A link to the full report is posted in the Subscriber's Area.

If the USA’s increasingly powerful position as a swing producer of oil and gas is reducing the need for it to play the part of the global police force then what can we conclude from China launching its first domestically produced aircraft carrier this week?

FullerTreacyMoney has a very varied group of people as subscribers. Some of you like to receive our views in written form, while others prefer the first-person experience of listening to the audio or watching daily videos.

The Big Picture Long-Term video, posted every Friday, is aimed squarely at anyone who does not have the time to read the daily commentary but wishes to gain some perspective on what we think the long-term outlook holds. However, I think it is also important to have a clear written record for where we lie in terms of the long-term themes we have identified, particularly as short-term market machinations influence perceptions.

Here is a summary of my view at present:

A link to today's video commentary is posted in the Subscriber's Area. 

European Central Bank policy maker Francois Villeroy de Galhau said the institution’s first interest-rate increase could come “at least some quarters, but not years” after policy makers end their bond-buying program.

In an interview in Paris, the French central banker played down concerns about the euro area’s first-quarter economic slowdown and signaled that the ECB is still likely to halt quantitative easing this year. He said inflation will resume its acceleration in coming months, with underlying price pressures set to strengthen as the bloc’s temporary weakness passes.

“We will probably give additional guidance for the end of the year for the timing of the rate hike and the contingencies,” Villeroy said in a Bloomberg TV interview with Francine Lacqua.

“We’ll see exactly how we formulate it. We’re predictable, and it’s a clear virtue of our gradual normalization path, but we are not precommitted.”

ECB policy makers have yet to formally discuss the future of their QE program. Purchases are currently scheduled to run until at least September, totaling more than 2.5 trillion euros ($3 trillion), and officials expect interest rates to stay at current record lows until “well past” the end of net buying. Maturing debt will be reinvested.

It could be argued Germany, Netherlands and maybe Austria are ready for higher interest rates. Since together they make up a substantial proportion of the Eurozone economy that is what the focus of ECB actions is likely to be.

The U.S. Supreme Court struck down the federal law that bars gambling on individual sporting events in most of the country, in a ruling likely to unleash a race among the states to attract billions of dollars in legal wagers.

Ruling in a New Jersey case, the court said the 1992 law unconstitutionally forced states to maintain laws that outlaw gambling. Nevada is the only state where single-game wagering is now legal.

Sports gambling could begin in a matter of weeks in casinos and racetracks in New Jersey, which instigated the legal fight by repealing its gambling prohibition. Mississippi, Pennsylvania, New York, Delaware and West Virginia could follow soon, and the number of states might reach double digits by the end of the year.

The vote was 6-3 to strike down the entirety of the federal prohibition. Americans place $150 billion a year in illegal sports bets, according to the casino-backed American Gaming Association. The research firm Eilers & Krejcik Gaming puts the number at $50 billion to $60 billion, not counting bets among friends.

The ruling starts a new era for the largest sports leagues, which fought New Jersey in court even while moving toward embracing legalized sports wagering. In January, a National Basketball Association executive told New York lawmakers the leagues should get 1 percent of all bets. The NBA says it would prefer a new federal law to set nationwide standards.

However one feels about investing in vice, there is no doubt that people like to gamble and the removal of the Federal prohibition will be a major benefit to casino. Since there was never a prohibition on online gambling this news is unlikely to be of particular interest to that segment while the biggest losers are likely to be Indian casinos which have been able to skirt the law for the last few decades.

The outlook for electric car adoption is a central theme in the outlook for lithium miners and other suppliers of the growing battery market. Going from 0.8% in 2017 to 7.5% in 2025 is not far of a 10X growth rate and while ambitious is realizable. There are massive construction projects underway, particularly in Asia to build out production capacity of batteries.

The big question surrounding automation has long been whether robots would compete with workers or help them. Initially, workers feared robots would destroy jobs across the economy. Scholarly research and real-life experience has eased that concern, although some types of workers and industries are ending up on the losing side.

Today, the question is more precise: In which industries does automation help both employer and employee?

The companies that may have cracked the code are those that can assign repetitive, precise tasks to robots, freeing human workers to undertake creative, problem-solving duties that machines aren’t very good at. That’s particularly relevant for manufacturing, the food sector and service sectors such as billing, where timetable spreadsheets can be automated, freeing up workers to do higher-value tasks.

With demand for Bosch-built steering controls high, the company has used automation to increase its output, leading it to hire more people to perform the type of checks Mr. Rösch conducts.

“We looked for 20,000 new hires last year,” a mix of new positions and replacement staff, said Stefan Assmann, one of the company’s chief engineers, to join Bosch’s total 400,000 employees. Bosch factories world-wide now make use of 140 robotic arms, up from zero in 2011. “We can’t see robots having a negative impact on our workforce,” Mr. Assmann said.

If robotics and automation are helping to improve productivity and leading to expanded employment then there must be another reason why factories have been closing and people losing their jobs. The answer is pretty simple when we hear of workers having to train their replacements from overseas before they are fired.

A link to this week's Big Picture Long-Term video is posted in the Subscriber's Area.

Lumber prices are really high right now! The Chicago Mercantile Exchange futures contract for the softwood two-by-fours used in framing houses closed at its highest price ever on Tuesday, in fact.

If one adjusts for inflation, current prices are no longer record-setting. But an interesting pattern does appear if one adds in a few other key data points.

It appears that every time the U.S. picks a fight with Canada over its alleged subsidies of softwood lumber — which comes from coniferous trees such as pines, firs and cedars — U.S. lumber prices go up. The match is likely even closer than the chart above indicates, given that threats of tariffs (“countervailing duties,” to be precise) and follow-up tariff increases also affected prices.

The U.S.-Canada softwood lumber war first flared up in the early 1980s. Imports of lumber from Canada had been on the rise as environmental restrictions cut back on logging in U.S. National Forests, and the U.S. timber industry began to complain that Canadian local, provincial and national governments, which own almost all of the country’s forest land, were charging such low prices for timber that it amounted to an unfair subsidy.

How long before the homebuilding lobby starts to complain about an inability to pass on higher input costs to the end consumer? So far, the rising real estate market has meant that hasn’t been an issue, but it is inevitable at some stage. When that happens the reduction in tariffs on Canadian timber will represent a significant headwind for lumber prices. After all, the oldest adage in the commodity markets is “the cure for high prices is high prices”.

A six-minute walk through an office and lab facility is chronicled in the video, and Boston Dynamics reports that before this recorded autonomous run, the robot was guided along the route manually by a human so a map of the space could be constructed. The video highlights SpotMini's obstacle avoidance systems and navigation map as it moves through the space, so it’s not entirely clear how much autonomy the robot has regarding its overall route, but it can clearly dynamically respond to obstacles in the space.

As with other subdued Boston Dynamics video reveals, not much more detail is offered outside of the actual footage. The company was acquired by Japanese company SoftBank from Google parent company Alphabet for an undisclosed sum in 2017.

These videos of Boston Dynamics impressive robots are always visually astounding but they seldom show the human operator with the remote control running around behind the robot. The big success for Boston Dynamics is that it has demonstrated that it is possible to develop a robot that can navigate the human environment with relative ease and grace. That is already a huge achievement.

A NEW ERA FOR THE ALUMINUM INDUSTRY

There’s a new, revolutionary way to make aluminum. It eliminates all direct greenhouse gases. And it produces pure oxygen.

 The technology can create more aluminum in the same size smelting cell as the traditional process. And it can be installed in new facilities or retrofitted for existing ones.

What I think will surprise many people is that a test facility has been running at Alcoa’s Pittsburgh test facility since 2009 so this is not some far-off pipe dream but it already has a proof of concept and is primed for commercialization. The first commercially oriented industrial project is expected to begin producing aluminium in 2024.

Are we close to seeing a fiat trading on IOTA?
Qubic offers an oracle that connects IOTA USD/EUR conversions with the rates obtained from Bloomberg.com on a smart contract. This is a unique feature seen in the blockchain industry that can allow the writing of forwards and options on cryptocurrencies which can lead to greater stability in price. The technology may not seem a big deal at the moment, but imagine a scenario whereby you could hedge your extremely volatile cryptocurrencies? This would lead to increase in adoption of the token massively as merchants and other real life users would be ready to accept crypto.

IOTA (MIOTA) trading platforms aim to benefit the most from Qubic’s development. Trading platforms on IOTA will have decentralized margin trading in a trustless and low transaction fees on its tangle. The platform allows writing of smart contracts on the system where you can readily exchange your IOTA to either EUR or USD any-time.

Right now there are almost two different markets in cryptocurrencies. The first is heavily influenced by bitcoin. Many other cryptos require bitcoin as a base currency to buy them. That creates a daisy chain of contagion between the smaller tokens and bitcoin which is represented by volatile high beta performance relative to bitcoin.

A link to today's video commentary is posted in the Subscriber's Area.

Some of the topics discussed include: yield curve spread contracts further, projecting what will follow this period of ranging on stock markets, Dollar eases after strong advance, gold steady, oil extends advance, Australian market tests highs, Malaysia ETFs pullback following election 

What comes next is unclear. Mahathir helms an unwieldy four-party coalition that includes Malaysia’s largest ethnic Chinese party, and he plans to step aside once de facto opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim gets out of jail on a sodomy charge. Mahathir said he would seek a pardon for Anwar.

“I have to manage four presidents of four different parties,” Mahathir said. “It’s going to be a headache.”

Mahathir has pledged to set term limits for prime minister and reduce its power, while promising to scrap the GST within 100 days in power.

It’s uncertain whether the outcome will fundamentally reshape race relations in Malaysia. Najib’s party had long staked its legitimacy on providing preferential treatment for the bumiputera, or “sons of the soil,” which include ethnic Malays and indigenous groups.

Mak Hon Hoe, a 46-year-old ethnic Chinese voter, on Wednesday deplored the fact that Malaysians were separated in different racial categories.

“I want to see a fairer system,” he said while casting his ballot. “Race is still an issue. We want a Malaysian identity.”

