Shanghai Gold Benchmark Price

USD oz

AM1945.83

PM1949.88

Historical SGE Fi

New York price at the time: 1892.00

premium $62,00

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Bitcoin morning price:, $28,533 DOWN 560 Dollars

Bitcoin: afternoon price: $29,093 DOWN 220 dollars

Platinum price closing $895.10 UP $2.00

Palladium price; $1218.05 DOWN 18.65

END

Due to the huge rise in the dollar, we must look at gold and silver in currencies other than the dollar to understand where we are heading

I will now provide gold in Canadian dollars, British pounds and Euros/4: 15 PM ACCESS

CANADIAN GOLD: $2,558.59 DOWN 2.90 CDN dollars per oz (ALL TIME HIGH 2,775.35)

BRITISH GOLD: 1482.16 DOWN 5.33 pounds per oz//(ALL TIME HIGH//CLOSING///1630.29)

EURO GOLD: 1737,61 DOWN 3,42 euros per oz //(ALL TIME HIGH/CLOSING//1861.21)//

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EXCHANGE: COMEX

EXCHANGE: COMEX
CONTRACT: AUGUST 2023 COMEX 100 GOLD FUTURES
SETTLEMENT: 1,896.100000000 USD
INTENT DATE: 08/16/2023 DELIVERY DATE: 08/18/2023
FIRM ORG FIRM NAME ISSUED STOPPED

363 H WELLS FARGO SEC 5
657 C MORGAN STANLEY 1
690 C ABN AMRO 5
737 C ADVANTAGE 5
991 H CME 4

TOTAL: 10 10
MONTH TO DATE: 10,737

JPMorgan stopped 0 /10 contracts.

FOR AUGUST:

GOLD: NUMBER OF NOTICES FILED FOR AUGUST/2023. CONTRACT: 10 NOTICES FOR 1000 OZ or 0.03110 TONNES

total notices so far: 10,737 contracts for 1,073,700 oz (33.365 tonnes)

FOR AUGUST:

SILVER NOTICES: 5 NOTICE(S) FILED FOR 25,000 OZ/

total number of notices filed so far this month : 930 for 4,650,000 oz

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END

GLD

WITH GOLD DOWN $12.80

INVESTORS SWITCHING TO SPROTT PHYSICAL (PHYS) INSTEAD OF THE FRAUDULENT GLD//NO CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD: A WITHDRAWAL OF 1.44 TONNES OF GOLD FROM THE GLD

INVENTORY RESTS AT 894.42 TONNES

Silver//

WITH NO SILVER AROUND AND SILVER UP 15 CENTS AT THE SLV// NO CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV:

INVESTORS ARE SWITCHING SLV TO SPROTT’S PSLV.

CLOSING INVENTORY: 452.290 MILLION OZ

Let us have a look at the data for today

SILVER//OUTLINE

SILVER COMEX OI FELL BY A GOOD SIZED 623 CONTRACTS TO 137,406 AND FURTHER FROM THE RECORD HIGH OI OF 244,710, SET FEB 25/2020 AND THIS GOOD SIZED LOSS IN COMEX OI WAS ACCOMPLISHED WITH OUR $0.13 LOSS IN SILVER PRICING AT THE COMEX ON WEDNESDAY. TAS ISSUANCE WAS A RATHER SMALLER SIZED 627 CONTRACTS. THESE WILL BE USED FOR MANIPULATION LATER THIS MONTH/AS WELL AS TODAY. CRAIG HEMKE HAS POINTED OUT THAT THE CROOKS USE THE MID MONTH FOR MANIPULATION AS THEY SELL THEIR BUY SIDE OF THE CALENDAR SPREAD FIRST AND THEN KEEP THE SELL SIDE TO LIQUIDATE AT A LATER DATE. THUS WE HAVE TWO VEHICLES THE CROOKS USE FOR MANIPULATION AND BOTH ARE SPREADERS: 1) AT MONTH’S END/SPREADERS COMEX AND 2/ TAS SPREADERS, MID MONTH. TOTAL TAS ISSUED ON TUESDAY NIGHT: 650 CONTRACTS. DESPITE MANY COMPLAINTS THAT THE CROOKS HAVE VIOLATED POSITION LIMITS DUE TO THE FACT THAT THE TAS ISSUED HAVE A VALUE OF ZERO (AS TO POSITION LIMITS FOR OUR CROOKED BANKERS). THE PROBLEM OF COURSE IS THAT THE CROOKS DO NOT LIQUIDATE THE TAS TOGETHER BUT SELL THE BUY SIDE FIRST AND THEN LIQUIDATE THE SELL SIDE TWO MONTHS HENCE. IT IS OBVIOUS MANIPULATION TO THE HIGHEST DEGREE BUT IT NATURALLY FELL ON DEAF EARS WITH OUR REGULATORS (OCC) WHEN THEY RECEIVED OUR COMPLAINTS. IT THUS LOOKS LIKE THE FED (GOV’T) IS BEHIND ALL OF THESE TRADES.

WE HAVE NOW SET ANOTHER RECORD LOW AT 114,102 CONTRACTS ///JULY 3.2023// OUR BANKERS WERE SUCCESSFUL IN KNOCKING THE PRICE OF SILVER DOWN (IT FELL BY $0.13). AND WERE SUCCESSFUL IN KNOCKING OF SOME SILVER CONTRACTS(IF ANY STILL EXIST) AS WE HAD OUR GOOD SIZED LOSS OF 699 CONTRACTS ON BOTH EXCHANGES ALONG WITH CONSIDERABLE T.A.S.LIQUIDATION THROUGHOUT THE COMEX SESSION.

WE MUST HAVE HAD:

A SMALL ISSUANCE OF EXCHANGE FOR PHYSICALS( 110 CONTRACTS) iiii) AN INITIAL SILVER STANDING FOR COMEX SILVER MEASURING AT 3.105 MILLION OZ (FIRST DAY NOTICE) FOLLOWED BY TODAY’S 25,000 OZ QUEUE JUMP //NEW STANDING RISES AT 4.650 MILLION OZ + OUR NEW CRIMINAL 0 CONTRACTS OF EXCHANGE FOR RISK FOR 0.00 MILLION OZ + 1.45 MILLION OZ EX. FOR RISK/PRIOR/// NEW TOTAL STANDING FOR SILVER: 6.100 MILLION OZ/// // // GOOD SIZED COMEX OI LOSS/ SMALL SIZED EFP ISSUANCE/VI) SMALLER BUT STILL STRONG SIZED NUMBER OF T.A.S. CONTRACT ISSUANCE (627 CONTRACTS)/ZERO EXCHANGE FOR RISK ISSUED

I AM NOW RECORDING THE DIFFERENTIAL IN OI FROM PRELIMINARY TO FINAL -186 CONTRACTS

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

TOTAL CONTRACTS for 13 days, total 17,587 contracts: OR 87.935 MILLION OZ (1353 CONTRACTS PER DAY)

TOTAL EFP’S FOR THE MONTH SO FAR: 87.935 MILLION OZ

LAST 23 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

YEAR 2022:

JAN 2022-DEC 2022

JAN 2022// 90.460 MILLION OZ

FEB 2022: 72.39 MILLION OZ//

MARCH 2022: 207.140 MILLION OZ//A NEW RECORD FOR EFP ISSUANCE

APRIL: 114.52 MILLION OZ FINAL//LOW ISSUANCE

MAY: 105.635 MILLION OZ//

JUNE: 94.470 MILLION OZ

JULY : 87.110 MILLION OZ

AUGUST: 65.025 MILLION OZ

SEPT. 74.025 MILLION OZ///FINAL

OCT. 29.017 MILLION OZ FINAL

NOV: 134.290 MILLION OZ//FINAL

DEC, 61.395 MILLION OZ FINAL

TOTALS YR 2022: 1135.767 MILLION OZ (1.1356 BILLION OZ)

JAN 2023/// 53.070 MILLION OZ //FINAL

FEB: 2023: 100.105 MILLION OZ/FINAL//MUCH STRONGER ISSUANCE VS THE LATTER TWO MONTHS.

MARCH 2023: 112.58 MILLION OZ//FINAL//STRONG ISSUANCE

APRIL 118.035 MILLION OZ(SLIGHTLY GREATER THAN THAN LAST MONTH)

MAY 66.120 MILLION OZ/INITIAL (MUCH SMALLER THIS MONTH)

JUNE: 110.395 MILLION OZ//MUCH LARGER THAN LAST MONTH

JULY 85.745 MILLION OZ (SMALLER THAN LAST MONTH)

AUGUST: 87.385 MILLION OZ (THIS MONTH IS GOING TO BE VERY STRONG

RESULT: WE HAD A GOOD SIZED DECREASE IN COMEX OI SILVER COMEX CONTRACTS OF 809 CONTRACTS WITH OUR LOSS IN PRICE OF $0.13 IN SILVER PRICING AT THE COMEX//WEDNESDAY.,. THE CME NOTIFIED US THAT WE HAD A SMALL EFP ISSUANCE CONTRACTS: 110 ISSUED FOR SEPT AND 0 CONTRACTS ISSUED FOR ALL OTHER MONTHS) WHICH EXITED OUT OF THE SILVER COMEX TO LONDON AS FORWARDS./ WE HAVE A GOOD INITIAL SILVER OZ STANDING FOR AUGUST OF 3.105 MILLION OZ FOLLOWED BY TODAY’S 25,000 OZ QUEUE JUMP//NEW STANDING 4.650 MILLION OZ+ 1.45 MILLION OZ EXCHANGE FOR RISK NEW TOTALS 6.100 MILLION OZ//// WE HAVE A FAIR SIZED LOSS OF 699 OI CONTRACTS ON THE TWO EXCHANGES. THE TOTAL OF TAS INITIATED CONTRACTS TODAY: A SMALLER BUT STILL STRONG 627 CONTRACTS//HUGE FRONT END OF THE TAS CONTRACTS WERE LIQUIDATED DURING THE WEDNESDAY COMEX SESSION . THE NEW TAS ISSUANCE WEDNESDAY NIGHT (627) WILL BE PUT INTO “THE BANK” TO BE COLLUSIVELY USED AT A LATER DATE., .

WE HAD 5 NOTICE(S) FILED TODAY FOR 25,000 OZ

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

GOLD//OUTLINE

IN GOLD, THE COMEX OPEN INTEREST ROSE BY A FAIR SIZED 1137 CONTRACTS TO 434,748 AND CLOSER TO TO THE 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: – REMOVED: 586 CONTRACTS

WE HAD A GOOD SIZED INCREASE IN COMEX OI ( 1137 CONTRACTS) DESPITE OUR $7.00 LOSS IN PRICE//WEDNESDAY. WE ALSO HAD A RATHER SMALL INITIAL STANDING IN GOLD TONNAGE FOR AUGUST. AT 30.656 TONNES ON FIRST DAY NOTICE FOLLOWED BY TODAY’S 600 OZ QUEUE JUMP + PRIOR ISSUANCE OF EXCHANGE FOR RISK = (.684 TONNES) //NEW STANDING 33.564 TONNES + .684 EXCHANGE FOR RISK = 34.248/ + /A SMALL (AND CRIMINAL) ISSUANCE OF 831 T.A.S. CONTRACTS /// ALL OF..THIS HAPPENED WITH A $7,00 LOSS IN PRICE WITH RESPECT TO WEDNESDAY’S TRADING.WE HAD A GOOD SIZED GAIN OF 3996 OI CONTRACTS (12.336 PAPER TONNES) ON OUR TWO EXCHANGES.

E.F.P. ISSUANCE

THE CME RELEASED THE DATA FOR EFP ISSUANCE AND IT TOTALED A FAIR SIZED 2829 CONTRACTS:

The NEW COMEX OI FOR THE GOLD COMPLEX RESTS AT 434,748

IN ESSENCE WE HAVE A GOOD SIZED INCREASE IN TOTAL CONTRACTS ON THE TWO EXCHANGES OF 3996 CONTRACTS WITH 1137 CONTRACTS INCREASED AT THE COMEX// AND A FAIR 2829 EFP OI CONTRACTS WHICH NAVIGATED OVER TO LONDON. THUS TOTAL OI GAIN ON THE TWO EXCHANGES OF 3996 CONTRACTS OR 12.336 TONNES. WE HAD THE FOLLOWING TAS CONTRACTS INITIATED (ISSUED): A SMALL 831 CONTRACTS)

CALCULATIONS ON GAIN/LOSS ON OUR TWO EXCHANGES

WE HAD A FAIR SIZED ISSUANCE IN EXCHANGE FOR PHYSICALS (2829 CONTRACTS) ACCOMPANYING THE FAIR SIZED GAIN IN COMEX OI (1137) //TOTAL GAIN FOR OUR THE TWO EXCHANGES: 3966 CONTRACTS. WE HAVE ( 1) NOW RETURNED TO OUR NORMAL FORMAT OF BANKERS GOING SHORT AND SPECULATORS GOING LONG ,2.) FAIR INITIAL STANDING AT THE GOLD COMEX FOR JULY AT 30.656 TONNES FOLLOWED BY TODAY’S 600 OZ QUEUE JUMP //NEW STANDING 33.564 TONNES + .684 TONNES (EXCHANGE FOR RISK//PRIOR) NEW TOTALS: 34.248 TONNES/// 3) ZERO LONG LIQUIDATION WITH CONSIDERABLE TAS LIQUIDATION DURING THE COMEX SESSION //4) FAIR SIZED COMEX OPEN INTEREST GAIN/ 5) FAIR ISSUANCE OF EXCHANGE FOR PHYSICAL PAPER///6: SMALL T.A.S. ISSUANCE: 1831 CONTRACTS

HISTORICAL ACCUMULATION OF EXCHANGE FOR PHYSICALS IN 2023 INCLUDING TODAY

AUGUST

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

TOTAL EFP CONTRACTS ISSUED: 36,333 CONTRACTS OR 3,633,300 OZ OR 113.01 TONNES IN 13TRADING DAY(S) AND THUS AVERAGING: 2794 EFP CONTRACTS PER TRADING DAY

TO GIVE YOU AN IDEA AS TO THE SIZE OF THESE EFP TRANSFERS : THIS MONTH IN 13 TRADING DAY(S) IN TONNES 113.01 TONNES

TOTAL ANNUAL GOLD PRODUCTION, 2022, THROUGHOUT THE WORLD EX CHINA EX RUSSIA: 3555 TONNES

THUS EFP TRANSFERS REPRESENTS 113.01/3550 x 100% TONNES 3.18% OF GLOBAL ANNUAL PRODUCTION

ACCUMULATION OF GOLD EFP’S YEAR 2021 TO 2023

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//

TOTALS: 2,578.08 TONNES/2021

JAN:2022 247.25 TONNES //FINAL

FEB: 196.04 TONNES//FINAL

MARCH/2022: 409.30 TONNES //FINAL( THIS IS NOW A RECORD EFP ISSUANCE FOR MARCH AND FOR ANY MONTH.

APRIL: 169.55 TONNES (FINAL VERY LOW ISSUANCE MONTH)

MAY: 247.44 TONNES FINAL//

JUNE: 238.13 TONNES FINAL

JULY: 378.43 TONNES FINAL

AUGUST: 180.81 TONNES FINAL

SEPT. 193.16 TONNES FINAL

OCT: 177.57 TONNES FINAL ( MUCH SMALLER THAN LAST MONTH)

NOV. 223.98 TONNES//FINAL ( MUCH LARGER THAN PREVIOUS MONTHS//comex running out of physical)

DEC: 185.59 tonnes // FINAL

TOTAL: 2,847,25 TONNES/2022

JAN 2023: 228.49 TONNES FINAL//HUGE AMOUNT OF EFP’S ISSUED THIS MONTH!!

FEB: 151.61 TONNES/FINAL

MARCH: 280.09 TONNES/INITIAL (ANOTHER STRONG MONTH FOR EFP ISSUANCE)

APRIL: 197.42 TONNES

MAY: 236.67 TONNES (A VERY STRONG ISSUANCE FOR THIS MONTH)

JUNE: 172.667 TONNES (WEAKER ISSUANCE THIS MONTH)

JULY: 151.69 TONNES (WEAKER THAN LAST MONTH)

AUGUST: 113.01 TONNES (A STRONGER MONTH)

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 SEPT. WE ARE NOW INTO THE SPREADING OPERATION OF GOLD

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 MAY HEADING TOWARDS THE ACTIVE DELIVERY MONTH OF JUNE., FOR BOTH GOLD:

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 (SEPT), 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.

The crooks also use the spread in the TAS account (trade at settlement). They buy the spot TAS (e.g. June) and sell the future TAS two months out (e.g. August). Then they unload the front month (i.e. unload the buy side first so the price of gold/silver falls. This occurs in the middle of the front delivery month cycle. They unload the sell side of the equation, two months down the road. The crooks violate position limits as the OCC refuse to hear our complaints.

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

1.Today, we had the open interest at the comex, in SILVER FELL BY A GOOD SIZED 809 CONTRACTS OI TO 137,406 AND CLOSER TO OUR COMEX HIGH 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 5 YEARS AGO. HOWEVER WE HAVE NOW SET A NEW RECORD LOW OF 114,102 CONTRACTS JULY 3.2023

EFP ISSUANCE A SMALL 110 CONTRACTS

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

SEPT 110 and ALL OTHER MONTHS: ZERO. TOTAL EFP ISSUANCE: 110 CONTRACTS. EFP’S GIVE OUR COMEX LONGS A FIAT BONUS PLUS A DELIVERABLE PRODUCT OVER IN LONDON. IF WE TAKE THE COMEX OI LOSS OF 809 CONTRACTS AND ADD TO THE 110 OI TRANSFERRED TO LONDON THROUGH EFP’S,

WE OBTAIN A FAIR SIZED LOSS OF OPEN INTEREST CONTRACTS FROM OUR TWO EXCHANGES OF 699 CONTRACTS

THUS IN OUNCES, THE LOSS ON THE TWO EXCHANGES TOTAL 3.495 MILLION OZ

OCCURRED DESPITE OUR TINY $0.13 LOSS IN PRICE …..

END

OUTLINE FOR TODAY’S COMMENTARY

1a/COMEX GOLD AND SILVER REPORT

(report Harvey)

b, ) Gold/silver trading overnight Europe,//GOLD COMMENTARIES

(Peter Schiff)

c) Commentaries from: Egon von Greyerz///Matthew Piepenburg via GoldSwitzerland.com, Pam and Russ Martens

ii a) Chris Powell of GATA provides to us very important physical commentaries

b. Other gold/silver commentaries

c. Commodity commentaries//

d)/CRYPTOCURRENCIES/BITCOIN ETC

2.ASIAN AFFAIRS//

THURSDAY MORNING//WEDNESDAY NIGHT

SHANGHAI CLOSED UP 13.61 PTS OR 0.43% //Hang Seng CLOSED DOWN 2.67 PTS OR 0.01% /The Nikkei CLOSED DOWN 140.82 PTS OR 0.44% //Australia’s all ordinaries CLOSED DOWN 0.54 % /Chinese yuan (ONSHORE) closed UP 7.2439 /OFFSHORE CHINESE YUAN UP TO 7.3113 /Oil UP TO 80.18 dollars per barrel for WTI and BRENT UP AT 84.25 / Stocks in Europe OPENED ALL RED// ONSHORE YUAN TRADING ABOVE LEVEL OF OFFSHORE YUAN/ONSHORE YUAN TRADING STRONGER AGAINST US DOLLAR/OFFSHORE STRONGER

a)NORTH KOREA/SOUTH KOREA

outline

b) REPORT ON JAPAN/

OUTLINE

3 CHINA

OUTLINE

4/EUROPEAN AFFAIRS

OUTLINE

5. RUSSIAN AND MIDDLE EASTERN AFFAIRS

OUTLINE

6.Global Issues//COVID ISSUES/VACCINE ISSUES

OUTLINE

7. OIL ISSUES

OUTLINE

8 EMERGING MARKET ISSUES

9. USA

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

GOLD

LET US BEGIN:

THE TOTAL COMEX GOLD OPEN INTEREST ROSE BY A FAIR SIZED 1137 CONTRACTS UP TO 434,748 DESPITE OUR LOSS IN PRICE OF $7.00 ON WEDNESDAY.

EXCHANGE FOR PHYSICAL ISSUANCE

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

THAT IS 2829 EFP CONTRACTS WERE ISSUED: : DEC 2829 & ZERO FOR ALL OTHER MONTHS:

TOTAL EFP ISSUANCE: 2829 CONTRACTS

ON A NET BASIS IN OPEN INTEREST WE GAINED THE FOLLOWING TODAY ON OUR TWO EXCHANGES: A GOOD SIZED TOTAL OF 3996 CONTRACTS IN THAT 2829 LONGS WERE TRANSFERRED AS FORWARDS TO LONDON AND WE HAD A FAIR SIZED GAIN OF 1137 COMEX CONTRACTS..AND THIS GAIN ON OUR TWO EXCHANGES HAPPENED DESPITE OUR LOSS IN PRICE OF $7.00//WEDNESDAY COMEX. AS PER OUR NEWBIE TRADE AT SETTLEMENT (TAS) MANIPULATION OPERATION (WHICH CRAIG HEMKE HAS POINTED OUT HAPPENS DURING MID MONTH IN THE DELIVERY CYCLE), THE CME REPORTS THAT THE TOTAL T.A.S. ISSUANCE FOR WEDNESDAY NIGHT WAS A SMALL 831 CONTRACTS. THROUGHOUT THE PAST WEEKS, THE BANKERS SOLD OFF THE LONG SIDE OF THE SPREAD WHICH OF COURSE CONTINUES TO MANIPULATE THE PRICE OF GOLD SOUTHBOUND. (THEY KEEP THE SHORT SIDE OF THE CALENDAR SPREAD WHICH WILL BE LIQUIDATED TWO MONTHS HENCE)//

// WE HAVE A STRONG AMOUNT OF GOLD TONNAGE STANDING: AUGUST (34.248) ( ACTIVE MONTH)

TONNES),

HERE ARE THE AMOUNTS THAT STOOD FOR DELIVERY IN THE PRECEDING 12 MONTHS OF 2021-2022:

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 YEAR 2021 (JAN- DEC): 601.213 TONNES

YEAR 2022:

JANUARY 2022 17.79 TONNES

FEB 2022: 59.023 TONNES

MARCH: 36.678 TONNES

APRIL: 85.340 TONNES FINAL.

