The Biden administration has hailed the need for COVID-19 vaccine booster shots as the Delta variant cripples some states’ health-care systems, but top government scientists are urging it to hit the breaks. Dr. Janet Woodcock, the acting head of the Food and Drug Administration, and Dr. Rochelle Walensky, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, had a meeting with the White House’s COVID-19 coordinator Jeff Zients on Thursday, The New York Times reports. In it, the two told Zients they needed more time to collect and review the science behind booster shots, including whether they should only be given to those with the Pfizer vaccine and how many of those individuals should take it. As a result, they said, the White House should scale back its push on boosters, which it had hoped to offer later this month. The White House said it was waiting on full FDA approval before moving forward. “We always said we would follow the science, and this is all part of a process that is now underway,” spokesman Chris Meagher said. “When that approval and recommendation are made, we will be ready to implement the plan our nation’s top doctors developed so that we are staying ahead of this virus.” Nick Note: This is a colossal fuck up. It is settled business that immunity wears off 5 months after the last vaccine. We know the science. The longer they wait for the 3rd shot the more people will become infected. And you create a fertile environment for even more mutations……
US job creation slows sharply in August as Delta variant hits economy
WASHINGTON, Sept 3 (Reuters) – The U.S. economy created the fewest jobs in seven months in August as hiring in the leisure and hospitality sector stalled amid a resurgence in COVID-19 infections, which weighed on demand at restaurants and other food places. But other details of the Labor Department’s closely watched employment report on Friday were fairly strong, with the unemployment rate falling to a 17-month low of 5.2% and July job growth revised sharply higher. Wages increased a solid 0.6% and fewer people were experiencing long spells unemployment. This points to underlying strength in the economy even as growth appears to be slowing in the third quarter because of the soaring infections, driven by the Delta variant of the coronavirus, and relentless shortages of raw materials, which are depressing automobile sales and restocking. Nonfarm payrolls increased by 235,000 jobs last month, the smallest gain since January. Data for July was revised up to show a whopping 1.053 million jobs created instead of the previously reported 943,000. That left the level of employment about 5.3 million jobs below its peak in February 2020. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast nonfarm payrolls increasing by 728,000 jobs. The initial August payrolls print has undershot expectations and been slower than the three-month average job growth through July over the last several years, including in 2020. August payrolls have been subsequently revised higher in 11 of the last 12 years.
Employment in the leisure and hospitality sector was unchanged as restaurants and bars payrolls fell 42,000, offsetting a 36,000 gain in arts, entertainment and recreation jobs. Retailers shed 29,000 jobs.
There were gains in professional and business services, transportation and warehousing, as well as manufacturing, which added 37,000 jobs. Factory hiring remains constrained by input shortages, especially semiconductors, which have depressed motor vehicle production and sales. Raw material shortages have also made it harder for businesses to replenish inventories. Motor vehicle sales tumbled 10.7% in August, prompting economists at Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan to slash third-quarter GDP growth estimates to as low as a 3.5% annualized rate from as high as 8.25%. Government payrolls fell in August as state government education lost 21,000 jobs. The Bureau of Labor Statistics, which compiles the employment report cautioned that “recent employment changes are challenging to interpret, as pandemic-related staffing fluctuations in public and private education have distorted the normal seasonal hiring and layoff patterns.” Details of the smaller household survey from which the unemployment rate is derived were fairly upbeat. The unemployment rate fell to 5.2%, the lowest since March 2020 from 5.4% in July. It has, however, been understated by people misclassifying themselves as being “employed but absent from work.” Without this problem, the jobless rate would have been 5.5%. Though the participation rate was steady at 61.7%, about 190,000 people entered the labor force last month. Even more encouraging, the number of permanent job losers declined 443,000 to 2.5 million. The number of long-term unemployed dropped to 3.2 million from 3.4 million in the prior month. They accounted for 37.4% of the 8.4 million officially unemployed people, down from 39.3% in July. The duration of unemployment fell to 14.7 weeks from 15.2 weeks in July. The employment report will be parsed by investors trying to gauge the timing of the Federal Reserve’s announcement on when it will start scaling back its massive monthly bond buying program. Fed Chair Jerome Powell last week affirmed the ongoing economic recovery, but offered no signal on when the U.S. central bank plans to cut its asset purchases beyond saying it could be “this year.” Some economists do not believe the below-expectations payrolls count is weak enough for the Fed to back away from its “this year” signal. There were a record 10.1 million job openings at the end of June. Lack of affordable childcare, fears of contracting the coronavirus, generous unemployment benefits funded by the federal government as well as pandemic-related retirements and career changes have been blamed for the disconnect. There is cautious optimism that the labor pool will increase because of schools reopening and government-funded benefits expiring on Monday. But the Delta variant could delay the return to the labor force by some of the unemployed in the near term. Nick Note: Further proof the Great Plague is BAAACK. The Delta variant is shutting things down and not a lockdown in sight…
UK service sector growth slows amid staff shortages and supply chain disruption
Small caps have started to outperform the MSCI quality index as well as the S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100, two of the highest-quality large-cap indices in the world.