The 1MDB scandal has finally brought down Nijab Razak’s government but it is unlikely that the figurehead of 92-year old Mahathir is going to be enough to hold together a disparate coalition of four smaller parties. The new administration is going to have to move swiftly and definitively to stamp its intent to improve governance if it is to have any hope of seeing out its term.

Yet Brussels has already run into plenty of opposition from across the EU. The sums involved may be small in the grand scheme of things—just 1.11% of the EU’s gross national income and just €109 billion of new spending commitments—but the Brussels plan exposes every major fault line in Europe.

The Netherlands and its northern allies have already branded the proposal as unacceptable because the commission has ignored their demands to cap the budget at its pre-Brexit level of 1% of GNI and will instead tap them for substantial rises in contributions. French and Irish ministers have criticized cuts to farming subsidies. Poland argues that providing cohesion funds to address social factors rewards governments for poor structural policies.

Crucially, the commission proposal is an attempt to tilt the EU in a more federal direction in ways that are bound to make some member states uncomfortable. For example, the rule-of-law mechanism as currently proposed would hand the commission wide discretion to determine a deficiency, removing the veto rights of individual member states. Warsaw says any mechanism judging a country’s rule of law should be based on objective criteria and overseen by the courts.

The rule of law is such a wonderful turn of phrase that it tends to turn up in all sorts of places. However, for those suspicious of centralized power it holds the threat of rules being made against their wishes but enforced from a far nonetheless. That was one of the primary arguments for Brexit before the issues of immigration and budget contributions became central themes and it is something that will be resonating through the capitals of all countries outside the small number of creditor nations.

Trust that you have been keeping well. You used to post a monthly update on World Equity Market Valuations Tables. Would you be able to provide this or if you could advise where such data may be available will be great? Thanks for the excellent service as always.

Thank you for this email which may be of interest to subscribers. I produced the Fundamental Valuation Tables on a monthly basis for approximately 8 years but they always had to carry a number of riders at the bottom of the page highlighting caveats that needed to be taken into account before looking at the data. These included the absence of data for some indices, the distorting effect of ADRs and the fact P/E ratios are based on indicated earnings rather than any other calculation and as a result were prone to spikes. As a result, I stopped producing the reports when I found a better online resource. 

One board member said the bank needs to make it clear that there is no change in its commitment to fulfill the objective as soon as possible, according to the summary, which don’t identify who said what. Kuroda said the BOJ will continue easing “very persistently” at a press conference following the policy decision.

BOJ’s updated price forecast for four years through fiscal 2020 was also released on April 27, showing no board members see inflation rising above 2 percent in a stable manner.

“In order to continue with powerful monetary easing, the bank needs to constantly consider enhancing its sustainability while aiming to gain consensus among the public on the necessity of the price stability target,” one board member said.

One member said an early rate hike would result in multiple adverse effects, including falling bond and stock prices, while a stronger yen would cut into corporate profitability.

Real Estate prices are the primary drag on inflation from the latest BoJ report. That is perhaps not so surprising with a shrinking population. However, the other point that needs to be borne in mind is that job openings are rising, labour force participation is high and wages just broke out. Against this background the BoJ is not going to be removing stimulus any time soon and may even increase it.

A link to today's video is posted in the Subscriber's Area. 

Some of the topics discussed include: midcaps continue to outperform led by the Russell 2000, oil breaks out, Treasuries back above 3%, stock firm, Dollar strong, gold steady, Japan wages increasing, 

The message that Google sees AI as doing things for us and is delivering on that promise is a significant riposte to the argument that newer technology platforms are not contributing to productivity. If my phone can secure a reservation for me, book a haircut, schedule a visit to the doctor or dentist then that is one less thing I have to worry about and I can spend my time in more productive pursuits; hopefully not watching more videos on iFunny.

Coffee and your long-term video. my start on Saturday morning...really enjoying and appreciating it. I am confused. There is a chart which is making me feel slightly nervous. It is the Citigroup Eurozone Economic Surprise Index. When comparing the Economic Surprise Index with the Dax on the 20-year overlay chart I see lower lows and a 20 year low on the Surprise Index and a nicely higher trending Dax. The European PMI indices show economic growth. It looks like Europe is slowly recovering. What causes the Economic Surprise Index to be so low? should we sound the alarm? Kind regards.

Thank you for this interesting question and I am delighted the Long-Term video is a valuable part of your weekend routine. To the best of my knowledge economic surprise indices are calculated on a cumulative basis so if economic figures surprise on the downside on a persistent basis then you get a downtrend. Eurozone GDP has been increasing but not at the pace expected by economists and that is probably why the index is so weak.

I was trying to recreate the chart of SPX vs PP of Dollar from your COD a few days back on my Bloomberg terminal and can’t seem to figure it out. Can you let me know when you have a chance? Thanks.

Thank you for this question. A good many of our subscribers have Bloomberg terminals so I created this video to show you how to compose the chart. The appropriate function is custom indices (CIX ). Here is a video on how to create the Chart. 

Here also is a video of how to create a US Dollar purchasing power parity chart in the Chart Library. Once you have saved the custom chart as a Preset template you will always have it available to adjust any other instrument by that measure. 

To deliver on longstanding pledges and help stave off the threat of tariffs from U.S. President Donald Trump, Chinese officials have set a June 30 deadline to ease ownership and business restrictions for banks, securities firms, asset managers and life insurers.

Securities firms like Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and UBS Group AG have an opportunity to boost their share five-fold as they take more direct control of joint ventures, projections by Bloomberg Intelligence show. Insurers including AIA Group Ltd. are set to cash in on their already healthy presence, while banks like HSBC Holdings Plc and Citigroup Inc. face a steeper road ahead to build market share, but will reap juicy profits as they do so.

Much as World Trade Organization entry in 2001 revolutionized the manufacturing industry, opening the financial sector could transform how capital is allocated and wealth managed across China. The charts below show the state of play and estimates on how that’ll change.

China is a major emerging financial market but it is also one where there is already a great deal of debt and where regional governments as well as consumers are heavily leveraged to the property sector. That is a risk the Chinese government is only beginning to get to grips with.

A link to today's video commentary is posted in the Subscriber's Area.

Some of the topics covered include: broad-based Dollar rally, Gold firming against the majority of currencies, oil holds the $75 area, emerging markets at risk from continued Dollar strength, Europe steady, Wall Street quiet.

Crude plunged, then rebounded a bit after a report that U.S. President Donald Trump has told his French counterpart he’ll abandon the Iranian nuclear accord and enact a tougher round of sanctions.

An earlier story from CNN saying the U.S. would re-impose sanctions that could take months to bite pushed futures down as much as 4.4 percent, the worst plunge in three months. Moments later, the price began rising when the New York Times reported on Trump’s comments to France’s Emmanuel Macron.

“I’m not surprised we’re seeing these whipsaws in prices as people try to find facts to hold on to,” said Ashley Petersen, lead oil analyst at Stratas Advisors in New York. The sentiment “is still basically he’s going to end up pulling out and we’re going to eventually lose that supply from Iran.”

The sweetheart deal given to Iran, in order to bring them into the global conversation on nuclear non-proliferation, has been an irksome reminder of the Obama administration’s go easy policy on intransigent international geopolitical problems for many conservatives. By withdrawing from it President Trump serves the dual purpose of fulfilling a campaign promise and boosting the price of an increasingly important US export.

5. Who would likely win?
Opinion polls show the League -- the rebranded, formerly secession Northern League, once known for deriding residents of the country’s south as beggars, thieves and good-for-nothing rednecks -- has gained the most from two months of bargaining. Its support rose to 24.4 percent from 17.4 percent in the March vote, according to an SWG opinion poll carried out May 3-6. Five Star is still the biggest single party, slipping half a percentage point to 32.2 percent. (A center-right alliance including the League and the Forza Italia party of Silvio Berlusconi, the four-time former prime minister, rose to 38.5 percent from 37.1 percent.) If Salvini’s League strengthens in the next election, he could decide to break with Berlusconi and finally form a coalition with Di Maio. This time around, Di Maio’s insistence on excluding Berlusconi was a primary obstacle to a populist coalition government.

6. Why does this matter?
Italy is facing political decisions and economic problems that affect other nations too. At more than 130 percent of gross domestic product, Italy’s debt is second-highest in the euro area, after Greece. The European Commission called the debt “a major source of vulnerability” for Italy and has been overseeing the country’s efforts to reduce spending. Underlying problems remain in Italy’s banks, including cronyism with many lenders too entwined with politicians, unions and foundations of all shapes. Mattarella has warned that the timing of the next elections could jeopardize the 2019 budget, which has to be approved by the end of the year, and unsettle financial markets. And nobody’s fully forgotten Five Star’s past talk of a referendum on leaving the euro.

Small political parties seem to have learned that the only way they will ever succeed in ousting the status quo is to refuse to be co-opted. If we look at the history of coalitions, the insurgent party does well until they give up on their ideals for a chance to hold power. They then get lumped in with the status quo for any egregious activity that occurs during government and subsequently get annihilated at the next election because their support base feels betrayed. The Five Star Movement’s refusal to enter government with Silvio Berlusconi is an example that they have learned this lesson.
 

Internationally oriented investors have become accustomed to having the best of both worlds. They favour benefitting from both currency and stock market appreciation as well as picking up a yield premium along the way. The weakness of the Dollar over the last couple of years has been a tailwind for emerging markets because it delivered all three of these profit opportunities for investors willing to invest abroad. However now that the Dollar is rebounding that trade appears to be reversing.

A link to today's video commentary is posted in the Subscriber's Area. 

Some of the topics discussed include: China bounces with talk of opening up the financial sector, Dollar firm, Europe steady, Italy breaking out led by exporters, Treasuries steady, oil closes above $75, trade wars are a risk for the remainder of the year.

Why did China have such a big impact? In their 2016 study, economists Justin Pierce and Peter Schott argue that China’s accession to the WTO in 2001—set in motion by president Bill Clinton—sparked a sharp drop in US manufacturing employment. That’s because when China joined the WTO, it extinguished the risk that the US might retaliate against the Chinese government’s mercantilist currency and protectionist industrial policies by raising tariffs. International companies that set up shop in China therefore enjoyed the benefits of cheap labor, as well as a huge competitive edge from the Chinese government’s artificial cheapening of the yuan.

