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comex notices/

March: JPMorgan stopped/total issued 254/1350

NUMBER OF NOTICES FILED TODAY FOR APRIL. CONTRACT 1350 NOTICE(S) FOR 135,000 OZ (4.199 TONNES)

total notices so far: 13,841 contracts for 1,384100 oz (43.051 tonnes)

SILVER NOTICES:

35 NOTICE(S) FILED TODAY FOR 170,000 OZ/

total number of notices filed so far this month 682 : for 3,410,000 oz

END

Russia is a major supplier of silver to London while Mexico supplies the COMEX

With the sanctions, London has no way to obtain silver other than compete with NY.

END

GLD

WITH GOLD DOWN $19.00

WITH RESPECT TO GLD WITHDRAWALS: (OVER THE PAST FEW MONTHS):

GOLD IS “RETURNED” TO THE BANK OF ENGLAND WHEN CALLING IN THEIR LEASES: THE GOLD NEVER LEAVES THE BANK OF ENGLAND IN THE FIRST PLACE. THE BANK IS PROTECTING ITSELF IN CASE OF COMMERCIAL FAILURE

ALSO INVESTORS SWITCHING TO SPROTT PHYSICAL (phys) INSTEAD OF THE FRAUDULENT GLD//

A SMALL CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD A DEPOSIT OF 0.29 TONNES INTO THE GLD//

INVENTORY RESTS AT 1091.73 TONNES

Silver//SLV

WITH NO SILVER AROUND AND SILVER DOWN 39 CENTS

AT THE SLV// A HUGE CHANGE IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV/ THE SLV//A DEPOSIT OF 2.302 MILLION OZ INTO THE SLV

INVESTORS ARE SWITCHING SLV TO SPROTT’S PSLV

CLOSING INVENTORY: 558.64 MILLION OZ

Let us have a look at the data for today

SILVER//OUTLINE

SILVER COMEX OI ROSE BY A STRONG SIZED 1414 CONTRACTS TO 148,844 AND CLOSER TO THE NEW RECORD OF 244,710, SET FEB 25/2020 AND THE STRONG GAIN IN OI WAS ACCOMPLISHED WITH OUR TINY $0.03 GAIN IN SILVER PRICING AT THE COMEX ON THURSDAY. OUR BANKERS WERE UNSUCCESSFUL IN KNOCKING THE PRICE OF SILVER DOWN (IT ROSE BY $0.03) AND WERE UNSUCCESSFUL IN KNOCKING OUT ANY SILVER LONGS AS WE HAD A STRONG GAIN OF 2493 CONTRACTS ON OUR TWO EXCHANGES

WE MUST HAVE HAD:
I) HUGE BANKER SHORT COVERING AS THEY ARE VERY ANXIOUS TO GET OUT OF DODGE!!/. II)WE ALSO HAD SOME REDDIT RAPTOR BUYING//. iii) A FAIR ISSUANCE OF EXCHANGE FOR PHYSICALS iiii) A STRONG INITIAL SILVER STANDING FOR COMEX SILVER MEASURING AT 4.305 MILLION OZ FOLLOWED BY TODAY’S QUEUE JUMP OF 75,000 OZ//NEW STANDING: 4,380 MILLION OZ// V) STRONG SIZED COMEX OI GAIN/

I AM NOW RECORDING THE DIFFERENTIAL IN OI FROM PRELIMINARY TO FINAL:

THE DIFFERENTIAL FROM PRELIMINARY OI TO FINAL OI SILVER TODAY: CONTRACTS : —-687 (the differential in silver is now increasing every day)

HISTORICAL ACCUMULATION OF EXCHANGE FOR PHYSICALS APRIL. ACCUMULATION FOR EFP’S SILVER/JPMORGAN’S HOUSE OF BRIBES/STARTING FROM FIRST DAY/MONTH OF MAR:

TOTAL CONTACTS for 1 days, total 392 contracts:1.96 million oz OR 1.96MILLION OZ PER DAY. (392 CONTRACTS PER DAY)

TOTAL NO OF OZ UNDERGOING EFP TO LONDON 392 CONTRACTS X 5,000 PER CONTRACT:

EQUATES TO: 1.96 MILLION OZ

LAST 11 MONTHS TOTAL EFP CONTRACTS ISSUED IN MILLIONS OF OZ:

MAY 137.83 MILLION

JUNE 149.91 MILLION OZ

JULY 129.445 MILLION OZ

AUGUST: MILLION OZ 140.120

SEPT. 28.230 MILLION OZ//

OCT: 94.595 MILLION OZ

NOV: 131.925 MILLION OZ

DEC: 100.615 MILLION OZ

JAN 2022// 90.460 MILLION OZ

FEB 2022: 72.39 MILLION OZ//

MARCH: 207.430 MILLION OZ//A NEW RECORD FOR EFP ISSUANCE AND WE ARE STILL GOING STRONG THIS MONTH.

APRIL: 1.96 MILLION OZ

RESULT: WE HAD A STRONG SIZED INCREASE IN COMEX OI SILVER COMEX CONTRACTS OF 1414 WITH OUR TINY $0.03 GAIN IN SILVER PRICING AT THE COMEX// THURSDAY THE CME NOTIFIED US THAT WE HAD A FAIR SIZED EFP ISSUANCE OF 392 CONTRACTS( 392 CONTRACTS ISSUED FOR MAY AND 0 CONTRACTS ISSUED FOR ALL OTHER MONTHS) WHICH EXITED OUT OF THE SILVER COMEX TO LONDON AS FORWARDS THE DOMINANT FEATURE TODAY: /HUGE BANKER SHORT COVERING AS THEY GET OUT OF DODGE//// WE HAVE A HUGE INITIAL SILVER OZ STANDING FOR MAR. OF 4.305 MILLION OZ FOLLOWED BY TODAY’S 75,000 OZ QUEUE JUMP//NEW STANDING: 4.380 MILLION OZ/// .. WE HAD AN STRONG SIZED GAIN OF 1806 OI CONTRACTS ON THE TWO EXCHANGES FOR 9.070 MILLION OZ WITH THE TINY GAIN IN PRICE.

WE HAD 35 NOTICES FILED TODAY FOR 175000 OZ

THE SILVER COMEX IS NOW BEING ATTACKED FOR METAL BY LONDONERS ET AL.

GOLD//OUTLINE

IN GOLD, THE COMEX OPEN INTEREST FELL BY A STRONG SIZED 9105 CONTRACTS TO 569,969 AND CLOSER TO NEW RECORD (SET JAN 24/2020) AT 799,541 AND PREVIOUS TO THAT: (SET JAN 6/2020) AT 797,110.

THE DIFFERENTIAL FROM PRELIMINARY OI TO FINAL OI IN GOLD TODAY: —–36 CONTRACTS. (differentials are lowering in gold)

THE BIS HAS ABANDONED THE GOLD COMEX TRADING!!!

THE STRONG SIZED DECREASE IN COMEX OI CAME WITH OUR GAIN IN PRICE OF $13.30//COMEX GOLD TRADING/THURSDAY WITH THE LOSS IN COMEX DUE TO THE CONCLUSION OF SPREADER LIQUIDATION/.AS IN SILVER WE MUST HAD HUGE BANKER/ALGO SHORT COVERING ACCOMPANYING OUR GOOD SIZED EXCHANGE FOR PHYSICAL ISSUANCE. WE HAD ZERO LONG LIQUIDATION

WE ALSO HAD A HUGE INITIAL STANDING IN GOLD TONNAGE FOR APRIL AT 78.33 TONNES

YET ALL OF..THIS HAPPENED WITH OUR GAIN IN PRICE OF $13.30 WITH RESPECT TO WEDNESDAY’S TRADING

WE HAD AN FAIR SIZED LOSS OF 2172 OI CONTRACTS (6.75 PAPER TONNES) ON OUR TWO EXCHANGES

E.F.P. ISSUANCE

THE CME RELEASED THE DATA FOR EFP ISSUANCE AND IT TOTALED A STRONG SIZED 6969 CONTRACTS:

The NEW COMEX OI FOR THE GOLD COMPLEX RESTS AT 570,002.

IN ESSENCE WE HAVE AN FAIR SIZED DECREASE IN TOTAL CONTRACTS ON THE TWO EXCHANGES OF 2139, WITH 9108 CONTRACTS DECREASED AT THE COMEX AND 6969 EFP OI CONTRACTS WHICH NAVIGATED OVER TO LONDON. THUS TOTAL OI LOSS ON THE TWO EXCHANGES OF 2172 CONTRACTS OR 6.75 TONNES.

CALCULATIONS ON GAIN/LOSS ON OUR TWO EXCHANGES

WE HAD A STRONG SIZED ISSUANCE IN EXCHANGE FOR PHYSICALS (6969) ACCOMPANYING THE STRONG SIZED LOSS IN COMEX OI (9141,): TOTAL LOSS IN THE TWO EXCHANGES 2172 CONTRACTS. WE NO DOUBT HAD 1) HUGE BANKER SHORT COVERING ,2.) HUGE INITIAL STANDING AT THE GOLD COMEX FOR APRIL. AT 78.33 TONNES/// 3) ZERO LONG LIQUIDATION ///. ,4) STRONG SIZED COMEX OI. LOSS 5) SMALL ISSUANCE OF EXCHANGE FOR PHYSICAL/

HISTORICAL ACCUMULATION OF EXCHANGE FOR PHYSICALS IN 2022 INCLUDING TODAY

MARCH

ACCUMULATION OF EFP’S GOLD AT J.P. MORGAN’S HOUSE OF BRIBES: (EXCHANGE FOR PHYSICAL) FOR THE MONTH OF APRIL :

6969 CONTRACTS OR 696,900 OR 21.676 TONNES 1 TRADING DAY(S) AND THUS AVERAGING: 6969 EFP CONTRACTS PER TRADING DAY

TO GIVE YOU AN IDEA AS TO THE SIZE OF THESE EFP TRANSFERS : THIS MONTH IN 1 TRADING DAY(S) IN TONNES: 21.676TONNES

TOTAL ANNUAL GOLD PRODUCTION, 2020, THROUGHOUT THE WORLD EX CHINA EX RUSSIA: 3555 TONNES

THUS EFP TRANSFERS REPRESENTS 21.76/3550 x 100% TONNES 0.612% OF GLOBAL ANNUAL PRODUCTION

ACCUMULATION OF GOLD EFP’S YEAR 2021 TO 2022

JANUARY/2021: 265.26 TONNES (RAPIDLY INCREASING AGAIN)

FEB : 171.24 TONNES ( DEFINITELY SLOWING DOWN AGAIN)..

MARCH:. 276.50 TONNES (STRONG AGAIN/

APRIL: 189..44 TONNES ( DRAMATICALLY SLOWING DOWN AGAIN//GOLD IN BACKWARDATION)

MAY: 250.15 TONNES (NOW DRAMATICALLY INCREASING AGAIN)

JUNE: 247.54 TONNES (FINAL)

JULY: 188.73 TONNES FINAL

AUGUST: 217.89 TONNES FINAL ISSUANCE.

SEPT 142.12 TONNES FINAL ISSUANCE ( LOW ISSUANCE)_

OCT: 141.13 TONNES FINAL ISSUANCE (LOW ISSUANCE)

NOV: 312.46 TONNES FINAL ISSUANCE//NEW RECORD!! (INCREASING DRAMATICALLY)//SIGN OF REAL STRESS//SURPASSING THE MARCH 2021 RECORD OF 276.50 TONNES OF EFP

DEC. 175.62 TONNES//FINAL ISSUANCE//

JAN:2022 247.25 TONNES //FINAL

FEB: 196.04 TONNES//FINAL

MARCH: 409.30 TONNES INITIAL( THIS IS NOW A RECORD EFP ISSUANCE FOR MARCH AND FOR ANY MONTH.

APRIL: 21.76 TONNES

SPREADING OPERATIONS

(/NOW SWITCHING TO GOLD) FOR NEWCOMERS, HERE ARE THE DETAILS

SPREADING LIQUIDATION HAS NOW COMMENCED AS WE HEAD TOWARDS THE NEW ACTIVE FRONT MONTH OF MAY.WE ARE NOW INTO THE SPREADING OPERATION OF SILVER

HERE IS A BRIEF SYNOPSIS OF HOW THE CROOKS FLEECE UNSUSPECTING LONGS IN THE SPREADING ENDEAVOUR ;MODUS OPERANDI OF THE CORRUPT BANKERS AS TO HOW THEY HANDLE THEIR SPREAD OPEN INTERESTS:HERE IS HOW THE CROOKS USED SPREADING AS WE ARE NOW INTO THE NON ACTIVE DELIVERY MONTH OF APRIL HEADING TOWARDS THE ACTIVE DELIVERY MONTH OF MAY, FOR SILVER:

YOU WILL ALSO NOTICE THAT THE COMEX OPEN INTEREST STARTS TO RISE BUT SO IS THE OPEN INTEREST OF SPREADERS. THE OPEN INTEREST IN WILL CONTINUE TO RISE UNTIL ONE WEEK BEFORE FIRST DAY NOTICE OF AN UPCOMING ACTIVE DELIVERY MONTH (MAR), AND THAT IS WHEN THE CROOKS SELL THEIR SPREAD POSITIONS BUT NOT AT THE SAME TIME OF THE DAY. THEY WILL USE THE SELL SIDE OF THE EQUATION TO CREATE THE CASCADE (ALONG WITH THEIR COLLUSIVE FRIENDS) AND THEN COVER ON THE BUY SIDE OF THE SPREAD SITUATION AT THE END OF THE DAY. THEY DO THIS TO AVOID POSITION LIMIT DETECTION. THE LIQUIDATION OF THE SPREADING FORMATION CONTINUES FOR EXACTLY ONE WEEK AND ENDS ON FIRST DAY NOTICE.”

WHAT IS ALARMING TO ME, ACCORDING TO OUR LONDON EXPERT ANDREW MAGUIRE IS THAT THESE EFP’S ARE BEING TRANSFERRED TO WHAT ARE CALLED SERIAL FORWARD CONTRACT OBLIGATIONS AND THESE CONTRACTS ARE LESS THAN 14 DAYS. ANYTHING GREATER THAN 14 DAYS, THESE MUST BE RECORDED AND SENT TO THE COMPTROLLER, GREAT BRITAIN TO MONITOR RISK TO THE BANKING SYSTEM. IF THIS IS INDEED TRUE, THEN THIS IS A MASSIVE CONSPIRACY TO DEFRAUD AS WE NOW WITNESS A MONSTROUS TOTAL EFP’S ISSUANCE AS IT HEADS INTO THE STRATOSPHERE.

First, here is an outline of what will be discussed tonight:

1.Today, we had the open interest at the comex, in SILVER, ROSE BY A STRONG SIZED 1414 CONTRACTS TO 148,844 AND CLOSER TO OUR COMEX RECORD //244,710(SET FEB 25/2020). THE LAST RECORDS WERE SET IN AUG.2018 AT 244,196 WITH A SILVER PRICE OF $14.78/(AUGUST 22/2018)..THE PREVIOUS RECORD TO THAT WAS SET ON APRIL 9/2018 AT 243,411 OPEN INTEREST CONTRACTS WITH THE SILVER PRICE AT THAT DAY: $16.53). AND PREVIOUS TO THAT, THE RECORD WAS ESTABLISHED AT: 234,787 CONTRACTS, SET ON APRIL 21.2017 OVER 4 1/2 YEARS AGO.

EFP ISSUANCE 392 CONTRACTS

OUR CUSTOMARY MIGRATION OF COMEX LONGS CONTINUE TO MORPH INTO LONDON FORWARDS AS OUR BANKERS USED THEIR EMERGENCY PROCEDURE TO ISSUE:

MAY 392 ALL OTHER MONTHS: ZERO. TOTAL EFP ISSUANCE: 392 CONTRACTS. EFP’S GIVE OUR COMEX LONGS A FIAT BONUS PLUS A DELIVERABLE PRODUCT OVER IN LONDON. IF WE TAKE THE COMEX OI GAIN OF 2101 CONTRACTS AND ADD TO THE 392 OI TRANSFERRED TO LONDON THROUGH EFP’S,

WE OBTAIN A STRONG SIZED GAIN OF 1806 OPEN INTEREST CONTRACT FROM OUR TWO EXCHANGES.

THUS IN OUNCES, THE GAIN ON THE TWO EXCHANGES 9.08 MILLION OZ,

OCCURRED WITH OUR tiny GAIN $0.03 IN PRICE.

OUTLINE FOR TODAY’S COMMENTARY

1/COMEX GOLD AND SILVER REPORT

(report Harvey)

2 ) Gold/silver trading overnight Europe,

(Peter Schiff,

3. Egon von Greyerz///Matthew Piepenburg via GoldSwitzerland.com,

4. Chris Powell of GATA provides to us very important physical commentaries

5. Other gold commentaries

6. Commodity commentaries/cryptocurrencies

3. ASIAN AFFAIRS

i)FRIDAY MORNING// THURSDAY NIGHT

SHANGHAI CLOSED UP 2.26 PTS OR 0.07% //Hang Sang CLOSED UP 280.09 PTS OR 1.31 % /The Nikkei closed DOWN 205.95 PTS OR 0.73% //Australia’s all ordinaires CLOSED DOWN 0.01% /Chinese yuan (ONSHORE) closed DOWN 6.3703 /Oil DOWN TO 107.28 dollars per barrel for WTI and DOWN TO 114.11 for Brent. Stocks in Europe OPENED ALL GREEN // ONSHORE YUAN CLOSED DOWN AGAINST THE DOLLAR AT 6.3703 OFFSHORE YUAN CLOSED DOWN ON THE DOLLAR AT 6.3859: /ONSHORE YUAN TRADING ABOVE LEVEL OF OFFSHORE YUAN/ONSHORE YUAN TRADING WEAKER AGAINST US DOLLAR/OFFSHORE WEAKER//

A)NORTH KOREA/

b) REPORT ON JAPAN

OUTLINE

3 C CHINA

OUTLINE

4/EUROPEAN AFFAIRS

OUTLINE

5. RUSSIAN AND MIDDLE EASTERN AFFAIRS

OUTLINE

6.Global Issues

OUTLINE

7. OIL ISSUES

OUTLINE

8 EMERGING MARKET ISSUES

COMEX DATA//AMOUNTS STANDING//VOLUME OF TRADING/INVENTORY MOVEMENTS

GOLD

LET US BEGIN:

THE TOTAL COMEX GOLD OPEN INTEREST FELL BY A STRONG SIZED 9141 CONTRACTS TO 569,969 AND FURTHER FROM THE RECORD THAT WAS SET IN JANUARY/2020: {799,541 OI(SET JAN 16/2020)} AND PREVIOUS TO THAT: 797,110 (SET JAN 7/2020). AND THIS COMEX DECREASE OCCURRED DESPITE OUR STRONG GAIN OF $13.30 IN GOLD PRICING THURSDAY’S COMEX TRADING. WE ALSO HAD A STRONG SIZED EFP (6969 CONTRACTS). . THEY WERE PAID HANDSOMELY NOT TO TAKE DELIVERY AT THE COMEX AND SETTLE FOR CASH. A CONSIDERABLE AMOUNT OF THE COMEX LOSS WAS DUE TO THE CONCLUSION OF THE SPREADER/TAS FOLLY/

WE NORMALLY HAVE WITNESSED EXCHANGE FOR PHYSICALS ISSUED BEING SMALL AS IT JUST TOO COSTLY FOR THEM TO CONTINUE SERVICING THE COSTS OF SERIAL FORWARDS CIRCULATING IN LONDON. HOWEVER, MUCH TO THE ANNOYANCE OF OUR BANKERS, THE COMEX IS THE SCENE OF AN ASSAULT ON GOLD AS LONDONERS, NOT BEING ABLE TO FIND ANY PHYSICAL ON THAT SIDE OF THE POND, EXERCISE THESE CIRCULATING EXCHANGE FOR PHYSICALS IN LONDON AND FORCING DELIVERY OF REAL METAL OVER HERE AS THE OBLIGATION STILL RESTS WITH NEW YORK BANKERS. IT SEEMS THAT ARE BANKERS FRIENDS ARE EXERCISING EFP’S FROM LONDON AND NOW THEY ARE LOATHE TO ISSUE NEW ONES.