MAY: 20.11 TONNES FINAL

JUNE: 74.933 TONNES FINAL

JULY 29.987 TONNES FINAL

AUGUST:104.979 TONNES//FINAL

SEPT. 38.1158 TONNES

OCT: 77.390 TONNES/ FINAL

NOV 27.110 TONNES/FINAL

Dec. 64.000 tonnes

(TOTAL YEAR 656.076 TONNES)

2023:

JAN/2023: 20.559 tonnes

FEB 2023: 47.744 tonnes

MAR: 19.0637 TONNES

APRIL: 75.676 tonnes

MAY: 19.094 TONNES + 1.244 tonnes of exchange for risk = 20.338

JUNE: 64.354 TONNES

JULY: 10.2861 TONNES

AUGUST: 34.248 TONNES (INCLUDING .6842 EXCHANGE FOR RISK)

THE SPECS/HFT WERE SUCCESSFUL IN LOWERING GOLD’S PRICE( IT LOST $7.00) //// BUT WERE UNSUCCESSFUL IN KNOCKING ANY SPECULATOR LONGS (IF ANY STILL EXIST) AS WE HAD A GOOD GAIN OF 4552 TOTAL CONTRACTS ON OUR TWO EXCHANGES. WE HAD CONSIDERABLE T.A.S. LIQUIDATION ON THE FRONT END OF YESTERDAY’S TRADING. THE T.A.S. ISSUED ON WEDNESDAY NIGHT WILL BE “PUT INTO THE BANK” TO BE USED AT A LATER DATE AT THE COLLUSIVE CHOOSING OF OUR BANKERS.

WE HAVE GAINED A TOTAL OI OF 12.336 PAPER TONNES FROM OUR TWO EXCHANGES, ACCOMPANYING OUR INITIAL GOLD TONNAGE STANDING FOR AUGUST. (30.656 TONNES) ON FIRST DAY NOTICE FOLLOWED BY TODAY’S 600 OZ QUEUEJUMP //NEW STANDING ADVANCES A BIT TO 33.564 TONNES + .6842 (PRIOR EXCHANGE FOR RISK) //NEW TOTAL 34.248 TONNES // ALL OF THIS WAS ACCOMPLISHED WITH OUR LOSS IN PRICE TO THE TUNE OF $7.00.

WE HAD – REMOVED 586 CONTRACTS TO THE COMEX TRADES TO OPEN INTEREST

NET GAIN ON THE TWO EXCHANGES 3996 CONTRACTS OR 396,600 OZ OR 12.336 TONNES.

Estimated gold volume today:// 144,882 awful

final gold volumes/yesterday 135,545 awful//speculators have left the gold arena

//AUGUST 17/ FOR THE AUGUST 2023 GOLD CONTRACT

Gold	Ounces
Withdrawals from Dealers* Inventory in oz*	nil
Withdrawals from Customer* Inventory in oz*	171,215.199 OZ jpm, BRINKS Hsbc, Manfra 5 KILOBARS (Brinks) rest real gold leaving .
Deposit to the Dealer* Inventory in oz*	nil
Deposits to the Customer* Inventory, in oz*	nil OZ
No of oz served (contracts) today	10 notice(s) 1000 OZ 0.03110 TONNES
No of oz to be served (notices)	54 contracts 5400 oz 0.1678 TONNES
Total monthly oz gold served (contracts) so far this month	10,737 notices 1,073,700 OZ 33.396 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*	x

0 dealer deposit:

total dealer deposits: NIL oz

customer deposits: 0

total customer deposits: nil oz

we had 4 customer withdrawals

i) Out of JPMorgan: 134,780.449 oz

ii) Out of Brinks 160.75 oz (5 kilobares)

iii) Out of HSBC; 15,251.245 oz

iv) Out of Manfra 21,522.755 oz

total; 171,215.199 oz and most of this is real gold leaving

Adjustments; 0

CALCULATIONS FOR THE AMOUNT OF GOLD STANDING FOR AUGUST.

For the front month of AUGUST we have an oi of 64 contracts having LOST 18 contracts. We had 24 contracts filed

on Wednesday, so we gained 6 contracts or an additional 600 oz will stand at the comex,

Sept gained 52 contracts to 2919.

Oct lost 350 contracts to 33,215 contracts.

We had 10 contracts filed for today representing 1000 oz

Today, 0 notice(s) were issued from J.P.Morgan dealer account and 0 notices were issued from their client or customer account. The total of all issuance by all participants equate to 10 contract(s) of which 0 notices were stopped (received) by j.P. Morgan dealer and 0 notice(s) was (were) stopped received by J.P.Morgan//customer account and 0 notice(s) received (stopped) by the squid (Goldman Sachs)

To calculate the INITIAL total number of gold ounces standing for the AUGUST /2023. contract month,

we take the total number of notices filed so far for the month (10,737 x 100 oz ), to which we add the difference between the open interest for the front month of AUGUST (64 CONTRACT) minus the number of notices served upon today 10 x 100 oz per contract equals 1,079,100 OZ OR 33.564 TONNES the number of TONNES standing in this active month of AUGUST. + .684 TONNES EXCHANGE FOR RISK/prior = 34.248 tonnes

thus the INITIAL standings for gold for the AUGUST contract month: No of notices filed so far (10,737) x 100 oz + (64) {OI for the front month} minus the number of notices served upon today (10) x 100 oz) which equals 1,079,100 oz standing OR 33.564 TONNES + .684 TONNES OF EXCHANGE FOR RISK/prior = 34.248 TONNES

TOTAL COMEX GOLD STANDING: 34.248 TONNES WHICH IS SMALL FOR AN ACTIVE DELIVERY MONTH.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

COMEX GOLD INVENTORIES/CLASSIFICATION

NEW PLEDGED GOLD:

241,794.285 oz NOW PLEDGED /HSBC 5.94 TONNES

204,937.290 PLEDGED MANFRA 3.08 TONNES

83,657.582 PLEDGED JPMorgan no 1 1.690 tonnes

265,999.054, oz JPM No 2

1,152,376.639 oz pledged Brinks/

Manfra: 33,758.550 oz

Delaware: 193.721 oz

International Delaware:: 11,188.542 oz

total pledged gold: 2,101,333.235 OZ 65.36 tonnes

TOTAL OF ALL GOLD ELIGIBLE AND REGISTERED: 21,832,184.747 OZ

TOTAL REGISTERED GOLD: 11,680,181.113 (363.30 tonnes)..

TOTAL OF ALL ELIGIBLE GOLD: 10,182,003.634 O Z

REGISTERED GOLD THAT CAN BE SERVED UPON: 9,578,848 OZ (REG GOLD- PLEDGED GOLD) 297.942 tonnes//

END

SILVER/COMEX

AUGUST 17

//2023// THE AUGUST 2023 SILVER CONTRACT

Silver	Ounces
Withdrawals from Dealers* Inventory*	NIL oz
Withdrawals from Customer Inventory	44,778.445 oz Delaware .
Deposits to the Dealer* Inventory*	nil oz
Deposits to the Customer Inventory	584,333.390 oz Delaware Loomis
No of oz served today (contracts)	5 CONTRACT(S) (25,000 OZ)
No of oz to be served (notices)	0 contracts (nil oz)
Total monthly oz silver served (contracts)	930 Contracts (4,650,000 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*

i) 0 dealer deposit

total dealer deposit: 0 oz

i) We had 0 dealer withdrawal

total dealer withdrawals: 0 oz

We had 2 deposits customer account:

i)Into Delaware: 1001.000 oz

ii) Into Loomis 583,333.390

total customer deposits: 584,333.390 oz

JPMorgan has a total silver weight: 139.276 million oz/279.707 million =49.69% of comex .//

Comex withdrawals 1

i) Out of Delaware 44,778.445 oz

total: 44,778.445 oz

adjustments: 1 and it was a dandy: 3,223,848.270 oz adjusted out of the dealer Brinks into the customer account

TOTAL REGISTERED SILVER: 27.604 MILLION OZ//.TOTAL REG + ELIGIBLE. 279.707 million oz

CALCULATIONS FOR THE NEW STANDING FOR SILVER FOR JULY:

silver open interest data:

FRONT MONTH OF AUGUST /2023 OI: 5 CONTRACTS HAVING LOST 4 CONTRACT(S). WE HAD

9 NOTICES FILED ON WEDNESDAY SO WE GAINED 5 CONTRACTS OR AN ADDITIONAL 25,000 OZ WILL STAND IN THIS NON ACTIVE DELIVERY MONTH OF AUGUST.

SEPT HAS A LOSS OF 2176 CONTRACTS DOWN TO 58,109

OCT GAINED 9 CONTRACT TO STAND AT 488.

TOTAL NUMBER OF NOTICES FILED FOR TODAY: 5 for 25,000 oz

Comex volumes// est. volume today 74,416 good

Comex volume: confirmed yesterday: 58,800 fair

To calculate the number of silver ounces that will stand for delivery in AUGUST. we take the total number of notices filed for the month so far at 9230 x 5,000 oz = 4,650,000 oz

to which we add the difference between the open interest for the front month of AUGUST (5) and the number of notices served upon today 5 x (5000 oz) equals the number of ounces standing.

Thus the standings for silver for the AUGUST/2023 contract month: 930 (notices served so far) x 5000 oz + OI for the front month of AUGUST (5) – number of notices served upon today (5 )x 500 oz of silver standing for the AUGUST contract month equates to 4.625 million oz.+ 0.0 MILLION OZ EXCHANGE FOR RISK ISSUED TODAY+ 1.45 MILLION OZ EXCHANGE FOR RISK PRIOR//NEW TOTALS: 6.075 MILLION oz.

There are 27.604 million oz of registered silver.

Thus if we take today’s standing at 6.075 and add last month’s 30.9 million oz we have 36.975 million oz against only 27.604 million registered silver.

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

AUGUST 17/WITH GOLD DOWN $12.80 TODAY: NO CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD: //: /// //INVENTORY RESTS AT 894.42 TONNES

AUGUST 16/WITH GOLD DOWN $7.00 TODAY: HUGE CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD: A WITHDRAWAL OF 1.44 TONNES FORM THE GLD//: /// //INVENTORY RESTS AT 894.42 TONNES

AUGUST 15/WITH GOLD DOWN $7,45 TODAY: HUGE CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD: A WITHDRAWAL OF 3.76 TONNES FORM THE GLD//: /// //INVENTORY RESTS AT 895.87 TONNES

AUGUST 14/WITH GOLD DOWN $2.10 TODAY: HUGE CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD: A WITHDRAWAL OF 3.75 TONNES FORM THE GLD//: /// //INVENTORY RESTS AT 899.63 TONNES

AUGUST 11/WITH GOLD DOWN $2.10 TODAY: SMALL CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD: A WITHDRAWAL OF .31 TONNES FORM THE GLD//: /// //INVENTORY RESTS AT 903.31 TONNES

AUGUST 10/WITH GOLD DOWN $1.00 TODAY: NO CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD: /// //INVENTORY RESTS AT 903.69 TONNES

AUGUST 9/WITH GOLD DOWN $8.75 TODAY: NO CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD: /// //INVENTORY RESTS AT 903.69 TONNES

AUGUST 8/WITH GOLD DOWN $9.60 TODAY: HUGE CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD: A WITHDRAWAL OF 2.31 TONNES FORM THE GLD /// //INVENTORY RESTS AT 903.69 TONNES

AUGUST 7/WITH GOLD DOWN $5.45 TODAY: NO CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD: /// //INVENTORY RESTS AT 906.00 TONNES

AUGUST 4/WITH GOLD UP $7.25 TODAY: HUGE CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD: A WITHDRAWAL OF 3.18 TONNES OF GOLD FROM THE GLD/// .///INVENTORY RESTS AT 906.00 TONNES

AUGUST 3/WITH GOLD DOWN $5.25 TODAY: NO CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD //: //: / .////INVENTORY RESTS AT 909.18 TONNES

AUGUST 2/WITH GOLD DOWN $3.45 TODAY: HUGE CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD A WITHDRAWAL OF 3.75 TONNES OF GOLD FROM THE GLD//: //: / .////INVENTORY RESTS AT 909.18 TONNES

AUGUST 1/WITH GOLD DOWN $28.45 TODAY: HUGE CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD A WITHDRAWAL OF 2.89 TONNES OF GOLD FROM THE GLD//: //: / .////INVENTORY RESTS AT 912.93 TONNES

JULY 31/WITH GOLD UP $9.50 TODAY: HUGE CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD A WITHDRAWAL OF 2.89 TONNES OF GOLD FROM THE GLD//: //: / .////INVENTORY RESTS AT 912.93 TONNES

JULY 28/WITH GOLD UP $14.15 TODAY: HUGE CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD A WITHDRAWAL OF 1.44 TONNES OF GOLD FROM THE GLD//: //: / .////INVENTORY RESTS AT 915,82 TONNES

JULY 27/WITH GOLD DOWN $21.80 TODAY: HUGE CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD A WITHDRAWAL OF 1.74 TONNES OF GOLD FROM THE GLD//: //: / .////INVENTORY RESTS AT 917.26 TONNES

JULY 26/WITH GOLD UP $6.35 TODAY: NO CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD: //: / .////INVENTORY RESTS AT 919.00 TONNES

JULY 25/WITH GOLD UP $2.45 TODAY: NO CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD: //: / .////INVENTORY RESTS AT 919.00 TONNES

JULY 24/WITH GOLD DOWN $4.65 TODAY: HUGE CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD: A DEPOSIT OF 5.20 TONNES OF GOLD INTO THE GLD//: / .////INVENTORY RESTS AT 919.00 TONNES

JULY 21/WITH GOLD DOWN $3.80 TODAY: NO CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD: / .////INVENTORY RESTS AT 913.80 TONNES

JULY 20/WITH GOLD DOWN $8.70 TODAY: HUGE CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD: A DEPOSIT OF 1.73 TONNES FROM THE GLD/ .////INVENTORY RESTS AT 913.80 TONNES

JULY 19/WITH GOLD UP $0.65 TODAY: SMALL CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD: A WITHDRAWAL OF .86 TONNES FROM THE GLD/ .////INVENTORY RESTS AT 912.07 TONNES

JULY 18/WITH GOLD UP $23.45 TODAY:NO CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD: .////INVENTORY RESTS AT 912.93 TONNES

JULY 17/WITH GOLD DOWN $6.60 TODAY: HUGE CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD: A WITHDRAWAL OF 1.73 TONNES OF GOLD FROM THE GLD.////INVENTORY RESTS AT 912.93 TONNES

JULY 14/WITH GOLD UP $0.75 TODAY: NO CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD: ////INVENTORY RESTS AT 914.66 TONNES

JULY 13/WITH GOLD UP $3.30 TODAY: SMALL CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD: A WITHDRAWAL OF 0.29 TONNES OF GOLD OUT OF THE GLD////INVENTORY RESTS AT 914.66 TONNES

JULY 12/WITH GOLD UP $24.50 TODAY: SMALL CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD: A WITHDRAWAL OF 0.31 TONNES OF GOLD OUT OF THE GLD////INVENTORY RESTS AT 914.95 TONNES

JULY 11/WITH GOLD UP $6.15 TODAY: BIG CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD: A WITHDRAWAL OF 1.0 TONNES OF GOLD OUT OF THE GLD////INVENTORY RESTS AT 915.26 TONNES

JULY 10 WITH GOLD DOWN $1.35 TODAY; HUGE CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD: A WITHDRAWAL OF 1.60 TONNES OF GOLD FROM THE GLD////INVENTORY RESTS AT 916.26 TONNES.

GLD INVENTORY: 894.42 TONNES

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

AUGUST 17/WITH SILVER UP 15 CENTS TODAY: NO CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV//.////INVENTORY RESTS AT 452.290 MILLION OZ

AUGUST 16/WITH SILVER DOWN 13 CENTS TODAY: SMALL CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV A WITHDRAWAL OF 0.275 MILLION OZ INTOTHE SLV/: / .////INVENTORY RESTS AT 452.290 MILLION OZ

AUGUST 15/WITH SILVER DOWN 6 CENTS TODAY: SMALL CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV A WITHDRAWAL OF 0.275 MILLION OZ INTOTHE SLV/: / .////INVENTORY RESTS AT 452.290 MILLION OZ

AUGUST 14/WITH SILVER DOWN 3 CENTS TODAY: SMALL CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV A DEPOSIT OF 0.459 MILLION OZ INTOTHE SLV/: //////INVENTORY RESTS AT 452.565 MILLION OZ

AUGUST 11/WITH SILVER DOWN 6 CENTS TODAY: HUGE CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV A DEPOSIT OF 1.926 MILLION OZ INTOTHE SLV/: // OZ OF SILVER FROM THE SLV// .////INVENTORY RESTS AT 452.106 MILLION OZ

AUGUST 10/WITH SILVER UP 6 CENTS TODAY: HUGE CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV A WITHDRAWAL OF 8,807 MILLION OZ OUT OF THE SLV/: // OZ OF SILVER FROM THE SLV// .////INVENTORY RESTS AT 450.180 MILLION OZ

AUGUST 9/WITH SILVER DOWN 7 CENTS TODAY: HUGE CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV A WITHDRAWAL OF 8,807 MILLION OZ OUT OF THE SLV/: // OZ OF SILVER FROM THE SLV// .////INVENTORY RESTS AT 450.180 MILLION OZ

AUGUST 8/WITH SILVER DOWN 40 CENTS TODAY: NO CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV: // OZ OF SILVER FROM THE SLV// .////INVENTORY RESTS AT 458.987 MILLION OZ

AUGUST 7/WITH SILVER DOWN 46 CENTS TODAY: NO CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV: // OZ OF SILVER FROM THE SLV// .////INVENTORY RESTS AT 458.987 MILLION OZ

AUGUST 4/WITH SILVER UP 1 CENT TODAY: HUGE CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV: A WITHDRAWAL OF 2.294 MILLION OZ FROM THE SLV// OZ OF SILVER FROM THE SLV// .////INVENTORY RESTS AT 458.987 MILLION OZ

AUGUST 3/WITH SILVER DOWN 16 CENTS TODAY: SMALL CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV: A WITHDRAWAL OF 189,000 OZ OF SILVER FROM THE SLV// .////INVENTORY RESTS AT 451.281 MILLION OZ

AUGUST 2/WITH SILVER DOWN 43 CENTS TODAY: SMALL CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV: A WITHDRAWAL OF 275,000 OZ OF SILVER FROM THE SLV// .////INVENTORY RESTS AT 451.471 MILLION OZ

AUGUST 1/WITH SILVER DOWN 61 CENTS TODAY: SMALL CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV: A WITHDRAWAL OF 184,000 OZ OF SILVER FROM THE SLV// .////INVENTORY RESTS AT 451.746 MILLION OZ

JULY 31/WITH SILVER UP 45 CENTS TODAY: SMALL CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV: A WITHDRAWAL OF 184,000 OZ OF SILVER FROM THE SLV// .////INVENTORY RESTS AT 451.746 MILLION OZ

JULY 28/WITH SILVER UP 15 CENTS TODAY: SMALL CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV: A WITHDRAWAL OF 550,000 OZ OF SILVER FROM THE SLV// .////INVENTORY RESTS AT 451.930 MILLION OZ

JULY 27/WITH SILVER DOWN 59 CENTS TODAY: NO CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV: .////INVENTORY RESTS AT 452.480 MILLION OZ

JULY 26/WITH SILVER UP 15 CENTS TODAY: NO CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV: .////INVENTORY RESTS AT 452.480 MILLION OZ/

JULY 25/WITH SILVER UP 24 CENTS TODAY: SMALL CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV: A SMALL WITHDRAWAL OF 826,000 OZ FROM THE SLV..////INVENTORY RESTS AT 452.480 MILLION OZ/

JULY 24/WITH SILVER DOWN 23 CENTS TODAY: NO CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV: ////INVENTORY RESTS AT 453.306 MILLION OZ/

JULY 21/WITH SILVER DOWN 14 CENTS TODAY: HUGE CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV:A WITHDRAWAL OF 1.101 MILLION OZ OF SILVER FROM THE SLV ////INVENTORY RESTS AT 453.306 MILLION OZ/

JULY 20/WITH SILVER DOWN 38 CENTS TODAY: HUGE CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV:A WITHDRAWAL OF 1.468 MILLION OZ OF SILVER FROM THE SLV ////INVENTORY RESTS AT 454.107 MILLION OZ/

JULY 19/WITH SILVER UP 11 CENTS TODAY: NO CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV:A ////INVENTORY RESTS AT 455.875 MILLION OZ/

JULY 18/WITH SILVER DOWN 19 CENTS TODAY: NO CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV:A ////INVENTORY RESTS AT 455.875 MILLION OZ/

JULY 17/WITH SILVER UP 25 CENTS TODAY: HUGE CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV:A WITHDRAWAL OF 4.856 MILLION OZ OF SILVER FROM THE SLV////////INVENTORY RESTS AT 455.875 MILLION OZ/

JULY 14/WITH SILVER UP 27 CENTS TODAY: HUGE CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV:A WITHDRAWAL OF 2.21 MILLION OZ OF SILVER FROM THE SLV////////INVENTORY RESTS AT 455.875 MILLION OZ/

JULY 13/WITH SILVER UP 64 CENTS TODAY: NO CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV//////INVENTORY RESTS AT 462.941 MILLION OZ/

JULY 12/WITH SILVER UP $1.00 TODAY: HUGE CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV: A WITHDRAWAL OF 1.881 MILLION OZ INTO THE SLV////INVENTORY RESTS AT 462.941 MILLION OZ/

JULY 11/WITH SILVER DOWN 5 CENTS TODAY: SMALL CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV: A DEPOSIT OF .020 MILLION OZ INTO THE SLV////INVENTORY RESTS AT 464.822 MILLION OZ/

JULY 10/WITH SILVER UP 2 CENTS TODAY: HUGE CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV: A WITHDRAWAL OF 1.672 MILLION OZ FROM THE SLV///INVENTORY RESTS AT 464.802 MILLION OZ

CLOSING INVENTORY 452.290 MILLION OZ//

PHYSICAL GOLD/SILVER COMMENTARIES

1:Peter Schiff/Mike Maharrey

2 Commentaries from: Egon von Greyerz///Matthew Piepenburg via GoldSwitzerland.com, Pam and Russ Martens//JAMES RICKARDS//JOHN RUBINO

end

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

end

4, OTHER IMPORTANT GOLD/SILVER COMMENTARIES

Simon Black is always a great read….