The resulting appreciation of the dollar hurt US exporters—in particular, manufacturers. A 2017 study on the dollar’s appreciation in the early 2000s by economist Douglas Campbell found that the dollar strengthened sharply, in real terms, compared to low-wage trading partners including China. The subsequent increase in foreign imports and diminished demand for American exports resulted in a loss of around 1.5 million manufacturing jobs between 1995 and 2008.

There are also observable signs that automation wasn’t to blame. Consider the shuttering of some 78,000 manufacturing plants between 2000 and 2014, a 22% drop. This is odd given that robots, like humans, have to work somewhere. Then there’s the fact that there simply aren’t that many robots in US factories, compared with other advanced economies.

I recommend taking the time to read this article. It represents the best elucidation of the growing skepticism towards the benefits of globalization I have read yet and I suspect we are going to hear a lot more about what developed countries have lost from globalization going forward.

“You will have, for the first time, cars speaking together and it’s important for them to speak the same language,” said Christoph Voigt, head of R&D connectivity for Audi. As chairman of 5GAA, a trade group supporting automotive 5G, Mr. Voigt petitioned federal regulators to avoid “directly or indirectly pick[ing] technology winners and losers” because he is confident 5G will become the de facto standard on its own merits.

Even as Volkswagen AG is aligning its premium Audi brand with 5G in the U.S. and China, it is hedging its bets by deploying a version of DSRC on VW branded vehicles in Europe starting next year. A representative for VW said the German auto maker currently has no plans to introduce that technology to its lineup in the U.S. market.

The Trump administration, pointing to the expected proliferation of 5G, this year blocked the takeover of U.S. chip maker Qualcomm Inc. by Singapore-based Broadcom Ltd. on national-security grounds. Qualcomm is negotiating chip supply contracts with at least half a dozen auto makers for coming models.

Industry experts say 5G smartphones will debut next year and the first cars with 5G modems will appear as soon as 2020. That is about twice as fast as the transition for current 4G technology, which was introduced for smartphones in 2011 but didn’t show up in cars until GM integrated it into its latest version of OnStar remote communications in 2014.

There is an active discussion going on now between the car companies that wish to pioneer 5G connectivity and those which are putting short-range communications chips in cars. In essence it is a war between a chip led technological revolution or a router led evolution.

Thank you again for your weekly Big Picture video which continues to provide steady guidance through uncertain times.  You have often referred to opportunities in the biotech sector and, in the last summary, referred to opportunities in the development of anti-cancer treatments.  Are there any specific companies that one could follow?

Thank you for this question which may be of interest to other subscribers. The blistering pace of innovation in the biotech sector is resulting in new discoveries being made on a daily basis. The enabling technologies of speedy and detailed genetic sequencing coupled with genetic editing are leading to an accelerating pace of innovation in the sector.

A link to today's video commentary is posted in the Subscriber's Area. 

Here are some of the other important variables mentioned in the Berg paper, based on the analysis of data collected by a German e-commerce company that sells furniture as it processed 270,399 purchases. (It ships the furniture first and gets paid later, so defaults are observable;  the annualized default rate is around 3 percent, roughly in line with the statistics for consumer loans issued by German banks and comparable with U.S. rates).

Those who order from mobile phones are three times as likely to default as those who order from desktops.  A customer who arrives at a shopping site from a comparison engine is twice as likely to default as one who clicks on a search engine ad.

A customer who uses her name in her email address is 30 percent less likely to default than one who doesn’t. But it’s better if the email address is linked to a paid internet or cable package than if it’s from a free service, especially an outdated one like hotmail.com or yahoo.com. And it’s better if the address contains no numbers.

Those who shop between noon and 6 p.m. are half as likely to default as midnight to 6 a.m. buyers. Businesses can also expect more trouble from those who make an error when typing in their email address or put in their name and address in all lowercase letters.

These findings seem intuitive. People with regular habits and better self-control are relatively more reliable than those who lack those qualities. People who pay for services (and expensive devices) are likely more affluent than people who don’t. According to the Berg paper, the model based on these parameters -- the most rudimentary data we provide to any site on which we have to register -- is slightly more predictive of default than the German equivalent of a FICO score. A model that uses both the digital footprint and the credit score is even more predictive.

There are, however, multiple problems with this kind of modeling, even apart from the widespread worry that black-box scoring algorithms could end up making decisions on the basis of race, gender or other equally sensitive variables.

Consider this hypothetical case: I’ve paid out two mortgages and never defaulted on a loan. But not only do I own a cheap Android device, I also give e- commerce sites a free email address with numbers in it, so they don’t spam my main address. Making matters worse, I often make purchases late at night because I’m too busy to surf shopping sites during the working day. I’m a fat-fingered typist. And I use shopping comparison sites to find the best price. This pretty much rings all the default bells in the Berg model; I’m clearly not the only person with a high credit rating who does: The Berg paper says the model’s results are weakly correlated with credit scores.

Big Data is going to be used to make decisions on our credit scores. I think it is a given considering the pace with which artificial intelligence systems are being implemented in large data sets. It doesn’t have to be an either/or situation particularly because there is a statistical difference between loose correlations and hard correlations.

Some of the more significant declines are occurring in China, the top mine operator, and financing for new supplies is drying up. That’s creating a windfall for the producers who remain.

“It’s a perverse consequence” of policies intended to combat climate change, said Julian Treger, co-founder of activist investor Audley Capital Advisors LLP. “It’s going to be very difficult for funders to provide capital to bring new coal assets online. We have a very interesting supply and demand picture being set up.”

Anglo American, which not long ago wanted to unload its coal assets, has seen income from the business triple since 2015 to become the mining company’s most profitable commodity. Last year, Glencore reported earnings from the fuel more than doubled, while BHP Billiton said it surged sixfold.

While global coal use and mine output has been dropping, production failed to keep pace with demand in 2016 for the first time in seven years, data compiled by BP Plc show. As supplies continue to drop, the amount available for export is shrinking. BMO Capital Markets says the 1 billion-metric-ton seaborne market will have a small deficit by 2021 and expand to 15 million tons in 2022.

Coal is about as unfashionable as one might imagine and it must be very difficult for companies to raise capital to increase supply considering how negative sentiment is. At the same time, coal is one of the world’s most popular sources of energy and is indispensable in the production of steel. A good many coal companies when bust before prices started to recover in 2016 and supply is still constrained.

"This is the first new reactor not just for space and not just for NASA, but of any kind in the US in 40 years," David Poston, the project's chief designer at Los Alamos National Laboratory, said during a press conference Wednesday. "We demonstrated a concept that NASA can use right now. It's ready for a flight program."

And

In March, NASA tested that process in an experiment called Kilopower Reactor Using Stirling Technology, or KRUSTY. The test run generated about 100 watts of electrical power, or enough to run a bright incandescent lightbulb.

But Poston said Kilopower could easily scale up to 10 kilowatts — 100 times more, or enough to power a typical US home — and even megawatts.

He called the experiment "incredibly successful" and said it cost NASA relatively little.

"People thought it would cost billions of dollars to do these reactors," Poston said. "We showed we can design, build, and test a reactor for less than $20 million."

It says a lot about how negative sentiment is about nuclear energy that in order to get a design built you have to promise to deploy the reactor in space. If that isn’t the starkest example of Not In My Backyard (NIMBY) then I don’t know what is.

A link to today's video commentary is posted in the Subscriber's Area. 

Some of the topics discussed include: Wall Street pauses in the region of the lower side of its range, Nasdaq continues to outperform Argentine Peso and Turkish Lira breaking down, Euro, Pound, Yen steady, Europe and Japan equities susceptible to some consolidation. gold steadies.

Tesla Inc. may have some bad news for those betting on cobalt to continue its record-breaking rally, and good news for nickel bulls.

While the weight of its Model 3 is on par with gasoline- powered counterparts, its battery cells are of the highest energy density used in any electric vehicle, the Palo Alto, California-based company said Wednesday in a letter to shareholders.

“We have achieved this by significantly reducing cobalt content per battery pack while increasing nickel content and still maintaining superior thermal stability,” Tesla said.

Cobalt prices have more than tripled in the past couple of years as companies like Tesla strive to bring electric vehicles into the mainstream car market, and with supply largely dependent on a few mines in the politically volatile Democratic Republic of Congo. Nickel, which has gained about 50 percent in the same span, is far more widely available.

Tesla says the cobalt content in its nickel-cobalt-aluminum cathode chemistry is already lower than next-generation cathodes that will be made by other cell producers with a nickel- manganese-cobalt ratio of 8:1:1.

In the last six months I have seen estimates for when the 8:1:1 ratios of nickel : manganese : cobalt would be achieved in commercial batteries that ranged from 5 to 10 years from now. Tesla has these batteries in the limited number of Model 3 cars it is putting out today. That is a testament to exponential pace of technological innovation because it represents another powerful enhancement to energy density.

Not so fast, say critics. The negative trends affecting the economy reflect deep social problems that resist change. “Rising educational attainment during the 20th century was an important source of productivity growth,” writes Gordon, “but the pace of that increase slowed markedly after 1980.” The truth is that we’ve been trying to improve schools for decades with, at best, modest success.

Or take the drain of prime-age men from the job market. The main problem, argues Gordon, “reflects in large part the loss of stable middle-income employment opportunities.” The result has been fewer marriages, more drug use and more suicides, writes Gordon. None of this is easily altered. Among 20 advanced countries, the United States has the second-lowest labor-force participation rate of prime-age men. Only Italy is lower.

We seem to have entered a new economic era — one defined more by the limits on our economic power than by its promises. The explosion of new technologies seems to have fooled us into thinking that a burst of innovation will magically restore our economic vitality. On the evidence, this is a mirage.

I use YouTube when I want a refresher on how to wire a plug or replace a bulb in my car’s headlight. Unfortunately, my children live on YouTube, it’s a substitute for TV but they also post videos of their own. However, it is hard to justify endless videos of cats or people falling over as being beneficial to the economy beyond being a distraction. If that is your measure of technological innovation then you really should get out more.

Cancer costs the global economy about $1 trillion a year. Even today that is still a lot of money. By comparison the global economy spends about $6 trillion on energy a year.