EXCHANGE FOR PHYSICAL ISSUANCE

WE ARE NOW MOVING TO THE ACTIVE DELIVERY MONTH OF APRIL.. THE CME REPORTS THAT THE BANKERS ISSUED A STRONG SIZED TRANSFER THROUGH THE EFP ROUTE AS THESE LONGS RECEIVED A DELIVERABLE LONDON FORWARD TOGETHER WITH A FIAT BONUS.,

THAT IS 6969 EFP CONTRACTS WERE ISSUED: ;: , . 0 JUNE :6969 & ZERO FOR ALL OTHER MONTHS:

TOTAL EFP ISSUANCE: 6969 CONTRACTS

WHEN WE HAVE BACKWARDATION, EFP ISSUANCE IS VERY COSTLY BUT THE REAL PROBLEM IS THE SCARCITY OF METAL AND IT IS FAR BETTER FOR OUR BANKERS TO PAY OFF INDIVIDUALS THAN RISK INVESTORS ESPECIALLY FROM LONDON STANDING FOR DELIVERY. THE LOWER PRICES IN THE FUTURES MARKET IS A MAGNET FOR OUR LONDONERS SEEKING PHYSICAL METAL. BACKWARDATION ALWAYS EQUAL SCARCITY OF METAL!

ON A NET BASIS IN OPEN INTEREST WE LOST THE FOLLOWING TODAY ON OUR TWO EXCHANGES: A FAIR SIZED TOTAL OF 2172 CONTRACTS IN THAT6969 LONGS WERE TRANSFERRED AS FORWARDS TO LONDON AND WE HAD A STRONG SIZED COMEX OI LOSS OF 9141 CONTRACTS..AND THIS FAIR SIZED GAIN OCCURRED DESPITE THE GAIN IN PRICE OF $13.30.

// WE HAVE A STRONG AMOUNT OF GOLD TONNAGE STANDING FOR APRIL (78.33),

HERE ARE THE AMOUNTS THAT STOOD FOR DELIVERY IN THE PRECEDING 12 MONTHS OF 2021:

DEC 2021: 112.217 TONNES

NOV. 8.074 TONNES

OCT. 57.707 TONNES

SEPT: 11.9160 TONNES

AUGUST: 80.489 TONNES

JULY: 7.2814 TONNES

JUNE: 72.289 TONNES

MAY 5.77 TONNES

APRIL 95.331 TONNES

MARCH 30.205 TONNES

FEB ’21. 113.424 TONNES

JAN ’21: 6.500 TONNES.

TOTAL SO FAR THIS YEAR (JAN- DEC): 601.213 TONNES

YEAR 2022:

JANUARY 2022 17.79 TONNES

FEB 2022: 59.023 TONNES

MARCH: 36.678 TONNES

APRIL: 78.33

THE BANKERS WERE UNSUCCESSFUL IN LOWERING GOLD’S PRICE //// (IT ROSE $13.30) BUT THEY WERE UNSUCCESSFUL IN FLEECING ANY LONGS AS WE HAVE REGISTERED A FAIR SIZED GAIN OF 7.832 TONNES ON TOTAL OI FROM OUR TWO EXCHANGES, ACCOMPANYING OUR HUGE GOLD TONNAGE STANDING FOR APRIL (78.33 TONNES)…

WE HAD –26 CONTRACTS SUBTRACTED FROM COMEX TRADES. THESE WERE REMOVED AFTER TRADING ENDED LAST NIGHT

NET GAIN ON THE TWO EXCHANGES 2172 CONTRACTS OR 217200 OZ OR 6.75 TONNES

Estimated gold volume today: 125,808 ///poor

Confirmed volume yesterday: 171,603 contracts poor

INITIAL STANDINGS FOR APRIL ’22 COMEX GOLD //APRIL 1

Gold	Ounces
Withdrawals from Dealers* Inventory in oz*	nil oz
Withdrawals from Customer* Inventory in oz*	60,873.077 oz Brinks JPMorgan includes 27 kilobars Brinks
Deposit to the Dealer* Inventory in oz*	56,358.104OZManfra
Deposits to the Customer* Inventory, in oz*	321,510.000 jpm 1000 kilobars 60,005.490 oz Malca total: 381,515.490 oz
No of oz served (contracts) today	1350 notice(s)135,000 OZ 4.199 TONNES
No of oz to be served (notices)	11345 contracts 35.28 oz 0.5723 TONNES
Total monthly oz gold served (contracts) so far this month	13841 notices138,4100 OZ 43.05 TONNES
Total accumulative withdrawals of gold from the Dealers* inventory this month*	NIL oz
Total accumulative withdrawal of gold from the Customer* inventory this month*	xxx oz

For today:

dealer deposits 1

ii Into dealer Manfra: 56,358.104 oz

total dealer deposit 56,358.104 oz//

No dealer withdrawal 0

2 customer deposits

i) Into JPM 321,510.000 oz (10,000 kilobars)

ii) Into Malca: 60,005.490 oz

total customer deposit: 381,515.490 oz //total dealer and customer deposit 13.616 tonnes

2 customer withdrawal

i)out of JPMorgan 60,006.490 oz

ii) Out of Brinks: 868.077 oz (27 kilobars)

total withdrawals: 60,873.567 oz

ADJUSTMENTS: dealer to customer

i) Manfra: 14,0-49.890 oz

CALCULATIONS FOR THE AMOUNT OF GOLD STANDING FOR APRIL.

For the front month of APRIL we have an INITIAL oi of 12,695 contracts having LOST 12,451.

We had 12,491 notices filed yesterday so we gained 40 contracts or 4000 oz will stand for delivery at the comex

May saw a GAIN of 141 contracts to stand at 5361

June saw a GAIN of 2138 contracts up to 476,004 contracts

We had 1350 notice(s) filed today for 135,000 oz FOR THE APRIL 2022 CONTRACT MONTH.

Today, 0 notice(s) were issued from J.P.Morgan dealer account and 1306 notices were issued from their client or customer account. The total of all issuance by all participants equates to 1350 contract(s) of which 0 notices were stopped (received) by j.P. Morgan dealer and 254 notice(s) was (were) stopped/ Received) by J.P.Morgan//customer account and 84 notice(s) received (stopped) by the squid (Goldman Sachs)

To calculate the INITIAL total number of gold ounces standing for the APRIL /2021. contract month,

we take the total number of notices filed so far for the month (13,841) x 100 oz , to which we add the difference between the open interest for the front month of (APRIL 12,695: CONTRACTS ) minus the number of notices served upon today 1350 x 100 oz per contract equals 2,518,700 OZ OR 78.33 TONNES the number of TONNES standing in this active month of APRIL.

thus the INITIAL standings for gold for the APRIL contract month:

No of notices filed so far (13,841) x 100 oz+ (12,695) OI for the front month minus the number of notices served upon today (1350} x 100 oz} which equals 2,518,600 oz standing OR 78.33 TONNES in this active delivery month of APRIL.

We gained 4000 oz queue jump on day two as our banker friends are desperate for gold.

TOTAL COMEX GOLD STANDING: 78.33 TONNES (A WHOPPER FOR A APRIL ( ACTIVE) DELIVERY MONTH)

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

COMEX GOLD INVENTORIES/CLASSIFICATION

NEW PLEDGED GOLD:

191,133,764.7, oz NOW PLEDGED /HSBC 5.94 TONNES

99,258.893 PLEDGED MANFRA 3.08 TONNES

54,339.114oz PLEDGED JPMorgan no 1 1.690 tonnes

243,923.704, oz JPM No 2 7.58 TONNES

898,821.330 oz pledged Brinks/27,96 TONNES

International Delaware:: 0

Loomis: 18,615.429 oz

total pledged gold: 1,487,476.805 oz 46.27 tonnes

TOTAL REGISTERED AND ELIG GOLD AT THE COMEX: 35,576,058.474 OZ (1106.56TONNES)

TOTAL ELIGIBLE GOLD: 18,157,716.04 OZ (564.78 tonnes)

TOTAL OF ALL REGISTERED GOLD: 17,418,342.090 OZ (541.78 tonnes)

REGISTERED GOLD THAT CAN BE SERVED UPON: 15,930.866.0 OZ (REG GOLD- PLEDGED GOLD) 495.52 tonnes

END

APRIL 2022 CONTRACT MONTH//SILVER//APRIL 1

Silver	Ounces
Withdrawals from Dealers* Inventory*	NIL oz
Withdrawals from Customer Inventory	1,618,866.055 oz Brinks CNT Loomis
Deposits to the Dealer* Inventory*	nil OZ
Deposits to the Customer Inventory	298,413.348 oz Delaware
No of oz served today (contracts)	35CONTRACT(S) 175,000 OZ)
No of oz to be served (notices)	194 contracts (970,000 oz)
Total monthly oz silver served (contracts)	682 contracts 3,410,000 oz)
Total accumulative withdrawal of silver from the Dealers* inventory this month*	NIL oz
Total accumulative withdrawal of silver from the Customer* inventory this month*

And now for the wild silver comex results

we had 0 deposits into the dealer

total dealer deposits: nil oz

i) We had 0 dealer withdrawal

total dealer withdrawals: nil oz

We have 1 deposits into the customer account

i) Into Delaware: 298,413.348 oz

total deposit: 298,413.348 oz

JPMorgan has a total silver weight: 179.710 million oz/339.649 million =52.70% of comex

i) Comex withdrawals: 3

i) Out of Brinks 771,293.540 oz

ii) Out of CNT 723,067.988 oz

iii) Out of Loomis: 124,504.530 oz

total withdrawal 1,618,866.055 oz

0 adjustments:

the silver comex is in stress!

TOTAL REGISTERED SILVER: 85.709 MILLION OZ

TOTAL REG + ELIG. 339.649 MILLION OZ

CALCULATION OF SILVER OZ STANDING FOR APRIL

silver open interest data:

FRONT MONTH OF APRIL OI: 229, HAVING LOST 632 CONTRACTS FROM THURSDAY. We had 647 notices filed yesterday,

so we gained 15 contracts or an additional 75,000 oz will stand on this side of the pond

MAY HAD A GAIN OF 279 CONTRACTS UP TO 105,584 contracts

JUNE HAD AN INITIAL GAIN OF 13 TO STAND AT 13

TOTAL NUMBER OF NOTICES FILED FOR TODAY: 35 for 175,000 oz

Comex volumes: 46,243// est. volume today//poor/

Comex volume: confirmed yesterday: 42,892 contracts ( poor )

To calculate the number of silver ounces that will stand for delivery in APRIL. we take the total number of notices filed for the month so far at 682x 5,000 oz = 3,410,000oz

to which we add the difference between the open interest for the front month of APRIL (229) and the number of notices served upon today 35 x (5000 oz) equals the number of ounces standing.

Thus the standings for silver for the APRIL./2021 contract month: 682 (notices served so far) x 5000 oz + OI for front month of MAR (229) – number of notices served upon today (35) x 5000 oz of silver standing for the APRIL contract month equates 4,380,000 oz. .

the record level of silver open interest is 234,787 contracts set on April 21./2017 with the price on that day at $18.42. The previous record was 224,540 contracts with the price at that time of $20.44

END

GLD AND SLV INVENTORY LEVELS:

APRIL 1///WITH GOLD DOWN $19.00 : A SMALL CHANGE IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD: A DEPOSITY OF .29 TONNES INTO THE GLD///INVENTORY RESTS AT 1091.73

MARCH 31/WITH GOLD UP $13.30 TODAY: A HUGE CHANGE IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD FROM MONDAY A WITHDRAWAL OF 1.71 TONNES FROM THE GLD:INVENTORY RESTS AT 1091.44

MARCH 28/WITH GOLD DOWN $14.65: NO CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD//INVENTORY RESTS AT 1093.18 TONNES

MARCH 25/WITH GOLD DOWN $7.60 : A HUGE CHANGE IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD: A DEPOSIT OF 5.52 TONNES INTO THE GLD///INVENTORY RESTS AT 1093.18 TONNES

MARCH 24/WITH GOLD UP $24.95: HUGE CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD: A DEPOSIT OF 4.06 TONNES INTO THE GLD..//INVENTORY RESTS AT 1087.66 TONNES

MARCH 23/WITH GOLD UP $15.75//NO CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD//INVENTORY RESTS AT 1083.60 TONNES

MARCH 22/WITH GOLD DOWN $7.75: A HUGE CHANGE IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD: A DEPOSIT OF 1.16 TONNES OF GOLD DEPOSITED INTO THE GLD//INVENTORY RESTS AT 1083.60 TONES

MARCH 21//WITH GOLD UP $.25 : A HUGE CHANGE IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD: A DEPOSIT OF 9.00 TONNES INTO THE GLD////INVENTORY RESTS AT 1082.44 TONES

MARCH 18/WITH GOLD DOWN $13.55 NO CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD//INVENTORY RESTS AT 1073.44 TONES

MARCH 17/WITH GOLD UP $33.50: A HUGE CHANGE IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD: A DEPOSIT OF 11.61 TONNES INTO THE GLD//INVENTORY RESTS AT 1073.44 TONNES

MARCH 16/WITH GOLD DOWN $18.50//A HUGE CHANGE IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD: A WITHDRAWAL OF 2.33 TONNES FROM THE GLD///INVENTORY RESTS AT 1061.83 TONNES

MARCH 15/WITH GOLD DOWN $30.80 TODAY: NO CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD//INVENTORY RESTS AT 1064.16 TONNES

MARCH 14//WITH GOLD DOWN $22.75, HUGE CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD//STRANGE: A DEPOSIT OF 2.62 TONNES INTO THE GLD.//INVENTORY RESTS AT 1064.16 TONNES

MARCH 11/WITH GOLD DOWN $14.60: A BIG CHANGE IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD A WITHDRAWAL OF 1.74 TONNES FROM THE GLD////INVENTORY RESTS AT 1061.54 TONNES

MARCH 10//WITH GOLD UP $11.55: A HUGE CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD: A WITHDRAWAL OF 4.06 TONNES FORM THE GLD///INVENTORY RESTS AT 1063.28 TONNES

MARCH 9/WITH GOLD DOWN $53.85//A HUGE CHANGE IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD: A DEPOSIT OF 4.64 TONNES INTO THE GLD//INVENTORY RESTS AT 1067.34 TONNES

MARCH 8/WITH GOLD UP $46.10: A HUGE CHANGE IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD: A DEPOSIT OF 8.42 TONNES INTO THE GLD///INVENTORY RESTS AT 1062.70 TONNES

MARCH 7/WITH GOLD UP $28.40 A HUGE CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD: A DEPOSIT OF 4.06 TONNES INTO THE GLD..//INVENTORY RESTS AT 1054.28 TONNES

MARCH 4/WITH GOLD UP $28.40//NO CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD//INVENTORY RESTS AT 1050.22 TONNES

MARCH 3/WITH GOLD UP $13.95: A HUGE CHANGE IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD: A DEPOSIT OF 7.84 TONNES//INVENTORY RESTS AT 1050.22 TONNES

MARCH 2/WITH GOLD DOWN $20.80//A MONSTER CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD: A DEPOSIT OF 13.36 TONNES OF GOLD INTO THE GLD////INVENTORY RESTS AT 1042.38 TONNES

MARCH 1/WITH GOLD UP $42.60: NO CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD: //INVENTORY RESTS AT 1029.32 TONNES

FEB 28/WITH GOLD UP $12.95: NO CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD//INVENTORY RESTS AT 1029.32 TONNES

FEB 25/WITH GOLD DOWN $38.95: NO CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD//INVENTORY RESTS AT 1029.32 TONNES

FEB 24/WITH GOLD UP $17.35//A HUGE CHANGE AT THE GLD: 5.23 TONNES INTO THE GLD// IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD/INVENTORY REST AT 1029.32 TONNES

FEB 23/WITH GOLD UP $2.00 : NO CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD//INVENTORY RESTS AT 1024.09 TONNES

CLOSING INVENTORY FOR THE GLD//1091.73 TONNES

Now the SLV Inventory/( vehicle is a fraud as there is no physical metal behind them

APRIL 1/WITH SILVER DOWN 39 CENTS A BIG CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV: A DEPOSIT OF 2.302 MILLION OZ INTO THE SLV////INVENTORY REST AT 558.647 MILLION OZ//

MARCH 31/WITH SILVER UP 3 CENTS TODAY: HUGE CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV//A DEPOSIT OF 2.171 MILLION OZ INTO THE SLV//INVENTORY RESTS AT 556.345 MILLION OZ

MARCH 28/WITH SILVER DOWN 30 CENTS TODAY: A HUGE CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV: A DEPOSIT OF 1.847 MILLION OZ INTO THE SLV///INVENTORY RESTS AT 554.167 MILLION OZ//

MARCH 25/WITH SILVER DOWN 20 CENTS TODAY: NO CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV//INVENTORY RESTS AT 552.320 MILLION OZ//

MARCH 24/WITH SILVER UP 54 CENTS TODAY; A HUGE CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV: A DEPOSIT OF 2.092 MILLION OZ INTO THE SLV//INVENTORY RESTS AT 552.320 MILLION OZ//

MARCH 23/WITH SILVER UP 24 CENTS TODAY: NO CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV//INVENTORY RESTS AT 550.288 MILLION OZ//

MARCH 22/WITH SILVER DOWN $0.29 TODAY : NO CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV//INVENTORY RESTS AT 550.288 MILLION OZ//

MARCH 21/WITH SILVER UP 16 CENTS TODAY: NO CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV//INVENTORY RESTS AT 550.288 MILLION OZ//

MARCH 18/WITH SILVER DOWN 37 CENTS TODAY: A HUGE CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV: A DEPOSIT OF 2.217 MILLION OZ INTO THE SLV//INVENTORY RESTS AT 550.288 MILLION OZ//

MARCH 17/ WITH SILVER UP 72 CENTS TODAY: A HUGE CHANGE IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV: A DEPOSIT OF 3.049 MILLION OZ INTO THE SLVV//INVENTORY RESTS AT 548.071 MILLION OZ

MARCH 16/WITH SILVER DOWN 56 CENTS TODAY: A SMALL CHANGE IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV: A WITHDRAWAL OF 462,000 OZ FROM THE SLV//INVENTORY RESTS AT 544.560 MLLION O

MARCH 15/WITH SILVER DOWN 18 CENTS TODAY: NO CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV//INVENTORY RESTS AT 545.022 MILLION OZ

MARCH 14/WITH SILVER DOWN 64 CENTS TODAY; STRANGE A HUGE CHANGE IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV: A DEPOSIT OF 2.125 MILLION OZ/INVENTORY RESTS AT 545.022 MILLIONOZ

MARCH 11/WITH SILVER DOWN 13 CENTS TODAY: NO CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV//INVENTORY RESTS AT 542.897 MILLION OZ

MARCH 10/WITH SILVER UP 39 CENTS TODAY: NO CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV//INVENTORY RESTS AT 542.897 MILLION OZ/

MARCH 9/WITH SILVER DOWN 88 CENTS TODAY: A HUGE CHANGE IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV: A WITHDRAWAL OF 5.174 MILLION OZ OF FAKE SILVER.//INVENTORY RESTS AT 542.897 MILLION OZ//

MARCH 8/WITH SILVER UP 88 CENTS TODAY; HUGE CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV: A DEPOSIT OF 2.217 MILLION OZ INTO THE SLV////INVENTORY RESTS A 548.071 MILLION OZ//

MARCH 7/WITH SILVER UP 40 CENTS TODAY: NO CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV//INVENTORY RESTS AT 545.854 MILLION OZ//

MARCH 4/WITH SILVER UP 50 CENTS TODAY: NO CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV//INVENTORY RESTS AT 545.854 MILLION OZ/

MARCH 3/WITH SILVER UP 2 CENTS TODAY: NO CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV//INVENTORY RESTS AT 545.854 MILLION OZ//

MARCH 2/WITH SILVER DOWN $.32 TODAY: A SMALL CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV: A WITHDRAWAL OF 198,000 OZ FROM THE SLV//INVENTORY RESTS AT 545.854 MILLION OZ//

MARCH 1/WITH SILVER UP $1.13 TODAY: NO CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV//INVENTORY RESTS AT 546.052 MILLION OZ//

FEB 28/WITH SILVER UP 31 CENTS TODAY: NO CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV//INVENTORY REST AT 546.052 MILLION OZ//

FEB 25/WITH SILVER DOWN 64 CENTS TODAY: A HUGE CHANGE IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV: A WITHDRAWAL OF 5.510 MILLION OZ FROM THE SLV///INVENTORY RESTS AT 546.052 MILLION OZ/

FEB 24/WITH SILVER UP 15 CENTS TODAY: NO CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV//INVENTORY RESTS AT 551.597 MILLION OZ

FEB 23/WITH SILVER UP 22 CENTS TODAY; NO CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV//INVENTORY RESTS AT 551.597 MILLION OZ//

SLV FINAL INVENTORY FOR TODAY: 558.647 MILLION OZ//

PHYSICAL GOLD/SILVER STORIES

1.PETER SCHIFF

Peter Schiff: Eurozone Inflation Exposes European Central Bank Lies

FRIDAY, APR 01, 2022 – 06:30 AM

Via SchiffGold.com,

During a recent podcast, Peter Schiff talked about how the Bank of Japan lied about inflation being too low in order to justify its reckless monetary policy and keep interest rates artificially low in order to prop up the country’s massive debt. In a subsequent podcast, Peter talked about similar lies coming out of the European Central Bank.