(Simon Black)

I’m rooting for gold to go to zero. Too bad it won’t

BY SOVEREIGN MAN

WEDNESDAY, AUG 16, 2023 – 15:23

by Simon Black via Sovereign Man

By the time Wang Mang seized the imperial throne of China’s Han dynasty in the year 9 AD, he had already been a long-standing politician and government bureaucrat with decades of experience.

Not that Wang’s experience was especially helpful to the people of China.

As a seasoned politician, Wang’s biggest skills were setting up his opponents, cheating his way to the throne, and coming up with terrible ideas to destroy prosperity.

China’s Han dynasty had once been the pinnacle of civilization, most likely even surpassing the grandeur and wealth of the Roman Republic and ancient Greece. But Wang was one of the key figures who helped tear it down.

As emperor he was a total disaster. Wang had a thing for social and economic justice… so he imposed a bunch of idiotic land reforms to reduce inequality and form a more egalitarian society.

Instead of the ‘justice’ that he had envisioned, agricultural production plummeted and a lot of people went hungry.

Failing to see his error in judgment, Wang Mang doubled down by nationalizing entire industries, which only stifled investment and entrepreneurship.

Soon the Chinese economy was in the dumps. Prices soared. So the Emperor then (naturally) hatched the genius idea of imposing severe price controls… resulting in even more shortages and economic hardship.

He then tried to fix the shortages by taking over the labor market and essentially try to control what everyone did and where they worked.

But Emperor Wang wasn’t quite finished with his crusade for justice. He tried to pay for his mistakes by severely debasing the currency… which caused even more inflation and social unrest.

Wang Mang’s story is one of how complete and total incompetence results in disastrous consequences for an entire nation. History has witnessed countless other examples… and we’re seeing it play out again in our own time.

Today’s incompetent leadership is just as bad as Wang Mang; as I spelled out in yesterday’s missive, the US government has lost all ability to live within its means. They have spent trillions of dollars on their perverted ‘justice’ programs and environmental crusades.

Spending has gotten so bad that a $2 trillion yearly deficit is NOTHING anymore. Yet the continued accumulation of these deficits has created a gargantuan national debt.

As I mentioned yesterday, MOST of US national debt will mature over the next several years. Since the Treasury Department clearly does not have the money to pay back $25+ trillion in debt, their only option will be to issue NEW debt to pay off the old debt.

The problem, of course, is that the new debt comes with MUCH higher interest rates… and I explained that simply paying interest on the debt could exceed $2 trillion within the next five years.

On top of that, mandatory entitlement spending like Social Security and Medicare will hit $3 trillion. This means that just paying for Social Security/Medicare, and interest on the debt, could exceed 100% of tax revenue.

This scenario is potentially just five years away. At that point, it will be almost impossible for investors to have confidence in US government bonds.

US government bonds have long been considered the safest asset in the world. But if the Treasury Department has to blow $2 trillion just to pay interest, investors will quickly start looking for other safe havens. And one of those will be gold.

Think about it: there’s (currently) $32+ trillion in total US government bonds. This is MUCH larger than the gold market. So if even a small fraction of that US debt were to flow into gold instead, the gold price would go through the roof.

But there’s another scenario to consider, which frankly I think is more likely: the Fed steps in to save the US government.

One of the key reasons why the US government is in trouble (aside from their horrific spending habits) is that interest rates are so much higher than they used to be.

So the Fed can help the government out by slashing interest rates back down to 0%, which will make it affordable for the US government to finance its debt.

But this would come at a consequence; if the Fed slashes rates back down to zero, this would almost certainly result in another nasty bout of inflation… which would also mean higher gold prices.

So either scenario is bullish for gold.

Of course these two scenarios don’t even scratch the surface of all the political, financial, and economic problems in the US.

For example, there are still major risks lurking in the US banking system, including the fact that the Federal Reserve itself is hopelessly insolvent.

Social Security has less than a decade until it needs a bailout to the tune of tens of trillions of dollars.

And there’s also the likely possibility of the US dollar losing its dominance as the global reserve currency, likely this decade.

Gold should perform extremely well in any of these scenarios.

So in what scenario does gold NOT do well?

Well, gold does poorly in the “everything is just fine” scenario.

The war ends. Sensible politicians reign in spending. China plays nice and stops threatening to invade Taiwan. Economic growth goes through the roof. Inflation falls due to high levels of productivity and relative peace. Global trade booms.

As I’ve written before, this scenario is completely achievable, presuming competent leaders were in charge. And I’m really rooting for it.

In this scenario, gold would become a pointless relic… but I would happily welcome that outcome because everything else would be fantastic.

Unfortunately that scenario is unlikely… because the world is being run by a bunch of morons like Wang Mang.

If you feel like the trend in the world is more stupidity, more war, more socialism, more bad leadership, then you really ought to consider owning gold. In my view, a $5,000+ gold price is a pretty conservative estimate of where things go from here.

Want more articles like this? Sign up here to receive Sovereign Man letters to your email.

Contributor posts published on Zero Hedge do not necessarily represent the views and opinions of Zero Hedge, and are not selected, edited or screened by Zero Hedge editors.

end

5 a. IMPORTANT COMMENTARIES ON COMMODITIES:

end

5 B GLOBAL COMMODITY ISSUES/FOOD IN GENERAL//FREIGHT

END

6.CRYPTOCURRENCY//DIGITAL CURRENCY// COMMENTARIES/

1.YOUR EARLY CURRENCY VALUES/GOLD AND SILVER PRICING/ASIAN AND EUROPEAN BOURSE MOVEMENTS/AND INTEREST RATE SETTINGS THURSDAY MORNING.7:30 AM

ONSHORE YUAN: CLOSED UP TO 7.2438

OFFSHORE YUAN: UP TO 7.3113

SHANGHAI CLOSED UP 13.61 PTS OR 0.43%

HANG SENG CLOSED DOWN 2.67 PTS OR 0.01%

2. Nikkei closed DOWN 140.82 OR 0.44%

3. Europe stocks SO FAR: ALL RED

USA dollar INDEX DOWN TO 103.17 EURO RISES TO 1.0891 UP 17 BASIS PTS

3b Japan 10 YR bond yield: FALLS TO. +.642 Japan buying 100% of bond issuance)/Japanese YEN vs USA cross now at 145.83/JAPANESE YEN FALLING AS WELL AS LONG TERM 10 YR. YIELDS RISING //EVENTUALLY THIS WILL BREAK THE JAPANESE CENTRAL BANK

3c Nikkei now ABOVE 17,000

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

3e Gold UP /JAPANESE Yen UP CHINESE ON SHORE YUAN: UP// OFF- SHORE: UP

3f Japan is to buy INFINITE TRILLION YEN’S worth of BONDS. Japan’s GDP equals 5 trillion USA

Japan to buy 100% of all new Japanese debt and NOW they will have OVER 50% of all Japanese debt.

3g Oil UP for WTI and UP FOR Brent this morning

3h European bond buying continues to push yields lower on all fronts in the EMU. German 10yr bund UP TO +2.6795***/Italian 10 Yr bond yield RISES to 4.384*** /SPAIN 10 YR BOND YIELD RISES TO 3.728…**

3i Greek 10 year bond yield RISES TO 3.953

3j Gold at $1898.90 silver at: 22.77 1 am est) SILVER NEXT RESISTANCE LEVEL AT $30.00

3k USA vs Russian rouble;// Russian rouble UP 1 AND 17 /100 roubles/dollar; ROUBLE AT 93.50//

3m oil into the 80 dollar handle for WTI and 84 handle for Brent/

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

JAPAN ON JAN 29.2016 CONTINUES NIRP. THIS MORNING RAISES AMOUNT OF BONDS THAT THEY WILL PURCHASE UP TO .5% ON THE 10 YR BOND///YEN TRADES TO 145.83// 10 YEAR YIELD AFTER FIRST BREAKING .54% LAST YEAR NOW EXCEEDS THAT LEVEL TO 0.642% STILL ON CENTRAL BANK (JAPAN) INTERVENTION

30 SNB (Swiss National Bank) still intervening again in the markets driving down the FRANC. It is not working: USA/SF this 0.8775 as the Swiss Franc is still rising against most currencies. Euro vs SF 0.9537well 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: 4.307 UP 4 BASIS PTS…

USA 30 YR BOND YIELD: 4.413 UP 6 BASIS PTS/

USA 2 YR BOND YIELD: 4.961 DOWN 2 BASIS PTS

USA DOLLAR VS TURKISH LIRA: 27.10…(TURKEY SET TO BLOW UP FINANCIALLY)

GREAT BRITAIN/10 YEAR YIELD: UP 11 BASIS PTS AT 4.7560

end

2.a Overnight: Newsquawk and Zero hedge:

Markets On Edge As Global Yields Hit 15 Year High, China Woes Mount

THURSDAY, AUG 17, 2023 – 08:05 AM

S&P futures reversed earlier losses that brought them perilously close to the 4400 support level, as global govt bond yields extended their recent surge to the highest levels since the financial crisis after Fed minutes showed the central bank remains worried about persistent inflation and signaled the possibility of further rate hikes while stubbornly resilient US economic data – one might say purposefully manipulated for political purposes and boosted by massive deficit spending – challenges the view that central banks rates are peaking.

As of 7:30am ET, S&P futures were up 0.2%, reversing a similar drop earlier in the session. Nasdaq 100 futures also rose 0.2% The USD reversed an earlier gain and trade near session lows, helping commodities catch a bid. Sentiment was hammered around the globe: European stocks slumped for a third day with Spain outperforming on the move lower (UKX -0.3%, SX5E -0.5%, SXXP -0.4%, DAX -0.2%.) while Asian stocks dropped to their lowest level since March amid further signs of weakness in China and mounting concerns over elevated interest rates in the US. Today’s macro/micro focus is on jobless claims, the Leading Index, and AMAT/WMT earnings.

In premarket trading, BAE Systems Plc fell as much as 4.8% in London, its biggest drop in nine months, after it agreed to buy the aerospace division of soda-can giant Ball Corp. for $5.6 billion. Ball climbed as much as 5.5% in US premarket trading. Cisco Systems rose as much as 2.9% in the US premarket, after the maker of networking equipment gave a forecast that helped ease concerns about a sales slowdown. Here are some other notable premarket movers:

Adobe rose 1.7% in premarket trading on Thursday after BofA Global Research raised the recommendation on the software company’s stock to buy from neutral, saying the company is “emerging as an AI leader.”
Hawaiian Electric Industries fell as much as 26%, putting shares on track to decline for an eighth straight session amid Wall Street concern over the company’s potential liabilities following the Maui wildfires.
Walmart gains 1.0% in premarket trading after boosting its net sales and adjusted earnings per share projections for the fiscal year. The retailer also posted stronger-than-expected second-quarter US comparable sales and profit.

In early trading on Thursday, the 30-year Treasury yield rose as much as seven basis points to 4.42%, slightly exceeding last year’s high, and the highest level since 2011. It was below 4% as recently as July 31. The US 10-year yield approached 4.31%; if it closes here it would be the highest since 2008. The equivalent UK yield jumped to a 15-year high, while its German counterpart approached the highest since 2011.

Bond market woes were precipitated after a surprisingly weak 20-year bond sale in Japan priced with the longest yield tail since 1987, reflecting mounting bets the Bank of Japan’s YCC will soon be loosened. It’s also a significant warning sign for global government debt at a time when yields are already at 15-year highs. Soaring JGB yields would put further upward pressure on the rest of the world, and also mean tougher fiscal budget challenges.

The yield on a Bloomberg index for total returns on global sovereign debt rose to 3.3% Wednesday, the highest since August 2008 as sovereign bonds worldwide have handed investors a loss of 1.2% this year, making the asset class the worst performer across Bloomberg’s major debt indexes. Treasuries have been a key driver of the global debt selloff as resilience in the US economy defies expectations that more than five percentage points of Federal Reserve interest-rate hikes would bring on a recession. Officials at the last policy meeting remained concerned that inflation would fail to recede and that further rate increases would be needed, minutes of the meeting showed.

“Recent data has been firmer, fueling expectations that central banks have a little more work to do,” said Prashant Newnaha, a macro strategist at TD Securities Inc. in Singapore. “The current selloff is being led by the longer end, underscoring concerns about supply and liquidity.”

Indeed, while many investors had believed that the Federal Reserve was done raising interest rates, that’s no longer a sure thing after minutes from last meeting suggested officials are considering tighter policy.

As a result, moves across bond markets have been sharp and swift this week. The 10-year Treasury yield rose four basis points to 4.29% on Thursday, approaching the highest level since 2007. In the UK, equivalent maturity gilts touched 4.71%, the highest since the financial crisis of 2008. Japan’s 20-year bond yield surged after a debt auction drew tepid investor demand.

“Markets are taking the prospect of another hike from the Fed increasingly seriously, with futures now pricing in a 45% chance of a further hike by the November meeting,” Deutsche Bank AG strategist Jim Reid wrote. “Investors are adjusting to the fact that rates could remain at a higher level for some time.”

Meanwhile, China also continued to weigh on sentiment. According to Bloomberg, the picture emerging from property agents and private data providers suggest the slump in the real estate market may be worse than official reports show. These figures show existing-home prices falling at least 15% in prime neighborhoods of major metropolitan areas like Shanghai and Shenzhen. China also ramped up its efforts to stem losses in its currency on Thursday by offering the most forceful guidance since October through its daily reference rate for the managed currency. The offshore yuan slipped against the greenback.

“Equity markets are currently faced with two headwinds — first, real rates are surging again, as the US economy is showing numbers consistent with an economic recovery,” said Florian Ielpo, head of macro research at Lombard Odier Asset Management. “Second, China is starting to emit dire signals that must remind investors of the awful summer 2015, with a troubled housing market and shadow banking system.”

European stocks were set to fall for the third straight session: the Stoxx 600 is down 0.4% with the industrial, construction and travel sectors leading declines while banks and energy were the bright spots. Here are the biggest European movers Thursday:

Adyen plunges a record 27% after the payment firm’s processing volume, revenue growth and profitability all came in lower than estimates. The misses fueled analyst concerns over competition
BAE Systems declines as much as 4.9% after the London-based defense giant agreed to buy Ball Corp.’s aerospace division for $5.6 billion. Analysts said the deal is strategic but expensive
Nibe falls as much as 12% after the Swedish heat-pump manufacturer said demand for its products is faltering in Europe as governments discuss subsidies for the energy-efficient heating solution
Coloplast declines as much as 6.9% after the Danish wound and continence care firm reported a disappointing 3Q earnings, with analysts attributing the miss to inflationary effects in its Wound care division
GN Store Nord shares drop as much as 14% and erasing YTD gains after cutting guidance for its Audio division. The new outlook will lead to high single-digit downgrades to consensus estimates
Geberit drops as much as 5.4% after the building materials firm reported Ebitda and sales below estimates. The results represent a “sizeable” miss and there’ll be “heavy scrutiny,” Jefferies says
Aegon falls as much as 5.2% on the back of earnings. First half-year headline group solvency ratio missed consensus expectations, even as the Dutch insurer posted better operating capital generation
Tremor International falls as much as 34% in their biggest one-day drop in more than four years after the advertising technology firm reported lower-than-expected 2Q Ebitda and cut its full-year revenue
Calliditas Therapeutics falls as much as 14%, the most since May, after the Swedish pharmaceutical firm published 1H earnings, which included a trimmed outlook for net sales for its key drug Tarpeyo
Philips gains as much as 5.1% in Amsterdam after Dutch financial daily Het Financieele Dagblad reports details of Goldman Sachs’ involvement in a stake purchase by Exor
FLSmidth gains as much as 7.6% after investment firm Altor announced it would be increasing its stake in the Danish cement-and-mining services firm to 14.9% by buying 2.21m at an 11% premium
ITM Power rises as much as 5.8% after the clean-fuel company reported FY results and said it’s making good strategic progress. Its simplified electrolyser product offering is encouraging, Morgan Stanley said

Asian stocks dropped to their lowest level since March amid further signs of weakness in China and mounting concerns over elevated interest rates in the US. The MSCI Asia Pacific Index fell as much as 1.6% on Thursday, set for a fifth day of declines, led by health-care and industrial shares. Pessimism is deepening as investors see no easy fix to the Chinese economy’s ailments given a drumbeat of dour corporate and macro news. Meanwhile, steps taken by policymakers so far have failed to boost sentiment as traders call for more forceful measures.

Most regional markets were down, led by Japan, while Chinese and Hong Kong shares pared earlier losses on dip buying.

Hang Seng and Shanghai Comp were pressured at the open which saw the Hong Kong benchmark enter bear market territory after declining more than 20% from its January high amid earnings-related disappointment following results from Tencent and JD.com, although Chinese markets then recovered most of the earlier losses following another firm liquidity injection by the central bank and recent economic pledges by Premier Li.
Nikkei 225 declined after soft data releases including the miss on machinery orders and although the declines in exports and imports weren’t as bad as feared, exports printed in contraction territory for the first time in 29 months.
ASX 200 retreated as participants digested a slew of earnings releases and disappointing jobs data which showed a surprise contraction in the headline employment change and a larger-than-expected uptick in the unemployment rate.

In FX, the Bloomberg Dollar Index was up 0.1%. The Aussie is the weakest of the G-10 currencies, falling 0.4% versus the greenback after unemployment rose more than expected. The krone rose briefly before fading after the Norges Bank raised rates and pointed to another increase in September.

As noted above, Treasuries are lower, with US 10-year yields rising another 4bps to 4.30% as yields across the long-end of the curve continue to cheapen, with the 30-year rising through 4.42% and onto highest since 2011. Subsequently the curve continues to steepen with 5s30s spread back to re-testing positive. US yields cheaper by 3bp to 7bp from belly out to long-end of the curve with front-end outperforming and marginally richer on the day; spreads steeper with 2s10s, 5s30s widening 5.7bp and 4.5bp on the day with 2s10s steepest since May 25. Similar bear steepening moves seen across core European rates. Bunds and gilts are also in the red with 10-year borrowing costs in Germany and the UK rising by 4bps and 3bps respectively.

In commodities, crude futures advance, with WTI rising 0.2%. Spot gold adds 0.1%.

To the day ahead now, and data releases from the US include the weekly initial jobless claims, the Philadelphia Fed’s business outlook for August, and the Conference Board’s Leading Index for July. Otherwise, earnings releases include Walmart and Applied Materials.