We think this may be the early signal that it’s time for high-quality names to finally take their hit on valuation, completing the mid-cycle transition.
Understanding why this might happen could help to put one into the right stocks for the rest of the year. We see two very different possible narratives ahead.
- On the one hand, while the Fed has not yet begun to taper its asset purchases, we think that the start is inevitable later this fall or in the winter. With record GDP and earnings growth, rising inflation and the rates of infection from the Delta variant peaking, the Fed will feel more pressure to remove what is essentially emergency monetary accommodation. We expect a more formal signal from the Fed at the September FOMC meeting, and the markets are likely to anticipate it. That means higher interest rates and lower equity valuations. Our rates strategists expect a move to 1.8% on 10-year Treasury yields by year-end. Assuming a stable equity risk premium at 345bp, P/Es would fall to 19x, or 10% lower. With the quality stocks now expensive relative to the market and arguably more crowded today, it may be their turn to experience the rolling correction that’s been ongoing all year. It also suggests that we get a rotation back towards cyclicals and reopening plays. We favor financials the most in this possible outcome.
- The other reason why we might finally see the S&P 500 experience its mid-cycle transition correction is that growth disappoints. With peak everything, a deceleration is looming, and the chances are increasing that it’s greater than expected, as forecasts have been extrapolated from an unrepeatable 1H consumption boom. In this outcome, we favor defensive quality sectors like healthcare and staples that have less valuation risk in the event rates move higher.
In short, this fall we still expect our mid-cycle transition to end with a 10%+ S&P 500 correction, but a narrative of either fire or ice will determine the leadership from here. As such, our recommendation is a barbell of defensive quality with financials to participate and protect in either outcome. Nick Note: These whores cannot mouth the word crash, or wipe out or even sell. They are predicting a 10% stock market CRASH… and they are still telling you to buy stocks in a “barbell” defensive strategy. What ever the fuck that is…. Never are the words mouthed sell the shit out of stocks because a crash is cumming. and And AND they will be lucky to limit the downside to 10%… try 30%…
Powell’s Speech Made Me Even More Frightened: Sri Kumar
Aug.31 — Komal Sri Kumar, president of Sri-Kumar Global Strategies, discusses Federal Reserve policy and its implications for global markets. Fed Chair Jerome Powell said last week the central bank could begin slowing down asset purchases this year, but it won’t be in a hurry to raise interest rates. Nick Note: As i have been screaming form the roof tops.. The FED is making a tragic error in judgement. And when your the Big Kahuna that means you have the power to wipe out the economy….. AGAIN!
GM to cut production due to chip shortage….. Ford cuts F-150 pickup production again due to chip shortage
- General Motors said Thursday it’s adding or extending downtimes at eight plants in the U.S., Canada and Mexico.
- Impacted vehicles include GM’s full-size and midsize pickup trucks, Chevrolet Blazer, GMC Terrain, among others.
DETROIT – General Motors is once again significantly cutting production at its North American plants due to the semiconductor chip shortage, signaling the global parts problem remains a serious issue for the automotive industry. The automaker said Thursday it’s adding or extending downtimes at eight plants in the U.S., Canada and Mexico. Most of the new cuts are for two weeks, while production of its Silverado 1500 and Sierra 1500 full-size pickups in Indiana and Mexico is expected to resume after a week of downtime starting Sept. 13. Other vehicles impacted by the new production cuts range from its Chevrolet and GMC midsize pickups and vans in Missouri to the Chevrolet Trailblazer in Mexico and crossover production across North America. “Although the situation remains complex and very fluid, we remain confident in our team’s ability to continue finding creative solutions to minimize the impact on our highest-demand and capacity-constrained vehicles,” the company said in a statement Thursday. The chip shortage has quickly grown from what many executives expected to be a short-term problem during the first half of the year to one that some anticipate will linger well into 2022. GM last month said it expected production to be down by about 100,000 vehicles in North America during the second half of the year compared with the first six months. The company does not release production data, but it sold about 1.3 million vehicles during the first half of the year in North America.