The United States isn’t the only country with an inflation problem. The month-over-month increase in the CPI in Germany for March came in at 2.5%. Year-over-year, the CPI increase was 7.3%. Meanwhile, in Italy, producer prices were up 41.4% year-over-year in February.

It’s clear there is a significant inflation problem in the eurozone and it will likely get worse.

The ECB has kept interest rates at zero, and sometimes below, for years. The European central bank has also run massive quantitative easing programs. Former ECB president Mario Draghi always justified this extraordinarily loose monetary policy by saying there wasn’t enough inflation in the eurozone.

Peter said he was one of the few people questioning the absurdity of calling low inflation a problem central banks need to solve.

Low inflation is not a problem. In fact, lower inflation is better than higher inflation. The lower the better. In fact, if prices fall, that’s actually better than prices rising by a little bit. It’s better if things get cheaper than more expensive.”

In reality, all of this talk about inflation being too low is really just a smokescreen to allow central banks and governments to continue their reckless monetary policy.

Keep in mind, when these bureaucrats and politicians tell you “there is not enough inflation,” they’re really saying the cost of living isn’t rising fast enough.

If they said it that way, it would illustrate the absurdity. Why does anybody want the cost of living to go up? Doesn’t everybody want their cost of living to go down? Of course, they do! People don’t want higher gas prices. They want lower gas prices. People don’t want to pay more for health insurance. They want to pay less. They want to pay less for everything.”

The original ECB mandate was to keep inflation below 2%. Draghi reinvented the mandate so that the central bank would try to keep inflation as close to 2% as possible, without going over. In effect, Draghi was saying, “We want inflation to be 1.999%.” Peter called it “asinine.” In effect, that means if inflation is 1.8%, the central bank needs to keep rates at zero and continue QE.

It makes no sense to raise an inflation rate of 1.8 to 1.9. when you’re trying to stay below 2%. In fact, it doesn’t make any sense to try to raise an inflation rate of 1.5 to 1.9 and risk overshooting. The whole idea of the mandate being close to but below 2% was complete nonsense.”

At the time, Peter said it was crazy to think a central bank could micromanage the inflation rate to that degree. And he asked the key question: what happens when they overshoot?

Well, now we know.

It’s ignoring the overshoot. It is doing nothing. Because you have a 30-year high in German inflation. You have an inflation problem all over the world. Yet here you have the ECB continuing to hold rates at zero and continuing to do quantitative easing.”

Why?

If the ECB’s real goal was to create higher inflation but keep it below 2%, they’ve succeeded. In fact, they’ve more than tripled 2%.

Why are they pursuing the same monetary policy? They’re pursuing the same monetary policy today when they have too much inflation as they were using in the past when they claimed they had too little inflation.”

Just like with the Bank of Japan, this highlights the big lie Draghi and the current ECB president Christine Lagarde have been telling — that the artificially low interest rates and QE were driven by too little inflation.

Low inflation was never a problem. It was a manufactured problem to cover up the real problem. And now they have another real problem of too high inflation that they can’t solve. But the problem that they were trying to cover up was another insolvency issue. Why was the ECB continuing to print euros to buy government bonds, in particular Greek government bonds, Italian government bonds, Spanish government bonds? And the answer is those governments were profligate. They’re running big deficits. They are not complying with the original premise of the European Union. They are not holding their deficits down in relation to their GDP. And so the reason the ECB is interfering in those bond markets is to keep interest rates in a lot of these southern European countries artificially low. So, in order to justify intervening in the bond markets, to spare Italian or Spanish politicians from the hard choices of cutting government spending or raising taxes, the ECB monetized that debt. But they couldn’t say the reason we’re printing all of this money is so we can bail out the Italians or bail out the Spanish, so they had to come up with another excuse. And their lame excuse was that inflation was too low.”

The situation isn’t much different in the US. The Fed has also used “low” inflation to justify loose monetary policy so that it can continue to monetize the massive US debt.

In this podcast, Peter also talks about how politicians and central bankers are using COVID and Putin as an excuse for inflation, the problem of big government, and the reaction of gold and oil to the peace talks in Ukraine.

2.LAWRIE WILLIAM//,//Egon von Greyerz///Matthew Piepenburg via GoldSwitzerland.com, James RICKARDS/

-END

–

-END-

LAWRIE WILLIAMS

3. Chris Powell of GATA provides to us very important physical commentaries

Amazing, at least two major refiners are refusing to remelt Russian gold bars

(Bloomberg/GATA)

At least two major refiners refuse to remelt Russian gold bars

Submitted by admin on Thu, 2022-03-31 21:49Section: Daily Dispatches

By Eddie Spence
Bloomberg News
Thursday, March 31, 2022

Some gold refineries are refusing to remelt Russian bars even though market rules permit them to do so, in a sign of how toxic the country’s products have become in certain commodity markets.

The London Bullion Market Association, a club of big banks that acts as the overseer of the world’s key gold market, has drawn a distinction between newly produced Russian gold, which it has barred from its market, and metal that was produced before the invasion, which it is still allowing to trade.

However, at least two major gold refiners are refusing to remelt old Russian bullion bars, according to people familiar with the situation who asked not be identified as the matter is private. …

… For the remainder of the report:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-03-31/russian-gold-bars-shunned-by-some-refiners-as-war-leaves-stigma

END

end

4.OTHER GOLD/SILVER COMMENTARIES

Steve Brown…

Gold Supports the Ruble

Chris Powell/Steve Brown…

From Chris Powell of GATA:

“The Russian central bank has begun buying gold from Russian mines at a fixed price in rubles, establishing a gold standard within Russia .. (and) the Russian government is suggesting that gold can be payment for its oil and gas exports. And the Russian government has removed VAT tax from domestic gold sales to the public to encourage Russians to trade their rubles for domestically mined metal instead of foreign currency.” Link: https://gata.org/node/21839

It’s a Russian gold standard because the metal is monetized directly by the Russian government and central bank, where the bank will exchange its gold for rubles, at a price fixed by the Russian government. That move has already caused the ruble to strengthen from 139:1 (ru to USD) to 83:1 now, making the ruble the strongest performing currency in March.

Link: Ruble becomes best-performing currency in March https://gata.org/node/21833

The ruble is strengthened via domestic gold trade when the Russian people exchange their rubles-fiat for hard gold. Such exchange looks attractive to the populace, since gold remains stable as a store of value with zero counterparty risk.

The western gold cartel has barred Russia from the LBMA and western gold trading, perhaps not a wise move for the cartel. The LBMA-BIS-CME-LME-Fed-IMF gold cartel can only remain such when others agree to play.* And Western sanctions will have no impact on Russia’s gold trade. Where bilateral gold trades occur between central banks, US-Euro financial sanctions are irrelevant. That applies to the gold carry trade as well, which is private and opaque even for governments.** Note that Venezuela was able to survive weaponization of the dollar US by trading its gold to Deutsche Bank in bilateral exchange not affected by US Treasury sanctions.

Japan has stated that it will not ship or sell gold to Russia; but it’s exceedingly unlikely that Russia cares about that, since Russia has its own very productive mines and gold trade elsewhere in Asia.

Such positioning as above and stronger trade relations among the Asian block, while excluding Japan and South Korea, promises a gradual shift in world trade pattern, with the consequence and long-term result not yet apparent. Perhaps in response, US State sent its ‘economic hitman’ emissary of the NSA to New Delhi, to warn India about what happens when you mess with Empire. Link: https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/us-deputy-nsa-daleep-singh-cautions-india-against-trade-deals-with-russia/article65277933.ece

Foreign Secretary Harsh Shringla met with US Deputy NSA Daleep Singh in New Delhi March 31, 2022

Meanwhile Bloomberg, a western finance media outfit deeply mired in the culture of Fed criminality, is whining that galloping inflation is “destroying demand”. Tough luck, Mike. We’re all crying for you.

Another point is Russia’s ability to quickly reposition itself with regard to crypto, specifically bitcoin. Russia had formerly imposed strict BTC controls to prevent capital flight, but – in a major bit of irony – western exchanges imposed the same control, subsequent to the Russian support of the DPR/LPR and its police action/invasion of the Ukraine.

With reduced prospect for capital flight to the west, Russia can directly challenge the west by using bitcoin for its real intent, as a currency. Until now bitcoin has been more of a speculative asset than a currency, and it will be interesting to see how the western monetary Empire reacts when and if Bitcoin is effectively used as a means to evade US Treasury sanctions and weaponization of the dollar. So far US Treasury sanctions evasion via Bitcoin prima facie appears minor, while Russia apparently intends to make it major. We shall see!

NB: Russian central bank trade of gold for rubles as set by the RCB represents an internal gold standard — and not an international one. The international gold standard existed until August 15th, 1972, when the former United States ended it. But Russia’s move may be a first step in that direction.

*China has the largest gold market in the Shanghai Exchange but it is difficult for westerners to participate in that market due to China’s capital controls. That has allowed the western gold cartel to operate somewhat autonomously. Due to the collective west’s collective hysteria and inability to reason, it’s unlikely that China will relax its capital controls for westerners, and to the contrary is likely to strengthen them.

**Somewhat analogous to peer-to-peer crypto trade where a third-party exchange is not involved

Steve Brown

end

5.OTHER COMMODITIES/

FOOD/IN GENERAL/MIDDLE EAST

UN warns that the Middle East is at the breaking point as food prices are rising by alarming levels

(zerohedge)

UN Warns Middle East At “Breaking Point” As Food Prices Hit Alarming Highs

FRIDAY, APR 01, 2022 – 04:15 AM

Could it only be a matter of time before food riots erupt across the Middle East?

Even before Russia invaded Ukraine and disrupted the global food supply, menacing food inflation ripped around the world, crushing emerging market households the hardest.

A new report Thursday via the United Nations’ World Food Programme (WFP) warns a toxic combination of the conflict in Ukraine, economic disruptions due to COVID-19, and climate volatility resulting in bad harvests, are driving food prices to record highs as fears of shortages flourish.

WFP said millions of Middle Eastern and North African families struggle to buy even the most basic foods to keep hunger at bay.

“People’s resilience is at a breaking point. This crisis is creating shock waves in the food markets that touch every home in this region. No one is spared,” Corinne Fleischer, WFP Regional Director said.

For example, the cost of basic food for a family in Lebanon registered an annual increase of 351%, the highest in the region, followed by Syria with a near 100% rise, and Yemen at 81%. These three countries are incredibly reliant on food imports and prone to currency depreciation. A devastating drought has reduced Syria’s annual wheat production, while Ukraine’s grain exports have ceased.

WFP’s warning reminds us of everyone’s favorite permabear, SocGen’s Albert Edwards, opined two years ago about future agricultural price shocks and how it could spark another Arab Spring.

Russia and Ukraine export about a quarter of the global wheat trade, about a fifth of corn, and 12% of all calories traded globally. With trading disrupted in both countries, soaring prices and shortages are beginning to impact Middle Eastern and North African countries.

Bloomberg data shows the most reliant countries on Ukraine wheat are Egypt, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Turkey. These countries are also the most prone to social unrest.

If the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization is correct, food prices could jump another 20%, further pressuring emerging market households.

WFP’s warning that millions of families in the countries noted above are at “breaking points” because of rapid food inflation may suggest Edward’s Arab Spring 2.0 could be nearing.

end

FERTILIZER

Prices out of control. USA farmers are ditching corn for soy to save on costs

(zerohedge)

“Fertilizer Is Out Of Control” – US Farmers Ditch Corn For Soy To Save On Costs

FRIDAY, APR 01, 2022 – 05:45 AM

Fertilizer prices are at record highs following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine puts massive pressure on American farmers to transition to crops that need less fertilizer.

A Bloomberg survey found that farmers will plant 2 million more acres of soybeans and about 2 million fewer of corn. That’s because soybeans require very little fertilizer versus corn.

Farmer Tim Gregerson of Omaha, Nebraska, said he’ll plant more soybeans this year because “fertilizer is out of control.” He said fertilizer prices spiked even before the Russian invasion, and it was then he decided to reduce the corn-to-soy ratio to about 50-50 this upcoming growing season.

On top of soaring fertilizer prices, he told Bloomberg, diesel, tractors, machine parts, feed for livestock, herbicide, and seed costs, and just about everything to do with farming are astronomically higher this year.

Farmer John Gilbert near Iowa Falls, Iowa, said his decision was made in January when fertilizer prices spiked.

A gauge of prices for US Gulf Coast Urea, US Cornbelt Potash, and NOLA Barge DAP, called the Green Markets North American Fertilizer Price Index, is up 43% since the Russian invasion and up 233% to $1,270 per ton since the start of the 2021 growing season.

The rising cost of natural gas, the primary input for most nitrogen fertilizer, has been one reason for rising fertilizer prices. Also, global supplies are expected to tighten as Russia will limit fertilizer exports to ‘unfriendly‘ countries. Russia is one of the biggest exporters globally — the US just so happens to be a large importer of nitrogen and potash from Russia.

Gregerson said due to global disruptions, “getting fertilizer is going to be more and more of a problem for the world in general.” In return, farmers will transition to crops that use less fertilizer — and it will be done globally.

In central Illinois, farmer Kenneth Hartman said he might not get much income off the soybeans but won’t have the expenses of planting corn.

Hartman also said high costs to plant corn is still a gamble because there’s still an environmental factor the crop year could be poor.

Increasing fertilizer prices could convince more farmers to plant more soy and less corn. If so, this would be the first time since 1983.

end

6.CRYPTOCURRENCIES

7. GOLD/ TRADING TODAY

Your early currency/gold and silver pricing/Asian and European bourse movements/ and interest rate settings FRIDAY morning 7:30 AM

ONSHORE YUAN: CLOSED DOWN 6.3619

OFFSHORE YUAN: 6.3657

HANG SANG CLOSED DOWN 42.70 PTS OR 0.19%

2. Nikkei closed DOWN 155.45PTS OR 0.56%

3. Europe stocks ALL GREEN

USA dollar INDEX UP TO 98.49/Euro FALLS TO 1.1049

3b Japan 10 YR bond yield: FALLS TO. +.216/ !!!!(Japan buying 100% of bond issuance)/Japanese yen vs usa cross now at 122.48/ THIS IS TROUBLESOME AS BANK OF JAPAN IS RUNNING OUT OF BONDS TO BUY./JAPAN 10 YR YIELD IS NOW TARGETED AT .11%/JAPAN LOSING CONTROL OF THEIR BOND MARKET//

3c Nikkei now ABOVE 17,000

3d USA/Yen rate now well below the important 120 barrier this morning

3e WTI:: 98.60 and Brent: 103.40

3f Gold DOWN /JAPANESE Yen DOWN CHINESE YUAN: DOWN -SHORE CLOSED DOWN// OFF- SHORE DOWN

3g Japan is to buy the equivalent of 108 billion uSA dollars worth of bond per month or $1.3 trillion. Japan’s GDP equals 5 trillion usa./“HELICOPTER MONEY” OFF THE TABLE FOR NOW /REVERSE OPERATION TWIST ON THE BONDS: PURCHASE OF LONG BONDS AND SELLING THE SHORT END

Japan to buy 100% of all new Japanese debt and by 2018 they will have 25% of all Japanese debt. Fifty percent of Japanese budget financed with debt.

3h Oil DOWN for WTI and DOWN FOR Brent this morning

3i European bond buying continues to push yields lower on all fronts in the EMU. German 10yr bund RISES TO +.0.573%/Italian 10 Yr bond yield RISES to 2.11% /SPAIN 10 YR BOND YIELD RISES TO 1.49%…ITALIAN 10 YR BOND YIELD/GERMAN BUND: 1.54: DANGEROUS FOR THE ITALIAN BANKING SYSTEM

3j Greek 10 year bond yield FALLS TO : 2.66

3k Gold at $1926.30 silver at: 24.51 7 am est) SILVER NEXT RESISTANCE LEVEL AT $30.00

3l USA vs Russian rouble;// Russian rouble DOWN 1 3/4 in roubles/dollar; ROUBLE AT 83.52

3m oil into the 98 dollar handle for WTI and 103 handle for Brent/

3n Higher foreign deposits out of China sees huge risk of outflows and a currency depreciation. This can spell financial disaster for the rest of the world/

JAPAN ON JAN 29.2016 INITIATES NIRP. THIS MORNING THEY SIGNAL THEY MAY END NIRP. TODAY THE USA/YEN TRADES TO 122.48 DESTROYING JAPANESE CITIZENS WITH HIGHER FOOD INFLATION

30 SNB (Swiss National Bank) still intervening again in the markets driving down the FRANC. It is not working: USA/SF this morning .9246– as the Swiss Franc is still rising against most currencies. Euro vs SF 1.0216 well above the floor set by the Swiss Finance Minister. Thomas Jordan, chief of the Swiss National Bank continues to purchase euros trying to lower value of the Swiss Franc.