A link to the full report is posted in the Subscriber's Area.

ETFs have been a wonderful financial innovation which have reduced upfront costs for investors and greatly increased the availability of different markets for investment. However, the size of the market, which is by definition a derivative of the total market, represents a challenge for investors particularly when so many funds employ leverage and depend on the credit worthiness of the issuer.

A link to today's video is posted in the Subscriber's Area. 

Some of the topics discussed include: Dollar at key first areas of resistance against Euro, Pound and Yen, breaking out against emerging market currencies, gold and silver at lower side of the range, Treasuries continue to pause at 3%, Europe flattered by weak Euro, Wall Streets fades into the close. 

If you could clarify a few points you raise it would help understanding. Thank you.

1. "However, it would not be hard to see inflation higher than it has been over the last decade and that is likely to flatter nominal prices."

Perhaps this is just overstated, but does this mean inflation will result in inflation, or does "flatter" add some additional meaning?

2. "If bond yields rise there are logically going to be ramifications for the relative value argument based on the spread between the return on bonds versus equities."

"Ramifications" opens paragraphs of thought for me. Let's see...bond yields rise, so bond prices fall, but yields on equities become less attractive, so equities fall. Are those the ramifications you anticipate?

3. "The only problem I have with comparing the current environment to that which prevailed from the early 1960s is that the market spent 13 years ranging from 2000 to 2013 so it would be unusual to begin another similar range so soon after the last one ended."

The SPXPPP chart from the early 60's looks very dissimilar to the pattern from 2000-2013. The peaks and valleys of the 2000-2013 are much more pronounced on the mathematically correct log chart. It appears to me it negates the assertion "...it would be unusual to begin another similar range so soon...?" Nevertheless, unusual is usual in charts, n/est-ce pas?

Thank you for these questions which I would like to take in order.

Inflation has been absent from official statistics for over a decade because wages have been flat. Since the kinds of things we spend money on every month are often not included in how inflation is calculated, the rising cost of living has not appeared in official statistics. However, there is growing evidence of wage demand growth and more job openings. The fiscal stimulus enacted in the USA is also inflationary because is being introduced at a mature stage in the recovery although it may delay wage demand growth in the short term.

Could you give me your thoughts on Goodman Group AU GMG as it appears to be in a beautiful 10-year uptrend with more room to rise to above $10?

Thank you for this question which may be of interest to other subscribers. David always used this graphic from a Far Side cartoon in the preamble to talking about targets and stops.

Here’s how it works. Lightweight sensors embedded in workers’ hats or helmets wirelessly transmit the wearer’s brainwave data to a computer — it probably works a bit like an electroencephalogram (EEG), as MIT Tech Review notes. Then, artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms scan the data, looking for outliers that could indicate anxiety or rage.

Some organizations use the sensors during routine work, while others embed them in virtual reality (VR) headsets to monitor workers’ emotions during training exercises.

We don’t know exactly how many workers have been subjected to this surveillance system, but the SCMP article does say the technology is being deployed “on an unprecedented scale” in China.

At least a dozen Chinese factories and businesses are using the emotional surveillance system to monitor workers, according to the SCMP report. Manufacturing company Hangzhou Zhongheng Electric uses it to keep tabs on production line workers, while State Grid Zhejiang Electric Power monitors workers as they help the company provide power to the Zhejiang province. The nation’s military, public transportation companies, and various state-owned businesses use it, too.

It turns out George Orwell was not imaginative enough when he came up with the premise for 1984. I have to admit my favourite book of all time is the Master and Margarita because it so expertly challenges the mores of one society with what are held out to the reader as objective facts quite beyond the lexicon of many of the characters. 

Partly because of the stepped-up pace, Nokia said Thursday it now expects industrywide declines in equipment sales to carriers to come in less than feared. Nokia said those sales should fall just 1% to 3% in 2018. In February, Nokia predicted a 2% to 4% drop.

Meanwhile, Ericsson shares have risen 20% since it reported last week that its losses narrowed sharply. Investors see a turnaround effort—involving cutting jobs and divesting itself of businesses that aren’t related to selling telecom equipment—taking hold. Ericsson also sees 5G momentum rising in the U.S.

Chief Executive Borje Ekholm said carriers in North America are “investing heavily…in order to be early on 5G.

In much the same way that batteries, gene editing and the microchip are enabling technologies, 5G has the potential to deliver the connectivity speeds that will power the next wave of connected devices. Everything from the billions of sensors predicted by the Internet of Things to autonomous vehicles will depend on fast, seamless internet connectivity while mobile. That is going to require a completely new infrastructure development push to get the networks built before the reality of these expected innovations can be realised.

A link to today's video is posted in the Subscriber's Area. 

Some of the topics discussed include: Euro, Pound & gold at potential areas of support against the Dollar, oil pauses at $75, grains, beans, cotton, coffee all firm, bonds ease back, stock markets rally of their intraday lows.

The Bloomberg article highlighted the plight of Big Oil.  Its weighting in global equity indices is at a 50-year low.  Of the MSCI World Index’s 100 biggest stocks, only six are oil producers.  Within the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index, Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM-NYSE), which a decade ago was the largest company, has fallen to ninth place, and investors are requiring higher dividend yields to sustain the share price.  So, what’s the problem for Big Oil?  Simple.  There is a perception that the world is awash in oil at the same time its long-term demand may be falling due to the public’s embrace of climate change policies promoting renewable energies and electric vehicles.  

Institutional money manager Kevin Holt of Invesco Ltd. was quoted in the Bloomberg article saying, “Earnings have started to come through but no one believes it’s sustainable.  That’s why the stocks haven’t worked even though the commodity has gone up.  Everyone’s saying they don’t believe it.”  

Stock market valuations are the collective view of investors as to the future earnings and dividend prospects for companies.  Current low valuations are a manifestation of the industry’s negative perception.  Mr. Holt is certainly correct about oil prices.  Since the start of this year, Brent/WTI prices have climbed 12.2%/13.3% through April 23rd.  If we go back to the oil price low of 10 months ago, prices have soared by 66.7%/61.4%.  In the past, an increase in oil prices of those magnitudes would have sparked a meaningful recovery in oil company and oil-related company share prices.  

A report by the oilfield service research team at Barclays delivered a similar message about their universe of stocks as cited by Bloomberg about Big Oil.  The most telling chart shows a nearly complete correlation (0.96) between the movement in oil prices and the value of the Philadelphia Oilfield Service Stock Index (OSX) between January 2012 and January 2016.  However, from June 2017 to April 2018, the correlation has fallen to only 0.06.  And, June 2017 marked the low price for crude oil!  

A link to the full report is posted in the Subscriber's Area.

One of the biggest consensuses in the markets at present is that the future is going to be carbon free, and not in a couple of decades but imminently. There is no doubt that electric car penetration is rising, particularly in China, but it will still be years before it reaches even 10% of the global fleet. I think there is reason for optimism about the future of carbon emissions based on technological improvements alone but perhaps enthusiasm has overtaken the reality represented by the market.

A picture of an economy losing momentum was reinforced by figures from the BOE showing unsecured credit rose just 254 million pounds ($348 million) in March, the least since November 2012. Mortgage approvals meanwhile dipped to the lowest level this year.

An interest-rate hike this month was seen as a done deal until recently. Investors, who at one stage were assigning a more than 90 percent chance to such a move, have slashed those odds to about 20 percent after weaker-than-expected inflation, cautious comments from Governor Mark Carney and dismal growth figures for the first quarter. Only a small part of the slowdown was due to the heavy snowfalls that brought chaos to the country, statisticians estimate.

“While adverse weather was partly to blame in February and March, there are no excuses for April’s disappointing performance,” said Rob Dobson, director at IHS Markit. “The chances of a near-term hike in interest rates by the Bank of England look increasingly remote.”

The strength of the Pound over the last 18 months will have been at least a contributory factor in the underperformance of factory output that has been cropping up in official statistics over the last few months. The prospect of a Bank of England rate hike is receding in the near term and in turn that has been weighing on the Pound.

President Donald Trump is aiding Sawiris in one way, though: If a North Korean peace deal can be reached, the Egyptian’s investments there may finally pay off. After 10 years of waiting to repatriate all his profits easily and control his mobile-phone company, Egypt’s second-richest man says an accord would let him reap some of his returns.

“I am taking all the hits, I am being paid in a currency that doesn’t get exchanged very easily, I have put a lot of money and built a hotel and did a lot of good stuff there,” said Sawiris, who founded North Korea’s first telecom operator, Koryolink. The North Korean unit’s costs and revenues aren’t currently recognized on the financial statements of Sawiris’ Orascom Telecom Media & Technology Holding SAE.

Sawiris over the years has been pressured by “every single Western government in the world” for his presence in the country hit by international sanctions for its nuclear threats, he said, but he considered himself a “goodwill investor.” His advice for governments and to Trump ahead of his expected meeting with North Korean Leader Kim Jong Un: Don’t bully him, and promise prosperity in exchange for concessions on nuclear.

Investing in North Korea is not for the faint hearted or indeed for those who wish to avoid state sponsored mischief making. However, with the prospect of improving relations between North Korea and the USA, investors will turn to thinking about how best to leverage that event in their portfolios.

A link to today's video commentary is posted in the Subscriber's Area. 

Some of the topics discussed include: looking at the S&P500, gold, oil and bonds reduced by the purchasing power of the Dollar, Wall Street remains in a corrective phase, further evidence of rotation, Dollar at first area of potential resistance, gold at potential area of support.

In your 10/April long-term themes review, you said: "So, the big question many people have is if we accept the bullish hypothesis how do we justify the second half of this bull market based on valuations where they are today? ..... However, the answer is also going to have to include inflation. "

My thoughts, not in any particular order:

If we look at Robert Shiller's research ~1870-now, on the US share market, his studies show that historically, extreme valuations in the US share market (as assessed by cyclically adjusted P/E ratio) have always been followed by poor average real return over the following 10-20 years."
You point to inflation as to how a secular bull market (in nominal terms implied) can now occur for the US share market (by implications I think you are reflecting on the US share market) over say the next 10-15 years (say).  You use the experience of Argentina and Venezuela as justification for your argument - where from memory, there was hyperinflation in the periods to which you refer.