Ford cuts F-150 pickup production again due to chip shortage
- Ford is once again cutting production of its F-150 pickup truck and other highly profitable vehicles due to the ongoing global shortage of semiconductor chips.
- The automaker informed employees Wednesday of the cuts, which also impact production of its larger Super Duty pickups and Expedition SUV.
DETROIT – Ford Motor is once again cutting production of its F-150 pickup truck and other highly profitable vehicles due to the ongoing global shortage of semiconductor chips. The automaker informed employees Wednesday of the cuts, which also impact production of its larger Super Duty pickups and Expedition SUV. “Our teams are making the most of our available semiconductor allocation, finding unique solutions to provide as many high-quality vehicles as possible to our dealers and customers,” Ford vice president of manufacturing and labor affairs John Savona said in an internal memo to employees
Most notably, the new production cuts include extending downtime at Ford’s Kansas City Assembly plant for the F-150 through the week of Sept. 6. Pickup truck production there has been down since last week due to the parts shortage. Ford’s other U.S. plant that produces the F-150 also will only run on one of three shifts next week – the same amount as this week for the Michigan plant. Ford’s Kentucky Truck plant, which builds Super Duty pickups alongside Expedition and Navigator SUVs, will also cut a shift the weeks of Sept. 6 and Sept. 13. A Ford spokeswoman confirmed Wednesday the cuts that were outlined in the memo to employees. Nick Note: Like i have been telling you no need for lockdowns, vaccinations or riots over mask mandates. The Delta variants does not care about millennial’s tizzie fits. See shutdowns do the same things as lockdowns without the hyper blow. When they can’t breath they will forget the fact their favorite disco is closed…….
Walmart ups wages for 565,000 ahead of holidays… Charters fleet of Container Ships
https://youtu.be/1Sa4ShYfUNY
CHICAGO (Reuters) – Walmart said on Thursday that it plans to raise wages for more than 565,000 store workers by at least $1 an hour, as the all-important holiday shopping season is set to kick off in the middle of a desperate labor crunch across the country. With its third wage investment over the past year, Walmart’s U.S. average hourly wage is now $16.40, Walmart U.S. Chief Executive John Furner said in a memo to staff. Workers in Walmart’s frontend, food & consumable and general merchandise departments will receive the higher wages, effective Sept. 25, Furner said. The holiday season – worth nearly $800 billion last year – marks the busiest time of the year for retailers, making up a majority of their annual sales. It includes Black Friday, Christmas and the New Year. But a nationwide worker shortage due to the COVID-19 pandemic has retailers concerned they will not have enough workers in stores and warehouses to handle to extra sales online and in stores. Walmart, which raised pay for more than 425,000 stocking and digital associates earlier this year, said on Wednesday it plans to hire 20,000 workers at its supply chain division. In July, the company said it would pay 100% of college tuition and book costs for its associates. Nick Note: Let me explain what is going on here. Supplies of retail goods for the Christams shoopingfest are in short supply. WaMart is the largest exporters of goods out of China. With the shipping bottleneck Walmart has chartered its own fleet of container ships to bring goods into the US. Very smart… they will have the biggest supply of plastic China dogshit for Christmas. Hence the hiring spree.
Booster COVID-19 shots vastly increase protection – study
A GROUNDBREAKING study has found a third booster shot of the Pfizer vaccine could help keep the Delta variant at bay, by giving seniors four times the protection against COVID-19.