USA 10 YR BOND YIELD: 2.401 UP 6 BASIS PTS

USA 30 YR BOND YIELD: 2.503 UP 5 BASIS PTS

USA DOLLAR VS TURKISH LIRA: 14.69

Futures Grind Higher To Start New Quarter With All Eyes On Payrolls

FRIDAY, APR 01, 2022 – 08:06 AM

Following yesterday’s furious quarter-end puke, which saw the S&P tumble 50 points in the last hour of trading as a massive $10 billion Market on Close sell imbalance sparked a liquidation frenzy, U.S. index futures started off the new quarter on the right foot, rising as investors weighed a drop in oil prices sparked by Biden’s unprecedented pre-midterm election draining of the petroleum reserve, ongoing developments in the Ukraine war and tightening monetary policy ahead of ISM and payrolls data. S&P500 and Nasdaq 100 futures gained around 0.5% before March payrolls figures later on Friday, after U.S. stocks ended their worst quarter since the start of the pandemic. Europe’s Stoxx 600 gained after its worst quarter since the pandemic bear market. Oil reversed an earlier decline as euro-area inflation accelerated to another all-time high and Russia’s Gazprom PJSC started telling clients how to pay for gas in rubles. Treasury yields rose and the dollar was steady as traders await the jobs report, which unless it is a total disaster, will strengthen the case for a 50bps rate hike in May. U.S. data on Friday include nonfarm payroll and ISM data while no major company is expected to report earnings.

U.S.-listed Chinese stocks jumped in premarket trading after Bloomberg News reported that Chinese authorities are preparing to give U.S. regulators full access to auditing reports of the majority of the 200-plus companies listed in New York. Alibaba shares rose 5.8% in premarket trading; E-commerce peers JD.com up 4% and Pinduoduo up 7.9%. Didi Global was among the top gainers, rising more than 18%, following a 15% drop Thursday. Meanwhile, shares of Lulu’s Fashion Lounge Holdings Inc. rose 27% in U.S. premarket after better-than-expected fourth-quarter and full-year guidance. Here are some other notable premarket movers:

Chicken Soup For The Soul Entertainment (CSSE US) shares rise 21% in U.S. premarket, rebounding from yesterday’s losses, after Guggenheim’s Michael Morris (buy) said the company posted a “solid” 4Q performance, with sales modestly below his estimates but adjusted Ebitda slightly better.
GameStop (GME US) shares rose 15% in premarket trading and were on course to open at the highest level this year after the video-game retailer announced plans for a stock split, fueling a rally in fellow so-called meme stocks.
Redwire (RDW US) slumps 22% in U.S. premarket trading after the space infrastructure company reported 2021 results, with Jefferies saying that while the firm’s outlook was encouraging, it was disappointing versus prior expectations.

Meanwhile, the curve between two-year and 10-year Treasuries yields is flipping between positive and negative, signaling that the countdown to the next recession has begun (see “The Yield Curve Inverts: What Happens Next“).

“The market, like the Fed, has no idea how much tightening is necessary to stop a wage inflation spiral, but by upping the ante on the market with a series of 50bp rate hikes this year and a higher terminal rate, it can regain the control of the narrative and market expectations,” said Sebastien Galy, senior macro strategist at Nordea.

Investors begin a new quarter wondering if the fighting in Ukraine, the isolation of Russia and the Fed’s increasingly hawkish turn will engender still more volatility and losses for stocks and bonds. Raw materials are the only key asset class to deliver major gains so far in 2022.

Meanwhile, in Ukraine, talks between Ukraine and Russia resumed Friday via video link, following meetings earlier in the week in Turkey. Russia said two Ukrainian military helicopters made a rare strike across the border, hitting an oil tank facility in the city of Belgorod. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Moscow is preparing a response to Ukraine’s proposals on ending hostilities; Lavrov also said Russia is preparing a response to Ukraine’s proposals, says there has been movement forward; he also added that Russia has seen “much more understanding” of the situation in Crimea and Donbass from the Ukrainian side. Lavrov says peace talks with Ukraine need to continue. UK reportedly urged Ukraine not to back down and is concerned US, France and Germany will push Ukraine to “settle” and make significant concessions to Russia, according to The Times citing a government source. Mayor of Ukraine’s Mariupol says Russian forces are not allowing humanitarian aid in; City is dangerous to try and exit.

European equities also drifted higher after a slow start. Euro Stoxx 50 rises 0.7%. IBEX outperforms, adding 0.9%, FTSE 100 lags. Retailers, banks and miners are the strongest performing sectors. Euro-zone inflation accelerated to another all-time high as Russia’s invasion roiled global supply chains and provided a fresh driver for already-soaring energy costs. Euro-zone March consumer prices surged 7.5% from a year ago, up from 5.9% in February and far higher than the 6.7% median estimate in a Bloomberg survey.

The Stoxx Europe 600 Index however, was on the rise, led by retail and banking stocks. Here are some of the biggest European movers today:

Santander shares rise as much as 3.2% after reiterating its financial targets for the year and saying its business remained resilient in the first quarter. The statement provides reassurance of recent trends, Barclays writes.
Vestas Wind Systems gains as much as 5.4% after announcing orders totaling 2,179 MW in 1Q, with Handelsbanken saying the order intake is “promising” and well-above estimates.
Bridgepoint Group jumps as much as 7.8% after the private-equity firm was upgraded to buy from neutral at Citi following a drop in the shares since the broker’s initiation in August 2021.
Assicurazioni Generali rises as much as 3.8%, climbing for a third session, amid speculation the Italian insurer may get involved in industry M&A going forward.
Greggs gains as much as 2.9% after Berenberg reiterates its buy recommendation, saying there is a “rare opportunity” to invest in the U.K. bakery chain at a “reasonable multiple.”
Yara climbs as much as 1.8% after the company said it pre-ordered 15 floating bunkering terminals from Azane Fuel Solutions to establish a carbon-free ammonia fuel bunker network in Scandinavia.
Stratec rises as much as 21% after a Bloomberg report that EQT and KKR are among several private equity firms weighing bids for the German health-care technology provider.
Energiekontor jumps as much as 6.8%, extending its record high, after Warburg raised its price target to a Street- high, saying there is an “appetite for more” following Thursday’s FY results.
Sodexo shares fall as much as 10% after the French caterer said the environment “remains uncertain” due to intermittent local outbreaks of Covid-19 and the war in Ukraine.

Russian stocks gained for a third day, the longest winning streak since trading resumed on March 24. Talks between Ukraine and Russia will resume Friday via video link, following meetings earlier in the week in Turkey. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Moscow is preparing a response to Ukraine’s proposals on ending hostilities.

The manufacturing resurgence in Europe and Asia softened in March as factories saw worsening supply shortages and soaring costs after Russia’s invasion. Friday’s data follow inflation overshoots this week from Spain and Germany that prompted investors to bring forward bets on when the European Central Bank will end almost eight years of negative interest rates.

Earlier in the session, Asian stock retreated for a second day amid concerns about the extent the war in Ukraine will hurt global growth and as Chinese tech shares extended a selloff. The MSCI Asia-Pacific Index slid as much as 1.1% before paring about two-thirds of that loss. The benchmark still remained on pace to finish the week up 0.3%, extending its winning streak to a third week. Tech shares including Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing and Alibaba were major drags on Friday as traders assessed economic data and continued to eye possible U.S. delistings of Chinese firms. Equities in Japan underperformed the region while China’s consumer shares boosted the mainland benchmark. Investors are watching the impact of soaring inflation and higher interest rates on global growth as the war in Europe continues. Asia’s manufacturing resurgence softened in March as factories saw worsening supply shortages and surging costs after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Data on Friday showed Japan’s business mood weakened while South Korean imports jumped on rising costs. Also on investors’ radars are the trading halts of dozens of firms in Hong Kong from today after they missed a deadline to report annual results, increasing uncertainty in the market. “We are in the middle of a war between two globally vital suppliers of energy and food,” said Justin Tang, the head of Asian research at United First Partners. “The ramifications are plenty and as long as there is no cease fire, we will continue to experience ebbs and flows in volatility.” Asian stocks finished their worst quarter since early 2020 on Thursday with a drop of nearly 7%. Still, the measure has bounced back from the quarter-low touched in mid-March.

Sri Lanka’s stock market stopped trading on Friday and the rupee extended its loss after protests against surging living costs and daily power cuts amid dwindling foreign-exchange reserves. Trading in 33 Hong Kong-listed stocks was halted after a number of firms missed a deadline to report annual results

Japanese stocks fell in Tokyo fell for a third day after U.S. peers declined and the Tankan survey showed a gloomier view of business conditions among Japan’s biggest manufacturers. The yen slipped 0.5% against the dollar during the trading day, helping stocks trim earlier losses. Still, both major gauges capped their first weekly losses in three, shedding more than 1.7% each since March 25. Electronics and auto makers were the biggest drags as the Topix fell 0.1% Friday, paring an earlier slide of as much as 1.3%. Tokyo Electron and Fast Retailing were the largest contributors to a 0.6% loss in the Nikkei 225. The Tankan index of sentiment dropped to 14 from a revised 17 in the previous quarter, the first deterioration since June 2020, according to the central bank’s quarterly report Friday. The business mood among large non-manufacturers slipped to 9 from a revised 10 in the December report

India’s benchmark stocks index completed its third weekly gain in four weeks, as local buying helped steady war-induced volatility in equities. The S&P BSE Sensex rose 1.2% to 59,276.69 in Mumbai, taking it weekly advance to 3.3%. The key gauge completed its best monthly climb since August in the previous session. The NSE Nifty 50 Index rose 1.2% to 17,670.45 on Friday. HDFC Bank Ltd. surged 2.4% to its highest in more than a month and was the biggest boost to the Sensex, which saw 25 of the 30 shares trading higher. All 19 sectoral sub-indexes compiled by BSE Ltd. rose, led by a measure of utilities. Funds in India bought $5.2 billion worth of shares in March, while foreign investors extended their selling to a sixth consecutive month. The new fiscal year and quarter have started with concerns about the war in Ukraine, a hawkish U.S. Federal Reserve and the impact of higher commodity costs on company earnings. “We expect FY23 to witness continued volatility in equity markets, especially in the first half of the year with rising interest rates globally and high inflation, which is expected to persist,” Nishit Master, portfolio manager at Axis Securities Ltd., wrote in a note. The brokerage expects the Nifty index to rise to 20,200 by year-end and is positive on metals, hospitals, oil refining and capital goods.

In FX, the Bloomberg Dollar index inched up as the greenback traded mixed against its Group-of-10 peers; commodity currencies and the Swedish krona led gains while the yen was the worst performer. The euro fell and European bonds came off lows after euro-zone March consumer prices surged 7.5% from a year ago, up from 5.9% in February and more than the 6.7% median estimate in a Bloomberg survey. The pound consolidated against the euro, after rebounding from its weakest level since December on Thursday; the yen slid for the first time in four days. Japanese government bond yield curve resumed its steepening even as the Bank of Japan raised the amounts it plans to buy through regular market operations this quarter. Australia’s yield curve bear flattened, following a similar move in Treasuries. New Zealand dollar weakened; a gauge of consumer confidence dropped to an all-time low last month, according to ANZ data.

In rates, Treasuries dropped across the curve Friday as investors positioned before U.S. jobs data forecast to show average hourly earnings accelerated in March, backing the case for a faster pace of Federal Reserve interest-rate hikes. Treasury futures traded off session lows in early U.S. trading, although yields remain cheaper by 4bp to 7bp across the curve after Thursday’s late month-end selling was extended in early Asia. Fixed income weakness is Treasuries centric, with both bunds and gilts outperforming on the day. 10-year yields trade around 2.40% after peaking at 2.437% in early European session – bunds and gilts outperform by 4bp and 2bp in the sector. Long-end led losses steepens 5s30s spread by 1.4bp and 2s10s by 2bp on the day; March jobs report is due at 8:30am with headline change in payrolls expected at 490k vs. 678k prior — whisper number is higher than estimate at 529k. In Europe, the German curve bear steepened, cheapening up 2-3bps across the back end but broadly brushing off a hot Eurozone inflation print . Peripheral spreads mostly widen to core with long end Spain underperforming. Cash USTs maintain Asia’s bear flatten bias ahead of today’s payrolls release; the belly cheaper by ~6bps.

In commodities, crude futures recoup Asia’s weakness. WTI returns to little changed, regaining a $100-handle after a brief dip in late Asia. Base metals are mixed; LME zinc rises 1.4%, outperforming peers. LME copper lags. Spot gold falls roughly $2 to trade near $1,935/oz.

The US will also have the March ISM manufacturing reading, while global manufacturing PMIs are due. Otherwise, central bank speakers include the ECB’s Centeno, De Cos, Makhlouf, Schnabel and Knot, as well as the Fed’s Evans.

Market Snapshot

S&P 500 futures up 0.4% to 4,548.50
STOXX Europe 600 up 0.3% to 457.37
MXAP down 0.4% to 179.71
MXAPJ little changed at 590.96
Nikkei down 0.6% to 27,665.98
Topix down 0.1% to 1,944.27
Hang Seng Index up 0.2% to 22,039.55
Shanghai Composite up 0.9% to 3,282.72
Sensex up 0.7% to 58,980.92
Australia S&P/ASX 200 little changed at 7,493.80
Kospi down 0.6% to 2,739.85
German 10Y yield little changed at 0.58%
Euro little changed at $1.1065
Brent Futures down 1.0% to $103.69/bbl
Gold spot down 0.3% to $1,931.84
U.S. Dollar Index up 0.16% to 98.47

Top Overnight News from Bloomberg

China’s factory activity fell to its worst level since the pandemic’s onset two years ago and a housing slump showed no sign of easing, darkening the outlook for the world’s second- largest economy
Bundesbank President Joachim Nagel urged the European Central Bank to respond to quickly accelerating price pressures.
Australia named Michele Bullock as the Reserve Bank’s first female deputy governor, propelling her to the front of the queue to succeed Philip Lowe in the top job
At the U.S. Commerce Department, Secretary Gina Raimondo’s teams are working on ways to further undermine Putin’s ability to wage war
For all the hardships visited on consumers at home and the financial chokehold put on the government from abroad, Bloomberg Economics expects Russia will earn nearly $321 billion from energy exports this year, an increase of more than a third from 2021.
Iron ore futures in Asia gained with investors anticipating a strong recovery following the lifting of virus-related restrictions, even as news of Chinese housing giants missing earnings-report deadlines emerged
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s government signed off on the reappointment of one of the Bank of Japan’s key policy architects in a move that suggests the central bank is looking for policy continuity after Governor Haruhiko Kuroda steps down next April

A more detailed look at global markets courtesy of Newsquawk:

Asia-Pac stocks were cautious following the uninspiring lead from Wall St, where the major indices closed off their worst quarterly performance in two years and as the region digested weak data releases. ASX 200 traded rangebound as pressure from losses in tech, industrials and financials was counterbalanced by resilience in the commodity-related sectors and upgrade to Australian PMI data. Nikkei 225 was subdued after mixed Tankan data in which the headline Large Manufacturing Index topped estimates, but Large Manufacturers and Non-Manufacturers’ sentiment worsened for the first time in 7 quarters. Hang Seng and were mixed with sentiment clouded after the PBoC drained liquidity andShanghai Comp. Chinese Caixin Manufacturing PMI slipped into contraction territory, although the mainland recovered amid the partial lifting of the lockdown in Shanghai and as Chinese press continued to advocate monetary easing

Top Asian News

Shanghai Shifts Lockdown; Singapore Border: Virus Update
Quarantine Eased for Hong Kong Flight Crew in Boost for Cathay
China Chipmaker’s Buyer Said to Miss $9 Billion Payment Deadline
Kasikornbank Said to Weigh Sale of $2 Billion Asset Manager Unit

European equities (Stoxx 600 +0.6%) opened marginally firmer before extending on gains after positive commentary from Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov. The Stoxx 600 set to close the week out with marginal gains of around 0.6% in what has been a choppy week for indices. Sectors in Europe are higher across the board with Retail, Banks and Autos top of the leaderboard.

Top European News

London IPO Market Hasn’t Been This Bad in More Than a Decade
Tiber Crossing Left in Limbo After War Sends Steel Surging
Global Manufacturing Rebound Falters as War Takes Its Toll
EU to Warn China It Will Hurt Global Role by Helping Russia

In FX, the Yen has relented as yields rebound and repatriation demand dries up – Usd/Jpy bounced further from recent lows beyond near term resistance through to circa 122.75. Greenback has regrouped in advance of NFP with the DXY straddling 98.500. Aussie outperforms as risk appetite picks up and 0.7500 continues to prove pivotal. Euro finds a base after marked month end reversal as hot inflation offset lukewarm manufacturing PMIs – Eur/USD holding around 1.1050 after soaking up stops on a minor and brief half round number break.Yuan weaker after sub-50 Caixin Chinese manufacturing print, softer PBoC Cny midpoint fix and 7-day liquidity drain – USDCNH above 6.3650.

In commodities, WTI (+0.6%) and Brent (+0.8%) kicked the session off on the backfoot following yesterday’s SPR announcement by the Biden administration with WTI breaching it’s weekly low printed on Tuesday at USD 98.44 with Brent so far unable to take out its weekly low of USD 102.19. Since then, crude benchmarks have attempted to claw back lost ground and sit in minor positive territory. White House Press Secretary Psaki said a gas tax holiday is not off the table, according to Reuters. US House Majority Leader Hoyer said oil companies should either produce on leases and drill wells or pay a fee for unused leases and idled wells, according to EIN News. Russian oil and gas condensate production slipped to 11.01mln BPD in March vs. 11.08mln BPD in February, according to Reuters sources Gazprom says refilling storage ahead of winter will be a challenge for the EU. Gazprom says it has begun sending requests of gas-for-rouble payment switch to clients today; sats it remains a responsible partner and continues to secure gas supplies

US Event Calendar

08:30: March Change in Nonfarm Payrolls, est. 490,000, prior 678,000
- Change in Private Payrolls, est. 495,000, prior 654,000
- Change in Manufact. Payrolls, est. 32,000, prior 36,000
- March Unemployment Rate, est. 3.7%, prior 3.8%
- Underemployment Rate, prior 7.2%
- Labor Force Participation Rate, est. 62.4%, prior 62.3%
- Average Hourly Earnings YoY, est. 5.5%, prior 5.1%; MoM, est. 0.4%, prior 0%
- Average Weekly Hours All Emplo, est. 34.7, prior 34.7
09:45: March S&P Global US Manufacturing PM, est. 58.5, prior 58.5
10:00: March ISM Employment, est. 53.1, prior 52.9
- ISM Prices Paid, est. 80.0, prior 75.6
- ISM New Orders, est. 58.5, prior 61.7
- ISM Manufacturing, est. 59.0, prior 58.6
10:00: Feb. Construction Spending MoM, est. 1.0%, prior 1.3%

DB’s Jim Reid concludes the overnight wrap

Filling in while Jim is on holiday, my quick scan for sports-related injuries for this introduction yielded nothing. Meanwhile, a scan of quarter end markets showed sovereign bonds again yielding less than nothing, as 2yr bund yields (-7.8bps) fell back below 0 to -0.09% while the 2s10s Treasury curve closed below zero for the first time since 2019. Yields farther out the curve followed oil and transatlantic equity prices lower as well. No rest for the weary, though, as today’s US employment data kickstarts the new quarter.

Before diving into markets, a couple of research plugs.

*** Jim’s latest chartbook, “The yield curve inverts … what happens next?”, is out. We looked at all things inversion, including recession risks, asset price performance, the Fed’s viewpoint, our economists’ latest recession models and also how yield curve inversions have been explained away in previous cycles. You can take a look here ***

Staying in advertising mode, with Q2 starting, we will publish our Q1 performance review shortly. Q1 was a dramatic time in financial markets, with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, accelerating inflation, the Fed hiking rates, and the yield curve closing the quarter inverted. As a result, it was a pretty bad month for most assets, with losses across equities, credit, and sovereign bonds. The big exception were commodities as energy, metals and agricultural goods realized large gains. See the full report out shortly for more.