Market Snapshot

S&P 500 futures up 0.2% to 4,427.75
MXAP down 0.4% to 158.71
MXAPJ down 0.4% to 501.02
Nikkei down 0.4% to 31,626.00
Topix down 0.3% to 2,253.06
Hang Seng Index little changed at 18,326.63
Shanghai Composite up 0.4% to 3,163.74
Sensex down 0.6% to 65,156.28
Australia S&P/ASX 200 down 0.7% to 7,146.00
Kospi down 0.2% to 2,519.85
STOXX Europe 600 down 0.3% to 453.96
German 10Y yield little changed at 2.68%
Euro little changed at $1.0876
Brent Futures up 0.3% to $83.74/bbl
Brent Futures up 0.3% to $83.74/bbl
Gold spot up 0.2% to $1,895.65
U.S. Dollar Index little changed at 103.44

Top Overnight News from Bloomberg

Global yields for government bonds extended their climb to the highest levels since 2008 as resilient economic data dashed investor optimism that central banks will soon halt or start reversing interest-rate hikes.
China ramped up its efforts to stem losses in the yuan by offering the most forceful guidance since October through its daily reference rate for the managed currency.
China’s top leaders pledged to expand domestic consumption and support the private sector without detailing any new stimulus measures, the latest in a series of rhetorical attempts to boost confidence in the economy as markets sink and growth disappoints.
Norway’s central bank raised borrowing costs to the highest level since the 2008 financial crisis and signaled it still plans another quarter-point hike in the current tightening cycle.
UK government bonds slid to send benchmark yields to the highest since the financial crisis, on concerns major central banks will continue to raise interest rates to quell inflation.
Australia’s unemployment rate rose more than expected in July as the economy surprisingly shed jobs, signaling the labor market may be approaching a turning point and sending the currency lower.

A more detailed look at global markets courtesy of Newsquawk

APAC stocks mostly suffered another day of selling and followed suit to the losses on Wall St as yields continued to edge higher after the FOMC Minutes noted most officials saw significant upside risks to inflation which could require further tightening, while participants also reflected on several weak data releases from the region. ASX 200 retreated as participants digested a slew of earnings releases and disappointing jobs data which showed a surprise contraction in the headline employment change and a larger-than-expected uptick in the unemployment rate. Nikkei 225 declined after soft data releases including the miss on machinery orders and although the declines in exports and imports weren’t as bad as feared, exports printed in contraction territory for the first time in 29 months. Hang Seng and Shanghai Comp were pressured at the open which saw the Hong Kong benchmark enter bear market territory after declining more than 20% from its January high amid earnings-related disappointment following results from Tencent and JD.com, although Chinese markets then recovered most of the earlier losses following another firm liquidity injection by the central bank and recent economic pledges by Premier Li.

Top Asian News

China reportedly told state banks to escalate Yuan intervention this week, according to Bloomberg sources.
PBoC said it will keep the Yuan rate basically stable, will keep liquidity reasonably ample, prudent policy will be precise and forceful, and will resolutely prevent over-adjustment risks of CNY exchange rate.
China shadow banking Co. Zhongzhi plans a debt restructuring and hired KPMG, while it is seeking strategic investors, according to sources cited by Reuters.

European bourses trade on the backfoot after succumbing to the selling pressure seen Stateside and during APAC trade, while macro newsflow has been light. Sectors are mostly lower with Industrial Goods & Services names bottom of the pile amid losses in BAE Systems (BA/ LN) after the Co. confirmed the acquisition of the Ball Aerospace business from Ball Corporation (BALL) for USD 5.55bln in cash. Elsewhere, other laggards include Travel & Leisure and Construction & Materials, whilst to the upside. Stateside, equity futures are flat/modestly firmer following risk-off trade seen at yesterday’s close with the FOMC Minutes unable to cap the negativity.

Top European News

Norges Bank hiked its Key Policy Rate by 25bps as expected to 4.00%, and sees another hike in September. The future policy rate path will depend on economic developments. If the economy evolves as currently anticipated, the policy rate will be raised further in September. Activity in the Norwegian economy remains high, and the labour market is tight. Consumer price inflation has edged down but remains high and markedly above the target. Underlying inflation has remained elevated. If the NOK proves to be weaker than previously projected or pressures in the economy persist, a higher policy rate than signalled in June may be needed to bring down inflation. If there is a more pronounced slowdown in the Norwegian economy or inflation declines more rapidly, the policy rate may be lower than envisaged in June.
ECB’s Kazaks said it is good news that inflation is coming down, needs to see the new ECB forecasts before deciding on hikes; any additional hikes would be small, according to Bloomberg.
Spain’s Socialist Party reaches agreement in principle with Catalan Separatist party Junts to elect lower House Speaker, via ABC Newspaper.

DXY faded from best levels after extending gains on the back of broad risk aversion and further weakness in EM currencies rather than independent factors.
AUD and NOK are at opposite ends of the G10 spectrum, the Aussie suffered a double whammy as the labour market report revealed an unexpected fall in employment and firmer than forecast unemployment rate. Conversely, the Norwegian Krona saw enough in the Norges Bank’s accompanying statement to test bids/support around 11.5000 vs the Euro.
PBoC set USD/CNY mid-point at 7.2076 vs exp. 7.3047 (prev. 7.1986)
China’s major state-owned banks’ branches were seen selling dollars to buy yuan in the offshore FX market during London and New York trading hours this week and were also seen selling dollars to buy yuan in the onshore FX market, according to sources cited by Reuters.
RBI was likely selling dollars via state-run banks, according to traders cited by Reuters.

Fixed Income

Debt futures have been choppy in the aftermath of a risk-off APAC session and with some follow-through from the FOMC minutes that featured a hawkish line, but in the context of recent sessions price action has been somewhat restrained.
Bunds, Gilts and the T-note all remain in negative territory between 130.89-40, 92.00-91.61 and 109.20+/109-05+ respective bounds, though inside current w-t-d ranges awaiting the next major market-mover or catalyst.
France sold EUR 8.44bln vs. Exp. EUR 7.5-8.5bln 2.50% 2026, 2.75% 2029, 1.50% 2031 OAT.

Commodities

WTI and Brent front-month futures tilted higher this morning following APAC consolidation, with little in the way of fresh newsflow to drive price action.
Spot gold is flat intraday under the USD 1,900/oz mark after relinquishing the level amid the recent Dollar strength, with the yellow metal pulling further away from its 200 DMA (1,905.86/oz).
Base metals are holding modest gains with some impetus seen from the aforementioned revivals of Chinese sentiment towards the end of their trading day.
Woodside Energy (WDS AT) workers will reportedly vote tonight on industrial action at LNG platforms, according to CNBC TV citing sources.
US reportedly plans to escalate its dispute with Mexico over genetically modified corn, according to Bloomberg sources.
NHC said Hilary forecast to rapidly intensify and become a Hurricane very soon, according to Reuters.

Geopolitics

US plan new tariffs on food-can metal from China, Germany and Canada, according to WSJ; Levies announced in response to dumping allegations could raise canned food prices, industry group saysChinese products would be subject to the highest tariffs of the three countries, a levy of 122.52% o their import value.
Russian Ambassador to the US said issues of prisoner swaps are being solved by relevant bodies of Russia and the US, while he added that this channel has proved to be effective, according to Reuter.
South Korean lawmaker said there is a possibility for another spy satellite launch in North Korea between the end of August and early September, while there are signs that North Korea is preparing an ICBM launch, citing the spy agency.
North Korea and Russia agreed to military cooperation during a recent meeting between North Korean leader Kim and Russia’s Defence Minister, according to Yonhap.

US Event Calendar

08:30: Aug. Initial Jobless Claims, est. 240,000, prior 248,000
08:30: Aug. Continuing Claims, est. 1.7m, prior 1.68m
08:30: Aug. Philadelphia Fed Business Outl, est. -10.2, prior -13.5
10:00: July Leading Index, est. -0.4%, prior -0.7%

DB’s Jim Reid concludes the overnight wrap

Markets have witnessed some big milestones over the last 24 hours, as robust US data and fresh signs of inflationary pressures sent global yields up to new highs. Most notably, yesterday saw the 10yr US Treasury yield rise another +3.9bps to 4.25%, which is its highest closing level since 2008, and this morning it’s up a further +3.6bps to 4.29%. That comes as markets are taking the prospect of another hike from the Fed increasingly seriously, with futures now pricing in a 45% chance of a further hike by the November meeting. But as well as the upcoming decisions, it’s clear that investors are adjusting to the fact that rates could remain at a higher level for some time. Indeed, futures for the rate at the Fed’s December 2024 meeting are now at their highest level so far this cycle, at 4.34%.

There were several catalysts behind the latest moves, but an important one was some further upside surprises in US data that led to growing optimism about the state of the economy. In particular, July’s industrial production grew by +1.0% (vs. +0.3% expected), and there was a very strong monthly growth rate of +5.2% for motor vehicles and parts. As a result, the Atlanta Fed’s GDPNow model moved to forecast that Q3 growth would come in at an annualised pace of +5.8%, and our own US economists have upgraded their Q3 growth forecast to an annualised +3.1% (link here). But all the good news on the economy wasn’t entirely positive for markets, as it helped cement investors’ conviction that tight monetary policy was likely to persist for some time.

That view was then given added support by the latest Fed minutes from the July meeting, which confirmed that the FOMC still had a tightening bias. For instance, it said that most participants “continued to see significant upside risks to inflation, which could require further tightening of monetary policy”. The minutes also echoed Chair Powell’s focus on growth and labour markets, and whether “product and labour markets were reaching a better balance between demand and supply”. So while inflation has been more encouraging of late, activity data that’s still strong ought to keep the Fed’s hawkish bias as we move towards the September meeting. According to the minutes, a “couple” of members favoured keeping rates unchanged in July, which is effectively in line with the June dot plot that had two dots for no further hikes in 2023.

The Fed minutes added some impetus to the Treasury sell-off, with several new milestones across the curve. As mentioned at the top, the 10yr Treasury yield (+3.9bps) moved higher for a 5th consecutive session to close at 4.25%, its highest level since 2008. And it was real yields that led the increase, with the 10yr real yield (+4.9bps) closing at a post-2009 high of 1.93%, whilst the 2yr real yield (+5.5bps) hit its own post-2009 high of 3.15%. There were also growing signs that higher yields were filtering through to the real economy, as MBA data showed that the average 30yr fixed rate mortgage reached 7.16% last week, in line with its previous peak last October.

With the prospect of higher rates for longer continuing to loom ahead of Jackson Hole next week, equities put in another downbeat performance. The S&P 500 shed another -0.76% to hit a 5-week low, and the NASDAQ (-1.15x%) saw an even larger decline as it hit a 7-week low. The megacap tech stocks were among the worst performers yesterday, with the FANG+ index (-1.69%) posting a sizeable decline. Over in Europe, the equity decline was more modest, with the STOXX 600 down -0.06% to its own 5-week low.

That tone has continued overnight as well, with the major equity indices in Asia posting modest losses for the most part. That includes the KOSPI (-0.39%), the Nikkei (-0.32%), the Hang Seng (-0.12%) and the CSI 300 (-0.05%), although the Shanghai Comp is up +0.01%. Indeed at one point earlier in the session this morning, the Hang Seng was on track for bear market territory, having shed more than 20% since its recent peak in January, although it’s since pared back those losses. The offshore Yuan has also continued to weaken overnight, and now stands at 7.340 per US dollar, which is almost at its recent low from early November when it closed at 7.343.

Elsewhere in markets yesterday, UK gilts were the biggest underperformer after the latest CPI print for July pointed to resilient price pressures. It’s true that the headline CPI print fell to +6.8%, but it was still a tenth above expectations and the core CPI rate also remained at +6.9% (vs. +6.8% expected). In addition, even as the headline measure has been coming down, the latest print still leaves the UK with the highest inflation rate in the G7, whilst the closely-watched services CPI rate actually moved up two-tenths to +7.4%.

That UK release follows some very strong wage growth data earlier in the week, and meant that investors continued to price in a more aggressive path of rate hikes from the BoE over the months ahead. For instance, overnight index swaps are now pricing in a 30% likelihood of a larger 50bps move at the next meeting, as well as a terminal policy rate above 6%. Gilt yields also moved higher across the curve, with the 10yr yield up +5.7bps to 4.64%, whilst the 10yr real yield (+3.9bps) hit its highest level since last year’s mini-budget turmoil at 0.86%. However, there was a stronger performance elsewhere in Europe, with yields on 10yr bunds (-2.5bps), OATs (-2.3bps) and BTPs (-0.4bps) all moving lower.

Yesterday’s risk-off tone was also evident among commodities. For instance, oil prices fell by more than 1% for the second day in a row, with Brent down -1.70% to $83.45/bl and WTI down -1.99% to $79.38/bl. Meanwhile, Bloomberg’s industrials metals index fell to its lowest since February 2021, having declined by -8.59% since the end of July.

Lastly, we had a few other data releases yesterday, including on US housing. That showed housing starts up to an annualised pace of 1.452m in July (vs. 1.450m expected), and building permits up to an annualised 1.442m (vs. 1.463m expected). Meanwhile in the Euro Area, industrial production grew by +0.5% in June (vs. unch expected), though our economists note that this outperformance versus expectations came due to the distorted data from Ireland.

2 b) NOW NEWSQUAWK (EUROPE/REPORT)/ASIA REPORT

EUROPE/ASIA

European bourses lower, US equities bid, AUD underperforms; US IJC & WMT earning due – Newsquawk US Market Open

THURSDAY, AUG 17, 2023 – 06:14 AM

European bourses trade on the backfoot after succumbing to the selling pressure seen Stateside and during APAC trade, while macro newsflow has been light.
DXY faded from best levels after extending gains on the back of broad risk aversion, EUR sees several large option expiries, AUD underperforms after the Aussie jobs report.
WTI and Brent front-month futures tilted higher this morning following APAC consolidation, with little in the way of fresh newsflow to drive price action.
Norges Bank hiked its Key Policy Rate by 25bps as expected to 4.00%, and sees another hike in September.
Looking ahead, highlights include highlights include US IJC, Philadelphia Fed Business Index, Norges Policy Announcement, Earnings from Walmart & Applied Materials.

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EUROPEAN TRADE

EQUITIES

European bourses trade on the backfoot after succumbing to the selling pressure seen Stateside and during APAC trade, while macro newsflow has been light.
Sectors are mostly lower with Industrial Goods & Services names bottom of the pile amid losses in BAE Systems (BA/ LN) after the Co. confirmed the acquisition of the Ball Aerospace business from Ball Corporation (BALL) for USD 5.55bln in cash. Elsewhere, other laggards include Travel & Leisure and Construction & Materials, whilst to the upside.
Stateside, equity futures are flat/modestly firmer following risk-off trade seen at yesterday’s close with the FOMC Minutes unable to cap the negativity.
Click here for more detail.
Click here and here for a recap of the main European equity updates.

FX

DXY faded from best levels after extending gains on the back of broad risk aversion and further weakness in EM currencies rather than independent factors.
AUD and NOK are at opposite ends of the G10 spectrum, the Aussie suffered a double whammy as the labour market report revealed an unexpected fall in employment and firmer than forecast unemployment rate. Conversely, the Norwegian Krona saw enough in the Norges Bank’s accompanying statement to test bids/support around 11.5000 vs the Euro.
PBoC set USD/CNY mid-point at 7.2076 vs exp. 7.3047 (prev. 7.1986)
China’s major state-owned banks’ branches were seen selling dollars to buy yuan in the offshore FX market during London and New York trading hours this week and were also seen selling dollars to buy yuan in the onshore FX market, according to sources cited by Reuters.
RBI was likely selling dollars via state-run banks, according to traders cited by Reuters.
Click here for more detail.
Click here for the Option Expires for the NY Cut.

FIXED INCOME

Debt futures have been choppy in the aftermath of a risk-off APAC session and with some follow-through from the FOMC minutes that featured a hawkish line, but in the context of recent sessions price action has been somewhat restrained.
Bunds, Gilts and the T-note all remain in negative territory between 130.89-40, 92.00-91.61 and 109.20+/109-05+ respective bounds, though inside current w-t-d ranges awaiting the next major market-mover or catalyst.
France sold EUR 8.44bln vs. Exp. EUR 7.5-8.5bln 2.50% 2026, 2.75% 2029, 1.50% 2031 OAT.
Click here for more detail.

COMMODITIES

WTI and Brent front-month futures tilted higher this morning following APAC consolidation, with little in the way of fresh newsflow to drive price action.
Spot gold is flat intraday under the USD 1,900/oz mark after relinquishing the level amid the recent Dollar strength, with the yellow metal pulling further away from its 200 DMA (1,905.86/oz).
Base metals are holding modest gains with some impetus seen from the aforementioned revivals of Chinese sentiment towards the end of their trading day.
Woodside Energy (WDS AT) workers will reportedly vote tonight on industrial action at LNG platforms, according to CNBC TV citing sources.
US reportedly plans to escalate its dispute with Mexico over genetically modified corn, according to Bloomberg sources.
NHC said Hilary forecast to rapidly intensify and become a Hurricane very soon, according to Reuters.
Click here for more detail.

NOTABLE US HEADLINES

Tesla’s (TSLA) revamped Model 3 mass China output may begin next month, Bloomberg reported.

NOTABLE EUROPEAN HEADLINES

ECB’s Kazaks said it is good news that inflation is coming down, needs to see the new ECB forecasts before deciding on hikes; any additional hikes would be small, according to Bloomberg.
Spain’s Socialist Party reaches agreement in principle with Catalan Separatist party Junts to elect lower House Speaker, via ABC Newspaper.
Norges Bank hiked its Key Policy Rate by 25bps as expected to 4.00%, and sees another hike in September. The future policy rate path will depend on economic developments. If the economy evolves as currently anticipated, the policy rate will be raised further in September. Activity in the Norwegian economy remains high, and the labour market is tight. Consumer price inflation has edged down but remains high and markedly above the target. Underlying inflation has remained elevated. If the NOK proves to be weaker than previously projected or pressures in the economy persist, a higher policy rate than signalled in June may be needed to bring down inflation. If there is a more pronounced slowdown in the Norwegian economy or inflation declines more rapidly, the policy rate may be lower than envisaged in June.

GEOPOLITICS

US plan new tariffs on food-can metal from China, Germany and Canada, according to WSJ; Levies announced in response to dumping allegations could raise canned food prices, industry group saysChinese products would be subject to the highest tariffs of the three countries, a levy of 122.52% o their import value.
Russian Ambassador to the US said issues of prisoner swaps are being solved by relevant bodies of Russia and the US, while he added that this channel has proved to be effective, according to Reuter.
South Korean lawmaker said there is a possibility for another spy satellite launch in North Korea between the end of August and early September, while there are signs that North Korea is preparing an ICBM launch, citing the spy agency.
North Korea and Russia agreed to military cooperation during a recent meeting between North Korean leader Kim and Russia’s Defence Minister, according to Yonhap.

CRYPTO

Bitcoin is subdued after falling under the USD 29,000 mark towards USD 28,500.

APAC TRADE

APAC stocks mostly suffered another day of selling and followed suit to the losses on Wall St as yields continued to edge higher after the FOMC Minutes noted most officials saw significant upside risks to inflation which could require further tightening, while participants also reflected on several weak data releases from the region.
ASX 200 retreated as participants digested a slew of earnings releases and disappointing jobs data which showed a surprise contraction in the headline employment change and a larger-than-expected uptick in the unemployment rate.
Nikkei 225 declined after soft data releases including the miss on machinery orders and although the declines in exports and imports weren’t as bad as feared, exports printed in contraction territory for the first time in 29 months.
Hang Seng and Shanghai Comp were pressured at the open which saw the Hong Kong benchmark enter bear market territory after declining more than 20% from its January high amid earnings-related disappointment following results from Tencent and JD.com, although Chinese markets then recovered most of the earlier losses following another firm liquidity injection by the central bank and recent economic pledges by Premier Li.

NOTABLE ASIA-PAC HEADLINES

China reportedly told state banks to escalate Yuan intervention this week, according to Bloomberg sources.
PBoC said it will keep the Yuan rate basically stable, will keep liquidity reasonably ample, prudent policy will be precise and forceful, and will resolutely prevent over-adjustment risks of CNY exchange rate.
China shadow banking Co. Zhongzhi plans a debt restructuring and hired KPMG, while it is seeking strategic investors, according to sources cited by Reuters.

DATA RECAP

Japanese Trade Balance Total Yen (Jul) -78.7B vs. Exp. 24.6B (Prev. 43.0B)
Japanese Exports YY (Jul) -0.3% vs. Exp. -0.8% (Prev. 1.5%)
Japanese Imports YY (Jul) -13.5% vs. Exp. -14.7% (Prev. -12.9%)
Japanese Machinery Orders MM (Jun) 2.7% vs. Exp. 3.6% (Prev. -7.6%)
Japanese Machinery Orders YY (Jun) -5.8% vs. Exp. -5.5% (Prev. -8.7%)
Singapore Non-Oil Exports MM (Jul) -3.4% vs. Exp. 1.0% (Prev. 5.4%)
Singapore Non-Oil Exports YY (Jul) -20.2% vs. Exp. -14.4% (Prev. -15.5%)
Australian Employment (Jul) -14.6k vs. Exp. 15.0k (Prev. 32.6k)
Australian Unemployment Rate (Jul) 3.7% vs. Exp. 3.6% (Prev. 3.5%)
Australian Participation Rate (Jul) 66.7% vs. Exp. 66.8% (Prev. 66.8%)

2 c. ASIAN AFFAIRS

ASIAN AND AUSTRALIAN CLOSINGS//EUROPE OPENING TRADING:

THURSDAY MORNING/WEDNESDAY NIGHT

2 d./NORTH KOREA/ SOUTH KOREA/

////SOUTH KOREA/NORTH KOREA/

END

2e) JAPAN

JAPAN

deadly to Japan and to the world:

“Miserable” 20Y JGB Auction Tails Most Since 1987, Adding To Bond Gloom

THURSDAY, AUG 17, 2023 – 10:05 AM

This morning global bond yields hitting a 15 year high, a move that was catalyzed by what Bloomberg dubbed a “miserable” 20 year auction, which priced with the longest tail – or the difference between average and cut-off prices – since 1987, while the bid-to-cover ratio fell to the lowest since September.