According to Israeli researchers in Jerusalem, patients who have received a booster jab boasted four times greater protection against the coronavirus. Data from the Ministry of Health of Israel also appears to show the booster is five to six times more effective at protecting seniors from serious illness and hospitalisation than the regular two doses. The Pfizer vaccine was recently approved by the US Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) and the Israeli government has already approved the rollout of booster shots in July this year for people over the age of 60. Israeli researchers believe booster shots of Pfizer can tackle the Delta varian. The Pfizer vaccine is administered in two doses More recently, the booster programme was extended to people above the age of 30. According to the WHO, Israel has reported more than one million Covid infections since the pandemic began, as well as more than 6,800 deaths. As of August 21, more than 12.7 million vaccines have been administered across the country. About 80 percent of Israel’s population has already received two doses of the vaccine, and about 1.4 million people have had a booster. To put the numbers into perspective, Israel has a fairly small population of about 9.05 million. Naftali Bennett, Prime Minister of Israel, said on Sunday: “Israel has a major advantage today because we are world pioneers in using the third vaccination, and we have a better understanding about the rate at which the previous vaccinations are waning, and what we need to do, when we need to do it, and even for what ages. “My advice to every world leader today is to start the third vaccination straight away, don’t wait. “Give it five months from the second vaccination, otherwise you will have false illusions about protection.” Evidence has emerged to show Covid vaccines, although effective, offer weakened protection in time, which makes the case for a booster shot after the initial two. According to Doron Gazit, a member of the Hebrew University’s COVID-19, handing out boosters to Israelis over the age of 60 has proven to slow the rate of infection in the last 10 days. He told Reuters: “We attribute this to the booster shots and more cautious behaviour. It is estimated more than half of people over the age of 60 have already received the third jab. Some are, however, uncertain whether widespread booster jabs can truly eliminate the threat posed by Delta. Dvir Aran, a biomedical data scientist at Israel’s Institute of Technology, said: “It will take a long time until enough people get a third dose and until then thousands more people will getting serous ill.” Nick Note: Its really simple if people do not want a vaccine so be it. But they cannot be allowed to infect others. So have vaccinated venues and places where the unvancinated can go and infect each other. And when not if they get infected let them go to their own hospitals and pay the bill. IF they can pay the bill. Why should the state be forced to subsidy their right not to vaccinate…… To be clear here the evidence is conclusive unvaccinated people are getting infected and hospitalized at staggering rates,, And people who have had the their vaccines are rarely if ever getting infected…. With the vast number of Americans vaccines wearing off and the leadership not following the science and not aggressively rolling out the 3rd vaccine disaster is coming .. things ARE getting ugly. And soon they will get the ugliest imaginable. You do not have to worry about locks downs. As people begin dropping dead on the streets the economy will simply shut down… And those hordes you are seeing screaming for their rights to not be vaccinated…. soon they will be screaming for a ventilator for all the good it will NOT do them
NY swamped… City people do not understand flood water fills up wholes in the ground…
The New York subway stations were submerged in water on Wednesday night, as flash flooding turned platforms and stairwells into waterfalls as the century-old system ground to a halt. The remains of Hurricane Ida left a path of destruction in New Jersey, tearing homes to pieces. The storm swept through NYC, flooding apartments and turning streets into rivers from Park Slope to the Cross Bronx Expressway. At least a half dozen subway trains stuck between stations were evacuated, according to the MTA, which said service remained “very limited” Thursday morning due to historic rainfall which dumped as many as six inches of rain on the city in a matter of hours.
At least four people were killed in Brooklyn and Queens after being trapped in basements when the floodwater surged, according to law enforcement sources.
At the 28th Street station in the Flatiron district of Manhattan, geyser-like volumes of rainwater were seen gushing from below in shocking images tweeted by @SubwayCreatures. Rapids from the onslaught of rain overran the platform and spewed onto the tracks, footage showed. Further uptown on the 1 line, rainwater could be seen cascading down the steps of the abandoned 145th Street station and flooding the platform and ticketing area with many inches of water, according to footage tweeted by NTD News. Democratic City Council hopeful Shaun Abreu said it was the second time the station was “incapacitated” by rainwater in recent days.
“Why is this happening?,” the candidate tweeted. “Because trash is allowed to build up in and around the station, blocking drainage. Because we have neglected our infrastructure for decades and it has reached its limit. Because climate change is creating conditions that our city was not built to withstand.”
Nick Note: here is a news flash… holes in the ground fill up with water in a flood… DASH! So you do not want to be in a basement of go into a tunnel in the ground called a subway. Proof their is no hope for cities which as far i am concerned are concentration camps with restaurants and cars…..
‘No urgent need’ for boosters in EU… US over 100,000 COVID-19 hospitalizations most since February
Sept 1 (Reuters) – The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) said on Wednesday there was no urgent need for booster doses of COVID-19 vaccines for the fully vaccinated, citing data on the effectiveness of shots.
The comments follow a similar statement from the European Medicines Agency last month that more data was needed on the duration of protection after full inoculation to recommend using booster shots.
The evidence on real-world effectiveness shows that all vaccines authorized in the region are highly protective against COVID-19-related hospitalisation, severe disease and death, the ECDC said. But the agency said extra doses can be considered for people who experience a limited response to the standard regimen, adding that these shots should be treated differently from booster doses.