Turning back to yesterday’s markets, Brent and WTI crude futures fell -4.88% and -6.99%, respectively, following the US’s plan to release 1m barrels per day from its Strategic Petroleum Reserve for the next six months to combat eye-watering energy prices, the largest such SPR release on record. In an address to the nation, President Biden also announced measures to pressure domestic producers to increase their supply to the market along with easing regulations that currently restrict oil transport between American ports to American vessels. The President will also invoke the Defense Production Act to compel manufactures to prioritize the production of minerals used for large capacity batteries.

While the UK is considering whether to join the reserve-releasing effort, OPEC+ production will be steady as she goes, with the cartel ratifying the plan to increase production only gradually by 432k barrels a day, in line with expectations. Even without a material increase in OPEC+ production, reports overnight that the US was strategically aligned with allies on Iran inched us closer to a nuclear deal that would open up Iranian supply. Crude oil futures are down a further -3.23% as we go to press this morning. The debate about Russian natural gas invoicing appeared to reach a denouement yesterday; European importers will be able to pay for Russian supply in euros and dollars as contracts specify, with the conversion to rubles happening internally within Russia. Nevertheless, European natural gas gained +5.83%.

On the war, more reports joined the chorus signalling that Russian troops were indeed retreating from certain theatres, including various cities, airports, and the Chernobyl nuclear facility. While positive, the consensus is the locus of the war is moving to the east, rather than ending. Negotiations between Ukraine and Russia are set to resume today.

Foreshadowed in the lede, European sovereign yields staged a large rally to end the quarter. 10yr bunds, OATs, and BTPs all rallied more than -9bps, led by falling inflation compensation on the drawdown in oil prices; 10yr breakevens across Germany, France, and Italy, narrowed -7.0bps, -8.1bps, and -6.5bps, respectively. The rallies weren’t confined to the long-end, as -6.8bps of expected ECB rate hikes through 2022 were priced out as well.

It was smoother sailing for Treasury yields after a stormy quarter, but 2s10s nevertheless managed to dip below zero to close the quarter after briefly testing the waters earlier this week. 2yr yields climbed +2.8bps while 10yr yields dropped anchor, falling -1.1bps, leaving 2s10s at -0.06bps. As was the case earlier this week, the curve re-steepened after the initial inversion plunge, trading at +1.2bps this morning.

Stocks retreated on both sides of the Atlantic, with the STOXX 600 and S&P 500 falling -0.94% and -1.57%, cementing the first negative quarterly return for both indices since the original Covid onslaught in Q1 2020. STOXX 600 utilities (+0.37%) were the only sector in the green across both indices, with cyclical stocks the largest underperformers. The retreat was likely exacerbated by quarter end, which served to push the VIX (+1.23ppts) back above 20 for the first time this week.

Major Asian bourses are trading on the downbeat with tech stocks among the worst performers. Losses in the region are led by the Hang Seng (-0.72%), extending its previous session losses, with Chinese tech stocks listed in Hong Kong plunging. The Nikkei (-0.42%) is lagging after the BOJ’s quarterly Tankan business sentiment survey revealed that sentiment at Japan’s large manufacturers soured in the first three months of 2022. Chinese Caixin services PMI dropped to 48.1 in March, the steepest rate of contraction since February 2020. The deterioration was mainly triggered by the domestic Covid-19 resurgence. Despite the underwhelming data, Chinese stocks are outperforming the region, with the Shanghai Composite up +0.69%.

Outside of Asia, stock futures in the US are pointing to a positive start, with contracts on the S&P 500 (+0.25%), Nasdaq (+0.26%) and Dow Jones (+0.25%) all trading higher.

In data, US PCE increased 0.4%, month-over-month, in line with expectations, while the year-over-year measure moved to fresh four-decade high of 5.4%. The Chicago PMI printed at 67.9 vs. expectations of 57.0, while weekly initial jobless claims ticked up to a still low 202k vs. expectations of 196k. German unemployment fell by -18k in March (vs. -20k expected), which is the smallest monthly decline since last April. In turn, the unemployment rate remained at 5.0%, in line with expectations.

To the day ahead, Q2 kicks off with the March US employment situation report in the New York morning. Strong January and February data coincided with upside surprises and revisions to payrolls data, lending credence to the Fed’s position that the labor market is ready to withstand much tighter monetary policy, if not beckons it. Our US economists expect nonfarm payrolls to increase by +400k, bringing the unemployment rate to a post-pandemic low of 3.7%.

The Euro Area flash CPI will be the other main data, due at 10 am London, and is expected to show inflation rise to a fresh record since the single currency’s formation. After the massive upside surprises from Germany and Spain’s releases on Wednesday, yesterday brought another above-consensus print from France, where inflation rose to +5.1% on the EU-harmonised measure (vs. +4.9% expected). Meanwhile, Italy was the only one of the 4 biggest Euro Area countries not to see an upside surprise, but the +7.0% print (vs. +7.2% expected) nevertheless marked a gain over February’s +6.2% release.

3. ASIAN AFFAIRS

i)FRIDAY MORNING// THURSDAY NIGHT

SHANGHAI CLOSED UP 30.51 PTS OR 0.84% //Hang Sang CLOSED UP 42.79 PTS OR 0.19 % /The Nikkei closed DOWN 155.45 PTS OR 0.56% //Australia’s all ordinaires CLOSED DOWN 0.05% /Chinese yuan (ONSHORE) closed DOWN 6.3619 /Oil UP TO 98.60 dollars per barrel for WTI and DOWN TO 103.40 for Brent. Stocks in Europe OPENED ALL GREEN // ONSHORE YUAN CLOSED DOWN AGAINST THE DOLLAR AT 6.3619 OFFSHORE YUAN CLOSED DOWN ON THE DOLLAR AT 6.3657: /ONSHORE YUAN TRADING ABOVE LEVEL OF OFFSHORE YUAN/ONSHORE YUAN TRADING WEAKER AGAINST US DOLLAR/OFFSHORE WEAKER//

3 a./NORTH KOREA/ SOUTH KOREA

///NORTH KOREA

END

3B JAPAN

end

3c CHINA

CHINA/

PBOC is set to raise billions rising to bail out Chinese banks due to the collapse of Evergrande

(zerohedge)

PBOC Raises Billions To Bail Out Chinese Banks As Property Sector Teeters On Brink Of Collapse

THURSDAY, MAR 31, 2022 – 05:20 PM

Earlier this month, Evergrande, China’s perennially troubled real-estate developer, announced that foreign lenders had seized more than $2 billion in deposits belonging to one of its subsidiaries in an effort to recoup money owed by the firm. Holders of the company’s bonds (which had been in default for weeks) were apoplectic, and the whole incident has once again laid bare the rot at the core of China’s property sector (even as Evergrande promised to swiftly produce an emergency debt-restructuring plan, something that was seen as a band-aid on a bullet wound).

With the country’s property sector teetering on the precipice (keep in mind, a collapse could have global repercussions on par with the Great Financial Crisis, as we have pointed out in the past)…

…The CCP leadership has reportedly devised a plan to raise hundreds of billions of yuan for a new fund to backstop the country’s troubled financial firms in an effort to create a buffer against a punishing property sector default.

Here’s more from Bloomberg:

The People’s Bank of China is leading the effort, seeking to shore up confidence in the $60 trillion financial system as the economy slows and a debt crisis in the property industry spreads. The stability fund would dwarf other pools available to bail out troubled institutions and their depositors.

China’s banks have been struggling with mounting bad loans for years (of course, the true extent of the threat is masked by the expansive shadow credit system in China, which relies on debt issued by local authorities that isn’t entirely reflected in national figures). But ratings agencies have stepped up their warnings, despite the government’s best efforts to keep the true extent of the problem under wraps.

Source: Bloomberg

The latest hint at the dire situation in Chinese credit arrived yesterday, with the release of the latest Beige Book data out of China. As Bloomberg pointed out, the survey – which showed a drop in loan demand due to sky-high borrowing costs – paints “a grimmer picture of credit demand in the corporate sector than the slowdown reflected in the official data.” It’s the latest sign that the PBOC’s efforts to cut rates and encourage refinancing at more favorable rates has reached its limits.

Source: Bloomberg

And as lockdowns in Shanghai and elsewhere threaten to derail China’s economy, it appears the CCP has accepted the fact that – as the old saying goes – desperate times call for desperate measures.

end

CHINA/SHANGHAI/COVID

Shanghai officials conceal COVID deaths at city nursing homes

(zerohedge)

Shanghai Officials Conceal COVID Deaths At City Nursing Homes Amid Punishing Lockdown

THURSDAY, MAR 31, 2022 – 07:20 PM

As local authorities in Shanghai prepare to start the second phase of the Shanghai lockdown, the western press has seized on reports that the death toll from the omicron-driven outbreak in China’s most populous city (and its financial capital) has been even larger than authorities have let on – the latest indication that the numbers being released by China’s public-health authorities have been sanitized, and that the true scope of the outbreak is even larger than believed.

An outbreak at a Shanghai home for the elderly has killed a handful of residents in recent days, deaths that haven’t been reflected in authorities’ official numbers, which haven’t reported any deaths in the hundreds of homes for the elderly in the city.

Citing a group of orderlies who had been sent to one of China’s quarantine facilities, WSJ reported that an unknown number of bodies had been removed from the facility, where at least 100 positive cases have been confirmed among its residents.

Of course, concealing deaths in the city’s nursing homes might strike a chord with Americans, who remember all too well former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s deliberate under-reporting of the number of deaths at nursing homes in the Empire State during the first months of the pandemic.

In Shanghai, one of the orderlies who spoke with WSJ said they were tasked with dressing the body of one dead patient, an order that made the orderly fear for their safety.

“I was scared to death. I said, ‘Look, look, those are for dead bodies,'” another orderly said, recalling the sight of half a dozen hearses parked at the hospital gate at night.

But the orderlies weren’t the only sources who spoke with WSJ (speaking with members of the foreign press is, of course, discouraged by the CCP, and these individuals spoke out at great personal risk). Separately, the son of a patient at the hospital said that his father had died within the past week, a friend of the son told the Journal, adding that others who had visited the hospital reported seeing the bodies of at least a dozen deceased patients.

More than half a dozen users on several of China’s major social-media platforms have also posted messages alleging unreported deaths at the hospital in recent days.

Another orderly told WSJ that a surprising number of providers and staffers at the facility had been infected.

“Orderlies, nurses and doctors, we’re all infected,” she said.

The facility, Shanghai Donghai, has been around for 20 years, and is run by a state-owned food conglomerate with 1,800 beds and an orthopedics ward that also treats younger patients. It’s the city’s biggest elder-care facility by capacity, and it reported zero COVID infections in 2021.

But why would local authorities want to hide the number of infections and deaths if they’re ordering lockdowns anyway?

Well, as Nikkei noted on Thursday, the reputations of prominent local bureaucrats are being threatened, so they’re doing anything they can to mask the severity of the situation to try and salvage their reputations. With the National Party Congress set for later this year, Li Qiang, the Communist Party secretary of Shanghai, is hoping to be elevated to the Politburo Standing Committee, China’s most powerful policy-setting body. He’s seen as one of President Xi’s closest allies, and before the lockdown, he had been expected to move to Beijing and become a vice premier in charge of the economy. Unfortunately for him, the lockdown looks to have disrupted such plans.

Now, those within the party who oppose President Xi’s power grab (the party’s paramount leader is expected to clinch a third term as leader during the party Congress this fall, making him the first leader since Chairman Mao to break the limit of two five-year terms) are hoping to use the situation in Shanghai to block Li’s promotion, depriving Xi of an important ally in the Politburo.

Reflecting the outpouring of public anger stoked by the Shanghai lockdown (as supplies of food and medicine have grown increasingly strained), one local official told ABC News that the city’s leadership failed to adequately prepare.

Ma Chunlei, a senior Shanghai official, acknowledged shortcomings in the city’s response. Authorities have rushed to bolster food deliveries to the city after panic buying stripped store shelves of necessities.
“We didn’t prepare sufficiently enough,” Ma said. “We sincerely accept the criticisms from the public and are making efforts to improve it.”

Meanwhile, city of Shanghai was preparing to reopen the eastern half of the city, and shut its western half, as the staggered 9-day lockdown continues. While Shanghai’s lockdown has slowed factory output (a byproduct of lockdowns across China), authorities have decided to lift a lockdown in Jilin Province (the epicenter of China’s worst outbreak since Wuhan). Starting tomorrow, locals will be able to move about freely, although they will be required to wear masks and, when indoors, stay 1 meter (3 feet) apart. Public gatherings in parks and squares are prohibited.

end

4/EUROPEAN AFFAIRS//UK AFFFAIRS

GERMANY

BASF, a giant in the chemical field warns of total collapse if Russian gas supply is cut

(zerohedge)

German Chemical Giant Warns Of “Total Collapse” If Russian Gas Supply Cut

THURSDAY, MAR 31, 2022 – 04:29 PM

CEO of Germany’s multinational BASF SE, the world’s largest chemical producer, has warned that curbing or cutting off energy imports from Russia would bring into doubt the continued existence of small and medium-sized energy companies, and further would likely spiral Germany into its most “catastrophic” economic crisis going back to the end of World War 2.

Company CEO Martin Brudermuller issued the words in an interview with Frankfurter Allgemeine newspaper just ahead of German officials by midweek giving an “early warning” to industries and the population of possible natural gas shortages, as Russia appears ready to firmly hold to Putin’s recent declaration that “unfriendly countries” must settle energy payments in rubles, related to the Ukraine crisis and resultant Western sanctions.

According to Bloomberg he mused that while “Germany could be independent from Russia gas in four to five years” it remains that “LNG imports cannot be increased quickly enough to replace all Russian gas flows in the short term.”CEO of BASF Martin Brudermüller, file image

But in the meantime, Brudermuller described that “It’s not enough that we all turn down the heating by 2 degrees now” given that “Russia covers 55 percent of German natural gas consumption.” He emphasized that if Russian gas disappeared overnight, “many things would collapse here” – given that “we would have high levels of unemployment, and many companies would go bankrupt. This would lead to irreversible damage.” He continued:

“To put it bluntly: This could bring the German economy into its worst crisis since the end of the Second World War and destroy our prosperity. For many small and medium-sized companies in particular, it could mean the end. We can’t risk that!”

The dire warning of coming disaster in the event Russian gas is shut off came in response being questioned over whether it’s at all possible to abandon Russian energy.

Asserting that this issue is not “black and white” – and that the German economy stands on the brink of catastrophe, the BASF CEO said that if this standoff continues to escalate it will “open the eyes of many on both sides”…

Below is the question posed by the newspaper, and Brudermuller’s response:

And what if, for example, Putin’s demand for payment in rubles leads to an immediate stop in gas supplies?
“A delivery stop for a short time would perhaps open the eyes of many – on both sides. It would make clear the magnitude of the consequences. But if we don’t get any more Russian gas for a long time, then we really have a problem here in Germany. At BASF, we would have to scale back or completely shut down production at our largest site in Ludwigshafen if the supply fell significantly and permanently below 50 percent of our maximum natural gas requirement. Minister Habeck has already activated the early warning level of the gas emergency plan.”

Separate sources estimate that at Ludwigshafen alone this scenario would immediately lead to some 40,000 employees being possibly laid off, or at least put on short-time working hours.

He warned further in the interview that many Germans are currently greatly underestimating the consequences of what Russia shutting off the taps would mean… nothing less than a historic crisis:

“Many have misconceptions. I notice that in many of the conversations I have. People often make no connection at all between a boycott and their own job. As if our economy and our prosperity were set in stone.”

He explained that higher prices are already having a huge impact on the food supply given at this point BASF has been forced to reduce the production of ammonia for fertilizer production.

Brudermuller called this “a catastrophe and we will feel it even more clearly next year than this one. Because most of the fertilizers that the farmers need this year have already been bought. In 2023 there will be a shortage, and then the poor countries in particular, for example in Africa, will no longer be able to afford to buy basic foodstuffs.” In a very alarming statement and forewarning, he added: “There is a risk of famine.”

END

GERMANY

Gas flows reverse as so far Germany has not decided to pay in roubles.

(zerohedge)

Gas Flows Via Russian Pipeline Reverse As Gazprom Instructs Clients How To Pay In Rubles

FRIDAY, APR 01, 2022 – 09:23 AM

As Russian President Vladimir Putin ratchets up the pressure on Germany and its EU compatriots to either agree to pay for Russian gas in rubles, or face a devastating shortfall, gas traveling through the Yamal-Europe pipeline has started traveling in reverse, flowing eastward from Germany to Poland.

According to Reuters, physical exit flows at the Mallnow metering point on the German border stood at 2,691,220 kwh/h, according to data from the Gascade pipeline operator.

That figure was slightly larger than the 1,451,155 kwh/h on Tuesday, before gas stopped flowing eastward.

The pipeline reversal comes as Russian gas giant Gazprom has started sending requests to customers to switch their payment currency to rubles. Notifications about the new payment order had been sent to customers on Friday, the Russian gas giant said in a statement on its official Telegram channel, per BBG.

As Bloomberg points out, various European nations and leaders have differing views on Moscow’s demands. While German Chancellor Olaf Scholz initially resisted the request, denouncing it as a breach of contract, French Ecology Minister Barbara Pompili said she doesn’t consider Moscow’s demands for payment in rubles as a violation, since companies would continue to be able to pay for gas in euros, according to the information received from Moscow. The German government said it is still pouring over the details before coming to a decision, while Denmark condemned the request. A senior energy official in Italy said Friday that if the bloc moved to meet Russia’s demands for payment in rubles, “not much would change”.

“Gazprom as a Russian company is unconditionally and fully compliant with Russian law,” which from April 1 stipulates only ruble payments for gas exported in the “unfriendly” states, the company said. “Gazprom is a responsible partner and continues to export gas to clients in a safe manner.”

Europe relies on Russia for roughly 40% of its gas needs, and despite Washington’s promise to try and wean the bloc off its dependence on Russian products, it’s widely believed that supplanting Russian supplies with exports from the West and Middle East (and elsewhere) would likely take years, if it happens at all (since, as we explained earlier this week, exporters might be reluctant to re-route supplies to Europe because of its long-term orientation toward ‘green’ energy).

What’s more, the US has already been hiking exports to Europe, raising questions about whether the additional 15 billion cubic meters that President Biden has promised to export to the EU this year is even possible.

To underscore the seriousness of the situation, the CEO of Germany’s multinational BASF SE, the world’s largest chemical producer, has warned that curbing or cutting off energy imports from Russia would likely send the Germany economy into its most “catastrophic” economic crisis going back to the end of World War 2.

END

GERMANY/MAJOR ESCALATION

In Major Escalation, Germany Approves Delivery Of Infantry Carrier ‘Tanks’ To Ukraine

FRIDAY, APR 01, 2022 – 11:25 AM

In a significant escalation that is sure to have huge impact not only on the prospect for direct Russia-NATO military confrontation but also Europe’s energy crisis and natural gas showdown with Moscow, Germany has approved “tanks” for Ukraine.

“Germany has approved the delivery of 56 combat tanks to Ukraine, a German defense ministry spokesperson told CNN Friday,” according to a breaking report. But more specifically these are in actuality ‘infantry fighting vehicles’ – and lighter than what CNN is referencing as conventional “combat tanks”.

The ministry described to CNN that “The tanks, which are type Pbv 501, stem from the Cold War-era East German army and had been sold to Sweden, then resold to the Czech Republic, who will deliver them to Ukraine.”

Final approval is expected to come pending review by the country’s Federal Security Council, as stipulated under the German War Weapons Control Act.