The Ministry of Finance sold about 992.5 billion yen ($6.78 billion) of the bond at an average yield of 1.322%, with the yield at 1.385% for the lowest accepted price. The dismal reception promptly sent yields to the highest level since January.

Traders pointed to huge tail as well as the low 2.8 bid-to-cover ratio for this bond, compared with the strong 3.5 ratio at last week’s 30-year auction as the reason for the rise in yields.

The results of the auction came as a “surprise,” said Shoki Omori, chief desk strategist at Mizuho Securities, with demand coming in extremely weak. Omori said the 20-year bond was an outlier because of the absence of a defined buyer profile and that most people with short positions in JGBs had bought before the auction.

“The buyers for the 30-year bonds were mainly life insurers, which had been steadily buying 30-year bonds (before the auction,” said Kaoru Shoji, Japan rates strategist at SMBC Nikko Securities.

“On the other hand, banks and pension funds were the main players in the 20-year bond auction. For them, the current level might not be cheap enough as yields may rise further as U.S Treasury yields are rising, and there is speculation that the BOJ may end its negative-rate policy.”

Yields on other tenors inched up too. The five-year yield rose 2 bps to 0.225%. While still far from the defacto upper bound of 1% that the Bank of Japan has set, the 10-year JGB yield hit 0.655%, up from a low of 0.565% last week.

Since the BOJ’s monetary policy meeting at the end of July, when the central bank tweaked its YCC to allow the 10Y to rise as high as 1%, investors have been carefully testing to see how much the BOJ will allow yields to rise. The last time the 10-year yield hit 0.655 the central bank stepped in with an emergency bond-buying operation.

As Bloomberg’s Tommi Utoslahti writes, the “miserable” auction may well reflect mounting bets the Bank of Japan’s YCC will soon be loosened. But it’s also a significant warning sign for global government debt at a time when yields are already at 15-year highs. Soaring JGB yields would put further upward pressure on the rest of the world, and also mean tougher fiscal budget challenges.

Commenting on the auction, Saxo’s Althea Spinozzi wrote that “rising JGB yields threaten bonds worldwide, so we see EU and US sovereign yields accelerating their rise this morning.”

As noted earlier, global government bond yields extended their climb to the highest levels since the financial crisis after hawkish FOMC comments and resilient economic data challenges the view that central banks rates are peaking.

The 10-year TSY yield approached 4.31%, within a few basis points of its 2022 peak. The equivalent UK yield jumped to a 15-year high, while its German counterpart approached the highest since 2011.

END

deadly//this morning

Yield | 10:58 PM JST

0.656%+0.026

Japan 10 Year Government Bond

WATCHLIST

Last Updated: Aug 17, 2023 6:00 p.m. JST

3 CHINA /

CHINA

China’s problems mount as the PBOC beg funds not to sell stocks

(zerohedge)

Beijing Begs Funds Not To Sell Stocks As China Challenges Mount

WEDNESDAY, AUG 16, 2023 – 05:20 PM

Beijing, you have a problem…

Amid a ‘reopening‘ that is barely noticeable, an ongoing slump in real estate, a brewing (or boiling may be a better analogy) crisis in the shadow-banking system, record high youth unemployment (which is so bad, it’s hidden from the public’s view now), Chinese authorities cut interest rates and injected liquidity this week in hopes of raising sentiment (because the actual liquidity appears to merely be filling a leaking bucket given the lack of demand for credit last month).

The hopes of a sentiment shift did not work as Chinese stocks and the yuan continued lower.

So, Beijing reached down into its old bag of tricks and tapped stock market investors on the shoulder overnight.

Bloomberg reports that Chinese authorities asked some investment funds this week to avoid being net sellers of equities, as a rout in the nation’s financial markets deepened.

Despite denials from official sources, stock exchanges issued the so-called window guidance to several large mutual fund houses, telling them to refrain for a day from selling more onshore shares than they purchased, according to the people who asked not to be identified discussing private information.

The instructions were relayed to fund managers through investment executives at the firms, they added.

The authorities issued similar instructions to investment firms several times last year, according to the people.

Chinese stocks did bounce briefly as the headlines crossed overnight (green shade), but after lunch, the selling resumed…

Source: Bloomberg

Pushing the major Chinese index back to critical support at 2023 lows…

Source: Bloomberg

Additionally, after an initial rally, China’s offshore yuan fell back to fresh YTD lows, down for the 10th of the last 12 days (back at its weakest vs the greenback since early Nov 2022)…

Source: Bloomberg

Notably, the chart shows that CNH selling tends to hit as Europe opens.

Finally, we note that history shows that such guidance tends to do little to support the market.

After the authorities were said to have made a similar request in September, the CSI 300 gauge plunged about 10% in the following few weeks to reach the lowest in over three years.

end

Beijing Bullies Banks Into Buying Routed Renminbi

THURSDAY, AUG 17, 2023 – 02:05 PM

A day after Beijing pressured investment funds ‘not to sell’ stocks, Bloomberg reports that, according to people familiar with the matter, Chinese authorities told state-owned banks to step up intervention in the currency market this week, in a push to prevent a surge in yuan volatility.

And sure enough, after 5 straight days lower, China’s offshore yuan rallied overnight…

Source: Bloomberg

Despite lots of ‘carrots’ this week – a surprise interest-rate cut, a string of stronger-than-expected daily reference rates for the yuan, and large injections of short-term cash to the financial system – Chinese authorities had failed to inspire confidence…

Source: Bloomberg

As a reminder, the so-called fixing limits the onshore yuan’s moves by 2% on either side each day (and th elast three days have seen the offshore yuan test the lower bounds)…

Source: Bloomberg

And so they broke out the old ‘stick’ as authorities were also checking whether domestic companies helped accelerate yuan declines by conducting speculative trades against it.

“While the authorities are trying to guide a stronger yuan fix, market forces still dictates,” said Janet Mui, head of market analysis at RBC Brewin Dolphin.

“It seems PBOC is okay for a gradual yuan depreciation. They will fight big and sharp moves though.”

In its recent monetary policy report, the PBOC warned that China will resolutely prevent excessive adjustment in the yuan.

Chinese policymakers have the right tools, the experience and confidence to maintain “orderly functioning of the foreign-exchange market,” the central bank said.

Notably the tap on the shoulder came as the offshore yuan traded around 7.35 – a well-watched level historically.

The yuan “should be weak enough to support the export industry, but not dramatically weakening as this would increase pressure of capital that wants to leave to country,” said Ulrich Leuchtmann, head of currency strategy at Commerzbank AG.

The last time the Renminbi was here (around 7.30), Beijing also aggressively fixed the yuan higher, also trying to support the currency…

Source: Bloomberg

Finally, Bloomberg reports the same sources claiming that senior officials are also considering the use of tools such as cutting banks’ foreign-exchange reserve requirements to prevent a rapid depreciation in the currency.

In other words, open-mouth operations first before being forced into actual market moves.

Finally, we see a decoupling between USTs and yuan today…

Some have suggested Treasuries are a natural ‘source of funds’ for the intervention in Chinese FX markets (sell the bond, receive USDs, sell the dollars against yuan).

END

4.EUROPEAN AFFAIRS//UK /SCANDAVIAN AFFAIRS

EUROPE/

5 RUSSIA//UKRAINE AND MIDDLE EASTERN AFFAIRS

RUSSIA/UKRAINE

Russia destroys grain silos along the Danube. USA needs an alternative Ukraine shipping route. It is more costly via land routes. Moscow attacked these sites as well.

(zerohedge)

Russia Destroys Grain Silos Along Danube As US Pushes For ‘Alternative’ Ukraine Shipping Routes

WEDNESDAY, AUG 16, 2023 – 06:40 PM

The United States is actively pursuing ways for Ukraine to boost its grain exports via alternative routes after Russia pulled out of the Black Sea Grain Initiative deal this summer. This involves NATO-member Romania, and presents the increasingly dangerous prospect of Russia and a NATO country entering potential clashes.

The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday that the US has been holding talks with Turkey, Ukraine, and its neighbors about exporting up to four million tons of grain a month by October, using the Danube River route.Aftermath of Russian attack in grain storage facility in Odesa region,Source: Ukraine’s South Command

“Much of the grain would be sent down the river and via the Black Sea to nearby ports in Romania and shipped onward to other destinations,” wrote the WSJ. “Though slower and more expensive, the route would work as an alternative to a Black Sea shipping corridor established last year under an agreement with Russia, Turkey and the United Nations.”

Ukraine has also been having to rely on slower and much more expensive, logistically challenging overland routes for more and more of its foodstuff exports, while some 50% of its exports must still flow through Black Sea routes.

But any attempt to ramp up sea routes is more dangerous, given Russia has over several weeks increased its attacks on Ukrainian ports and event sent commandos to board a shipping vessel in the Black Sea which was headed toward Romania…

An unnamed US official said the Biden administration “is considering all potential options, including military solutions” to ensure the safety of ships entering Ukraine’s ports on the Danube. As part of the mulled plan, vessels would leave Ukrainian ports and enter Romanian ones and from there be shipped to outside destinations.

However, the Russian naval intercept incident of an allegedly ‘unauthorized’ Turkish vessel bound for Romania and Ukraine highlights that Moscow’s readiness to crackdown on any ‘alternate’ routes for Ukrainian grain. Its forces have even bombed grain silos on the Danube, provocatively close to NATO-member Romania’s territory.

There has been yet another attack Wednesday, per the AP: “Russian drones pounded grain storage facilities and ports along the Danube River that Ukraine has increasingly relied on as an alternative transport route to Europe, after Moscow broke off a key wartime shipping agreement using the Black Sea,” the report says.

“At the same time, a loaded container ship stranded at the Black Sea port of Odesa since Russia’s full-scale invasion more than 17 months ago set sail along a temporary corridor established by Ukraine for merchant shipping,” it added. Thus it appears there are some early attempts in motion at freeing up an alternate corridor. But Russia’s military is continuing to bring the pressure.

END

NATO/RUSSIA/UKRAINE

NATO for the first time suggests that Ukraine could cede territory to Russia

(DeCamp/Antiwar).

NATO Suggests For First Time Ukraine Could Cede Territory

THURSDAY, AUG 17, 2023 – 02:00 AM

Authored by Dave DeCamp via AntiWar.com,

A NATO official has suggested Ukraine could cede some territory to Russia in exchange for joining the Western military alliance.

The comments were made on Tuesday by Stian Jenssen, chief of staff for NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, and reported by the Norwegian newspaper VG. “I think that a solution could be for Ukraine to give up territory, and get NATO membership in return,” he said, adding that it should be up to Ukraine when and on what terms to negotiate.Stian Jenssen (right), chief of staff for NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg.

Jenssen said the issue of Ukraine’s status after the war is being discussed within the alliance and that some countries have raised the possibility of Kyiv ceding some territory. The comments come as the Ukrainian counteroffensive is stalling, and Western officials are admitting it’s very unlikely to succeed.

The comments mark the first time that a high-level NATO official suggested Ukraine might have to cede territory to Russia.

The US and NATO have backed Ukraine’s demands for peace, which include Russia withdrawing from all the territory it has captured since invading, as well as giving up Crimea, which has been Russian-controlled since 2014.

Jenssen’s suggestion drew a sharp rebuke from Ukraine:

“Trading territory for a NATO umbrella? It is ridiculous,” Mykhailo Podolyak, an aide to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, wrote on X. “That means deliberately choosing the defeat of democracy, encouraging a global criminal, preserving the Russian regime, destroying international law, and passing the war on to other generations.”

Podolyak said the war could only end if Russian President Vladimir Putin is defeated. “Obviously, if Putin does not suffer a crushing defeat, the political regime in Russia does not change, and war criminals are not punished, the war will definitely return with Russia’s appetite for more,” he said.

Russia would likely not go for any post-war settlement that involves Ukraine joining NATO as long as it can keep fueling the war since one of its main motives for invading was Kyiv’s alignment with NATO.

end

NATO Official Retracts Russian Land-Grab Suggestion As Means To Broker Peace In Ukraine

THURSDAY, AUG 17, 2023 – 08:45 AM

Via Remix News,

The NATO official who angered Ukraine by seemingly suggesting a land for peace deal with Russia has retracted his words, explaining that the quote in question was taken out of a larger, more comprehensive context.

As Remix News recently reported, Stian Jenssen, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg’s chief of staff, spoke to the Norwegian press on Tuesday. Stoltenberg has so far cautiously avoided questions about what Ukraine should do to end the war. The NATO chief has consistently replied that the decision on whether to start negotiations with Russia belongs to Ukraine alone, not to third countries.

Asked by journalists from the Norwegian newspaper VG whether Ukraine has to give up land in order to achieve peace and NATO membership, Jenssen suggested that the issue had already been discussed within the alliance.

“I’m not saying it has to be that way, but it could be a possible solution,” he added.

By Wednesday afternoon, Jenssen regretted having angered the Ukrainians with his statement and immediately retracted it. Jenssen clarified the issue to the Norwegian newspaper VG, where the original statement was published.

About his statement a day earlier, he said it was “a mistake,” adding by way of explanation:

“it was part of a larger discussion about possible future scenarios in Ukraine, and I shouldn’t have said it that way. If — and I stressed if — they get to the point where they can negotiate, the military posture on the battlefield will play an absolutely central role and will have a decisive influence on the terms on which peace will be achieved.”

end

BRICS+ MEETING AUG 22-25

A good read..

Pepe Escobar

Escobar: From Bukhara To BRICS, Searching For Light In The Darkness Of Insanity

WEDNESDAY, AUG 16, 2023 – 11:40 PM

Authored by Pepe Escobar,

On the SCO, Russia, China, India, Iran and Pakistan sit at the same table…

Bukhara The Noble, the “Dome of Islam”, with a history stretching back 2.500 years, bears too many marvels to mention: from the two-millennia-old Ark, a fortress around which the city developed, to the 48-meter high Kalon minaret, built in 1127, which so impressed Genghis Khan that he ordered it not to be razed.

The elegant, single turquoise band near the top of the minaret is the earliest example of glazed tilework all across the Heartland.

According to the Shanameh, the Persian epic, the hero Siyavush founded the city after marrying the daughter of neighboring Afrasiab. Even before the Ancient Silk Roads were in business, Bukhara thrived as a caravan crossroads – its city gates pointing to Merv (in today’s Turkmenistan), Herat (in western Afghanistan), Khiva and Samarkand.

Bukhara’s apex was in the 9th-10th centuries under the Samanid dynasty, as it turned into a Mecca of Persian culture and science. That was the time of al-Biruni, the poet Rudaki and of course Avicenna: they all had access to the legendary Treasure of Wisdom, a library that in the Islamic world would only be rivalled by the House of Wisdom in Baghdad.

Bukhara was largely razed by Genghis Khan and the Mongols in 1220 (yes: only the minaret was spared). When the great Moroccan traveler Ibn Battuta visited in 1333, most of the city was still in ruins.

But then, in 1318, someone very special had been born in Kasri Orifon, a village outside of Bukhara. At first he was simply known as Muhammad, after his father and grandfather, whose origins reached Hazrat Ali. But History ruled that Muhammad would eventually become famous all over the lands of Islam as the Sufi saint Bahauddin Naqshbandi.

What’s in a name? Everything. Bahauddin means “the light of religion” and Naqshbandi means “chaser”. His upbringing was enriched by several pirs (“saints”) and sheikhs living in and around Bukhara. He spent almost all his life in these oases, very poor and always relying on his own manual labor, with no slaves or servants.

Bahauddin Naqshbandi ended up founding a highly influential tariqa – Islamic school – based on a very simple concept: “Occupy your heart with Allah and your hands with work”. The concept was developed in other 11 rules, or rashas (“drops”).

What’s coming out of those “five fingers”

A visit to the Bahauddin Naqshbandi complex outside of Bukhara, centered around the tomb of the 14th century Sufi saint who is in fact the city’s spiritual protector, is an illuminating experience: such a peaceful atmosphere enveloping an appeasing network of holy stones, “wishing trees” and the odd sacrificial offering.

This is the essence of what could be defined as a parallel Islam infusing so many latitudes across the Heartland, combining an animist past with formal Islamic teachings.

At the complex, we meet scores of lovely, colorfully dressed Uzbek women from all regions and pilgrims from all over Central Asia but also from West and South Asia. Uzbek President Mirzoyoyev, extremely popular, was here late last week, and he came straight from the nearby, brand new, airport.

This oasis of peace and meditation offers not only a sharp contrast to the toxic turbulence of the times but also inspires us to search for sanity among the madness. After all, one of Naqshbandi’s rashas states, “our way is conversation, good deeds are found only in mutual communication, but not in seclusion.”

So let’s apply Sufi wisdom to the upcoming, possibly ground-breaking moment that should solidify the path of the Global Majority towards a more equitable, less deranged pattern of international relations: the 15th BRICS summit in South Africa next week.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi has coined a concise definition that embodies a fascinating mix of Confucianism and Sufism:

“The BRICS countries are like five fingers: short and long if extended, but a powerful fist if clenched together.”

How to clench these fingers into a powerful fist has been the work of quite a few sherpas in preparation for the summit.

But soon this will not be a matter related to a fist, but to fists, arms, legs and in fact, a whole body. That’s where BRICS+ comes in.

Among the network of new multilateral organizations involved in preparing and acting out a new system of international relations, BRICS is now seen as the premier Global South, or Global Majority, or “Global Globe” (copyright Lukashenko) platform.

We are still far away from the transition towards a new “world system” – to quote Wallerstein – but without BRICS even baby steps would be impossible.

South Africa will seal the first coordinates for the BRICS+ expansion – which may go on indefinitely. After all, large swathes of the “Global Globe” already have stated, formally (23 nations) and informally (countless “expressions of interest”, according to the South African Foreign Ministry) they want in.

The official list – subject to change – of those nations who want to be part of BRICS+ as soon as possible is a Global South’s who’s who:

Algeria, Argentina, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Belarus, Bolivia, Cuba, Egypt, Ethiopia, Honduras, Indonesia, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Morocco, Nigeria, the State of Palestine, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Thailand, UAE, Venezuela and Vietnam.

Then there’s Africa: the “five fingers”, via South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, invited no less than 67 leaders from Africa and the Global South to follow the BRICS-Africa Outreach and BRICS+ Dialogues.

This all spells out what would be the key BRICS rasha, to evoke Naqshbandi: total Africa and Global South inclusion – all nations engaged in profitable conversations and equally respected in affirming their sovereignty.

The Persians strike back

A case can be made that Iran is in a privileged position to become one of the first BRICS+ members. It helps that Tehran already enjoys strategic partnership status with both Russia and China and also is a key partner of India in the International North South Transportation Corridor (INSTC).

Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian has already stated, on the record that, “the partnership between Iran and BRICS has in fact already started in some areas. In the field of transport, the North-South transport corridor connecting India to Russia via Iran is actually part of BRICS’ transport project.”

In parallel to breakthroughs on BRICS+, the “five fingers” will be relatively cautious on the de-dollarization front. Sherpas have already confirmed, off the record, there will be no official announcement of a new currency, but of more bilateral trade and multilateral trade using the members’ own currencies: for the moment the notorious R5 (renminbi, ruble, real, rupee and rand).

Belarussian leader Lukashenko, who coined “Global Globe” as a motto as strong, if not even more seductive than Global South, was the first to evoke a crucial policy coup that may take place further on down the road, with BRICS+ in effect: the merger of BRICS and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO).

Now Lukashenko is being echoed in public by former South African ambassador Kingsley Makhubela – as well as scores of “Global Globe” diplomats and analysts off the record: “In the future, BRICS and the SCO would match to form one entity (…) Because having the BRICS and the SCO running in parallel with the same members would not make sense.”

No question about that. The key BRICS drivers are Russia and China, with India slightly less influential for a number of complex reasons. On the SCO, Russia, China, India, Iran and Pakistan sit at the same table. The Eurasia focus of the SCO can easily be transplanted into BRICS+. Both organizations are “Global Globe”-centered; driving towards multipolarity; and most of all, committed to de-dollarization on all fronts.

It is indeed possible to have a Sufi reading of all these geopolitical and geoeconomic tectonic plates in motion. As much as the promoters of Divide and Rule as well as assorted dogs of war would be clueless visiting the Naqshbandi complex outside of Bukhara, the “Global Globe” may find all the answers it seeks as it engages in a process of conversation and mutual respect.

Bless these global souls – and may they find knowledge as if they were revisiting the Treasure of Wisdom of 10th century Bukhara.

6.GLOBAL ISSUES//MEDICAL ISSUES

end

GLOBAL ECONOMIC ISSUES//

* * *

END

GLOBAL VACCINE/COVID ISSUES

The Long Reach Of COVID-19: Unraveling The Cognitive Puzzle Of Recovery

WEDNESDAY, AUG 16, 2023 – 07:00 PM

Authored by Sheramy Tsai via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours)

Brain fog, the struggle to recall words, and forgetting why you entered a room may be more than mere annoyances. They could be lingering symptoms of COVID-19.(Pavlova Yuliia/Shutterstock)

Researchers in the UK found that individuals reporting long-lasting COVID-19 symptoms—persisting for at least three months post-infection—exhibited diminished capabilities in areas such as memory, reasoning, and motor control. The findings were recently published in The Lancet’s eClinicalMedicine journal.