First, I do not think you are suggesting hyperinflation for the USA .... mismatch 1.
For Argentina and Venezuela, I think their currencies also crashed. I do not think you are suggesting the US dollar is going to crash. Possible mismatch 2.
Rather than a comparison with Venezuela and Argentina, perhaps a better analogy is to the period in the USA following the late 1960s, when US share markets where at quite high valuations (though not nearly as expensive as now on a CAPE basis). Following the peak valuations of the late 1960s, the US share market went sideways (with some large dips) over the next 16 years or so.

In summary, I am not sure that your argument is particularly robust.  Yes, the technological revolution is a critically important new phase which will have a huge impact over the next 10 and 20 years..... and there may well be a secular bull market in that sector ... but does that really mean that the technology sector by itself will take the whole S&P500 with it in a secular bull market for the next 10 or 20 years?

Your thoughts?

Thank you for this question which gave me plenty of room for thought. My first reflection is that one of the benefits of this service is the Socratic dialectical method unfolds in real time as these big topics offer endless room for discussion and revision. I spent a good deal of time talking about long-term cycles in the Big Picture Video on the 27th which you may find of interest. 

China is a rival of the US on two dimensions: power and ideology. This combination of attributes might remind one of the clash with the Axis powers during the second world war or the cold war against the Soviet Union. China is of course very different. But it is also potentially far more potent. China’s rising power, economic and political, is evident. According to the IMF, its gross domestic product per head in 2017 was 14 per cent of US levels at market prices and 28 per cent at purchasing power parity, up from 3 per cent and 8 per cent, respectively, in 2000. Yet, since China’s population is more than four times as big as that of the US, its GDP in 2017 was 62 per cent of US levels at market prices and 119 per cent at PPP. Assume that by 2040, China achieves a relative GDP per head of 34 per cent at market prices and 50 per cent at PPP. This would imply a dramatic slowdown of the rate it is catching up (a fall of around 70 per cent from the rate since 2000, starting in 2023). China’s economy would then be almost twice as big as that of the US at PPP and almost 30 per cent larger at market prices. (See charts.)

China is an increasingly confident ascendant power. The investments it is making in Europe, Africa and commodity producers are well reported upon while it is also a major holder of US Treasuries. It is also a middle-income country with a well telegraphed desire to become the world’s pre-eminent power over the course of the next few decades.

The Arab world’s biggest stock market will probably face difficulty in retaining foreign money unless companies become more transparent, according to some investors. Executives aren’t used to the level of scrutiny demanded by global funds as retail buyers, who typically focus on charts rather than financial analysis, account for about 75 percent of daily trading, according to Gary Dugan, chief investment officer at Dubai-based family office Namara Wealth Advisors Ltd.

Gary Greenberg, an investing veteran, isn’t joining the Saudi party. The London-based head of global emerging markets at Hermes Investment Management Ltd. wants more evidence of economic and political change as well as confidence in the rule of law as Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman seeks to modernize the kingdom and wean it off its reliance on oil. Other investors including J O Hambro Capital Management are wary of adding to their emerging-market holdings as concern over the pace of U.S. policy tightening sent equities retreating from a multi-year high.

Admittance to the MSCI Emerging Markets basket is a big event for any market because it opens up one of the world’s largest cohorts of index tracking funds as potential investors.

A link to this week's Big Picture Long-Term video is posted in the Subscriber's Area. 

Kim and Moon embraced after signing the deal during a historic meeting on their militarized border, the first time a North Korean leader set foot on the southern side. They announced plans to replace the 1953 armistice that ended hostilities with a peace treaty by year’s end.

Their statement on a “common goal of realizing, through complete denuclearization, a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula,” stopped short of the “complete, verifiable and irreversible denuclearnization” long sought by the U.S. and its allies. The statement didn’t elaborate on what the term meant and Kim didn’t personally utter the word during remarks Friday.

The International community is understandably skeptical regarding North Korea’s overtures with skepticism considering how duplicitous the country has been over it’s post war history. Some appear willing to think sanctions have played a role, others that China is more active in pressuring the regime but there is another reason why North Korea is suddenly willing to sit down to talk.

The data is a fresh rebuttal to those who warned that hundreds of billions of dollars of tax relief will head directly to the stock market and be harvested by shareholders already fattened by a nine-year bull market. While buybacks indeed got a boost from the windfall, companies increased the rate at which they unleash cash for building factories and upgrading equipment, a strategy that’s preferred by investors for the benefit of future growth.

Corporate buybacks, while increasingly a key pillar of the second-longest bull market on record, are constantly drawing criticism from politicians and money managers as being short-sighted. By their line of logic, companies take advantage of low interest rates to borrow money and buy back shares as a quick way to boost per-share earnings. In doing so, they’re forgoing investment opportunities that may benefit long-term growth.

In the past year, shares of companies with the highest layouts on repurchases and dividends relative to market value are trailing those that spend most on capital expense by almost 5 percentage points, according to data compiled by Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Bloomberg.

Capital expenditure is an interesting topic considering how much the complexion of industrial base has changed over the last decade. Warehouses have replaced retail space, robots are replacing workers and the cloud is replacing office space. Therefore, when we think about what companies are going to be spending their tax windfall on it is probably going to be on warehouses, robots and servers.

Still, it is difficult to pinpoint reasons for the rise and fall of SNB shares. Most of the SNB’s profit in 2017 went to its own reserves and provisions, with two billion francs distributed to the federal government and Cantons.

The stock is thinly traded, which tends to exaggerate price moves. It pays a small dividend of 15 francs a share that is set by law. Analysts typically see SNB shares as a bond substitute, meaning its shares are particularly attractive at a time when government bond yields are low. Indeed, the recent retreat of the SNB’s share price has coincided with a rise in global government bond yields.

Mr. Studer noted that because SNB shares are governed under a mix of public and private-sector rules, the property rights of shareholders “are heavily restricted.”

The dividend can’t be increased beyond the legally-set maximum, he said, and “even a high profit in the preceding year does not change this.”

Listed central banks are stock market oddities since shareholders have no recourse to voting rights or an ability to pressure the board for better conditions. Instead they represent an institutional ploy to extract capital from traders willing to punt on the state’s fortunes.  

“There is a legitimate concern on the side of battery manufacturers about long-term availability of supply,” said Daniel Jimenez, an SQM vice president who recently estimated that the industry will require a capital investment of $10 billion to $12 billion in the next decade to meet demand.

The green light to mine vastly more lithium, combined with pending changes in its ownership structure, has suddenly put SQM in the sights of several global mining companies, including London-based giant Rio Tinto Group. Among the most aggressive bidders is China’s Tianqi Lithium Corp., which has offered to buy SQM shares at a 20 percent premium, Eduardo Bitran, the former head of government development agency Corfo, said earlier this year.

“Tianqi owning the stake would be another step towards overall Chinese consolidation of the lithium industry,” Chris Berry, a New York-based energy-metals analyst and founder of House Mountain Partners LLC., said in an email.

SQM’s growth projections have been among the chief catalysts in the decline of lithium miners over the last few months. The big question is how quickly demand picks up over the next decade to absorb additional supply. Lithium was a supply inelasticity meets rising demand market from 2013 but really only garnered interest in the last couple of years as the shares turned to outperformance. Supply is now increasing so we are likely to see more volatility in the respective shares. This story further highlights China's intention to be the dominant force in the electric car sector. 

A link to today's video commentary is posted in the Subscriber's Area. 

Some of the topics discussed include: stocks rebound led by technology, Dollar firm, gold at lower side of its range, oil steady, India and Japan continue rebound, Europe steady, China underperforming, industrial metals steady

Amazon.com Inc. is expected to post a sharp rise in sales when it reports first-quarter earnings Thursday, but investors will be watching to see how much revenue it’s plowing back into its many businesses.

Revenue in the first quarter is estimated to reach $49.9 billion, up 40 percent from a year earlier, thanks in part to a big boost from last year’s acquisition of grocery chain Whole Foods. Analysts project earnings of $1.26 per share, down from $1.48 a year earlier, as Seattle-based Amazon keeps investing in international expansion, data centers for its cloud-computing division, new devices and original programming for video streaming.

Analysts at Stifel Financial Corp. anticipate sales beating estimates, given record consumer sentiment levels and an expanding Prime membership base. Bloomberg Intelligence analysts said Whole Foods’ introduction of free home delivery may lift sales, while demand for the Echo line of smart speakers could help cement Amazon’s market-share dominance.

Amazon rallied impressively during today’s session in advance of the earnings announcement not least because of renewed enthusiasm for the technology sector.

The central bank’s quest to restore sustainable inflation of just under 2 percent has been complicated by data suggesting that the euro area’s strongest growth in a decade may be faltering. As well as waning industrial output and deteriorating business confidence, the threat of a global trade war is hanging over Europe’s export-oriented economy.

“Incoming information since our meeting in early March points towards some moderation, while remaining consistent with a solid and broad-based expansion of the euro-area economy,” Draghi said. “The underlying strength of the euro area economy continues to support our confidence that inflation will converge towards our inflation aim of below, but close to, 2 percent over the medium term.”

Mario Draghi’s statement “An ample degree of stimulus remains necessary.” Is what the market was expecting. The ECB and Bank of Japan remain the primary providers of liquidity to the global economy so when they eventually begin a process of quantitative tightening is likely to be an important catalyst for liquidity fueled uptrends.

An immunotherapy treatment — one that boosts the immune system — has improved survival in people newly diagnosed with the most common form of lung cancer (advanced non–small-cell lung cancer), according to an open-access study published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

The study results were presented last Monday, April 16, at the annual American Association for Cancer Research conference in Chicago.

Cutting the risk of dying in half. The new study, led by thoracic medical oncologist Leena Gandhi, MD, PhD, associate professor of medicine and director of the thoracic medical oncology program at NYU’s Perlmutter Cancer Center, shows that treating lung cancer by a combination of immunotherapy with Merck’s Keytruda (aka pembrolizumab) and chemotherapy is more effective than chemotherapy alone, according to a statement by NYU Langone Health.

