indicated that over 30% of companies surveyed by the bank expected supply constraints and higher input costs to last for another year or longer, while a slightly lower percentage of respondents predicted difficulties would last another six to 12 months. Firms also reported “a scarcity of applicants” for jobs as people changed profession, country or lifestyle, which was likely to result in wage increases. NN: This is called a central bank hail Mary….. Their is global run away inflation and rates the world over will sooner or later soar..
Yellen expects inflationary pressures to ease by second half of 2022
Janet Yellen on inflation: “I trust Fed to make the right decisions” This is a interview from October 5th… They are really really fucking up. inflation will bight them in the ass and make us a fortune
“As demand shifts back to services and supply has a chance to adjust, I believe that price increases will normalize and we’ll see lower monthly inflation rates, I think, by the second half of (2022),” Yellen said in an interview in Rome. Yellen, who will attend a meeting of Group of 20 finance and health ministers on Friday, said inflationary pressures had been fueled by shortages of semiconductors and a rise in energy prices, but energy prices would begin to moderate in the months ahead. She noted that people were more confident about the job market, and income levels were going up, especially for workers in the service sector. Speaking in a separate interview with CNBC, she said two major spending bills working their way through Congress would also help reduce inflationary pressures by reducing the cost of medical services. Yellen said she expected U.S. gross domestic product growth to pick up and unemployment to fall further as the pandemic eased and people returned to work. NN: I got your back. I hate making money when people suffer. I came to terms with this issue many years ago. I try to save and prosper as many people as possible from the evil conspiracies and ignorance of their leaders.. As a result i have lost hundreds of millions in Legal fees and having my business decimated.. We could have been a billion dollar publication. I regret nothing…… As a consultation prize we stand at the precipice of a disaster for the masses and our greatest trade ever. And we are about to free American investors (at least some of the smart ones) from the curse of the Futures mafia. that systematically margins them to death…. Something to be proud of.
Fluvoxamine cheap antidepressant shows promise fighting early stage covid19
Ever since the COVID-19 pandemic began, scientists have searched for an easily accessible medication that can help treat the virus. Merck recently announced that it is planning to seek an emergency use authorization from the Food and Drug Administration for its antiviral, molnupiravir. And now, it seems, there’s another promising—but surprising— medication that may be helpful in keeping high-risk patients out of the hospital: the antidepressant fluvoxamine. A large, placebo-controlled, randomized clinical trial published in The Lancet on Wednesday analyzed the effects of the drug, which is currently used to treat obsessive-compulsive disorder and depression, on patients with COVID-19. The researchers randomly assigned 741 patients fluvoxamine and 756 were given a placebo. The researchers discovered that the group that was given fluvoxamine were 1/3 less likely to need to be hospitalized or undergo prolonged medical observation than the placebo group. Some patients with COVID-19 stopped taking fluvoxamine over side effects but, in those who continued with the medication, one patient died compared to 12 who were given the placebo. Fluvoxamine also lowered the risk of patients being hospitalized by 2/3.
The study was eventually stopped “for superiority,” meaning it was halted because fluvoxamine was deemed effective in groups that were given the medication.