“The fact remains that two years on from their first infection, some people don’t feel fully recovered, and their lives continue to be impacted by the long-term effects of the coronavirus,” Claire Steves, co-author of the study and a professor at King’s College London, wrote.

The study engaged 3,335 individuals from the United Kingdom COVID Symptom Study Biobank for a two-round evaluation spanning July 2021 to June 2022.

The participants, including both those who tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 and and those who tested negative, were assessed across 12 different tasks. These tasks were designed to test cognitive functions such as working memory, attention, reasoning, processing speed, and motor control.

The analysis specifically examined the effects of COVID-19 exposure on cognitive accuracy and reaction time. It also looked into the role of ongoing symptoms after infection with the aim to provide valuable insights into the impact of the virus on mental functions.

Researchers found notable cognitive deficits in individuals who tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 and experienced symptoms for 12 weeks or more. These deficits—detected in areas such as visual memory and attention—were comparable in scale to the effect of aging by 10 years or being hospitalized during the illness. Notably, the deficits persisted almost two years after the infection in some cases, which raised concerns about the lasting impact of COVID-19 on cognitive function.

When asked about the daily implications of cognitive deficits as compared with approximately 10 years of aging, Ms. Steves offered a sobering perspective to The Epoch Times.

“The effects are tangible, and although they are relatively small, they are probably noticeable in everyday life,” she explained.

Ms. Steves said that the data represent an average across varying cases. “The changes we report are average changes across groups of people, and some people will experience more or less,” she said.

Self-Perception of Illness and Recovery

The study also sheds new light on how people’s self-perception of their recovery from COVID-19 correlates with their actual ongoing symptoms. The research divided individuals who had developed COVID-19 into groups based on their responses to the question, “Thinking about the last or only episode of COVID-19 you have had, have you now recovered and are back to normal?”

Those who answered “Yes, I am back to normal” didn’t show cognitive deficits. “Importantly, we found no detectable impairment among people who reported as feeling recovered and ‘back to normal’ after their COVID-19 illness, even among individuals who experience long-term symptoms [for as long as or longer than] 12 weeks,” the authors noted.

On the other hand, those who answered “No, I still have some or all of my symptoms” revealed an increase in cognitive impairment. The study found that psychological distress and fatigue partially mediated these deficits.

According to the study’s authors, self-perceived recovery was “highly correlated with symptom duration.” This discovery aligns with smaller studies that have examined recovery self-assessment.

However, caution in interpretation is advised. Dr. Armen Nikogosian, a medical and functional physician treating long-COVID-19 patients, spoke about the complexity of the issue.

“Patients who suffer from the effects of long COVID are typically sidelined in conventional medicine,” he told Epoch Times. “It’s entirely possible that these patients continue to have symptoms not identified or validated by their healthcare providers.”

The relationship between self-perception, symptoms, and recovery appears multifaceted, and this study illuminates some aspects of that complexity.

Cognitive Decline Following COVID-19

Cognitive impairments following infections with viruses such as SARS-CoV-2 are well documented, but the experience of living with the resulting “brain fog” is a complex and distressing reality for many.

Dr. Katherine Pannel, a psychiatrist and medical director of Right Track Medical Group in Oxford, Mississippi, experienced brain fog after contracting COVID-19 and describes the frustration of the condition. “I was hesitant to do any kind of public speaking because I knew what I wanted to say, but I could not find the words. It was so frustrating,” she shared on AMA’s What Doctors Wish Patients Knew.

In January 2021, Jill, a respiratory therapist from Boston, experienced a mild case of COVID-19, marked only by a loss of smell and taste. As the year progressed, symptoms such as fatigue, forgetfulness, and getting lost while driving emerged. Jill’s physician husband helped her to investigate, leading to a diagnosis of mild cognitive decline, believed to be related to COVID-19. They embarked on a regimen of supplements, anticoagulants, red-light therapy, dietary changes, and at-home rehabilitation.

Despite facing setbacks that included microclotting and cognitive impairment, Jill’s continual efforts in rehabilitation—guided by medical professionals—have yielded improvement. Through perseverance and a regimented daily routine focused on diet, exercise, and cognitive training, she has seen progress in her recovery, although challenges remain.

The frustration extends beyond the symptoms themselves, as many sufferers face skepticism and disbelief about their condition, Dr. Pannel said.

“As a psychiatrist, I’m used to stigma surrounding mental health with depression and anxiety, but I’m even starting to see stigma surrounding long-COVID brain fog where a lot of people aren’t believing that it exists,” she said. “And patients are frustrated because they have all these symptoms, but there’s not a lab test or imaging to prove this is what’s going on.”

Solid data backs this anecdotal evidence. A 2022 meta-analysis published in Alzheimer’s and Dementia analyzed 27 studies and found that adults recovering from COVID-19 displayed noticeable deficits in executive functions, attention, and memory up to seven months after infection.

This systematic review, including 2,049 people, shed light on a marked decrease in cognitive scores among those with no prior history of impairment. Determining the underlying causes of cognitive decline following COVID-19 remains a complex and unfolding area of study.

“Often underlying their cognitive decline is chronic inflammatory response syndrome, a complex illness in which individuals process biotoxins differently,” Dr. Nikogosian said.

“Biotoxins from a variety of sources, like mold, pathological gut microbes, Lyme disease, and chronic infections, can lead to chronic inflammation for some individuals.”

This presents a challenge, he said, “when these individuals contract COVID, they struggle to clear the virus, resulting in symptoms such as brain fog.”

Dr. Nikogosian said that treating long COVID isn’t as simple as finding a quick-fix solution. Instead, the underlying health issues must be addressed with care and consideration, reflecting the multifaceted nature of the disease.

Cognitive Decline: Virus or Vaccine?

The intersection of cognitive decline and COVID-19 extends beyond the virus, touching on a growing concern: the potential relationship between cognitive decline and COVID-19 vaccinations. Multiple case studies have identified cognitive decline in individuals following receipt of the COVID-19 vaccine. This phenomenon, labeled functional neurological disorder, has created a parallel dialogue about the cognitive impacts of both the virus and the vaccine.

Ivermectin

Search for all messages with label Inbox

Ivermectin is so effective as treating various diseases that the founders won the Nobel Prize in 2015. “Diseases caused by parasites have plagued humankind for millennia and constitute a major global health problem,” the Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institute stated. “In particular, parasitic diseases affect the world’s poorest populations and represent a huge barrier to improving human health and well-being.”

There was no money to be made so this is the simple reason it was denied.

DR PAUL ALEXANDER..

Did the Pfizer or Moderna mRNA technology gene based COVID injection vaccine (Weissman, Kariko, Bourla, Sahin, Fauci, Francis Collins etc.) kill Joshua Lloyd? 12 years old? IMO, yes! He died suddenly

after collapsing at Telford school; just like that! The family of a boy who died after collapsing at a school in Telford have said their “unimaginable pain” will never heal; ANOTHER ‘died suddenly’

DR. PAUL ALEXANDERAUG 16

READ IN APP

Why are these sudden deaths happening? US, UK, Canada etc.? Can we ask? Can we at least whisper ‘vaccine’? COVID mRNA vaccine?

I say yes and it is because it is not mentioned raises serious suspicion.

https://www.itv.com/news/central/2023-06-19/family-pays-tribute-after-sudden-death-of-boy-12-who-collapsed-at-school

Joshua and his family.

Help them.

end

Joseph Gardiner, 15, from Pyle, died suddenly on Monday: how could a strong healthy 15 year old Rugby player die suddenly? It is virtually impossible to bring down a healthy teen; is it silent vaccine

-induced myocarditis? why would teens die suddenly? Is this a continuation of the ‘dying at dawn, dying in your sleep’ phenomenon, due to adrenaline surges on the scared heart muscle?

DR. PAUL ALEXANDERAUG 16

READ IN APP

Is the rise of sudden deaths, unexplained deaths in adults and teens due to vaccine-induced asymptomatic myocarditis? A heart that is scarred by the COVID mRNA technology gene based Pfizer and Moderna injection and the flood of adrenaline etc. on exertion, under stress, then being too much for the wobbled myocardium and strains the heart to cardiac arrest? Blood and lung clots? e.g. Jamie FOXX, brain bleeds and aneurysms?

How serious is the problem now and will it continue and get worse for our teens with the coming roll-out of the new XBB.1.5 booster that we already know will fail with viral immune escape (selection pressure due to ongoing viral infectious pressure in the midst of mounting sub-optimal population immune pressure) given the dominations clades then predicted to be EG.5 or FL? A clear immunological virology vaccinology mismatch between XBB1.5 and EG.5 vaccine and circulating clade…

end

‘RFK Jr. Warns U.S. Biolabs in Ukraine Are ‘Developing Bioweapons’’; you know what? I believe him 100% & we have the evidence; we will learn shortly that the US is more heavily involved in COVID

development and that this could potentially be a release by a US entity…did the US release this? was the US the first nation to actually deploy a biological weapon re COVID?

DR. PAUL ALEXANDERAUG 17

READ IN APP

RFK Jr. Warns U.S. Biolabs in Ukraine Are ‘Developing Bioweapons’

END

Truth is out! COVID mRNA technology gene based Vaccination is the Primary Cause of Serious Myocarditis, it is not the virus! The Bio-Pharmaceutical Complex is working hard to shift the blame from

COVID mRNA vaccines onto COVID/SARS-CoV-2 infection. ‘Sadly, most people worldwide have had both exposures’. McCullough waxes warmly with Alex Jones on InfoWars; see stack

DR. PAUL ALEXANDERAUG 16

Start here (support him):

‘I agree with Joe Rogan who says Alex Jones is the most misunderstood man on earth. I had the pleasure go on his long program on the InfoWars channel early in August, 2023. This program covers in detail: 1) COVID-19 vaccine induced myocarditis—screening detection, diagnosis, prognosis, and management, 2) celebrity vaccine injury syndromes, 3) normalization of cardiac events in healthy young vaccinated people by the Bio-Pharmaceutical Complex, 4) developments in Washington including Senator Rand Paul and his pursuit of Dr. Anthony Fauci for criminal activity during the pandemic response that led to unnecessary hospitalization and death of Americans and people across the globe.

end

SLAY NEWS

The latest reports from Slay News

RFK Jr: ‘Death Scientists’ Are Developing Killer Bioweapons in America Presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has warned that thousands of “death scientists” are developing deadly pathogens as killer bioweapons in secret biolabs in America.READ MORE

Healthy Former Olympic Swimmer Dies Suddenly at 43: ‘So Much Shock’A British former Olympic swimmer has tragically died suddenly at just 43 years old, her devastated family has revealed.READ MORE

Greg Gutfeld Slams Democrats’ Latest Trump Indictment: ‘It’s All Bullsh*t, He Doesn’t Deserve Any of This’Fox News star Greg Gutfeld has blasted the Democrats’ racketeering charges against President Donald Trump, warning that it’s “all bullsh*t.”READ MORE

Prosecutor Dooms Alec Baldwin, Says He Could Be Charged Again as Analysis Finds Trigger Was Pulled New Mexico special prosecutor Kari Morrissey has just doomed Alec Baldwin by revealing the Hollywood star could still face charges in the fatal “Rust” shooting.READ MORE

Judge Throws Book at ‘Malignant’ Chicago Carjackers for ‘Life-Altering’ Crime: ‘Callous & Morally Bankrupt’A judge has thrown the book at two Chicago carjackers after they plead guilty to two horrific armed robberies.READ MORE

Bill Maher Debunks Media’s Hoax about Trump: ‘Don’t Gaslight Me’Bill Maher has slammed the corporate media for lying about President Donald Trump and debunked the “fine people on both sides” quote that’s frequently repeated by his critics.READ MORE

RFK Jr Slams Biden’s Border Crisis: ‘Mexican Drug Cartels Are Running U.S Immigration Policy, Not the President’Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has slammed Democrat President Joe Biden over his mishandling of the crisis at the Southern Border.READ MORE

Trump Vows to Release ‘Irrefutable’ Evidence of 2020 Election Voter Fraud President Donald Trump has announced that he has scheduled a major press conference where he vows to unveil “irrefutable” evidence to expose voter fraud in Georgia during the 2020 election.READ MORE

Ted Cruz Calls for Ex-DNI Chief John Ratcliffe to Be Special Counsel Investigating Biden Corruption Republican Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) is calling for former Director of the Department of National Intelligence (DNI) John Ratcliffe to be appointed as special counsel to investigate allegations of corruption involving Democrat President Joe Biden and his family.READ MORE

White House Handlers Post Biden’s Tweet from Jean-Pierre’s Account: ‘When I Ran for President’The mysterious handlers that run the White House made a telling error by posting a tweet meant for Democrat President Joe Biden on the wrong account.READ MORE

Top Hunter Biden Lawyer Suddenly Withdraws from Case after Plea Deal Collapse One of the top lawyers on Hunter Biden’s legal team has suddenly filed a motion to withdraw himself as counsel to the Democrat president’s son.READ MORE

Geraldo Rivera Comes Clean: ‘That Program Has Done Well since I’ve Left, They Made the Right Decision’Geraldo Rivera has come clean about leaving Fox News by admitting that his former show is better off without him.READ MORE

Trump Fires Back at ‘Corrupt’ DA Fani Willis: ‘She Has Allowed Atlanta to Go to Hell’President Donald Trump has issued a fiery response to the indictments against himself and several of his allies by Democrat Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis.READ MORE

EVOL NEWS

‘TAINTED JURY’: Republicans Erupt After Fulton County ‘Indicts’ Trump Before Jury Had Even VotedREAD MORE… LATEST NEWS:Fani Willis Makes Huge Mistake, Court May Throw Out Anti-Trump Case before It StartsRead more…Stevie Nicks SLAMMED for ‘privileged post’ about Maui wildfiresRead more…Enes Kanter Freedom Blasts Transgender Athletes: ‘Should I Put on a Wig and Start Dominating the WNBA?’Read more…Burry, famous for ‘Big Short,’ bought bearish options against S&P, Nasdaq 100Read more…JUST IN: Fulton County Publishes Trump Indictment, Then DELETES It From WebsiteRead more…‘Glad to be back.’ Novak Djokovic returns to Western & Southern Open bidding for No. 1Read more…Biden ‘Close’ to Declaring ‘Climate Emergency’ to Ration Gas, Electricity, MeatRead more…Maui residents had moments to make life-or-death choicesRead more…

NEWS ADDICTS

LATEST REPORTS FOR NEWS JUNKIES

Biden to Enforce Lockdowns, Food & Energy Rationing to Fight ‘Global Boiling’President Joe Biden is planning to enforce lockdowns and begin rationing food and energy to fight “global boiling,” as early as this week, insiders are warning.READ THE FULL REPORT

Trump ‘Facing Death Penalty’ from Democrats’ Separate Indictments, Report Shows President Donald Trump is “facing the death penalty” in the four separate indictments Democrats and the Biden regime have brought against him, a new report has revealed.READ THE FULL REPORT

Federal Appeals Court: DC Unequally Applied Defacement Laws to BLM Activists and Pro-Life Groups A federal appeals court on Tuesday determined that the city of Washington, D.C. had inconsistently applied its “defacement” regulations when addressing anti-abortion organizations. The court found that city officials were more severe with pro-life demonstrators compared to Black Lives Matter participants. As a result, a previous court’s decision to dismiss a complaint by the Frederick Douglass Foundation was overturned. The …READ THE FULL REPORT

Jack Smith Denies Trump ‘Special Treatment’ in Classified Documents Case Special counsel Jack Smith’s prosecutors, on Aug. 14, opposed former President Donald Trump’s lawyers’ plea to create a sensitive compartmented information facility (SCIF) for discussions regarding classified documents related to the charges against Trump. They asserted such a move would equate to “special treatment.” In their submission to U.S. District Court Judge Aileen Cannon, Smith’s team countered President Trump’s request, …READ THE FULL REPORT

Judge Assigned to Trump’s Georgia Case Has History of Punishing Trump Allies The case alleging President Donald Trump and his co-defendants conspired to alter the outcome of Georgia’s 2020 presidential election has been assigned to Scott McAfee, a lifelong Georgian and Fulton County Superior Court judge.READ THE FULL REPORT

end

MICHAEL EVERY/PHIL MAREY/OR OTHER EXECS //RABOBANK

end

7//OIL ISSUES//NATURAL GAS ISSUES/USA AND GLOBE

8. EMERGING MARKETS//AUSTRALIA NEW ZEALAND ISSUES

ARGENTINA

This far right leading Presidential Candidate has a lot of thought provoking ideas that has the west shocked: he wants to shut down the thieving centra; bank of Argentina. His thoughts are full fledged Austrian (Mises)

(zerohedge)

Argentina’s Leading Presidential Candidate Vows To Shut Down “Thieving” Central Bank

WEDNESDAY, AUG 16, 2023 – 11:00 PM

After sending local capital markets into a tailspin and triggering a currency devaluation with his shock win in Sunday’s country’s presidential primary, Argentina’s leading presidential candidate Javier Milei – a self-described anarcho-capitalist – added to the shock factor on Wednesday when he pledged to close the nation’s central bank while saying he would make every effort to avoid a default on the country’s sovereign debt if he wins the October vote.

Milei, a radical libertarian, told Bloomberg News his bold fiscal adjustment would boost Argentina’s reputation and credit profile, making a default unnecessary.

His plan includes slashing spending by at least 13% of GDP before mid-2025 by dramatically downsizing public works, reducing the number of ministries, removing subsidies and capital restrictions that would allow businesses to transact in US dollars. More drastically, he also plans to shutter the central bank which he said has “no reason to exist”, and dollarize the $640 billion economy.

“I will make every effort to avoid a default, obviously,” Milei said in a two-hour-long interview in Buenos Aires Wednesday. “If you do the fiscal adjustment that’s needed, the financing will be there.”

Milei triggered a market shock when the presidential candidate – largely viewed as an outsider without serious chances for the position until now – came out ahead in the primary, seen as a barometer for presidential elections in a country where polls are notoriously unreliable. The slump forced the government to devalue its tightly controlled official exchange rate by 18% when markets opened Monday.

In the first interview to foreign media after his unexpected win, Milei spoke to Bloomberg and detailed his plan to scrap the Argentine peso for the US dollar as a way to bring down inflation that’s running at 113%, and upped his criticism of the central bank, which he called “the worst garbage that exists on this Earth.”

“Central banks are divided in four categories: the bad ones, like the Federal Reserve, the very bad ones, like the ones in Latin America, the horribly bad ones, and the Central Bank of Argentina,” he said.

If Milei wins the presidency, he plans to hand over the keys to the central bank to economist Emilio Ocampo, his informal adviser on the dollarization program, so that he can shut it down. Ocampo will also help in negotiations with the International Monetary Fund, which has a $44 billion program with the South American nation. The candidate says he has no plans to ask the IMF for more money.

“A fiscal deficit is immoral,” Milei said.

“If you live continually with a fiscal deficit, you’re going to be insolvent.”

Just don’t tell that to the US which has had like four annual surpluses in the past 50 years.

Milei said he’s already developed a plan to dollarize the economy, a move he vows would be among his first in case he wins the Oct. 22 election. Argentina would follow El Salvador’s model, allowing people voluntarily choose between currencies.

Once two-thirds of the monetary base is converted, the economy would become fully dollarized, he said.

“If nobody wants to have pesos in Argentina, the question is how much are pesos worth in real terms? Nobody wants them, we’re not talking about water in the middle of the desert. We’re talking about something nobody wants,” Milei said.

Manuel Garcia Gojon writes, at The Mises Institute, that Milei’s full plan – which he laid out in some detail on August 2nd, is nothing if not pragmatic from an anarchist point of view.

The first measure consists of an organizational reform of the government, going from 18 to 8 ministries. The ministries to be included are interior, foreign relations, defense, economy, justice, security, infrastructure, and human capital. No career bureaucrats are to be fired initially, but they will be reassigned. The political appointees will not be renewed and will be kept to a minimum. All government employee privileges, such as bodyguards and drivers, will be eliminated, except in the cases in which they are absolutely necessary for security reasons. This measure also includes initiating the privatization or closure process of all state-owned companies.

The second measure consists of a significant reduction in public spending. For the first budget, they seek to eliminate expenditure items amounting to 15 percent of GDP, taking it from a deficit to a surplus. On the revenue side, they seek to eliminate 90 percent of taxes, which only raise an amount equal to 2 percent of GDP but have a distortive effect. There is also an intention of lowering the taxes that remain.

The third measure consists of a flexibilization of labor regulations. Firing an employee is currently very costly in Argentina between litigation and compensation. This measure is geared toward reducing those costs by making it easier for companies to fire new employees. The balancing side of this measure is the implementation of a private unemployment insurance scheme. With this measure they seek to take formal employment in the private sector from 6 million positions to 14 million positions.

The fourth measure consists of a liberalization of trade. The goal of this measure is unilateral free trade in the style of Chile. This includes the elimination of all import and export tariffs and the reduction of regulatory restrictions.

The fifth measure consists of a monetary reform. This measure includes allowing the use of any commodity or foreign currency as legal tender and the liquidation of the central bank, which would result in the elimination of the Argentine Peso. There are alternative plans for the implementation of this measure, but the leading one is the one developed by Emilio Ocampo and Nicolas Cachanosky. In terms of timing, it would take between nine and 24 months. The conversion would be made at the market exchange rate. Once two thirds of the monetary base has been converted, a countdown for the last date to convert would be triggered.