The 56 PbV-501 armored personnel carriers are expected to be equipped with cannons and machine guns. Reuters details the nature of the heavy armored vehicles as follows:

Germany has approved the delivery to Ukraine of several dozen infantry fighting vehicles (IFVs) that originally belonged to the former communist East Germany amid criticism that Berlin is not sending enough military aid to Kyiv.
Berlin has given the green light for 56 vehicles of the type PbV-501 to be passed on from a Czech company to Kyiv, a spokesman for the defense ministry said on Friday.

So Germany has gone in a little over a month from being ‘neutral’ on weapons for foreign conflict, refusing to allow even third parties from shipping German-produced weapons to Ukraine, to now shipping some serious heavy military machinery.

And even though these old east German troop carriers will do little to stand up to Russia’s actual tank units, Kiev is likely to seize on this as at least a start leading possibly to the transfer of more up-to-date combat tanks from the West capable of blunting Russian infantry.

In the UK fresh produce is set to vanish from supermarkets

(zerohedge)

UK Sleepwalking Into Food Crisis As Fresh Produce Set To Vanish From Supermarkets

FRIDAY, APR 01, 2022 – 02:45 AM

The National Farmers’ Union has warned the UK is sleepwalking into a food security crisis. Soaring energy and fertilizer costs have led to an unprecedented situation where growers’ margins have collapsed, forcing many to halt growing operations.

Reuters says because of the inclement weather in the UK. Farmers grow cumbers, plant peppers, aubergines, and tomatoes in vast greenhouses. Greenhouses use natural gas for heat, but after last year’s surge in gas prices exacerbated by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last month, the crops have become uneconomical to produce.

Trade body British Growers said the average cost to produce a cucumber in Britain before the energy crisis was around 25 pence, which is now more than doubled and set to hit 70 pence when higher energy prices fully kick in.

“Gas prices being so sky-high, it’s a worrying time,” grower Tony Montalbano said.

“All the years of us working hard to get to where we are, and then one year it could just all finish,” Montalbano said.

He noted his 30,000 square meters of glasshouses at Green Acre Salads business, which supplies major supermarkets such as Tesco, Sainsbury’s, and Morrisons, are shuttered because costs outpace market prices. In fact, the farmer would be losing money if he were to grow.

Compared with this time last year, European gas prices are up a mindboggling 500%.

Fertilizer prices have tripled since last year, along with soaring prices for packaging, diesel, freight, labor, and everything related to running a grow operation.

“We are now in an unprecedented situation where the cost increases have far outstripped a grower’s ability to do anything about them,” said Jack Ward, head of British Growers.

With many greenhouses offline, this will inevitably push down the output of produce for supermarkets and result in persistent and or even higher food inflation when overall inflation is at historic levels.

To give an idea of just how bad the situation is, the Valley Growers Association, whose members produce about 75% of Britain’s cucumber and sweet pepper crop, said 90% of farmers didn’t plant in January. Others said they would not grow with elevated gas prices.

“There’s definitely going to be a lack of British produce in the supermarkets,” association secretary Lee Stiles said. “Whether there’s a lack of produce overall depends on where and how far away the retailers are prepared to source it from.“

The UK could increase imports of produce, but countries worldwide are implementing protectionism measures to keep farm goods domestically to mitigate shortages due to the Ukraine conflict disrupting the global food supply.

Like many other countries worldwide, the UK is sleepwalking into a food crisis.

end

5. RUSSIAN AND MIDDLE EASTERN AFFAIRS

RUSSIA/UKRAINE/THE WEST

This will not help the peace talks, as Ukraine helicopters strikes a fuel depot on Russian territory

(zerohedge)

Ukrainian Forces Reportedly Blow Up Fuel Depot On Russian Territory In “Daring Cross-Border Attack”

FRIDAY, APR 01, 2022 – 07:00 AM

Ukraine forces pulled off a rare attack on Russian soil Friday when two military helicopters destroyed a fuel depot in the city of Belgorod, situated roughly 40 miles north of the border with Ukraine.

The attack was purportedly carried out by two Ukrainian helicopters that crossed into Ukrainian territory. Videos circulating online purported to show Ukrainian Air Force Mi-24 helicopters flying low over Belgorod just before the strike.

The strike will certainly create an interesting backdrop to talks between the Russian and Ukrainian negotiators, which are set to resume via video-conference on Friday.

Meanwhile, the UN said Friday that its relief convoys had failed to reach Mariupol, the southern port city devastated by weeks of shelling, after Russia said it had opened up a “humanitarian corridor” to allow the evacuation of civilians.

Video images of the purported attack posted online showed what looked like several missiles being fired from low altitude, followed by an explosion. Reuters has not yet been able to verify the images.

While Russian authorities have confirmed the attack, some Ukrainian defense analysts insisted that the strike may have been a “false flag” planned by Moscow to further turn the tide of public opinion in favor of the war (although at least one recently released independent poll showed that the majority of Russians have rallied around the flag in support of the war, per the NYT).

The Ukrainian Foreign Minister said early Friday morning that he “could not confirm nor deny” Ukrainian involvement in the strike.

He’s not the first Ukrainian official to neither “confirm nor deny” the attack.

Still, video of the strike has circulated on Western social media.

Given the number of videos of the attack circulating online, many believe some sort of attack did occur.

A WSJ reporter described it as “the most daring known Ukrainian cross-border attack” since the start of the conflict.

A fire at the facility was raging uncontrolled up until a few hours ago.

Here’s video of the fire from another angle.

Video taken later in the morning showed the fire had been almost extinguished.

Dmitry Peskov, the spokesman for President Vladimir Putin, said the strike wouldn’t help the cause of peace talks.

According to one media report, 8 tanks with fuel volume of 2,000 cubic meters each are burning. The Russian Defense Ministry hasn’t officially commented on the incident.

END

Talks resume as huge battles erupt near Kiev.

(zerohedge)

Talks Resume As “Huge” Battles Erupt Near Ukraine’s Capital; France Says “No Change” In Russia’s Aims

FRIDAY, APR 01, 2022 – 09:34 AM

On Friday Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Moscow is preparing a response to Ukraine’s prior proposals issued in Istanbul early this week on reaching a ceasefire, as the next round of dialogue is currently underway via remote link.

His statements were generally in a positive direction, saying that in light of Ukraine of late showing “more understanding” as to the Crimea and Donbas issues, Moscow stands ready to engage on Kiev’s proposals on neutral and non-nuclear status for the country, according to Bloomberg. However, France and the UK in particular, are urging the Ukrainians against compromise until Russian troops withdraw from the country.

Following days of outside speculation in the West over just how “constructive” toward a potential breakthrough the talks in Istanbul were, France – which has been closely involved in pushing a diplomatic resolution hard, particularly through repeat Macron-Putin phone calls – has weighed in pouring cold water on any optimism.

“I don’t see any signs indicating a real and long-term change in Russia’s position,” Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian told a French newspaper Thursday. “Even though its troops are moving slower than the Kremlin expected, I don’t currently see any significant retreat or a ceasefire,” Le Drian said.

“The so-called regime of silence that Russia announced for a few hours in Mariupol yesterday was clearly not enough,” he added, in reference to the announced humanitarian evacuation corridor opened Friday at French and German request. The city has been in Russian hands since early this week, but Ukrainian civilians still remain.

“Around 2,000 civilians are on evacuation buses heading from the coastal city of Berdyansk to the Ukrainian government-held city of Zaporizhzhia, carrying civilians evacuating from the besieged city of Mariupol,” CNN reports.

“The evacuation convoy left Berdyansk for Zaporizhzhia,” the city of Mariupol announced on Telegram via its council. “Many private vehicles have joined the 42 buses escorted by Red Cross and SES (State Emergency Service) vehicles. Today we expect the arrival of a record number of Mariupol residents.”

Le Drian also acknowledged that Kiev’s Western backers (France among them) are pushing hard for Ukraine’s negotiators to hold a tough line, even as it’s the Ukrainian people under the bombs:

“We have a very clear objective, to not give up anything and to intensify our efforts until a total ceasefire across the whole of Ukraine’s territory and real negotiations,” the French top diplomat said.

He further repeated by now familiar calls for Europe to boycott Russian hydrocarbons. “While we don’t all have the same dependence on Russian hydrocarbons, we will have the same interest in exiting them (in Europe),” he said.

Meanwhile on the battlefield, while there are reports of a significant Russian troop drawdown from the Chernihiv region, according to the local governor’s words Friday, even as large-scale fighting has reportedly erupted around the capital of Kiev – from which the Russians earlier vowed they would also withdraw.

As to Chernihiv in the north, the governor assessed…

Chaus said it was still too early for Ukrainian forces in the Chernihiv region to let their guard down as Russian troops “are still on our land”. Russia said on Tuesday it would scale down operations in the Chernihiv and Kiev regions.

And Bloomberg also observes:

Eleven villages in the southern Kherson region and several others in the Chernihiv region northeast of Kyiv have been returned to Ukrainian control, according to the military’s General Staff. Shelling of towns and villages along the contact line in the east continued overnight, with civilian casualties reported after nine apartment buildings and nine private houses were shelled.
The intensity of shelling declined in Chernihiv and Kharkiv, although a missile hit the center of Kharkiv Thursday night

But this same level of draw down doesn’t appear to have yet been initiated near the Ukrainian capital. The city’s mayor, Vitaliy Klitschko, has described there are “huge” battles underway north and east of Kiev, according to Reuters.

“The risk of dying [in Kyiv] is pretty high, and that]s why my advice to anyone who wants to come back is: Please, take a little bit more time,” Mayor Klitschko said, warning area residents. For now at least, this appears to confirm the negative outlook for a major breakthrough ceasefire anytime soon offered by France’s Le Drian.

END

Putin still gets his way on rubles for energy demand

(Mish Shedlock)

Via Clever Tactics, Putin Gets His Way On Rubles-For-Energy Demand

FRIDAY, APR 01, 2022 – 12:05 PM

Authored by Mike Shedlock via MishTalk,

Some reports say Putin backed down on his demand for rubles for energy. Those reports are essentially wrong.

Understanding Putin’s Clever Tactic

Russian president Vladimir Putin demanded rubles for energy. His concern was that new EU sanctions that would freeze euro-denominated accounts of Russian energy suppliers.

One of Putin’s fear stems from the fact that payments for gas shipped in April get paid later in the month or in May, depending on the contract. A second fear is European sanctions on Gazprombank.

The EU said no to his demand. Yet, the gas will still flow. This prompted misguided reports that “Putin backed down.”

What’s Really Happening?

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz agreed to Vladimir Putin’s clever way around the problem of rubles payments.
The EU will pay in euros and via a separate account at Gasprom, the euros are immediately converted to rubles.

Putin Says Russia to Keep Supplying Gas Amid Shift to Rubles

Please consider Putin Says Russia to Keep Supplying Gas Amid Shift to Rubles

When Putin first announced the ruble-payment demand last week, European officials rejected it, saying the move would violate contract terms. But the Kremlin Thursday published a presidential decree outlining the mechanism to allow foreign buyers to convert their dollars and euros into the Russian currency through a state-controlled bank.
The Kremlin decree mandates that deliveries starting from April 1 be paid for in rubles. Foreign buyers need to open special ruble and foreign currency accounts at Gazprombank to handle payment, which can be done remotely. Buyers transfer foreign currency to pay for the gas into their accounts, Gazprombank converts the funds to rubles on the Moscow Exchange and transfers rubles into the buyer’s ruble account for payment on to Gazprom. The payment is considered complete when the rubles reach Gazprom’s account.
Putin said the goal of the new mechanism was to prevent western governments from attempting to seize the payments in foreign currency or the accounts through which they went.
“If gas is supplied and paid for under the traditional scheme, new dollar and euro payments can be frozen,” he said.
“I think ultimately Russia wanted to send a message that as long as its gas is being paid for in time and in full (irrespectively of which currency is used), the gas will continue to flow,” said Katja Yafimava, Senior Research Fellow at the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies. “If Europe were to lose supplies of Russian gas it would be not because of Russia cutting them off but because of Europe not paying for them.”
Another motivation may have been to protect Gazprombank, one of the few major Russian banks that’s so far avoided the most severe western sanctions, from future restrictions, she said.

Avoiding Sanctions

This workaround highlights the silliness of the debate that one needs dollars to buy oil or gas despite dollars being the pricing unit.

In this case, Russia demands rubles and get them via immediate conversion from euros or in some cases US dollars, depending on the contract.

Given that currencies are fungible (sanctions aside), it does not matter what the pricing or payment unit is.

This entire process is about avoiding sanctions and getting paid.

The EU could default one time given the payment lag, but then would be cutoff from oil and gas.

So despite reports to the contrary, this workaround that Scholz agreed to effectively satisfies Putin’s requirements: Russia gets paid and Gazprom is protected from sanctions.

Ruble Impact is Minimal

The impact on the ruble is limited because Russian corporations are already required to sell 80% of their foreign-exchange earnings for rubles under the capital controls imposed by Western nations after Russia invaded Ukraine.

This new maneuver means energy suppliers will have to sell 100% of euros and dollars to the Russian central bank for rubles.

European sanctions have so many holes they are mostly useless in practice. Thus, talk of reducing the EU’s dependence on Russia is all hype and no reality.

Understanding What Happened

The Russia Central Bank gets euros. Exactly as before. The entire thing is essentially a mirage. It really makes no fundamental difference if the euro for ruble switch happens by Germany, somewhere in the middle, or at the back end by the Russia central bank.
Whether by the EU, some middleman, or later on the back end by Russia, the Russia central bank gets euros. Gazprombank gets rubles from the Russian central bank in exchange for euros.
Aside from sanctions, currencies are fungible. This is always the case and a point most simply fail to understand in all this oil priced in something other than dollars nonsense. Hopefully now people can see it.
One slight difference is the Russia central bank gets 100% of the euros instead of 80% of them. This benefits Putin but he could always demanded that. It now happens immediately instead of perhaps later.
However, Putin extracted a mechanism and thus an implied promise from Scholz to not sanction Gazprombank. And he gets bragging rights that Scholz agreed to a maneuver that gets rubles to Gazprombank.
The threat is if the EU sanctions Gazprombank, then Putin shuts down the gas. Yet, this was really the case all along. So actually, other than getting an agreement from Scholz, there is no difference. But with Gazprombank now on the cannot sanction list, Putin can likely play some games there with euros even though they are technically central bank euros.
Putin can trade those euros to China for sanctioned US parts through Gazprombank.
Bottom line is there is no real change technically. But Putin gets to brag he honors his contracts and he has a commitment from Scholz for the EU to do the same.
It also makes it harder for Biden to pressure the EU to sanction Gazprombank or Gazprom.
This is a victory for Putin.

Sanctions Don’t Work

Here’s a twelve-word synopsis of the above post Misguided Souls Still Do Not Understand This Simple Truth: Sanctions Don’t Work

The last three of those twelve words emphasize the key point.

Meanwhile, Biden Doing Everything Possible to Drive Up the Price of Oil, Some of It’s Illegal

Finally, US Sanction Policy Drives China Into Russia’s Loving Arms.

The Ruble Regains 100% of Its Loss After Russia Invaded Ukraine, Why?

For more discussion of energy for rubles and the currency itself, please see The Ruble Regains 100% of Its Loss After Russia Invaded Ukraine, Why?

UPDATES ON THE WAR:

This intensified

Inbox

Further to what I told you … One of those helicopters had 17 aboard, 15 of whom died when the chopper was hit and crashed …..The two survivors have been taken prisoner by Russian forces, the rest died in the crash …
Explains why Macron last week was wanting to send in a French vessel to evacuate civilians when really it was about NATO advisories specifically French ones… Russia already knew so the offer was declined ….. his lies are now known by him to be known as such with a loss of creditability.

bodies of two French Intelligence operatives, allegedly with DGSE credentials, have been recovered. But this should not surprise anyone as such Advisors are an export of country hegemony and the Ukraine is just one more such example, where acknowledgement or public understanding will diminish the current narrative destroying the indignation that has been expressed when it is recognized what this is about. This is no different than Vietnam or any other such conflict where confrontations occurred, the difference is this Russia on one side and a masked NATO on the other. The deception will become obvious with disclosures that will come with evidence from civilians to undeniable bio labs of dubious purpose and real boots on the ground. And no NATO country wants to acknowledge a lost of assets in the Ukraine as it breaks the narrative. However it is going to come out.

You already know since I told you about the Americans and Brits there …some have tried to get away by changing into civilian clothes .. the rest are trapped in the steel complex … there apparently have been hundreds of British and American military advisors already killed in the Ukraine …. No one wants to publicly admit this … it is bad enough that Russia has destroyed all NATO inspired bases in the Ukraine … i have previously explained to you about some of state of the field weapons being tested on the ground by the Brits which were delivered on the 16th of March and are being used by the Brit’s in their training of Ukrainians in nether use… everyone uses wars as a test bed for weapons… it is why the US is abandoning Stingers for other weapon systems.you will note that as of now Russia has primarily used older tanks and not their most modern ones. However, there are more military assets now positioned than there were in February

It is only a matter of time before Russia can be certain with actual proof that NATO troops were there as active advisors on the ground .. this explains why civilians in Mariupol say Americans are at fault .. all this nonsense about Russian exhaustion is simply typical MSM hype and untruth. It is true that Russia has sustained realtime losses and has been restrained in weapons deployment to save civilian lives as opposed to a “shock and awe “ event. And yes, there are other Advisors who are on the ground and many hundreds already killed elsewhere in the Ukraine.

When and what Russia does remains to be seen but this is far worse than sending in weapons .. while Putin is a scoundrel, there are far worse in the Kremlin who want to be more aggressive in response.. there are some parties who will not hesitate to nuke a city or two to make a point …. as for oligarchs and their money abroad no one cares including the Kremlin, that’s not where Putin derives power from … but believe me while he is a scoundrel he is more moderate than others who itch for a real fight, and the world is better off with him than some others i can think of who would have gone nuclear long ago, and today push Putin as being weak. This is more of a real danger than most people are aware of. Sadly today leadership everywhere simply sucks with a collection of fools, liars and simply incompetent advice. There is no win in nuclear war.

It escapes logic not to imagine that Russia will determine it is fighting NATO and then what ? Putin is a moderate compared to others … so it will remain to be determined what happens next and why the risk of real war is growing and not lessening …. NATO itself is divided as to whether it wants to go for it now or wait and call it a standoff for now … if we avoid a wider conflict later this month then we might buy time until early next year before a real wider conflict occurs … and by then the pressures of food shortages and financial creditability will be more evident .. and it will be obvious in Forex changes …… the freezing of Russian earned on balance sheet state revenue is no different than the theft of Tropos funds by the Fed; the difference is this is country funds and not American corporate funds. I have already seen Memories recalled of what was written back then about the lack of trust of a system where the referee is a crook in a fixed odds game. Countries can acknowledge a once upon a time event but twice makes it a trend of reality that scares nations about their own Reserves, which we warned about. America desperately needs to reestablish not just financial creditability but moral authority. And while no nation now expects Russian funds to be released; releasing the Tropos funds is another matter on a world stage. The many hundreds of thousands of people we reached across the world including nations and their leadership is well remembered and much more top of mind, today. Oddly a earlier release may thwart some nations dumpling dollar Reserves, but that will take a change that has yet to occur.

We can be certain that the hourglass of time is running out on US creditability amongst nations and that is most unfortunate because the world is worse without the kind of leadership possible from America, which is impossible with the delusional crowd who are doing a great job of destroying the western led order of a world we have known. Without rebuilding America the world will be worse off.