It is easy to forget during a period of market turbulence that the capital markets cycle and the technology cycle are not the same thing. The former affects the price of securities but the latter represents the basis for long-term value.

A link to the full report and a section from its are posted in the Subscriber's Area.

Major companies, like Exxon Mobil and Royal Dutch Shell, transitioned from being majority oil producers’ years ago. While they still report in energy equivalent barrels the reality is that the majority of their production is natural gas. As a comparatively clean fuel, which tends to see demand increase as living standards improve, the long-term outlook for gas demand appears to be relatively secure.

A link to today's video is posted in the Subscriber's Area. 

Some of the topics discussed include: potential for a triple waterfall event in bonds, lumber surge and inflation, stocks steady, bonds weak, gold eases back, oil steady

The framing of homes, or putting up roofs and walls, accounts for 15 percent of the cost of construction. A composite measure of the cost of lumber for framing rose 16 percent from December to March, according to data from Random Lengths, a publisher of information on wood products.

And it’s not just lumber. A Labor Department gauge of prices paid at the producer level for construction inputs -- everything from particleboard and plumbing to concrete and insulation -- was up 5.1 percent in March from a year earlier, the biggest annual advance in nearly eight years.

So far, neither higher home prices or a four-year high in mortgage costs have been enough to dissuade buyers. Results of the Conference Board’s consumer confidence index on Tuesday showed 1.7 percent of the group’s respondents in April planned to purchase a new home in the next six months, matching the highest share in this expansion.

The falling cost of mobile phone tariffs are what helped to keep inflationary pressures under wraps last year. However, that effect will fall off the gauge for the March reading which will be released on May 1st. Meanwhile, the range of new inflationary pressures on the horizon continue to increase.

Davis suggested the thorny question of how to avoid a hard border in Northern Ireland might still not be resolved when the U.K. leaves the EU next March.

He said a solution for the border won’t really be needed until the end of the transition period on Jan. 1, 2021 because the U.K. will effectively remain inside the EU customs union and single market during this interim phase.

But his comment has dramatic implications for what Brexit might look like. It suggests that the U.K. accepts it may have to agree to an unpalatable backstop plan for keeping Northern Ireland -- and possibly the whole U.K. -- in many parts of the customs union and single market rules indefinitely.

If an alternative answer can’t be agreed, the U.K. will have to take a leap of faith, leave the EU next March and hope that it can reach a deal on the Irish border before the end of the following year.

I believe Davis is wise to push the issue of the Irish border out to the end of the transition arrangement for the simple reason that it may be a moot point by that stage. Parliament will have the final say on whether to accept the negotiated deal and there is a substantial cohort which wants to remain in the customs union or at least very close to it.

Both are following the success of a2 Milk Co., a New Zealand-based company that has found fans in its home country, as well as Australia and China, and has recently entered the U.S. market. The company’s revenue is expected to grow some 70% in the year ending in June, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence. It already has more than 10% of the milk market in Australia. A similar share in the U.S. would be about $1.5 billion in annual sales, according to Euromonitor International.

A2 milk differs from regular milk because the latter contains both A1 and A2 proteins. Supporters of A2 milk contend it is the A1 protein that causes indigestion for many people, a problem that lactose-free milk won’t solve. Skeptics say there hasn’t been enough independent research to show there is any real benefit to A2 milk, which is naturally produced by cows with a particular set of genes. A DNA test can determine which cows in a herd produce A2-only milk.

Although the science behind so-called A2 milk remains disputed, the entry of big companies into the market shows how changing consumer preferences create new opportunities that dairy giants can’t afford to ignore—especially as profits have been eroded in recent years by everything from almond milk to dairy-free ice cream. In the U.S., traditional milk sales have fallen about 7% annually on average over the last four years, according to the most recent data from Nielsen.

A2 Milk is a remarkable success story and it represented part of the discussion at the recent Melbourne venue for The Chart Seminar. There is evidence of a clear acceleration for what has already been an impressive trend and the share has now posted its largest reaction to date.

A link to the full report is posted in the Subscriber's Area.

Bitcoin crashed in no uncertain terms in the first quarter of this year; losing about 70% of its value. As the first and largest of the cryptocurrencies it represented the epicentre of risk during the crash and therefore is also likely to be the most likely to form a lengthy base formation.

A link to today's video is posted in the Subscriber's Area. 

Some of the topics discussed include: volatility on Wall Street increases, US Treasuries hit 3%, China and India steady, gold steadies, oil eases, Dollar pauses, previous leaders losing consistency

The law of diminishing returns is already evident in all major economies as well as on a global scale (Table 1). Global GDP generated per dollar of total global public and private debt dropped from 36 cents in 2007 to just 31 cents in 2017. Diminishing returns is even more apparent in the case of China’s public and private debt, largely internally owned. In terms of each dollar of debt, China generated 61 cents of GDP growth in 2007 and only 33 cents last year. In other words, in the past ten years the efficiency of China’s debt fell 45%. Thus, even in a command and control economy, the law of diminishing returns prevails. The most advanced sign of diminishing returns is in Japan, the most heavily indebted major country, where a dollar of debt in the last year produced only 22 cents of GDP growth. This economic principle applies equally to businesses.

All economies rely heavily on the business sector to lead the growth process. Yet, a sharp decline in GDP per dollar of business debt occurred in the U.S. during the past nine years, reinforcing the underlying trend since the early 1950’s. In 1952, $3.42 of GDP was generated for every dollar of business debt, compared with only $1.39 in 2017. In the corporate sector, where capital as well as technology is most readily available, GDP generated per dollar of debt fell from $4.50 in 1952 to $2.50 in 2007 to $2.21 last year. The dismal trend in productivity confirms this conclusion. The percent change for productivity in the last five years (2017-2012) was equal to the lowest of all five-year spans since 1952. It was also less than half the average growth over that period.

Conclusion Important to the long-term investor is the pernicious impact of exploding debt levels. This condition will slow economic growth, and the resulting poor economic conditions will lead to lower inflation and thereby lower long-term interest rates. This suggests that high quality yields may be difficult to obtain within the next decade. In the shorter run, in accordance with Friedman’s established theory, the current monetary deceleration, or restrictive monetary policy, will bring about lower long-term interest rates.

A link to the full report is posted in the Subscriber's Area.

This is the most commonly espoused view for why bond yields cannot rise. After all, with so much debt, the potential for growth to underperform and quantitative tightening there is a logical argument for why interest rates should stay lower for longer. However, there are other factors at work which this view does not take account of.

The PBoC announced it will cut reserve requirement ratio (RRR) by 1 ppts for most banks by next week. RRR will be reduced to 16% for big banks and 14% for mid and small banks (Figure 1). This will inject some 1.3tn new liquidity into the banking system. Banks are asked to pay off some 900bn balances from the medium-term lending facility (MLF) on the same day. Net liquidity injection of about 400bn will largely go to small city and rural banks. Lastly, the PBC asks these banks to use the new funding mainly for lending to small businesses.

We believe the RRR cut should not be seen as a change of monetary policy stance. The economy is doing well; growth stayed strong at 6.8% in Q1, supported by consumption and property investment (see our note here). Hence there is no need to loosen monetary policy. Indeed the OMO rates were raised just last month (Figure 2). We do not expect PBC to cut policy or OMO rates in the coming months. If anything, OMO rates may be raised further.

The main purpose of the RRR cut, in our view, is to avoid over-tightening on small banks and small businesses. The PBoC will continue to tighten financial regulations and deregulate interest rates under the leadership of the new government. This will lead to higher funding costs, particularly for smaller banks who do not have large deposit base and rely on wholesale funding. Meanwhile, tightening financial regulations, including the expected new regulation on asset management, will affect the shadow banking business. Banks are pressured to move their off-balance sheet lending back on balance sheet (Figure 3). Small businesses are more severely affected in this process, as they have limited access to regular bank loans and rely more on shadow banking. The RRR cut will mainly benefit smaller banks and, with the guidance on lending, will help relieve financing difficulties faced by small businesses.

A link to the full report is posted in the Subscriber's Area.

This statement is the first signal since Xi became dictator that the Chinese administration is paying attention to the market and role of investors in reflecting the outlook for the economy. The cut to the reserve requirement demanded of banks is a positive step for the sector since it has been in a corrective phase since the beginning of the year.

Thank you for your kind concern and this educative email. I checked the data on Bloomberg and there is very little variation with what you quoted.

The Dollar has been on a downward trajectory for most of the last two years but is now in receipt of some respite not least because the interest rate differential has moved in its favour and yields are testing the psychological 3% level. Against the Yen it has now unwound its oversold condition relative to the trend mean so this is a level where investors will be asking whether the rebound has the legs to keep going.

Following the dissolution of parliament last week, 9 May has been set as the date for the 14th General Election (GE14). Malaysians will vote for the 222-member Dewan Rakyat (lower house) on the federal level along with 12 assemblies on the state level. The main challenge to incumbent Prime Minister Najib Razak and his Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition will come from the Pakatan Harapan (PH) coalition led by Malaysia's former and longest-serving Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, who has defected to the opposition.

Pakatan Harapan is similar to the Pakatan Rakyat (PR) coalition that won the popular vote in GE13, but without the Islamic party PAS, which split from PR in 2015. Thanks to a split opposition contesting many of the same seats, surveys, admittedly somewhat dated given Malaysia's fluid politics, suggest BN should retain control (The Malaysian Insight, 7 January). However, given the unreliable nature of surveys and the unprecedented nature of this election (Mahathir may have an impact on states such as Kedah, his home, plus UMNO may face competition in Malay constituencies where it faces candidates from both PH and PAS), we consider what an unlikely opposition victory might mean for the economy.

We analyse the coalition manifestos, in particular proposals relating to economic and fiscal policy. As always, the focus will be on whether or not the status quo is maintained. We note that key opposition proposals such as the abolition of GST and the reintroduction of some fuel subsidies suggest higher budget deficits in the absence of off-setting revenues. PH also pledges to review key mega-projects (mostly Chinese-financed).

A link to the full report is posted in the Subscriber's Area.