An additional challenge for this measure is that the central bank has remunerated liabilities three times the size of the monetary base. These are like the Federal Reserve’s program of paying interest on reserves in order to sterilize increases in the quantity of money. The central bank does have some commodities and foreign currencies in reserves but most of the assets consist of government bonds that currently trade at a third of their face value. To access the necessary liquidity to liquidate the central bank, the bonds would be transferred to a fund which would acquire the necessary line of credit using the bonds as collateral. The line of credit has already been confidentially agreed upon. The bonds are guaranteed to increase in price if the budget deficit is eliminated as specified in the second measure.

The sixth measure consists of an energy reform. This measure intends to eliminate all subsidies to energy providers through a recalibration of the financial equilibrium to lower costs to keep the companies profitable and minimize the impact on the cost to the consumers. This measure opens a door to subsidies on the demand side for vulnerable households. They also seek to improve the energy infrastructure through a scheme of public interest declarations for projects which would be financed and executed by the private sector, but for which the government might provide a minimum revenue guarantee.

The seventh measure consists of fostering investment. This will be done through a special legal arrangement for long term investment with a focus on mining, fossil fuels, renewable energy, forestry, and other sectors. In order to foster investment, they will also aim to eliminate foreign exchange restrictions and export fees.

The eighth measure consists of an agrarian reform. This includes the elimination of the foreign exchange spread between the official exchange rate and the market exchange rate through the liquidation of the central bank, the elimination of all export fees and retentions, the elimination of the gross revenue tax, the elimination of all restrictions to foreign trade including quotas and the need for authorization, the promulgation of a new seeds law, and the improvement to road infrastructure through private enterprise.

The ninth measure consists of a judicial reform. This measure includes the designation of a Minister of Justice with the consensus of the judicial branch, as well as the appointment of a Supreme Court Justice without political affiliations to fill the present vacancy, prohibiting members of the judicial branch from engaging in partisan politics, and promoting the budgetary independence of the judicial branch. Furthermore, they will seek to implement jury trials and oral proceedings throughout the country.

The tenth measure consists of a welfare reform. Current welfare benefits will be initially maintained. They aim to move in the long term towards a private system in which users pay for the health and education services they consume. In the short term they aim to provide income protection programs to mitigate extreme poverty, nutritional programs, parental educational programs about cognitive stimulation, greater coverage for preschool, incentives for graduation, programs for the integration of people with disabilities, the promotion of access to private credit, and the elimination of all middlemen in the provision of welfare.

The eleventh measure consists of an educational reform. They aim to move towards a greater degree of freedom to choose the curricula, methods, and educators. The measure also includes launching a school voucher pilot program. They will also establish an evaluation criterion for schools so that they may compete for incentives.

The twelfth measure consists of a health reform. They aim to transfer the subsidization of healthcare from supply to demand to allow for greater freedom of choice and competition. This measure includes providing the existing healthcare benefits as vouchers so that there is no restriction to a specific provider.

The thirteenth measure consists of a security reform. This measure includes reforms to the homeland security, national defense, and intelligence laws, as well as a reform to the penitentiary system to incorporate public private hybrids and intensifying the prosecution of drug trafficking.

The one-time congressman obtained more votes than the pro business coalition led by Patricia Bullrich and the ruling Peronist bloc of Economy Minister Sergio Massa, surprising pollsters who expected him to come in third.

Investors are now worried the country is headed for its fourth debt workout in the past two decades.

Among chief concerns for markets is that Milei, a political outsider, wouldn’t be able to get backing for his plans.

The 52 year-old, who doesn’t shy away from criticizing politicians he says have been robbing Argentines for decades, said he would call referendums if he can’t get legislative consensus to approve his measures.

“If I lower the currency risk, and I lower the credit risk, that means country risk will plummet. It means that bonds are literally going to fly,” he said.

“The truth is its a pretty simple trade. Or, if you buy and hold, for example, returns in a year would be above 200%.”

In the wide-ranging Bloomberg interview, Milei also criticized China and Latin America leftist leaders he considers “socialists,” said he would seek to leave the Mercosur trade bloc and would quickly move to deregulate commodity markets.

END

YOUR EARLY CURRENCY/GOLD AND SILVER PRICING/ASIAN CLOSING MARKETS AND EUROPEAN BOURSE OPENING AND CLOSING/ INTEREST RATE SETTINGS THURSDAY MORNING 7;30AM//OPENING AND CLOSINGS

EURO VS USA DOLLAR: 1.0891 UP 0.0017

USA/ YEN 145.83 DOWN 0.489 NOW TARGETS INTEREST RATE AT 1.00% AS IT WILL BUY UNLIMITED BONDS TO GETS TO THAT LEVEL…//YEN STILL FALLS//

GBP/USA 1.2759 UP 0.0032

USA/CAN DOLLAR: 1.3502 DOWN .0034 (CDN DOLLAR UP 34 BASIS PTS)

Last night Shanghai COMPOSITE CLOSED UP 13.61 PTS OR 0.43%

Hang Seng CLOSED DOWN 2.67 PTS OR 0.01%

AUSTRALIA CLOSED DOWN 0.64 % // EUROPEAN BOURSE: ALL RED

Trading from Europe and ASIA

I) EUROPEAN BOURSES: ALL RED

2/ CHINESE BOURSES / :Hang SENG DOWN 251.88 PTS OR 1.36%

/SHANGHAI CLOSED UP 13.61 PTS OR 0.43%

AUSTRALIA BOURSE CLOSED DOWN 0.64%

(Nikkei (Japan) CLOSED DOWN 140.82 PTS OR 0.44

INDIA’S SENSEX IN THE RED

Gold very early morning trading: 1898.50

silver:$22.74

USA dollar index early THURSDAY morning: 103.17 DOWN 14 BASIS POINTS FROM WEDNESDAY’s CLOSE.

THURSDAY MORNING NUMBERS ENDS

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

And now your closing THURSDAY NUMBERS 11: 30 AM

Portuguese 10 year bond yield: 3.418% UP 3 in basis point(s) yield

JAPANESE BOND YIELD: +0.641% UP 3 AND 0//100 BASIS POINTS /JAPAN losing control of its yield curve/

SPANISH 10 YR BOND YIELD: 3.750 UP 6 in basis points yield

ITALIAN 10 YR BOND YIELD 4.395 UP 6 points in basis points yield ./ THE ECB IS QE’ ING ITALIAN BONDS (BUYING ITALIAN BONDS/SELLING GERMAN BUNDS)

GERMAN 10 YR BOND YIELD: 2.6965 UP 4 BASIS PTS

END

IMPORTANT CURRENCY CLOSES FOR THURSDAY

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

Euro/USA 1.0889 UP 0.0015 or 15 basis points

USA/Japan: 146.00 DOWN 0.329 OR YEN UP 33 basis points/

Great Britain/USA 1.2757 UP 0.0030 OR 30 BASIS POINTS //

Canadian dollar UP .0013 OR 13 BASIS pts to 1.3513

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The USA/Yuan, CNY: closed ON SHORE CLOSED (UP) …7.2545

THE USA/YUAN OFFSHORE: (YUAN CLOSED (UP)…. (7.3130)

TURKISH LIRA: 27.10 EXTREMELY DANGEROUS LEVEL/DEATH WATCH/HYPERINFLATION TO BEGIN.//ON DEATH WATCH

the 10 yr Japanese bond yield at +0.642…VERY DANGEROUS

Your closing 10 yr US bond yield UP 8 in basis points from WEDNESDAY at 4.302% //trading well ABOVE the resistance level of 2.27-2.32%) very problematic

USA 30 yr bond yield 4.404UP 10 in basis points ON THE DAY/12.00 PM

Your 12:00 AM bourses for Europe and the Dow along with the USA dollar index closing and interest rates THURSDAY: CLOSING TIME 12:00 PM

London: CLOSED DOWN 46.67 POINTS or 1.03%

German Dax : CLOSED DOWN 112.55 PTS OR 0.71%

Paris CAC CLOSED DOWN 68.51 PTS OR 0.94%

Spain IBEX DOWN 72.50 PTS OR 0.78%

Italian MIB: CLOSED DOWN 290.60 PTS OR 1.03%

WTI Oil price 80.82 12: EST

Brent Oil: 84.74 12:00 EST

USA /RUSSIAN ROUBLE /// AT: 93.97; ROUBLE UP 0 AND 69//100

GERMAN 10 YR BOND YIELD; +2.6965 UP 5 BASIS PTS

UK 10 YR YIELD: 4.770 UP 13 BASIS PTS

CLOSING NUMBERS: 4 PM

Euro vs USA: 1.0865 DOWN 0.0009 OR 9 BASIS POINTS

British Pound: 1.2741 UP .0014 or 14 basis pts

BRITISH 10 YR GILT BOND YIELD: 4.7950 % UP 11 BASIS PTS//

JAPAN 10 YR YIELD: .635%

USA dollar vs Japanese Yen: 145,71 DOWN .624 //YEN UP 63 BASIS PTS//

USA dollar vs Canadian dollar: 1.3548 UP .0011 CDN dollar,DOWN 11 basis pts)

West Texas intermediate oil: 80.09

Brent OIL: 83.81

USA 10 yr bond yield UP 3 BASIS pts to 4.298%

USA 30 yr bond yield UP 4 BASIS PTS to 4.409%

USA 2 YR BOND:DOWN 3 PTS AT 4.951%

USA dollar index: 103.36 UP 4 BASIS POINTS

USA DOLLAR VS TURKISH LIRA: 27.10 (GETTING QUITE CLOSE TO BLOWING UP/

USA DOLLAR VS RUSSIA//// ROUBLE: 93.77 UP 0 AND 89/100 roubles

DOW JONES INDUSTRIAL AVERAGE: DOWN 296.91 PTS OR 0.84%

NASDAQ 100 DOWN 160.66 PTS OR1.08%

VOLATILITY INDEX: 17.91 UP 1.13 PTS (6.73)%

GLD: $175.30 DOWN 0.27 OR 015%

SLV/ $20.56 UP ,24 OR 1.17%

end

USA AFFAIRS

USA TRADING IN GRAPH FORM:

Bonds, Stocks, Bitcoin, & Bullion Battered As Yuan & The Yield-Curve Rally

THURSDAY, AUG 17, 2023 – 04:00 PM

An ugly JGB auction overnight was trumped by yuan intervention overnight saw futures drift higher into the US open…

Yuan rallied after 5 straight down days…

Source: Bloomberg

Domestically, WMT beat (but cautious commentary), initial jobless claims fell, Philly Fed Manufacturing surged, but LEI was a shitshow for the 16th month in a row. However, the ‘good’ news dominated and Fed rate expectations rose hawkishly…

Source: Bloomberg

…which weighed on stocks. Small Caps and Nasdaq led the charge lower but everything was a one-way waterfall in the afternoon…

Once Europe was closed, the algos were in charge with 0-DTE traders running the show as a negative gamma accelerated the waterfall lower…

Source: SpotGamma

The Dow joined the S&P, Nasdaq, and Small Caps in closing below its 50DMA. Dow was last below its 50DMA in June. Small Caps are getting close to their 100- and 200-DMAs. The S&P closed below the key 4,400 level…

‘Most Shorted’ stocks are down for 12 of the last 13 days…[Pro subs would have know that was the day that the top was in]

Source: Bloomberg

Implied correlation bounced – just like we said it would – right off those 2017/18 lows…

Source: Bloomberg

Regional bank stocks were down again today, back at the kneejerk lows from the SVB puke…

Bonds and stocks are tanking together (we explained why here)… Are Chinese banks selling USTs to ‘fund’ their yuan intervention?

Source: Bloomberg

Treasury yields were mixed with the short-end outperforming (2Y -2bps, 30Y +5bps). On the week, the short-end is notably decoupled from the rest of the curve…

Source: Bloomberg

Which saw the yield curve steepen (dis-invert) further…

Source: Bloomberg

Some worry that USTs are being sold to fund yuan intervention…

Source: Bloomberg

The dollar was unchanged today – recovering its yuan-intervention-losses overnight…

Source: Bloomberg

…but is holding above its 200DMA…

Source: Bloomberg

Bitcoin was clubbed like a baby seal, back below $28,000…

Source: Bloomberg

But if you are in Argentina, Bitcoin just exploded to a new record high after the recent primary…

Gold continued to slide lower (spot below $1900). If you squint you can see an intraday pattern around the London Fix…

Amid all that selling, we note that oil prices rallied, with WTI back above $80…

Finally, none of today’s waterfall-like move in stocks should have been a surprise as we warned about fragility due to ‘negative market gamma’…

…and CTA thresholds crossed…

We wonder if NVDA’s earnings next week will be the catalyst?

Source: Bloomberg

A little bounce after tomorrow’s OpEx and then (will J-Hole puncture the bubble)…

Source: Bloomberg

Would that be the real pain trade?

b) THIS AFTERNOON TRADING//

II) USA DATA/

The all important continuing jobless claims report shows a rise from last week

(zerohedge)

Continuing Jobless Claims Rose Last Week; CA Initial Claims Plunge

THURSDAY, AUG 17, 2023 – 08:38 AM

The number of Americans filing for jobless claims for the first time fell modestly to 239k, from 248k last week, right at expectations. Both SA and NSA declined and we point out that we have not been above the psychological 250k level since mid-June…

Source: Bloomberg

California and Texas saw big drops in initial claims while Virginia and Iowa saw increases. California’s big drop follows a major rise the prior week…

However, it is important to remember that two distortions that likely boosted initial claims over the last few months – potentially fraudulent filings in Ohio and expanded eligibility for unemployment insurance in Minnesota.

Continuing claims bucked its recent trend, pushing back above 1.7mm (1.716mm to be exact) for the first time since the first week of July…

However, as Goldman also points out, ongoing seasonal distortions have likely weighed on continuing claims over the last few months, and we estimate they could exert a cumulative drag on the level of continuing claims of 375k between April and September.

So more of the same, all indications suggest a strong labor market entirely dislocated from The Fed’s tightening moves.

end

III) USA ECONOMIC STORIES

CRE/VORNADO REALTY TRUST

Cash crunch time for huge Vornado Reality in New York

(ZEROHEDGE)

Cash Crunch Strikes Vornado? Considers Selling Manhattan’s Farley Building Amid CRE Turmoil

WEDNESDAY, AUG 16, 2023 – 07:20 PM

In April, Vornado Realty Trust, an office, retail, and residential building owner, suspended its dividend and authorized a stock buyback while shares plunged to levels not seen since 1996. The billionaire head of Vornado in May warned the company was “going to take a breath” in the redevelopment around Manhattan’s Penn Station amid CRE turmoil. Now reports suggest Vornado is exploring options to sell a massive office building to raise cash.

Bloomberg spoke with people familiar with Vornado’s move to “explore options” for the Farley Building, an iconic civic building that features 740,000 square feet of office and 120,000 square feet of retail. Sources said Vornado could sell the building or mortgage the asset to “shore up liquidity during a commercial-property downturn.”

They said the billionaire head of Vornado, Steven Roth, has contacted Newmark Group Inc.’s co-heads of US capital markets, Adam Spies and Douglas Harmon, to review the best strategic options. They added discussions are still ongoing.

What’s alarming is that Roth said the Farley Building is “arguably one of the best buildings of its type and kind in the city.” He then noted: The Farley Building “could be an important source of liquidity.”

This leaves us to believe that Vornado might be experiencing liquidity issues after it has been battered by high borrowing costs and falling office tower prices.

“The Manhattan-based company has been active in selling assets in a bid to boost liquidity. Earlier this year, the firm announced deals to offload four retail properties in Manhattan and the Armory Show,” Bloomberg said.

CRE pains come as the Federal Reserve has aggressively hiked interest rates to 22-year highs.

Vornado shares crashed below GFC levels.

And the overall office REIT space is at GFC crash levels.

Remember last month, Starwood Capital Group’s Barry Sternlicht warned CRE is in a “Category 5 hurricane.” And John Fish, who heads construction firm Suffolk, chair of the Real Estate Roundtable think tank, and former chairman of the board of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, warned in a recent What Goes Up podcast: “Nobody understands where the bottom is” for CRE markets.

END

LAHAINA, MAUI HAWAII

This is awful

(zerohedge)

Thanks To Government, Maui’s Lahaina Fire Became A Deadly Conflagration

WEDNESDAY, AUG 16, 2023 – 06:20 PM

Authored by Connor O’Keefe via The Mises Institute,

The most destructive natural disasters are never 100 percent natural. Human choices, land use, and government policies play a big role in how harmful hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes, flash floods, and wildfires are to the affected communities.

And after catastrophes like the wildfire that destroyed much of the historic Hawaiian city of Lahaina last week, it’s worth taking stock of how much of the disaster was the result not of natural or accidental factors, but of policies and institutions that can be changed.

Though details are still emerging, it’s becoming clear that government failure did much to make this disaster worse – and possibly even started it.

While the so-called experts are blaming climate change—and in the process demanding that government grab even more power and authority ostensibly to someday give us better weather—the destructiveness this fire was the product of an all-powerful and all-incompetent régime.

The specific origins of the fire are still being investigated, but there is much we already know. The city of Lahaina sits on the west coast of Maui, Hawaii’s second-largest island. It is surrounded by grassland, much of which the state owns.

Nearly a decade ago the Hawaii Wildfire Management Organization, a research nonprofit, warned the Hawaiian government that the area around Lahaina was extremely fire-prone due to frequent downslope winds, steep terrain, and dry grass. Little was done to address these risks. A subsequent report in 2020 added that an invasive species of exceptionally flammable grass was prevalent in the surrounding fields and that passing hurricanes created strong winds known to fuel wildfires on the islands.

Early last week, Hurricane Dora crossed the ocean south of Hawaii. By early Tuesday morning, August 8, winds as fast as sixty miles per hour were blowing down the slopes of the West Maui Mountains into Lahaina. Around sunrise, a large fault was detected in the power grid, indicating a downed power line. Twenty minutes later, the first reports of fire came in from the area around Lahainaluna Road, uphill and upwind from the city.

The area where flames were first spotted is full of electrical infrastructure, mostly operated by Hawaiian Electric, the state’s monopoly electricity supplier. This included a substation and a multitude of power lines. Most of the land in the area is owned by the State of Hawaii except for a parcel belonging to the estate of one of Hawaii’s last princesses. This parcel housed a solar farm supplying electricity to the Hawaiian Electric substation. Early last year, NPR published a glowing article about the solar project, praising it the direct result of government regulation crafted to help transition Hawaii to 100 percent renewable power by 2045.

But on the morning of August 8, as winds hammered the old wooden utility poles, this highly electrified area in the dry grasses above Lahaina was quickly becoming dangerous. Yet no formal procedure was in place to shut off sections of the grid in the face of severe fire risks. As a result, twenty-nine fully energized poles fell across West Maui that day.

But even with downed poles in the way, the first firefighters on the scene met with some early success. Around 9 a.m., the county fire department declared the fire “100 percent contained.” But the message to residents included an ominous request. The county’s water pumps were powered by electricity, much of which was frantically being turned off to deactivate the downed lines. Officials asked the public to conserve water to preserve water pressure.

But by midafternoon, a flare-up brought the fire back to life on the Lahaina Bypass, a major road that heads straight into town.

The flames moved swiftly into Lahaina at 4:46 p.m., one minute after the county government finally sent out an alert to warn the city’s population, largely without power, about the flare-up that had occurred over an hour before.

To make matters worse, county officials failed to activate emergency sirens, leaving residents unaware of the danger bearing down on them.

And as firefighters heroically rushed toward the flames to try and save their community, they found that there was little to no water pressure in the fire hydrants, which quickly ran dry.

With a single backed-up highway leading out of the city, many residents of Lahaina had nowhere to go. Some scrambled into the ocean to escape the smoke and flames. But in the end, many couldn’t get out. At least ninety-nine people have been confirmed dead at this writing, making this the deadliest American wildfire in over a century. In addition, 2,207 buildings were destroyed, with property damages expected to reach $5.5 billion.

To review, a power company shielded from competition by the state placed electrical infrastructure among highly flammable state-owned grass fields above the historic city of Lahaina, which the government was twice warned were highly susceptible to fire. And once a fire broke out, a combination of defective water infrastructure, terrible communication by government officials, and only one escape route doomed the people of Lahaina to the worst wildfire experienced in this country in over a hundred years.

This was government failure through and through. In Human Action, Ludwig von Mises explains that on the market, the ultimate source of profits is foresight—the ability to anticipate future conditions. And economic loss occurs when market actors fail to anticipate the future. This possibility of riches if one succeeds, and the guarantee of painful failures if one doesn’t, forces producers and service providers on the market to constantly weigh risks and opportunities.

Government immunizes itself from the profit and loss system, and therefore from much of the need to weigh risk. Sure, some county officials may resign because of this. And the share price of Hawaiian Electric may dip. But the people of Maui will be forced to keep compensating the very organizations that have failed them. And there’s nothing natural about that disaster.

END

Watch: Tulsi Gabbard Blasts Biden Admin’s “Horrible” Response To Maui Disaster

THURSDAY, AUG 17, 2023 – 11:45 AM

Authored by Steve Watson via Summit News,

Tulsi Gabbard, the former U.S. representative for Hawaii’s 2nd congressional district, has slammed the Biden Administration’s response to the horrific Maui wildfire, labelling it a “horrible, horrible disservice.”