There are a lot of questions surrounding fluvoxamine and COVID-19 based on these results, and fair. Here’s what you need to know about this readily available medication and why it might help fight severe complications from COVID-19. Fluvoxamine is a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) approved by the FDA to treat obsessive-compulsive disorder, according to the National Institutes of Health (NIH). It’s also used to treat other conditions like anxiety and depression, says infectious disease expert Amesh A. Adalja, M.D., a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security. However, the NIH points out, fluvoxamine is not currently FDA-approved for the treatment of any infection, including COVID-19.The Lancet study isn’t the first to suggest that fluvoxamine may help fight COVID-19. Data published in JAMA from a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial of 152 patients with mild COVID-19 that also found fluvoxamine was beneficial. For the trial, 80 were given fluvoxamine and 72 were given a placebo. At the end of the trial, five people in the placebo group and one in the fluvoxamine group were hospitalized. However, only 76% of the participants actually finished the study and 20% of the stopped responding to the electronic survey. “Due to the study’s reliance on participant self-reports and missing data, it is difficult to draw definitive conclusions about the efficacy of fluvoxamine for the treatment of COVID-19,” the NIH says. Another study, this one observational, analyzed the effect of fluvoxamine on people with mild forms of COVID-19. Those patients were given the option of taking 50 milligrams of fluvoxamine twice a day for 14 days or nothing. Of the 113 people who were offered fluvoxamine, 65 took the medication. More of the patients in that group had symptoms of the virus, the researchers noted. At the end of the 14-day trial, none of the patients who took fluvoxamine had symptoms of COVID-19, while 60% of those who did not undergo treatment did. None of the fluvoxamine patients were hospitalized and six of those who did not take the medication were. The NIH points out that fluvoxamine has anti-inflammatory effects. Specifically, it’s been found to bind to a specific receptor in immune cells, lowering the production of cytokines, which are small proteins released by cells as part of your body’s immune response and inflammation. Still, “it’s not clear what the mechanism of action is,” says Thomas Russo, M.D., professor and chief of infectious disease at the University at Buffalo in New York. Fluvoxamine isn’t an antiviral medication, and Dr. Russo points out that “early on, antivirals make a little more sense for treatment of a virus like COVID-19 because they tamp down on replication.” (If a virus can’t replicate, it won’t spread and continue to make a person sick, he explains.) “But it’s often when people get more severely ill that anti-inflammatories help,” Dr. Russo says.
Russia seen starting to fill Europe’s gas storage after Nov. 8
MOSCOW — European gas prices dropped Thursday after Russian President Vladimir Putin instructed the country’s major natural gas company to pump more gas into EU storage sites. Europe’s gas prices have soared in recent weeks amid strong demand in Asia driven by the economic recovery from the pandemic and due to depleted European Union stocks from a cold winter. During a call with officials late Wednesday, Putin told Alexei Miller, the head of state-controlled gas giant Gazprom, to start pumping gas into the company’s storage facilities in Austria and Germany after it fills domestic depots by Nov. 8. The Russian leader’s direction immediately drove European gas prices down.
The 27-country European Union depends on Russia for more than 40% of its gas imports. NB:This will be proven to be really really realy stupid!!
While Gazprom has met its obligations under long-term agreements, it has not sold additional gas on the EU spot market, opting to fill domestic storage. Some European politicians alleged that Russia was withholding gas deliberately to pressure German and EU authorities into speeding final regulatory approval for the recently completed Nord Stream 2 pipeline. Putin noted last week one of the two links of the new pipeline under the Baltic Sea already has been filled with gas as part of preparations for its launch, adding that supplies could start “the day after” regulators give their approval. Nord Stream 2, with an annual capacity of 55 billion cubic meters of gas is designed to deliver gas directly to Germany, bypassing Poland and Ukraine, which have vehemently opposed the project along with the U.S. NN: As the greeneeweeniees take control of liberal governments their misguided energy experiments will fail. Driving Europe into the waiting arms of Putin. he is poised to exploit coming self inflicted energy shortages
Economic growth slows to 2%
US economic growth slowed sharply in the third quarter of the year, as the fast-spreading Delta variant of coronavirus dampened consumer spending.