/USA/IRAN

6// GLOBAL COVID ISSUES/VACCINE MANDATE

ISSUES/GLOBAL ISSUES//ORIGINS OF COVID 19

This is huge!! NIH deleted information from Wuhan lab on COVID 19 genetic sequencing (from FOIA). It means that they were aware of the origins of the virus and it did not come from the wet market

(Tapscott/EpochTimes)

NIH Deleted Info From Wuhan Lab On Covid-19 Genetic Sequencing, Watchdog FOIA Finds

THURSDAY, MAR 31, 2022 – 08:20 PM

Authored by Mark Tapscott via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

National Institutes of Health (NIH) documents obtained by a nonprofit watchdog in a federal court suit reveal that the agency deleted Covid-19 genetic sequencing information from the Wuhan Institute of Virology at the Chinese lab’s request.An aerial view shows the P4 laboratory at the Wuhan Institute of Virology in Wuhan in China’s central Hubei Province on April 17, 2020. (Hector Retamal/AFP via Getty Images)

The Arlington, Virginia-based Empower Oversight Whistleblowers and Researchers (EO) obtained, as a result of a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request and lawsuit, more than 230 pages of documents dating from 2020 that include emails, memoranda, and other correspondence among and between the lab and multiple NIH officials.

Covid-19 was first detected in China in late 2019, before it spread worldwide. Since the first death from the virus in the United States was reported in January 2020, an estimated 1 million Americans and 6 million globally have reportedly succumbed to the virus.

Controversy has raged in the United States over whether the virus originated in an animal-to-human transfer in a Wuhan-area wet market, as Chinese officials have insisted, or if it escaped from the Wuhan lab where research was being done on such viruses, some of which was being supported with NIH funds through the New York-based nonprofit EcoHealth Alliance.

Among the NIH officials prominently mentioned in the documents are then-NIH Director Dr. Francis Collins and National Institute for Allergies and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) Director Dr. Anthony Fauci, who actively participated in the discussions and decision-making described in the materials obtained by EO.

“On June 5, 2020, a Wuhan University researcher requested that NIH retract the researcher’s submission of BioProject ID PRJNA637497 because of error. The Wuhan researcher explained ‘I’m sorry for my wrong submitting,’” EO said in a statement on March 29.

“BioProject ID PRJNA637497 is also referred to as Submission ID SUB7554642. Three days later, on June 8th, the NIH declined the researcher’s request, advising that it prefers to edit or replace, as opposed to delete, sequences submitted to the SRA,” EO reported.

But then, on June 16, 2020, NIH officials reversed themselves and deleted the genetic sequencing data, as requested by the Wuhan researcher.

That researcher was quoted by EO as explaining to NIH: “Recently, I found that it’s hard to visit my submitted SRA data, and it would also be very difficult for me to update the data. I have submitted an updated version of this SRA data to another website, so I want to withdraw the old one at NCBI in order to avoid the data version issue.”

After some discussion about what would be deleted, the NIH concluded the discussion by reassuring the Wuhan researcher that it “had withdrawn everything.”

The documents also indicate, according to EO, that after researcher Jesse Bloom, a virologist at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, “alerted NIH about the deleted sequences, [Collins] and [Fauci] hosted a Sunday afternoon Zoom meeting. The invitation Collins sent out for the meeting asks invitees to read Bloom’s [June 22, 2021] preprint paper closely and provide their ‘advice on the interpretation and significance of’ it.”

According to EO, the documents show that “Professor Trevor Bedford of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center later sent the group an email stating that the deleted data seemed to support the idea that the pandemic began outside the Huanan market in Wuhan and that the matter must be analyzed properly.”

If the virus’s spread began outside of the market, it would undermine the official Chinese government claim, and thus reinforce claims of experts in the United States and elsewhere that the pandemic likely escaped from the Wuhan lab.

The EO report also claims that NIH communications staff members were using off-the-record emails to advise “reporters toward more favorable coverage concerning termination of public access to the sequences by The Washington Post, and away from coverage by The New York Times, whose ‘tone’ had been criticized in communications among NIH officials.”

In addition, EO said NIH claims to have retained copies of the deleted data “for preservation purposes,” although the federal agency has refused to conduct a transparent examination of it.

An NIH spokesperson told The Epoch Times in an email that the sequences in question were submitted in March 2020 by a researcher at a China-based institution for posting in SRA, which it said it managed by NIH’s National Center for Biotechnology (NCBI).

“In June 2020, in response to a request by the same researcher, NCBI gave the sequence data the status of ‘withdrawn,’ which removes sequencing data from all public means of access but does not delete them. NCBI subsequently reassigned the status of the sequence data to ‘suppressed,’ which means that sequence data are removed from the search process but can be directly found by accession number. This action to reassign the data was identified as part of NLM’s ongoing review into the matter. We are working to make more information available,” the spokesperson said.

Collins, Fauci, and the NIAID did not respond to requests for comment.

The EO document release is likely to strengthen congressional efforts to get all the facts concerning the NIH’s role in funding the Wuhan lab research that may be at the center of the CCP virus’s creation and spread around the world.

Sen. Roger Marshall (R-Kan.), a physician who is a member of the Senate Committee on Health, Employment, Labor and Pensions (HELP), told The Epoch Times that “the NIH deleting key data at the onset of the pandemic has only caused more questions regarding its involvement on the emergence of” the virus.

“The American people deserve to know the truth behind the origins of COVID-19, as well as how we can best prepare for, prevent, and recover from future global pandemics,” Marshall said. “As a physician, I think we always need to know the what, where, how, and why when giving a diagnosis. For this reason, it couldn’t be more important that we get to the bottom of this deleted data and ensure that NIH operates at the interest of our national security.”

The HELP panel on March 15 approved legislation—the PREVENT Pandemics Act—that requires the establishment of a government task force to investigate the origins of the CCP virus. That legislation includes eight provisions authored by Marshall.

“This legislation is in response to the congressional inquiries and various media investigations–including The Epoch Times–revealing national security issues with federal agencies authorizing dangerous research with certain foreign entities that may have contributed to the COVID-19 pandemic,” Marshall’s office told The Epoch Times.

“Dr. Marshall secured his bipartisan 9/11-style COVID Task Force to investigate the origins of COVID-19, as well as find out how we can prepare for, prevent, and recover from future global pandemics,” his office said, adding that he seeks “to ensure that American organizations would never be allowed to conduct dangerous research capable of pandemic proportions with organizations in countries that threaten our national security.”

Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) told The Epoch Times via email that “the radical left has systematically worked to cover the Chinese Communist Party’s tracks and hide the truth of COVID origins.”

“Dr. Fauci, the NIH, and liberal media giants weaponized the COVID-19 pandemic to shut down schools, businesses, and life for hardworking Americans. The report from Empower Oversight exposes what we’ve always known about COVID-19—it’s all about big government control,” she added.

Another Republican senator, Joni Ernst of Iowa, proposed last November to ban all federal funding of EcoHealth Alliance and the “gain-of-function” virus research it supported with federal funds at the Wuhan lab. Other congressional Republicans have also called for a federal investigation of the nonprofit.

Zachary Stieber contributed to this report.

end

COVID// VACCINE//GLOBAL//

This is a must see!! The vaccine will morph into a serious virus with massive ADE

He is the world’s best virologist.

Van den bosche

Inbox

I don’t know if you have it

March 26th

https://streamyard.com/ru4v72udbce5

end

GLOBAL ISSUES

VACCINE MANDATES/

VACCINE INJURIES

She is very good. She is stating by the end of 2022 every fully vaccinated person over 30 will have ais.

Dr. Sherri Tenpenny: By the end of 2022 every fully vaccinated person over 30 will have AIDS – News Headlines

Inbox

If this is true then we are watching the destruction of the western world in real time.

https://infogop.us/dr-sherri-tenpenny-by-the-end-of-2022-every-fully-vaccinated-person-over-30-will-have-aids/

VACCINE IMPACT

Modern Medicine is Based on Politics and Dogma, NOT Science – Remembering British Biologist Whistleblower Harold Hillman

March 31, 2022 5:14 pm

As the evidence continues to explode on a daily basis now showing how the COVID-19 vaccines are literally destroying people’s lives with uninformed people willingly allowing themselves and their children to be injected with dangerous experimental shots that prior to 2020 would not even meet the accepted scientific definition for “vaccines,” it is very important to understand what I have been saying for many months now, which is that the COVID-19 plandemic did not corrupt the medical system. The corrupt medical system gave us the COVID-19 scam now responsible for mass murder and genocide. This is not a popular view, as the medical system and the pharmaceutical industry probably employ more people than any other industry, and the whistleblower doctors who have exposed the fraud in COVID stop short of exposing the deep corruption in the entire system that gave us COVID, as they continue to profit and benefit from that same system. So I have taken a lot of heat for exposing the “superstar doctors” who oppose COVID-19 vaccine mandates, but themselves are still profiting from the medical system and overall are still pro-vaccine and would have no problem injecting you and your children with other vaccines. Which one of these current “superstar doctors,” for example, has exposed the same fraud we just exhibited in COVID which has been present in the annual flu shots every year? The flu shot campaigns every year used all the same techniques and fraud that COVID did to sell influenza vaccines (inflated numbers to promote fear, faulty PCR testing, a vaccine that offered no benefits but only risk to injury and death, etc.), and that has been going on for decades. If the American public does not want to continue to be abused by medical tyranny, then one needs to understand that the medical and pharmaceutical system is thoroughly corrupt, political, and not based on science at all. So it is very rare to encounter anyone writing about how the entire system is corrupt, and not just parts of it, which is why I was pleased to see the late British biologist Harold Hillman get some recognition for his efforts to expose this corrupt system.

USA Today Shows How States Pay Foster Parents to Take Care of Children Removed from Poor Families but Offer No Assistance to the Biological Families to Keep Their Children

March 31, 2022 5:51 pm

I am pleased to see the corporate media cover an issue that we have covered here at Health Impact News, and especially on our MedicalKidnap.com website, for almost a decade now, which is that most children removed from their home and put into foster care are not abused, but are living in poverty where it makes it difficult for their families to take care of them. These children are medically kidnapped from their families for “neglect,” usually “medical neglect,” and not abuse. So rather than provide assistance to these poor families so they can keep their children, they remove them from the home, against their wish and the wish of their family, and put into the very lucrative child welfare system where they become foster children or adopted children. The tragedy in almost all of these stories is not only that the families lose their children, but that their children are usually suffering from the abuses of the medical system, which their parents blindly trusted. So while this story by USA Today does address many of the key issues, especially with children who are handicapped, they won’t go all the way in their investigations to report that a child suffering from autism, for example, is most likely vaccine injured as well. The USA Today has started a series on this issue, and this one is about Florida. You know, that “family friendly” and “conservative” State.

Michael Every

Michael Every on the day’s major topics

Rabobank: “No More Gucci! Cancel The War Now!”

By Michael Every of Rabobank

Piffle Durch Waffle

Well, there was a volatile quarter; and if you think Q2 looks to be any better then you weren’t paying much attention in Q1.

US stocks had the worst quarter for two years, i.e., since Covid, underlining the scale of the shock of the Ukraine metacrisis, even if some say they have far from realised or priced in what is still to come because of their innate “because markets”-ness.

US bonds had one of their worst quarters since the Civil War 157 years ago, hit by a Fed reacting late to a metacrisis out of its control and structural inflation it saw as “transitory”. There I can report, via someone other than a reporter in the room, that the Fed’s Harker yesterday spoke of measuring inflation in terms of increases in the price of a friend’s golf club membership(!) and seemed to rely heavily on “my mate says…” anecdotal wisdom. Gives one full confidence the Fed will hit a hole in one on monetary policy, doesn’t it?

Bloomberg speaks of talk of 1970’s-style inflation returning. The Fed doesn’t. True, we don’t have those kinds of unions. But as geopolitics-driven deglobalisation sees manufacturing supply chains shift, we de facto close off cheap foreign labor physically represented as imports. Meanwhile, the government response to higher prices is often more stimulus. The White House is to release oil from its Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR): 1m barrels a day for six months, around a third of the total. This is not due to economic war: nobody is being asked to change consumption patterns, apart from boycotting Dostoevsky and Mussorgsky. Rather, the SPR is being used because prices are too high. In which regard, yes, oil will drop, and bond yields; but the lower oil price will slow any domestic increase in output; and when the SPR draw-down stops and it has to be refilled, prices will go back up again,

FX markets were choppy. As commodities soar and current accounts go into the red, and some try to print their way out of pain while pegging bond yields via activist central bank techniques used under the ‘new normal’, we can expect more downside for net importers and more upside for net exporters; and a sustained US dollar bid even if the dollar is far less popular, because debts still have to be serviced, and food and fuel bought, with less easily available greenbacks.

Commodities were understandably back to the 1970s. but we do have the same kind of supply-side shock as commodities look they did nearly five decades ago. On which note, the big news yesterday was Putin’s announcement that EU payment for gas will indeed be in RUB, and Europe insisting, no, it will be in EUR or USD. We saw EU gas prices swing 18% on the day before they realized that, so far, Putin really has succeeded in rebuilding parts of the Soviet Union – inserting unneeded labor into a simple process. The EU pays Gazprombank in EUR; Gazprombank swaps it into RUB; and then remits both to Russia.

As a parallel, I recall post-Soviet-but-still-Soviet supermarkets where you had to queue to see the (poor) choice of food available in each section; calculate in your head the price of 200g of grey sausage; queue at a separate cashier to tell them “200g of sausage at 10 roubles a kilo, so 2 roubles total”; they gave you a chit; and then you went back to the meat counter and queued again to swap the chit for grey sausage. And so on for every item you bought. Of course, nowadays we have empty shelves with efficient self-service and credit cards all over.

Depressingly, food continues to be weaponized. Ukraine alleges Russia is not only deliberately bombing Ukrainian food depots but is attacking its agricultural industry, including mining fields and destroying farm equipment. Russia also just announced a ban on the export of sunflower and rapeseed starting today. The US is also, unhelpfully, talking about perhaps increasing ethanol (so, corn) usage to try to bring down its energy prices.

France wants the UN World Food Programme and the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) to coordinate the allocation of extra supplies to countries facing urgent needs. This was a food security initiative backed by the G7 and to be discussed with G20 nations including China and India, which have amongst the largest grain stocks in the world. In short, we will soon find out who is helping and who is hoarding. This will be one of the topics discussed at the EU-China summit to be held today.

It’s amazing how much things have changed for this summit compared to the last one, which was held under the auspices of former Chancellor Merkel’s “wandel durch handel” (change through trade) Panda-and-Bear-hugging foreign/economic policy framework. At least in EU terms, has there ever been a more rapid, thorough, and passionate rejection of an entire weltanschauung than of the ‘piffle durch waffle’ that Merkel offered the EU for so long, and which Germany today sees led it to the crisis it now faces? I can’t think of one. Ironically, rather than reheating the stone-cold EU-China trade and investment deal, this summit could potentially see a further large step towards a more bifurcated world of ‘The West vs. The Rest’. Of course, neither side wants that outcome. Yet neither side looks able to bend over the Ukraine metacrisis.

@StuartKLau tweets the view of an anonymous EU official that Europe will pressure China to come out more strongly to try to stop the war – just after China’s foreign minister came out strongly in favor of Russia’s geopolitical position, if not the war itself. He quotes the official directly that:

“China has to realize that, while it thinks that [the war] has nothing to do with EU-China relations, actually it does. We have now a top security interest, not only for Europe, but for the world to address. We won’t whitewash our differences with China.” There are even veiled threats: “President Xi wants to be re-elected at the Congress in autumn. The society has had the stability over the last decades with the permanent promise it will be better for you than the preceding generation? Does he want to risk this? We don’t believe he does.” That’s fighting talk: and China will see it that way.

The official also stated “I don’t think is wise to speculate in detail,“ on possible EU sanctions on China, but ”I think there’s still the space to make the diplomatic argument that we do not believe it’s in China’s interest to provide for a circumvention of sanctions. If we were to see very active circumvention of sanctions –I’m not saying this is happening, I’m not saying it’s going to happen– you would probably see ramifications for China’s reputation globally.” To paraphrase Stalin: “How many divisions does reputation have?”

Indeed, ‘trundle durch bumble’ has not been entirely expunged from the EU. Being proved existentially wrong is not necessarily enough to change minds. (I am not joking, sadly: it’s a universal truth that ‘rationalists’ and ‘but GDP!’ crowds fail to grasp.)

The EU official adds: “Many Chinese citizens [like] luxury products, many of which are produced in EU. Many EU companies, many international global companies decided they no longer wish to market, sell and promote their goods in Russia.” Is the implied threat, beyond that to “reputation”, really that the EU might stop exporting luxury goods to a China already embracing Common Prosperity, to steer away from excess high-end consumption, and Dual Circulation, to encourage local alternatives to imports? If so, it will land as powerfully in Beijing as it did in Moscow. (“No more Gucci! Cancel the war now!”)

I refer back to my comment on inflation and supply chains earlier: the juiciest parts of them are, well, luxuries: who needs them in a war? Ask instead, who makes your widgets? Who makes your products and product packaging? And who provides your raw materials? Not the EU, almost all of the time. For others, things are perhaps shifting.

The White House has invoked Cold War powers to boost electric vehicle battery production. The decision adds lithium, nickel, cobalt, graphite, and manganese to a list of items covered by the 1950 Defence Production Act: former president Trump used the same to spur mask production during Covid; Truman to make steel for the Korean War. However, the total public cash involved is pitiful: just $750m. Moreover, a ranking member of the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources says the step is unlikely to result in any meaningful increase in US production without fixing the permit process (i.e., lowering environmental protections). Recall the pollution involved in getting these minerals, along with similar rare earths, was one of the reasons why their supply was offshored to places with far lower labor costs and environmental standards and sold as a free-trade win-win.

But war is messy: so is economic war; and so is the increasingly linked war against climate change. You cannot get a ‘clean’ segue to clean energy when it needs filthy amounts of dirty inputs first, the lion’s share of which China already controls the supply chains for on the ground because it was thinking ahead. At the very least, if it has to be done to win all the wars at once, it won’t be doable for just $750m. It’s ‘piffle durch waffle’, or ‘baloney durch blarney’ to think otherwise. So, yes, we will see lots of wandel durch handel – just not in the way Merkel envisioned it: quite the opposite.

Now on to Q2, as we plunge deeper into our Brave New World Order.

Happy Friday.

7. OIL ISSUES

8 EMERGING MARKET& AUSTRALIA ISSUES

Australia//// NEW ZEALAND/ SOUTH AFRICA/BRAZIL/ARGENTINA/INDIA

SRI LANKA

Energy crisis deepens in Sri Lanka as they turn off street lights to conserve energy.

(zerohedge)

Sri Lanka Turns Off Street Lights As Energy Crisis Worsens; Fishermen Unable To Sail For Lack Of Fuel

THURSDAY, MAR 31, 2022 – 08:00 PM

Tiny Sri Lanka is struggling through an economic crisis that is having terrible repercussions for its economy, as a brutal energy crisis threatens to blossom into shortages of food and other essential goods.

Thanks to an energy crisis (and China’s reluctance to allow the country to restructure its debts), Sri Lanka is resorting to turning off its street lights to save electricity as its worst economic crisis in decades bites, forcing – among other cutbacks – the temporary closure of the local stock market as the impact of the crisis is felt (the Colombo Stock Exchange reduced daily trading to two hours from the usual four-and-a-half because of the power cuts for the rest of this week at the request of brokers).

The island nation of 22 million people is struggling with rolling power cuts for up to 13 hours a day as the government is unable to make payments for fuel imports because of a lack of foreign exchange.