Germany and France have announced they would begin giving boosters to vulnerable people and the immunocompromised from this month to protect citizens from the more infectious Delta variant.
The U.S. government has also started administering a third dose of Pfizer Inc (PFE.N)-BioNTech and Moderna Inc’s (MRNA.O) vaccines to those with compromised immunity. It plans to offer booster doses more widely from Sept. 20 if the country’s health regulators deem them necessary. read more
US over 100,000 COVID-19 hospitalizations most since February
Eurozone manufacturing growth decelerates in Aug. Euro inflation soaring
https://youtu.be/uE8keAL5pR4
August reading of 61.4 down from month ago, marking slowdown in growth for 2nd month in row
Eurozone purchasing managers’ index (PMI) for the manufacturing sector slipped to a six-month low in August but well above the historical average, a London-based global data company revealed on Wednesday. August’s reading of 61.4 was down from 62.8 in July, a second successive month in which growth has slowed in the sector, the IHS Markit said in a report. Growth at investment goods makers continued to lead over consumer goods and intermediate goods producers, it noted. Eurozone manufacturers continued seeing rise in goods production in August with total new orders increasing for a 14th straight month. New export business increased but overall rate of growth in export demand across the eurozone lost momentum in the month. Commenting on the data, Chris Williamson, chief business economist at IHS Markit, said: “The overriding issue was again a lack of components, however, with suppliers either unable to produce enough parts or are facing a lack of shipping capacity to meet logistics demand.” In eurozone, the Netherlands saw the strongest improvement in manufacturing business conditions, despite growth slowing to a five-month low. Germany, Ireland, Austria, and France posted softer expansions in the month while Greece registered the highest reading in its manufacturing PMI since April 2000.
EU on alert as inflation rockets to near-decade high
The harmonised index of consumer prices across the EU’s single currency bloc jumped to three percent in August from a year earlier. The figure was up from 2.2 percent in July and exceeded the expectations of most economists. Consumer prices have not risen as fast in the 19-country euro area since November 2011 when the European Central Bank had just raised interest rates for the region.
The increase in inflation rate is likely to pile pressure on the ECB to slow down the pace of its bond-buying scheme.
Prices in August jumped or were flat year-on-year in every Eurozone country. The highest inflation rates of between 4.5 and five percent were in Estonia, Lithuania and Belgium. Only four Eurozone nations now have inflation below two percent, down from 16 countries in March. Most worryingly in Germany, the EU’s largest economy, inflation jumped to a fresh 13-year high, according to data published yesterday. The figure rose 3.4 percent this month compared with 3.1 percent in July, figures from the Federal Statistics Office showed. Germany’s Bid newspaper bemoaned the “new inflation shock” on its front page today. France suffered a similar fate with its inflation accelerating rapidly to 1.9 percent in August. This was compared to 1.2 percent in July, according to provisional estimates published by INSEE. “This rise in inflation is believed to be the result, in particular, of the rebound in the prices of manufactured products in connection with the end of the summer sales,” said the Statistics Institute. In the past year, energy prices rose 15.4 percent, food, alcohol and tobacco prices jumped by two percent and industrial goods faced increases of 2.7 percent. Less volatile markets have seen their prices more than double to 1.6 percent, the highest level of Core inflation since 2012. Economists expect inflation to steadily fall against next year as temporary coronavirus measures, such as furlough schemes or economic boosters, are phased out. Jack Allen-Reynolds, an economist at Capital Economics, said: “The effects of reopening the supply problems could intensify in the next few months. “But we suspect that they will begin to fade next year as global consumption and trade patterns return to something like their pre-pandemic norms, and producers, especially of semiconductors – are able to increase their output.” The sudden increases in inflation rates are likely to be presented as a challenge to the ECB’s latest fiscal strategy. The central bank raised its inflation target to two percent in July and vowed to keep up a “forceful and persistent” policy to counter it. Economist Salomon Fiedler, of Berenberg, suggested the ECB could raise its inflation and growth targets next Thursday. He said: “This could be the basis to reduce the pace of bond purchases under the pandemic emergency purchase programme in the fourth quarter, possibly to a rate between that of the first quarter and the faster rate which the ECB had adopted thereafter.” Nick Note: The blueprint for the coming global disaster. Economic slow down driven by the next wave of the global plague and run away embedded inflation. The central banks the world over have no choice. They must eliminate stimulus and raise interest rates… Won’t that be fun