The economy expanded at an annualised rate of just 2% in the three months to September – down from 6.7% in the previous quarter. It came as the US faced supply chain issues, rising inflation and new Covid restrictions in some places.But infection rates are falling and some experts think growth will pick up. NB: This wet dream is about to turn into a horror show On a non-annualised basis, the growth figure was 0.5%. During the third quarter, the Commerce Department said, a “resurgence of Covid-19 cases resulted in new restrictions and delays in the reopening of establishments in some parts of the country”. Pandemic-era loans to businesses, grants to state and local governments, and social benefits to households all decreased, it added. Among other things, sales of big-ticket manufactured goods fell by 26% during the period. In particular, sales of new cars fell sharply, as prices shot up amid a shortage of semiconductors. At the same time, growth in the US services sector decelerated to 7.9%, as consumers spent less on eating out and staying in hotels. The US economy contracted sharply in 2020 as the pandemic hit, but it roared back in the first half of this year. Since then, the recovery has cooled because of a surge in Delta infections aggravated by lacklustre vaccination rates. The US added a disappointing 194,000 jobs in September, as the Delta variant of coronavirus continued to drag on the economy. Economists had expected it to add nearer its 2021 monthly average of 500,000. Inflation, meanwhile, hit 5.4% in September, with global supply chains struggling to meet soaring consumer demand as the economy reopened.
The Federal Reserve has argued the high prices will be transitory and has no immediate plans to raise interest rates to cool things down. However, it does expect to begin paring back its pandemic-era stimulus for the economy later this year, which some fear may be too soon.
NB: This will be proven to be one of the greatest Fed Reserve mistakes this centenary
Richard Flynn, managing director at Charles Schwab UK, said: “Today’s disappointing GDP data will increase investor concerns about strength of the US economy. “Risk has undoubtedly risen for investors, as there are now more questions – including about fiscal and monetary policy – than there are answers.” However, Willem Sels, chief investment officer of Global Private Banking and Wealth at HSBC, said he expected the slowdown to be temporary. “As companies rebuild their very low inventories, demand should remain strong, and activity should eventually pick up,” he added. “We also think consumption will rebound when consumers grow more confident, especially as many households have managed to save more during the lockdown and may want to spend ahead of the holiday season.” NN: Economy slowing, stock market raging and inflation out of control….. And the Fed is still stimulating and keeping Fed Funds rate at ZERO… Ho do you think this is going to end up.
Evergrande makes coupon payment before Friday deadline
Low vitamin D and increased mortality
Lower levels of vitamin D, higher rates of death Association of Serum 25-Hydroxyvitamin D Concentrations With All-Cause and Cause-Specific Mortality Among Adult Patients With Existing Cardiovascular DiseaseObservational study, non-interventional
Background: Vitamin D insufficiency and deficiency are common in patients with cardiovascular disease (CVD). We aimed to prospectively examine the associations of serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D [25(OH)D] concentrations with all-cause and cause-specific mortality among adult patients with existing CVD.
Methods: We included 37,079 patients with CVD from the UK Biobank study, a prospective cohort of half a million participants aged 40–69 years. We defined patients with CVD as those who suffered coronary heart disease, atrial fibrillation, heart failure, or stroke. The associations of serum 25(OH)D concentration with all-cause and cause-specific mortality were examined by using multivariable Cox regression models and competing risk analyses.
Results: Among 37,079 patients with CVD at baseline, 57.5% were subjected to vitamin D deficiency (i.e., 25[OH]D <50 nmol/L). During a median follow-up of 11.7 years, 6,319 total deaths occurred, including 2,161 deaths from CVD, 2,230 deaths from cancer, 623 deaths from respiratory disease, and 1,305 other-cause deaths. We observed non-linear inverse associations for all-cause, cancer, respiratory disease, and other-cause mortality (P-non-linearity <0.01) and approximately linear inverse associations for CVD mortality (P-non-linearity = 0.074). Among CVD patients with vitamin D deficiency, per 10 nmol/L increment in serum 25(OH)D concentrations was associated with an 12% reduced risk for all-cause mortality and 9% reduced risk for CVD mortality.
Conclusion: Among patients with existing CVD, increasing levels in serum 25(OH)D were independently associated with a decreased risk of all-cause and cause-specific mortality. These findings suggest that elevated serum 25(OH)D concentration benefits CVD patients with vitamin D deficiency.