According to Reuters, the energy-drained country expects a diesel shipment paid for under a $500 million line of credit from neighboring India is expected to arrive on Saturday, but the situation isn’t expected to improve any time soon, as power restriction will need to continue, according to the country’s power minister.

“We have already instructed officials to shut off street lights around the country to help conserve power,” Power Minister Pavithra Wanniarachchi told reporters.
…
“Once that arrives we will be able to reduce load shedding hours but until we receive rains, probably some time in May, power cuts will have to continue,” Wanniarachchi told reporters, referring to the rolling power cuts.
“There’s nothing else we can do.”

Another reason for the power crisis (and a lesson for all nations that are aiming to ramp up ‘green’ energy sources): Water levels at reservoirs feeding hydro-electric projects had fallen to record lows, while demand had also hit record levels during the hot, dry season, she said.

As Reuters explains, the crisis in Sri Lanka is the result of a confluence of factors that have drained the country’s foreign exchange reserves.

The crisis is a result of badly timed tax cuts and the impact of the coronavirus pandemic coupled with historically weak government finances, leading to foreign exchange reserves dropping by 70% in the last two years.
Sri Lanka was left with reserves of $2.31 billion as of February, forcing the government to seek help from the International Monetary Fund and other countries, including India and China.

And if the situation doesn’t improve soon, the small country’s energy crisis could metastasize into a food crisis. Because, as the AFP explains, without fuel, the country’s fishermen have been stranded on shore, unable to reel in the day’s catch. And the ramifications are being felt by families across the country.

“If we queue up by five in the morning, then we will get fuel by three in the afternoon, on good days,” Arulanandan, a seasoned member of Negombo’s close-knit fishing community, tells AFP.
“But for some, even that is not possible, because by the time they get to the end of the queue, the kerosene is gone.”

As they look for somebody to blame, the locals have settled on one key culprit: Beijing, and its ‘debt diplomacy’, which seems to have caught Colombo in its trap.

end

Your early currency/gold and silver pricing/Asian and European bourse movements/ and interest rate settings FRIDAY morning 7:30 AM

Euro/USA 1.1049 DOWN .0024 /EUROPE BOURSES //ALL GREEN

USA/ YEN 122.48 UP 0.738 /NOW TARGETS INTEREST RATE AT .11% AS IT WILL BUY UNLIMITED BONDS TO GETS TO THAT LEVEL…

GBP/USA 1.3132 DOWN 0.0014

Last night Shanghai COMPOSITE CLOSED UP 30.51 PTS OR 0.94%

Hang Sang CLOSED UP 42.70 PTS OR 0.19%

AUSTRALIA CLOSED DOWN 0.05% // EUROPEAN BOURSES OPENED ALL GREEN

Trading from Europe and ASIA

I) EUROPEAN BOURSES ALL GREEN

2/ CHINESE BOURSES / :Hang SANG CLOSED UP 42.70 PTS OR 0.19%

/SHANGHAI CLOSED UP 30.51 PTS OR 0.94%

Australia BOURSE CLOSED DOWN 0.05%

(Nikkei (Japan) CLOSED DOWN 155.45 PTS OR 0.56%

INDIA’S SENSEX IN THE GREEN

Gold very early morning trading: 1929.40

silver:$24.68-

USA dollar index early FRIDAY morning: 98.49 UP 18 CENT(S) from THURSDAY’s close.

THIS ENDS FRIDAY MORNING NUMBERS

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

And now your closing FRIDAY NUMBERS 1: 00 PM

Portuguese 10 year bond yield: 1.38% UP 3 in basis point(s) yield

JAPANESE BOND YIELD: +0.216% DOWN 0 AND 0/10 BASIS POINTS /JAPAN losing control of its yield curve/

SPANISH 10 YR BOND YIELD: 1.50%// UP 7 in basis points yield

ITALIAN 10 YR BOND YIELD 2.11 UP 7 points in basis points yield ./

the Italian 10 yr bond yield is trading 61 points higher than Spain.

GERMAN 10 YR BOND YIELD: FALLS TO +0.559% IN BASIS POINTS ON THE DAY//

THE IMPORTANT SPREAD BETWEEN ITALIAN 10 YR BOND AND GERMAN 10 YEAR BOND IS 1.55% AND NOW ABOVE THE 3.00% LEVEL WHICH WILL IMPLODE THE ENTIRE ITALIAN BANKING SYSTEM. AT 4% SPREAD THERE WILL BE A HUGE BANK RUN…

END

IMPORTANT CURRENCY CLOSES FOR FRIDAY

Closing currency crosses for FRIDAY /USA DOLLAR INDEX/USA 10 YR BOND YIELD/1:00 PM

Euro/USA 1.1041 DOWN .0032 or 44 basis points

USA/Japan: 122.675 UP .931 OR YEN DOWN 93 basis points/

Great Britain/USA 1.3109 DOWN 35 BASIS POINTS

Canadian dollar DOWN 5 BASIS pts to 1.2507

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The USA/Yuan, CNY: closed ON SHORE (CLOSED ..DOWN 6.3631

THE USA/YUAN OFFSHORE: (YUAN CLOSED (DOWN)..6.3701

TURKISH LIRA: 14.68 EXTREMELY DANGEROUS LEVEL/DEATH WISH/HYPERINFLATION TO BEGIN.

the 10 yr Japanese bond yield at +0.216

Your closing 10 yr US bond yield UP 6 IN basis points from THURSDAY at 2.394% //trading well ABOVE the resistance level of 2.27-2.32%) very problematic

USA 30 yr bond yield: 2.436 UP 9 in basis points

Your closing USA dollar index, 98.68 UP 33 CENT(S) ON THE DAY/1.00 PM/

Your closing bourses for Europe and the Dow along with the USA dollar index closing and interest rates for FRIDAY: 12:00 PM

London: CLOSED UP 20.47PTS OR 0.27%

German Dax : CLOSED UP 35,03 POINTS OR 0.24%

Paris CAC CLOSED UP 22.81PTS OR 0.34%

Spain IBEX CLOSED UP 52.20PTS OR 0.62%

Italian MIB: CLOSED UP 136.83 PTS OR 055%

WTI Oil price 100.66 12: EST

Brent Oil: 105.28 12:00 EST

USA /RUSSIAN /// RUBLE FALLS TO: 86.50 DOWN 4 & 3/4 RUBLES/DOLLAR

GERMAN 10 YR BOND YIELD; +.559

CLOSING NUMBERS: 4 PM

Euro vs USA: 1.1041 DOWN .0031 OR down 31 BASIS POINTS

British Pound: 1.3108 down .0037 or down 37 basis pts

USA dollar vs Japanese Yen: 122.52 up 0.773

USA dollar vs Canadian dollar: 1.2519 up .0017 (CDN dollar DOWN 17 basis pts)

West Texas intermediate oil: 99.26

Brent OIL: 104.17

USA 10 yr bond yield: 2.387 up 5 points

USA 30 yr bond yield: 2.440 DOWN 1 pts

USA DOLLAR VS TURKISH LIRA: 14.69

USA DOLLAR VS RUSSIA///USA/ ROUBLE: 85,88 up 4 1/8 ROUBLES (ROUBLE down 4 and 1/8 ROUBLES/USA )//

DOW JONES INDUSTRIAL AVERAGE: UP 139.92 PTS OR 0.40%

NASDAQ 100 DOWN 22.72PTS OR 0.15%

VOLATILITY INDEX: 19.47 DOWN 1.09PTS (5.3%)

GLD: 179.44 DOWN 1.21 PTS OR 0.61%

SLV/ 22.74 DOWN .14 PTS OR 0.61%

end)

USA trading day in Graph Form

Banks Battered & Trannies Trounced Amid Yield Curve & Commodity Carnage

FRIDAY, APR 01, 2022 – 04:01 PM

After a big start to the week, Weds, Thurs, and Fri all saw significant selling pressure across month-, quarter-end with The Dow and S&P the laggards, with only a last-minute panic bid taking Nasdaq and Small Caps green and dragging Dow and S&P up to unch briefly….

Transports had the worst week since Jan 2021…

Source: Bloomberg

Why did stocks sink this week? Who knows. But one reason is ‘because the curve was inverted’…

Financials were the hardest hit sector as Utes outperformed…

Source: Bloomberg

As they chased the yield curve flatter…

Source: Bloomberg

Trucking stocks stood out this week as the jobs data signaled the first Trucking sector job losses (and threats of a recession loom)…

Source: Bloomberg

All Major US equity markets lost key technical levels. S&P back below its 100-DMA, Dow broke back down through its 100- and 200-DMA, Nasdaq failed at its 100-DMA, as did Russell 2000…

Massive divergence in bond markets this week as the short-end yields rose significantly as the long-end rallied hard…

Source: Bloomberg

The big story of the week, however, is likely to be the carnage in the yield curve with everything from 2Y out now inverted…

Source: Bloomberg

2s10s, 2s30s, 3s5s, 3s7s, 3s10s, 3s20s, 3s30s, 5s7s, 5s10s, 5s30s, 7s10s, 7s30s, and 20s30s are now all inverted on the US Treasury curve… and one year out things get even more inverted (inverted from 1Y maturity all the way out to 30Y)…

Source: Bloomberg

The forward curve is pricing in an almost unprecedented amount of inversion – The Fed’s biggest policy error ever?

Source: Bloomberg

The market is now pricing in 9 more rate-hikes this year… and then almost 4 rate-cuts

Source: Bloomberg

Let’s just hope that the yield curve’s premonition is not a reflection of where stocks should be…

Source: Bloomberg

Crypto rallied today as the threat of more QE (post-recession) began to leak into traders’ minds with Bitcoin back in the green for the year, and back above $46000…

Source: Bloomberg

Commodities traded broadly lower this week with crude leading the way down. This was the worst week for commodities since March 2020…

Source: Bloomberg

WTI dropped back below $100 after Biden’s SPR news (but more likely driven by Shanghai’s ongoing lockdowns sparking demand fears), but is still above the $90 level that was pre-Putin…

Gold held above $1900 but was lower on the week…

Finally, diamonds are not just a girls’ best friend, they are an inflation hedgers’ pal too, as BofA notes that since 1950, Diamonds have had an extremely high correlation to CPI (higher than US farmland, real assets, and gold)…

Source: Bloomberg

Diamonds are forever after all… Not just til the midterms.

END

I) /MORNING TRADING//PAYROLLS

Payrolls miss: fewest jobs added

(zerohedge)

March Payrolls Miss: Fewest Jobs Added Since September, But Wages Come In Hot

FRIDAY, APR 01, 2022 – 08:40 AM

In our NFP preview we said that only a catastrophic March jobs report coupled with even more negative data could shake the Fed’s determination to pursue a 50bps rate hike in May. Which is why despite a modest miss in the just reported March jobs data, we fail to see anything remotely ugly enough to change the big picture which sees the Fed continuing its liftoff as planned, with a 50bps hike next month.

Here’s what the BLS reported moments ago:

- The change in total nonfarm payroll employment for January was revised up by 23,000, from +481,000 to +504,000, and the change for February was revised up by 72,000, from +678,000 to +750,000. With these revisions, employment in January and February combined is 95,000 higher than previously reported.
March Unemployment Rate Falls to 3.6% from 3.8%, below the exp. of 3.7%
- Underemployment Rate 6.9%, down from 7.2%
- Labor Participation Rate 62.4%, in line with exp. 62.4%, and above the 62.3% last
March Average Hourly Earnings Rise 0.4% M/M; Est. 0.4%, and up from an upward revised 0.1% in Feb;
- March Average Hourly Earnings rose 5.6% vs Year Ago, higher than the est 5.5%
Average Weekly Hours All Employees 34.6, down from 34.7, and below the exp. 34.7

Developing.

END

AFTERNOON

END

II)USA data

2s10s Inverts, Stocks Sink After Unemployment Rate Tumbles, Earnings Jump

FRIDAY, APR 01, 2022 – 08:49 AM

Despite a disappointing increase in payrolls, the drop in the unemployment rate coupled with the rise in average earnings (inflationary) has prompted stocks to trim gains ahead of the open…

And sent the yield curve (2s10s) into inversion (-2bps)…

Rate-hikes odds are rising as are rate-cut odds after that…

Perhaps most ominously, the 2s10s curve is expected to be inverted by 45bps in one year from now…

This is what the yield curve is expected to look like one year out…

50bps hike incoming!!

end

ISM Manufacturing Unexpectedly Slumps To Lowest In 18 Months, Prices Paid Spikes

FRIDAY, APR 01, 2022 – 10:08 AM

After Markit’s preliminary Manufacturing PMI surprised to the upside, analysts expected ISM Manufacturing in March to rise modestly also… but it didn’t…

March (Final) Markit US Manufacturing PMI BEAT 58.8 vs 58.5 exp vs 57.3 in Feb
March ISM Manufacturing MISS 57.1 vs 59.0 exp vs 58.6 in Feb

Source: Bloomberg

That is the lowest print for ISM Manufacturing since Sept 2020 with new orders tumbling and prices paid spiking…

Source: Bloomberg

Breaking down the drivers, new orders and production dominate. The group’s index of prices paid by producers jumped 11.5 points, the largest monthly advance since the end of 2020, to 87.1. The outsized increase points to worsening price pressures after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine further drove up the prices of petroleum and metals.

Source: Bloomberg

ISM’s new orders measure slid nearly 8 points in March to 53.8, and the factory output gauge dropped 4 points to 54.5. The indexes — now both at their lowest levels since May 2020 — signal some softening in demand amid mounting price pressures and increased uncertainty.

Only Steel is lower in price…

One ISM respondent’s comment stood out:

“The supply situation is getting worse, with lead times extending over 12 months, material not available, and suppliers not quoting or taking orders. Prices on the rise daily.”

Chris Williamson, Chief Business Economist at S&P Global, said of the Manufacturing PMI:

“US manufacturing growth accelerated in March as strong demand and improving prospects countered the headwinds of soaring cost pressures and the Russia-Ukraine war.
“Order book growth has picked up as customers look to the further reopening of the domestic and global economies amid signs that the disruptions from the pandemic continue to fade.
“While companies continued to report widespread production constraints due to supply chain bottlenecks, the incidence of such delays is now lower than at any time since January 2021. Jobs growth has also improved as fewer companies reported labor shortages.
“Similarly, although price pressures remain elevated, with surging energy costs pushing firms’ costs higher at an increased rate in March, rates of inflation of both input costs and average selling prices have fallen from the record highs seen late last year to hint that consumer price inflation could likewise soon peak.
“It was especially encouraging to see business optimism about the year ahead improve further in March, despite the new uncertainties, sanctions and geopolitical risks caused by the Ukraine invasion, with optimism among producers now the brightest since late-2020.”

With unemployment rates tumbling, business surveys rising and earnings growth soaring, does The Fed have any excuises but to start hiking 50bps at a clip?

IIB) USA COVID/VACCINE MANDATES

Fauci: Americans should be prepared for more COVID 19 restrictions

(Phillips/EpochTimes)

Fauci: Americans Should Be ‘Prepared for Possibility’ Of More COVID-19 Restrictions

FRIDAY, APR 01, 2022 – 08:19 AM

Authored by Jack Phillips via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

White House COVID-19 adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci warned about the potential for the reinstatement of COVID-19 restrictions in the United States.

Americans, he told the BBC on Sunday, “need to be prepared for the possibility” of an uptick in COVID-19 cases, which may lead to further restrictions.

“I don’t want to use the word ‘lockdowns.’ That has a charged element to it. But, I believe that we must keep our eye on the pattern of what we’re seeing with infections,” he told the outlet.

Cases, hospitalizations, and deaths from the virus have dropped significantly in the United States since the winter’s COVID-19 surge.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said that currently, the BA.2 Omicron subvariant that is spreading makes up for about 54.9 percent of cases. Meanwhile, data from the CDC revealed that just over 9,600 new cases were reported Sunday.

“Having said that, we need to be prepared for the possibility that we would have another variant that would come along,” Fauci said. “And then, if things change and we do get a variant that does give us an uptick in cases and hospitalization, we should be prepared and flexible enough to pivot toward going back–at least temporarily–to a more rigid type of restrictions, such as requiring masks indoor.”

But several days ago, Fauci told another news outlet that he does not expect another significant COVID-19 surge.

“I would not be surprised at all, if we do see somewhat of an uptick,” Fauci told the Washington Post. “I don’t really see, unless something changes dramatically, that there would be a major surge.”

In recent months, a number of Democrat-led states and cities have moved to rescind COVID-19-related rules, including vaccine passports and masking. However, masking is still mandatory inside airports and on airplanes.

Several airline CEOs recently called on President Joe Biden to drop the mask mandate for airports and planes, according to an open letter that was issued earlier in March. Nine flight attendants also recently filed a lawsuit against the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Department of Health and Human Services in a bid to block the mask mandate.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Tuesday moved to issue an emergency use authorization for a second booster of the Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccines for individuals aged 50 and older. The CDC said it agreed with the FDA’s decision.

The “CDC expanded eligibility for an additional booster dose for certain individuals who may be at higher risk of severe outcomes from COVID-19,” CDC Director Rochelle Walensy said in a statement, claiming that “boosters are safe.”

iiia) USA inflation//SHIPPING commentaries//LOG JAMS//

end

iiib) USA economic stories

end

iv)swamp stories

END

The King Report (including swamp stories)

Let us close with this offering courtesy of Greg Hunter

https://usawatchdog.com/everything-is-a-lie-ruble-rumbles-inflation-rising
Everything is a Lie, Ruble Rumbles, Inflation RisingBy Greg Hunter On April 1, 2022 In Weekly News Wrap-Ups28 CommentsBy Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com (WNW 522 4.1.22)If you watched the mainstream media (MSM) news lately, you might be noticing how everything they told you is a huge lie. The MSM said Hunter Biden’s laptop with treasonous deals and nasty sex photos is nothing more than Russian disinformation. LIE. We were told over and over again by the MSM, that the so-called dossier on Trump with tawdry tales were true or mostly true. Total LIE. The MSM told all the CV19 vax is safe and effective. Huge LIE and the MSM was paid $1 billion to push this Deadly LIE. The MSM said, and is still saying, Ivermectin is not effective against CV19. Another Huge LIE!! We are drowning in a sea of lies, and the MSM is happy to be rowing the boat of fake news.The so-called sanctions put on Russia by the west were supposed to cripple them and kill the Russian ruble. I told you this would backfire big time, and it has. Putin is forcing countries to use the Ruble when buying oil, natural gas, wheat and everything else it sells. There is a new competitor to the dollar, at least when buying Russian goods and resources. Will the dollar take a hit as other countries no longer need it? I say yes. After getting clobbered on sanction news, the Ruble is back to where it was when the sanctions were imposed. Now, inflation has been turbo-charged in the west, and that is a huge backfire in my book.Speaking of inflation, have you filled up your vehicle lately? How about buying some food at the grocery store? The Biden/Obama Administration would like you to think that the massive inflation you are experiencing is all Russia’s fault. That, too, is a huge lie. We are getting this because of disastrous policies instituted by the Biden Administration. Biden and crew want to “Build Back Better” after they tear and burn your world down. It won’t be better, and the evil globalists backing Biden will be in total control if they get their way.Join Greg Hunter of USAWatchdog.com as he talks about these stories and more in the Weekly News Wrap-Up for 4.1.22.https://usawatchdog.com/everything-is-a-lie-ruble-rumbles-inflation-rising
(To Donate to USAWatchdog.com Click Here)After the Interview:Award winning journalist Alex Newman will be the guest for the Saturday Night Post. Every problem we face in America can be traced right back to the Deep State. Newman, who wrote a popular book called “The Deep State,” will tell you how to identify our enemies and how to fight them.Please

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