It’s a big question whether the Malaysian electorate will demand their pound of flesh from the ruling party in retribution for the embarrassing spectacle of Najib Razak and the 1MDB scandal which has been dragged through the international press for years already. That represents a challenge for the Ringgit considering the populist tone of the emerging opposition. 

A link to today's video commentary is posted in the Subscriber's Area. 

Some of the topics discussed include: Dollar experiencing a broad based rebound, Treasury yields testing the upper side of their seven-year range, high yield ETFs rolling over, FANGs under pressure, commodities pull back, emerging markets susceptible to mean reversion.

Hello Eoin, Whatever age you happen to be, it is always salutary to lose a parent. A constant pillar in one's life has gone and no more questions can be asked. It brings into relief one's own fragility and mortality in a way that few, if any, other deaths will do. I hope your mother's passing was a comfortable one. My condolences to you and your family.

While it is probably improper to revert immediately to business, I am sure you will want to re-immerse yourself in the observation and interpretation of markets without delay. On this basis, I have a question:

Given that we believe we are heading for monetary contraction, a rise in interest rates and accelerating inflation how should we be positioning portfolios? Banks and resources should be well bid for the time being and Japan should benefit from inflation.

But how about India, China and the other economies of North and South East Asia? What sectors and markets are best avoided? At what point does one accumulate cash? Gold is much talked about as an inflation hedge but that will be a shooting star - it might soar in the near future but it will then weaken once more. It is to be regarded as a hedge or a trade, not as an investment - at least that's my view.

In my own portfolio, I've trimmed China and India, reduced or eliminated high flying 'big-tech' stocks (but not touched PCT), increased my Japan weighting and increased cash. I'm probably underweight gold. I plan to accumulate more cash but at this stage, I've no idea what holdings I shall reduce or sell over the coming months. Providing one is not losing money, investment is fun but over the next two or three years, I suspect there will be plenty of opportunities to lose money which we should try to avoid. It's a tough time for you and you have plenty on your plate but if you care to comment on these musings it would be much appreciated. All best.

Thank you for your condolences. The outpouring of warmth and compassion from subscribers has been enormously gratifying for my whole family and I. My mother’s passing leaves a hole in the wider family, since she was the matriarch in no uncertain terms, but it has also encouraged us all to work harder at communicating.

This is a detailed question and there is no one simple answer. I’ll attempt to more fully explore these issues over the course of the next few days and weeks but here are some of my current thoughts.

This is the kind of market where it feels like everything can change in a day, not to mind being absent for three days. I won’t be buying another Apple phone until my current version dies. I suspect the vast majority of people are of the same opinion. Sometimes, what you have is good enough, when the upgrade costs somewhere in the region of $700.

A link to the full report and a section from it are posted in the Subscriber's Area. 

Fears about trade wars are ebbing and flowing with optimism a détente will be reached one week superseded by fears tit-for-tat measures will deteriorate further the next. The banning of ZTE from selling phones in the USA is an escalation while the potential for Mnuchin to visit China is seen as a positive. What this suggests, at least to me, is this is an ongoing situation which is still some way from a resolution. If that is the correct assumption then it is not ideal for investor sentiment.
 

My mother died in Ireland yesterday from heart failure after a seven-week stint in hospital. I am flying back for the funeral. The site will next be updated on Monday April 23^rd.

A link to today's video commentary is posted in the Subscriber's Area. 

I have a soft spot for Melbourne since I lived here almost 20 years ago. It was an absolute pleasure to spend time discussing the market with subscribers and to look at a lot of charts. There were some very clear conclusions that arose from that perusal of the markets.

Is it too late to ask the Chart Seminar view on Harvey Norman HVN.AX

Thanks for this question. Interestingly no one asked to look at Harvey Norman at the seminar.

I have noticed re the Japanese charts that the Topix second section now seems to be leading on the downside having broken through the 7000 level. Should this be a concern?

The Topix 2nd Section was a topic of conversation at The Chart Seminar over the last few days.

It has been a reliable lead indicator for the market for as long as I can remember and it will need to bounce soon to confirm support in the region of the trend mean.

As further sanction, the United States has removed Iran from the SWIFT network, the well-known world interbank transfer system, which is also a private company.

Iran, however, has immediately joined the Chinese CIPS, a recent network, similar to SWIFT, with which it is already fully connected.

Basically China’s idea is to create an international currency based on the IMF’s Special Drawing Rights and freely expendable on world markets, in lieu of the US dollar, so as to avoid “the dangerous fluctuations stemming from the US currency and the uncertainties on its real value “- just to quote the Governor of the Chinese central bank, Zhou Xiaochuan, who will soon be replaced by Yi Gang.

In the meantime, Russia and China are acquiring significant amounts of gold.

In recent years China has bought gold to the tune of at least 1842.6 tons, but the international index could be distorted, as many transactions on the Shanghai Gold Exchange are Over the Counter (OTC) and hence are not reported.

Again according to official data, so far Russia is supposed to have reached 1857.7 tons.

Both countries have so far bought 10% of the gold available in the world.

Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia has already accepted payments in yuan for the oil sold to China, which is its largest customer. This is a turning point. If Saudi Arabia gives in, sooner or later all OPEC countries will follow suit.

I find these arguments about the petrodollar to be very interesting. The establishment of the Dollar’s dominance in global trade was a masterstroke of diplomacy when the Saudi Arabians agreed to exchange Dollars for investment opportunities and military security. However, that was also at a time when the importance of oil to the global economy was growing.

A link to today's video commentary is posted in the Subscriber's Area. 

Netflix Inc. posted its strongest start to a year since the company went public 16 years ago, thanks to strong growth in markets across Latin America and Europe.

The company added 7.41 million subscribers in the first quarter of the year, according to a company statement Monday, easily topping analysts’ projections of 6.35 million. Netflix now has 125 million paying customers, the most of any online TV network.

The company, the best-performing stock in the S&P 500 this year, is proving one quarter at a time that investors’ confidence in its online TV service has been justified. Netflix is using its growing subscriber base and deep pockets to poach talent from the biggest program suppliers and build a Hollywood studio for the internet age.

Shares of Netflix rose as much as 8.3 percent to $333.21 in extended trading after the results were announced. The stock fell 1.2 percent to $307.78 at the close in New York and is up 60 percent this year.

Netflix said first-quarter profit rose to 64 cents a share, up from 40 cents a year earlier and meeting analysts’ projections of 64 cents. Sales for the quarter grew 40 percent to $3.70 billion, compared with Wall Street projections of $3.69 billion.

 For the current quarter, Netflix is predicting earnings of 79 cents and revenue of $3.93 billion. That compares with analysts’ estimates of 65 cents a share in profit and sales of $3.89 billion.

Netflix came out with earnings immediately after the close and successfully added more subscribers than it was forecasting while earnings were as expected. The company has also made clear it intends to fund additional growth with debt and cashflows will be negative for the foreseeable future.  

The best time to talk about bubbles in the cryptocurrency market was in December when the price was accelerating higher. The market subsequently fell 70% which is a decline consistent with the falls we have seen following other bubbles but obviously not as great as some.

History is not repeated but it does tend to rhyme. One of the biggest factors behind gold’s advance from the early 2000s was because of a lack on faith in the ability of fiat currencies to hold their value. The growth of markets like China and India then contributed an additional demand driver.

A link to this week's Big Picture Video is posted in the Subscriber's Area. 

A link to the full report is posted in the Subscriber's Area. 

A section from the full report is also posted in the Subcsriber's area. 

Everyone was conditioned to expect crashes. The one thing everyone in the financial community, who has been around for more than a decade at least, has vowed is not to be caught on the wrong side of a crash again. That contributed to a lot of trading in and out of position in the aftermath of the credit crisis. That’s the first psychological perception stage of the market: disbelief.

More recently the argument that it is impossible to beat the market and that the only way to participate is with ETFs has been gaining ground. That coincides with the evolving psychological condition to accept the bullish hypothesis and to just stay long, in other words buy and hold. That’s the second psychological perception stage of the market: acceptance.

Then the market accelerated into the January peaks as people extrapolated the trend and felt they needed to buy in order to avoid losing out later. That has contributed to the corrective phase the market is now in because so much good news was priced in there wasn’t much left over. That’s the third psychological perception stage: euphoria.

This will form a major part of the conversation at The Chart Seminar in Melbourne on Monday and Tuesday next week.

So what next?

Now that a popular parody and meme app in China called “Neihan Duanzi” has been shut down and its social media account on WeChat got deleted, fans of the app are gathering in solidarity offline in subtle protest.

Drivers are honking at each other in code to indicate that they’re fans, The New York Timesreports. A coded message might be a car honk, followed by a pause, and two more honks.

This week, while in the US Congress was slowly grilling Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, in China, regulators brought down swift bans on offending news apps and social media apps. On Monday, China banned several big news apps including Jinri Toutiao, owned by Beijing-based Bytedance Technology. Then, the following day, authorities shut down Neihan Duanzi, a platform for users to share parody skits, citing vulgar content on the platform that “triggered strong resentment from internet users.”

Toutiao’s CEO, Zhang Yiming, issued an apology letter soon after for “publishing a product that collided with core socialist values.” While Toutiao is expected to return online by April 30th, Duanzi has been permanently shut down, according to an April 10th statement from its site. China had previously banned video spoofs and parodies in a March directive, a lot of which appeared on Duanzi.

Here is a link to a YouTube video showing the numbers of cars honking out tunes on Chang’an avenue (Beijing’s equivalent of the Champs Elysees leading up to Tiananmen Square) over the last couple of nights.

Now interest rates are rising and the money should be rolling in. But the story isn't playing out like the bank executives said it would, and investors are taking notice. The banks don't seem to be getting the benefit from higher interest rates that investors once imagined they would. Yes, interest income rose more than 10 percent in the quarter for JPMorgan and Citigroup, but interest expenses were up in the 50 percent range.

Investors can point to three reasons for disappointment. The first is loan growth, or rather the lack of it. Low unemployment and a continued rising economy and stock market, especially in an expansion as long as this one, should produce a surge of lending. The tax cut was supposed to amplify that jump. Instead, lending at the largest bank, JPMorgan, rose just 0.2 percent in the first quarter from the previous three months. Wells Fargo's loans dropped by 1 percent, though some of that can be attributed to the bank's particular problems. Citigroup's lending was up 1 percent, but that stemmed largely from a push to expand its credit card business, which hasn't been going so well. In the first quarter, the bank had to increase its provision for losses in it retail-branded cards by 16 percent. Yes, analysts were predicting that lending would be relatively weak, but it was even weaker than many forecast.