That is deaths went up as vitamin D levels went down. For every 10 nmol/L increment in serum 25(OH)D concentrations, There was an associated 12% reduced risk for all-cause mortality
There was an associated 9% reduced risk for CVD mortality. In patients with vitamin D deficiency Per 10 nmol/L increase in serum 25(OH)D levels, was associated with a lower risk of mortality from (aHR]; 95% CI) All-cause 0.88 CVD 0.91 Cancer 0.90 Respiratory diseases 0.81 Other causes 0.81
Multivariable Cox regression models
Age, sex, alcohol, BMI, GFR, education, ethnicity, household income, smoking status, healthy diet score, diabetes (and meds), HbA1c, duration of CVD, blood pressure (and meds), lipid profile (and meds), triglycerides, cholesterol
COVID boosters available to all Japanese citizens – report
Japan’s Ministry of Health has decided to offer COVID-19 vaccine boosters to all individuals who have already received two doses, after initially prioritizing frontline health workers and high-risk individuals, the Japanese press agency Jiji reported on Thursday. According to previous reports by Japanese media, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s plan involves administering the booster shots starting from December, in order to prevent the re-emergence of the virus as the country slowly goes back to pre-pandemic levels of activity. The Health Ministry’s timeline, which originally predicted distributing the third shot among those who have gone at least eight months since receiving their second dose and individuals at a higher risk of infection, is now altered to include all citizens. NN: while the US fiddle fucks around on giving the third booster shots to all its citizens the rest of the world is moving ahead. Why does the US have the highest infection rate in the world? Pretty simple answer ineffective leadership. I cringe when i see most US politicians give a interview… Especially from the House of Representatives. What a group of idiots…… You get what you pay for… In this case elect…….
New York state denies permits for two proposed natural gas-fired power plants
NB: the greenieewennies are stooping the cleanest burning fossil fuel of them all natural gas. Their thinking.. if you can call it thinking is oppose ALL generation plants. That way they believe they will force solar and wind. Ignoring the science that is does not produce sufficient power at the present time…… but why let the facts get in the way. IE: the German failed renewables experiment……
Oct 27 (Reuters) – New York environmental regulators on Wednesday rejected permits to build two natural gas-fired power plants as the state focuses more on renewable projects and energy efficiency to meet its greenhouse gas reduction goals. The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) denied air emissions permits for NRG Energy Inc’s (NRG.N) proposed Astoria gas turbine project in the New York City borough of Queens, and Danskammer Energy LLC’s proposed Danskammer repowering project in Newburgh on the Hudson River. In both cases, the DEC said: “Our review determined the proposed project does not demonstrate compliance with the requirements of the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act.” The 2019 act seeks to achieve 100% zero-emission electricity in the state by 2040.
“It’s unfortunate that New York is turning down an opportunity to dramatically reduce emissions and strengthen reliable power for millions of New Yorkers at such a critical time,” Tom Atkins, Vice President of Development at NRG Energy said in a statement.
Atkins added that in the meantime, NRG’s current Astoria plant will continue to operate for another 18 months “until we are forced to shut down under current law.” New York Governor Kathy Hochul issued a statement applauding the DEC’s decisions to deny the permits. “Climate change is the greatest challenge of our time, and we owe it to future generations to meet our nation-leading climate and emissions reduction goals,” the Democratic governor said. The Sierra Club environmental group said in an email that the DEC permit denials “effectively (shut) down the projects for good.” “This denial sets a precedent that no new gas proposals will move forward in New York, so Sierra Club and coalition partners now can focus on retiring existing gas,” the group said. Danskammer wanted to repower the existing 511-megawatt (MW) power plant at the site, according to the company’s website. In 2020, NRG proposed to replace the 24 gas turbines at the Astoria site with a single new turbine generator capable of producing 437 MW, according to the company’s website. NN: This is a decision New Yorker’s will live to regret. They will see their electric bills soar and rolling blackouts. Especially as they deploy more coal burning electric cars. But why let experience and science get in the way of a fairy tale…….