The banking sector is a liquidity provider and tends to do well in a bull market because demand for liquidity increases. However, it was also the epicentre of risk in the last crisis so the liquidity provision function has been impaired during this recovery not least because wages have not kept pace with asset prices.

A link to today's video is posted in the Subscriber's Area. 

Funds turn buyers again on Comex
The net long fund position (NLFP) has up until recently been declining, but this has mainly been a result of stale long liquidation, as seen by the drop in the black line in the chart above. But, while the longs have cut exposure (until recently); shorts have not been getting bearish, as seen by the declining red line. This has suggested longs have grown impatient as Gold prices have failed to break higher, but lack of upside has not encouraged bears to increase exposure. More recently, fund longs have started to increase exposure again. The gross long fund position has climbed to 259,032 contracts as of 27th March, from a recent low of 223,882 contracts. The NLFP has returned to 203,354 contracts from a low of 148,731 contracts on 20th March. This latest change was driven by 35,150 contracts of fresh buying and 19,473 contracts of short-covering.

Investors increase exposure to ETFs
Holdings in Gold ETFs are edging higher with investors adding 18.5 tonnes in March. Holdings now stand at 2,162 tonnes, up some 39 tonnes so far this year. Holdings averaged 2,068 tonnes in 2017. Given the lukewarm investor interest in Gold ETFs, it may be that the market is waiting for prices to break higher above the $1,366-$1,388/oz resistance area before increasing exposure.

A link to the full report and a section from it are posted in the Subscriber's Area.

ETF Holdings of Gold have shown surprising resolve over the last 18 months. The fact that all those long positions, opened when gold rallied to break its downtrend in 2016, hung around until now, and are adding to the total outstanding long position, is a testament to the bullish interest in the metal. Considering how volatile the price has been over the same period this is a particularly noteworthy development.

What are your current views on lithium and lithium miners?

I continue to enjoy your tour de force reporting and analysis. Nothing stops you, not even airline travel. Amazing.

Thanks for this question which I’m sure will be of interest to other subscribers. It’s been a busy few weeks, what with an enjoyable and educative trip to Japan last week and the upcoming flight to Melbourne for The Chart Seminar and another conference next week, where I’m looking forward to chatting with Marc Faber.

Sometimes I look back with a sense of yearning on the days when David could still take a month off in August to cycle from Land’s End to John O’Groats and back again. In fact, part of the reason he brought me onboard in 2003 was to ensure the service could move to a seamless daily publication schedule.

I’m beginning to think about how to arrange taking a holiday over the summer. David used to invite guest writers to contribute copy to the site when he was away and I would like to do the same thing while I am away for perhaps two weeks in July or August. If any subscribers are interested in submitting an article during that time please let me know and I would be happy to discuss the conditions under which that might be appropriate.

Now let’s turn to lithium miners.

“The pound is performing well and holding its own” amid factors including seasonal flows and a broadly weak dollar, Mizuho’s head of hedge-fund sales Neil Jones said in emailed comments. “Meanwhile, the latest news flow suggests a possible swing toward a softer Brexit”

Some U.K. government officials think quitting the customs union in order to strike free trade deals with countries outside Europe may not be the best strategy, according to a new analysis

There is an increasing chance that the “deal” which the May administration will deliver to Parliament is going to give the EU the vast majority of what it wants. That means continued oversight by the European Country of Justice, participation in the Customs Union and continued contributions to the EU coffers with little leeway to negotiate trade agreements with the rest of the world, all while giving up the ability to influence EU policy. The UK will probably get greater control over its borders and perhaps agriculture and fisheries policy as well as continued access for its financial services sector, which is essential for the City.

A link to today's video commentary is posted in the Subscriber's Area.

President Donald Trump said relations with Russia have never been worse and warned Moscow to “get ready” for a U.S. missile strike on Syria over a suspected chemical weapons attack.

“Russia vows to shoot down any and all missiles fired at Syria. Get ready Russia, because they will be coming, nice and new and “smart!,” Trump wrote on Twitter. “You shouldn’t be partners with a Gas Killing Animal who kills his people and enjoys it!”

Trump’s remarks weighed on investors already concerned about war. Oil prices surged to the highest level in more than three years in New York. Turkey, which has troops in Syria, saw its currency weaken to a record, while the Borsa Istanbul 100 Index for stocks reversed gains to drop 1.3 percent. Saudi Arabia’s main stock index also extended its decline.

Syria hosts Russia’s only Mediterranean naval base. That is a piece of real estate the country will do everything it can to protect which is why it has been such an active supporter of the Assad regime.

The Obama administration’s so-called red lines were shown to mean nothing and that may have emboldened protagonists in the region to employ even more aggressive tactics since it increased the perception of impunity.

I'm starting to think more and more that we are likely heading into an environment of inflation and slow growth - Stagflation. I emailed you back on February on this topic. Thought you would enjoy this interesting note attached from Ben Hunt’s “Epsilon Theory”.

Thank you for this edition of Ben Hunt’s letter which is always an entertaining read. Here is a section I found educational:

The inflation narrative hit markets in force after the January jobs report of February 2, where wage inflation came in “hot”. It subsided with the “Goldilocks” jobs report of March 9, where wage inflation was “contained”, and the jobs report of April 6 did little to reignite the inflation narrative. But here’s the thing. The wage inflation numbers for the past two months are wrong, crucially flawed by random differences in work-week hours from last year to this year (for more, read “The Icarus Moment”). On an apples-to-apples basis (average weekly earnings, not average hourly earnings), wage inflation in February was 2.9%, not the reported 2.6%, and wage inflation in March was 3.3%, not the reported 2.7%.

My view: the inflation narrative will surge again, as wage inflation is, in truth, not contained at all.

New FCC rules could entice small satellite operators, such as Planet Labs Inc. and Pumpkin Inc., to expand the use of their devices and attract more customers and investors. They could also prompt other industries to consider using less-expensive satellites to comb the planet for profit-boosting opportunities—from insurers busting fraudsters to farmers tracking crop changes.

The interest in small satellites—which can range in size from postage stamp to small refrigerator—has grown rapidly in recent years. There were 335 small satellites launched in 2017, six times the total in 2012, according to a 2018 report from consultancy Bryce Space and Technology. Small satellites typically hitch a ride on rockets with other items, and their stints in space are short.

“More satellites mean more regulatory reviews. Hence the problem: our current regulations weren’t designed with these smaller satellites in mind,” FCC Chairman Ajit Pai wrote in a March 26 blog post.

The agency’s proposal also raises the question of space junk, a term that refers to millions of used fragments of rockets and satellites that crowd earth orbits. Loosening rules to allow more satellites, even small ones, could heighten such concerns.

The FCC, in its deliberations, will address “limiting orbital debris,” Pai said in the blog.

The measure is “reflecting the state of the industry—it’s changing,” Lisa Ruth Rand, a technology historian who researches space debris, told Bloomberg Law.

Regulators should keep in mind that extremely small satellites—too small for tracking technology to detect—can endanger other satellites and cause crashes, Rand said. “Hopefully these regulations will acknowledge the fact that, very literally, the landscape of outer space is changing,” she said.

The evolution of nanosatellite technology represents a significant enabler for data accumulation, monitoring, under developed countries to skip whole stages of development and for global technology companies to gain access to markets they are currently blocked from.

A link to today's video commentary is posted in the Subscriber's Area. 

Some of the topics covered include: Crude oil breaks out, trade tensions easing acts as a salve for stock markets, Facebook and other tech are rebounding, Gold steady, gold shares inert, 
 

“Human society is facing a major choice to open or close, to go forward or backward,” Xi told hundreds of investors gathered on the resort island of Hainan, in a speech that didn’t mention Trump’s name. “In today’s world, the trend of peace and cooperation is moving forward and the Cold War mentality and zero-sum-game thinking are outdated.”

Trade talks between the world’s biggest economies broke down last week after the Trump administration demanded that China take steps to curtail support for high-technology industries, a person familiar with the situation said. The conciliatory tone of Xi’s speech helped bring risk appetite back to Asian markets as shares from Sydney to Hong Kong rose alongside oil and metals and Treasuries extended declines with gold and the yen.

As soon as Mrs. Treacy’s old school friends have children she gets a friends request on WeChat. They begin planning at birth to send their child abroad to be educated. Only last week she was approached to be a guardian for one child about to enter high school and to help arrange a scouting trip for another family whose son is now five.

Saudi Oil Minister Khalid Al-Falih has also sounded increasingly hawkish in public, suggesting that OPEC should keep tightening the oil market even through the cartel is close to meeting its goal of cutting crude inventories in industrialized countries back to their five-year average.

In an interview in New York last month, he said today’s price near $70 a barrel hadn’t been sufficient to stimulate investment in the industry, which remains significantly below levels seen before 2014’s price crash.

"That tells me that the pricing signals that have come out of the recovery haven’t been sufficient," he said, without giving a target for prices.

The Saudi Ministry of Energy didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Domestic Policy
Riyadh’s desire for higher prices is driven by domestic policy imperatives. Although Saudi Arabia’s budget deficit has narrowed sharply as oil has recovered, Prince Mohammed has set out an ambitious and expensive economic and social reform program. He also needs to pay for the kingdom’s increasingly drawn-out military entanglement in Yemen.

While there’s little indication the Saudis are prepared to deepen their oil cuts to achieve $80, at the very least the aspiration suggests they’ll keep with the current measures until the price goal is closer. Riyadh is counting on declining Venezuelan oil production, the likely imposition of new U.S. sanctions on Iran, and continued demand growth to absorb U.S. shale production.

In addition to sanctions on Iran, the deteriorating relationship Europe and the US have with Russia is exerting an influence on oil prices which closed above $70 today and in dynamic fashion. That is going to act as an incentive to increase supply among various higher cost producers such as shale properties, tar sands and deep water, though that supply is going to take time to come to market.