“The sad part is, we are eight days past this wildfire. And I’m in constant touch with community members and leaders. They are still not seeing a response from the county, the state, the federal government, to be able to go out and help them,” Gabbard urged during a Fox News interview.

She added that “The community support hubs that they have are 100 percent community led, volunteer supply collections, conducting all these co-ordinations on their own. They feel like the government doesn’t care about them.”

“That’s a horrible, horrible disservice to people who have gone through a kind of loss that we can’t even imagine,” she added.

“Not only are they not getting the support that they need, but oftentimes they have been getting blocked from being able to receive the support from their friends and neighbors,” Gabbard asserted.

“This is a crisis that is continuing on,” Gabbard warned, adding “It is not at all lost on the people of west Maui when they are told that FEMA is going to give those impacted a one-time $700 payment. And as they look at the news, they are seeing tens of more millions of dollars being sent to Ukraine.”

“Some of them said, hey, maybe if we change the name of Maui to Ukraine, maybe they will pay attention to us,” Gabbard noted.

While over 100 people are reported dead and over 1000 missing, Joe Biden has barely commented on the situation, avoiding the press and refusing to answer questions on the matter.

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/watch-tulsi-gabbard-blasts-biden-admins-horrible-response-maui-disaster

END

This is what we have been warning you about: excess US citizens savings will be depleted by end of Q3

(zerohedge)

Fed Warns Consumers Will Deplete Excess Savings By End Q3

THURSDAY, AUG 17, 2023 – 07:45 AM

San Francisco Fed researchers penned a note on Wednesday that explained excessive savings of US households would be depleted by the end of the third quarter, or in about 44 days (as of Thursday). Couple this with both revolving credit (i.e., credit card debt) and interest charged on credit cards at a record high, plus the restart of student loan repayments in weeks — all could be a perfect storm brewing that might suggest the outlook for consumers is grim in the era of ‘Bidenomic.’

“Our updated estimates suggest that households held less than $190 billion of aggregate excess savings by June. There is considerable uncertainty in the outlook, but we estimate that these excess savings are likely to be depleted during the third quarter of 2023,” San Francisco Fed researchers Hamza Abdelrahman and Luiz Oliveira wrote.

The chart below shows accumulated excess savings, in nominal terms, totaled $2.1 trillion in August 2021, thanks to government stimulus checks and other fiscal measures during the pandemic. Since then, aggregate personal savings had plunged below pre-pandemic levels, signaling an overall drawdown of pandemic-related excess savings when inflation was outpacing wages, forcing households to pull from savings to make ends meet. The drawdown on savings was slow, then ramped to $100 billion per month in 2022.

The estimated drawdowns as of June have been $1.9 trillion, and estimates show there’s less than $190 billion of excess savings remaining. If drawdowns continue at average rates from the past 3, 6, or 12 months, researchers said, “aggregate excess savings would likely be depleted in the third quarter of 2023.”

“The rapid accumulation and subsequent drawdown of excess savings following the onset of the pandemic recession contrasts starkly with prior recessions. This contrast holds true when the data are adjusted for inflation, as well as when we define excess savings as a share of trend savings or as a percent change from pre-recession periods,” researchers said.

This comes as both revolving credit (i.e., credit card debt) and interest charged on credit cards hit a record high. We said this trajectory was unsustainable, and it was only a matter of time before the debt-funded US consumer hit a brick wall. That moment has likely arrived: Consumers Finally Crack: Shocking Drop In June Credit Card Debt Marks End Of Spending Binge.

Nothing to see here.

Meanwhile, with average credit card interest rates rising above 22% to a new record high…

Heavily indebted consumers with dwindling savings will also be met with the restart of student debt repayments in the next few weeks. We asked: Student Loan Repayments – Will It Start The Recession? And told readers this could be a potential aggregate $15.8 billion monthly headwind – or $190 billion per year – to consumer spending.

This underscores the concern that consumers might face significant challenges ahead. Such challenges could be precisely what the Fed needs to spark a slowdown and guide inflation back to its 2% target.

end

USA// COVID//VACCINE/ Dr Sherry Tenpenny

She is one of the brightest minds/Doctors out there:

Medical board suspends her license because of her criticism of COVID 19 vaccines

(Stieber/EpochTimes)

Medical Board Suspends License Of Doctor Critical Of COVID-19 Vaccines

WEDNESDAY, AUG 16, 2023 – 09:40 PM

Authored by Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

The State Medical Board of Ohio has suspended the license of a doctor who has offered criticism of COVID-19 vaccines.A health care worker prepares a COVID-19 vaccine in a file photo. (Bay Ismoyo/AFP via Getty Images)

The board suspended Dr. Sherri Tenpenny’s license and fined her $3,000 because she allegedly refused to respond properly to complaints that poured in after she testified to state lawmakers.

The suspension is for an indefinite period.

“In short, Dr. Tenpenny did not simply fail to cooperate with a Board investigation, she refused to cooperate. And that refusal was based on her unsupported and subjective belief regarding the Board’s motive for the investigation,” Kimberly Lee, a state official, said in the suspension order.

“Licensees of the Board cannot simply refuse to cooperate in investigations because they decide they do not like what they assume is the reason for the investigation,” Ms. Lee said.

State law enables the board to discipline medical professionals for “failure to cooperate in an investigation conducted by the board.”

Dr. Tenpenny said in a video after the suspension that she had cooperated with the board.

“We cooperated at every level. We looked at the letters; we responded appropriately and legally,” Dr. Tenpenny said.

“My lawyers … drafted responses appropriately and sent it back, and they go, ‘nope, you didn’t cooperate with us.’ Well, I guess that just simply means that they didn’t like the answers. But it didn’t mean that I failed to cooperate.”

Dr. Tenpenny graduated from Kirksville College of Osteopathic Medicine in 1984 and has been practicing medicine since then. The Ohio license is for osteopathic medicine and surgery.

Testimony

The board said that it began investigating Dr. Tenpenny after receiving approximately 350 complaints following her June 2021 testimony to the Ohio House of Representatives Health Committee. The testimony included claims that the COVID-19 vaccines were causing people to become magnetized.

“They can put a key on their forehead, and it sticks,” Dr. Tenpenny said at the time.

The doctor also raised concerns about side effects, including heart inflammation, that U.S. officials have since acknowledged are caused by the shots.

The board said it was investigating whether Dr. Tenpenny violated the state’s Medical Practices Act.

The law says that the board “shall investigate evidence that appears to show that a person has violated any provision of this chapter,” including making a false or misleading statement in relation to the practice of medicine.

Marcie Pastrick, a board attorney, said the complaints included allegations that, if true, would be violations of the law.

However, the suspension was because of Dr. Tenpenny’s alleged refusal to cooperate as opposed to the allegations in those complaints.

Thomas Renz, a lawyer representing Dr. Tenpenny, was cited as telling the board that Dr. Tenpenny was declining to cooperate with what he described as “the board’s bad faith and unjustified assault on her licensure, livelihood, and constitutional rights.” He said that Dr. Tenpenny’s testimony was based on “factual reports by third parties,” including peer-reviewed studies.

Dr. Tenpenny later told the board that it was investigating without any evidence that she violated state law, but the board noted the volume of complaints and how the law says that the “board shall investigate evidence that appears to show that a person has violated any provision of this chapter.”

Dr. Tenpenny must submit an application for reinstatement, pay the fine, and cooperate with the board if she wants it to consider lifting the suspension.

Mr. Renz said that Dr. Tenpenny and her lawyers will fight the suspension in court.

“The board was mad because when they sent her things, we did what they said,” he said in a video. “So if, for example, when the board sends out a questionnaire, and it says, ‘you can either answer this or you can object, and if you object we can compel’—which means going to court to compel—we objected. Well, they didn’t want to go to court to compel, because that would be very inconvenient.”

Mr. Renz noted that the Ohio Attorney General’s Office said that the process for such investigations would “break down” if authorities had to go to the courts each time to compel.

“This is one of the most shocking things I have ever heard,” he said. “We need reform. We need political reform. We need to pass laws now.”

SWAMP STORIES

You just cannot make this up: A new doom loop walking tour of San Francisco sells out!!

(zerohedge)

“Doom Loop Walking Tour” Of San Francisco Sells Out

WEDNESDAY, AUG 16, 2023 – 10:00 PM

There’s a new entertainment option for people morbidly fascinated with San Francisco’s relentless decline: a “Downtown Doom Loop Walking Tour.”

The, anonymous, dry-witted host invites tourists to “discover the policy choices that made America’s wealthiest city the nation’s innovative leader of housing crisis, addiction crisis, mental-health crisis, & unrepentant crime crisis.” It’s not clear if this will be an ongoing offering, but the maiden tour — set for Saturday, August 26 — is already sold out.

“You will find no better expert,” reads the tour’s promotional page. “Your guide is an urban policy professional, card-carrying City Commissioner overseeing a municipal department with an annual budget over $500m, and cofounder of San Francisco’s largest neighborhood association. He has spent hundreds of hours on both sides of the government dais, shouting into the opposite abyss.”

“The tour will start at City Hall, and continue through Mid-Market, the Tenderloin, and Union Square. We will view the open-air drug markets, the abandoned tech offices, the outposts of the non-profit industrial complex, and the deserted department stores.“

San Francisco has deteriorated so much that federal officials are now advising hundreds of Health and Human Services employees to work remotely for the foreseeable future, rather than wade through “one of the city’s most brazen open-air drug markets” that’s just outside the Nancy Pelosi Federal Building on Seventh Street.

Instead of profit, the tour guide is apparently seeking an outlet for his policy frustrations. He says the tour “is the result of his own mental-health crisis,” and that he’ll donate proceeds to “a non-profit that does not actively degrade its community.”

The 90-minute,1.5 mile tour promises to tackle a number of questions:

“How can a city with a $14.6 billion annual budget be a model of urban decay? How can it spend $776.8 million per year on police and have no rule of law to show for it? How can it spend $690 million on homeless services and receive an official United Nations condemnation for its treatment of the homeless (‘cruel and inhuman’; ‘violation of multiple human rights’)?”

This woman might be close to figuring it out:

Let’s just hope the tour doesn’t get too good a look at the crime situation.

end

The Dems need another indictment of Trump, really fast.!!

(zerohedge)

Hunter Biden CC’d On Call Between Then-VP Joe And Former Ukraine President

THURSDAY, AUG 17, 2023 – 10:35 AM

House Republican investigators have asked the National Archives to hand over any unredacted records in which then-VP Joe Biden used a pseudonym.

Previously released emails retrieved from Hunter’s abandoned laptop reveal that Biden used a “Robert.L.Peters@pci.gov” email address while he was serving as Vice President of the United States. What’s more, that Biden aide John Flynn cc’d Hunter on 10 emails which contained Joe’s daily schedule between May 19 and June 15, 2016.

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One of the emails details plans for a phone call with Ukraine’s former president, Petro Poroshenko. Flynn copied Hunter at his email address at Rosemont Seneca Partners – while Hunter was serving on the board of Ukrainian energy giant, Burisma, which was deemed to be corrupt by the Obama-Biden State Department.

“Boss–8:45am prep for 9am phone call with Pres Poroshenko. Then we’re off to Rhode Island for infrastructure event and then Wilmington for UDel commencement,” Flynn wrote. “Nate will have your draft remarks delivered later tonight or with your press clips in the morning.”

The House Oversight Committee request primarily is focused on Hunter’s $1 million per year position on the board of Ukrainian gas company Burisma, which hired the then-second son in early 2014 as his dad assumed control of the Obama administration’s Ukraine policy.

But the broad request for records involving the president’s pseudonyms could turn up a variety of content, including about other Biden family ventures in countries such as China. –NY Post

According to a letter from House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, “The Committee’s need for these Vice-Presidential records is specific and well- documented,” adding “The Committee seeks to craft legislative solutions aimed at deficiencies it has identified in the current legal framework regarding ethics laws and disclosure of financial interests related to the immediate family members of Vice Presidents and Presidents— deficiencies that may place American national security and interests at risk.”

“The Committee seeks unrestricted special access/ … These records have been redacted for public release pursuant to the PRA and FOIA. For example, an email bearing the subject “Friday Schedule Card,” is withheld in part under a “P6” and “b(6)” restrictions, denoting personal information regarding the subject under the PRA and FOIA respectively,” Comer wrote.

“Attached to this email, and made available on the NARA website, is a document that indicates at 9:00 a.m. on May 27, 2016, Vice President Biden took a call with the president of Ukraine, Petro Poroshenko,” he added. “It is concerning to the Committee, however, that this document was sent to “Robert L. Peters”—a pseudonym the Committee has identified as then Vice- President Biden. Additionally, the Committee questions why the then-Vice President’s son, Hunter Biden—and only Hunter Biden—was copied on this email to then-Vice President Biden.”

As Just the News further notes, The letter requested special access to specific documents, including any:

“Document or communication in which a pseudonym for Vice President Joe Biden was included either as a sender, recipient, copied or was included in the contents of the document or communication, including but not limited to Robert Peters, Robin Ware, and JRB Ware;
“Document or communication in which Hunter Biden, Eric Schwerin, or Devon Archer was included either as a sender, recipient, copied, or was included in the contents of the document or communication; and
“Drafts from November 1, 2015 to December 9, 2015 of then-Vice President Biden’s speech delivered to the Ukrainian Rada on December 9, 2015.”

Democrats probably need another Trump indictment at this point.

END

THE KING REPORT

The King Report August 17, 2023 Issue 7057

Independent View of the News

China Digs Deeper Into Toolbag in Grapple with Investor Gloom
Chinese policymakers moved to improve fragile market sentiment… The People’s Bank of China injected the largest amount of short-term cash since February one day after it slashed interest rates on a slew of monetary tools. Minutes before the liquidity addition, the central bank also offered the most forceful guidance to yuan traders since October via its daily reference rate for the managed currency…
    The onshore yuan is falling toward its weakest in 16 years against the dollar and the MSCI China Index of stocks is poised to erase gains seen since a key policy meeting in late July that had stoked hopes for more stimulus… https://finance.yahoo.com/news/china-seeks-sentiment-boost-strong-013446807.html

China Asks Some Funds to Avoid Net Equity Sales as Markets Sink – BBG
Stock exchanges issued the so-called window guidance to several large mutual fund houses, telling them to refrain for a day from selling more onshore shares than they purchased, according to the people who asked not to be identified discussing private information. The instructions were relayed to fund managers through investment executives at the firms, they added…
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-08-16/china-asks-some-funds-to-avoid-net-equity-sales-as-markets-sink#xj4y7vzkg

Zhongrong Trust’s missed payments trigger fears among Chinese investors
Zhongrong managed assets worth 785.7 billion yuan ($107.69 billion) at the end of 2022, out of which 629.3 billion yuan were linked to trust products, according to its latest annual report… Zhongrong, controlled by Chinese financial conglomerate Zhongzhi Enterprise Group, traditionally had sizable real estate exposure. Its missed payments had added to stress in the financial sector from the country’s worsening property crisis…
   Investors also asked dozens of other listed companies including Bescient Technology Co, Shanghai New Vision Microelectronics Co, Nanhua Instruments Co, Jiangsu Azure Corp whether they held investment products related to Zhongrong or Zhongzhi.
    Most companies either said they did not own such products or had not responded. Topsperity Securities said roughly 60 companies had disclosed that they owned Zhongrong’s trust products…
https://www.reuters.com/markets/asia/zhongrong-trusts-missed-payments-trigger-fears-among-chinese-investors-2023-08-16/

China Shadow Bank Misses Dozens of Payments, Sparking Protests
Zhongrong International Trust Co. missed payments on dozens of products and has no immediate plan to make clients whole, indicating troubles at the embattled Chinese shadow bank are deeper than previously known… https://finance.yahoo.com/news/chinese-shadow-bank-misses-dozens-015513498.html

@YahooFinance: “It could get a lot worse,” Meyer, Unkovic and Scott Partner @DennisUnkovic
says on China’s economy. “70% of the household wealth held by the normal Chinese people is in real estate. When real estate goes down, it just doesn’t affect the markets. It affects everyone in China.”
https://twitter.com/YahooFinance/status/1691829668138061892

Did China’s youth jobless rate really hit 46.5%?
As if the record-breaking 21.3% unemployment rate for urban youth in June’s official survey wasn’t disturbing enough, a scholar digging into the data provided a more shocking stat: Fully 46.5% of China’s 16- to 24-year-olds were neither employed nor in school in March… https://t.co/fp4poL7Ua1

China’s intervention erased early losses on its bourses and turned major indices modestly positive at 23:11 ET but peaked 4 minutes later. Chinese stocks sank; indices closed at the lows: CSI 300 -0.73%, Hang Seng -1.36%, Shanghai Comp -0.82%, Shenzhen Comp -0.95%; PS – The Nikkei fell 1.46%.

UK inflation pressure stays strong despite fall in headline rate
The annual consumer price inflation rate cooled to 6.8% (y/y) from June’s 7.9% (6.7% y/y exp.)… Core inflation, which excludes energy and food prices, remained at 6.9%, unchanged from June, and higher than expectations in the Reuters poll for a reading of 6.8%… (Released at 2 ET)
https://www.reuters.com/world/uk/uk-inflation-rate-slows-68-july-2023-08-16/

July US Industrial Production 1.0% m/m, 0.3% consensus; Manufacturing Production 0.5%, 0.0% exp.; Motor Vehicle, Parts 5.2%, Utilities 5.4% with Electric 6.7%, Natural Gas -2.0%, Energy 2.1%; Capacity Utilization 79.3%, 79.1 consensus: Mining 92.4%, Computers 77.3%, Semis 75.9%.Mfg. SIC 77.8%

ESUs vacillated in accordance with Asian stocks. They zoomed higher after the European opening and hit a daily high of 4467.25 at 4:30 ET. ESUs and stocks then tumbled until the rally for the NYSE opening commenced at 9:10 ET. ESUs soared from a daily low of 4444.25 to 4465.50 at 9:48 ET.

The ensuing Dump pushed ESUs to 4453.00 at 10:02 ET. But it was Weird Wednesday and Settlement at the VIX Fix for expiring August VIX options. So, the usual suspects eagerly got long stuff for the expected upward manipulation. ESUs hit 4465.25 at 10:20 ET. Alas, sellers returned, ESUs retreated.

The rally for the 11:30 ET European close ended at 11:05 ET. ESUs and stocks sank into the European close because too many traders were long. Near 11:42 ET, ESUs sank; by 12:21 ET, they hit 4440.50.

The DJTA was relatively soft on Wednesday because JB Hunt sank 3% due to its downbeat forecast for the US economy and its business at a Deutsche Bank Conference. Truckers fell in concert with JBHT.

USUs rallied modestly during early Asian trading. After Japan closed at 1 ET, USUs rallied moderately; but they peaked at 120 19/32 (+16/32) near 6:22 ET. USUs then sank to a daily low 119/22 at 9:13 ET.
USUs rebounded to 120 9/32 near 10:25 ET and then rolled over. USUs hit 119 16/32 at 14:00 ET.

The yen/$ hit 145.93 at 9:11 ET; it rebounded to 145.66 at 9:37 ET. The yen then sank to a new low of 146.16 at 14:00 ET. The yen led US bonds lower. Japan is the largest foreign US Treasury holder.

FOMC Minutes from 7/26 HighlightsMost Fed Officials Saw ‘Significant’ Upside Risks to InflationInflation Risks Could Require Further TighteningTwo Fed Officials Favored Holding Rates Steady in JulyFed economists expect a “small increase in the unemployment rate.”Some officials see commercial real estate valuation declines hurting banks, insurersOfficials will judge next rate decisions on ‘totality’ of dataSeveral officials see need to consider risk of overtightening“The labor market remained very tight.”“All participants agreed it was appropriate to continue… reducing the Fed’s securities holdings”A number of officials said the balance sheet runoff need not end when rate cuts starthttps://www.federalreserve.gov/monetarypolicy/files/fomcminutes20230726.pdf

The yen/$ hit 146.24 at 14:10 ET; USUs fell to 119 12 (-23/32). ESUs rallied 16 handles into the 14:00 ET FOMC Minutes release (on the usual hope of Fed dovishness). They sank 17 handles to a new daily low of 4432.00 at 14:10 ET. ESUs jumped to 4454.50 by 14:31 ET on manipulation for the 14:15 VIX Fix and the desired upward expiry squeeze for Weird Wednesday.

Alas, the yen continued to sink and hit 146.27 at 15:02 ET. So, USUs fell to 119/10 and ESUs sank. Double alas, the yen sank further hitting 146.41 at 15:55 ET; USUs hit 1129 3/32 (1pt); and ESUs sank to a new low of 4417.00 at 16:00 ET. No Weird Wednesday upward manipulation for you!

@biancoresearch: The 10-year at 4.27% is its highest closing level since June 16, 2008.

US single-family housing starts surge in JulySingle-family housing starts increase 6.7% in July Single-family building permits rise 0.6% (1.442m, 1.463m expected)Overall housing starts climb 3.9%; permits gain 0.1% (1.452m, 1.45m expected)Data for June was revised to show starts falling to a rate of 921,000 units, instead of 935,000 units as previously reported… (Team Obama continues to revise econ stats lower!) The increase… led by the West, where single-family starts soared 28.5%. Starts rose 12.5% in the Midwest. But they fell 3.4% in the Northeast and declined 1.3% in the densely populated South… https://t.co/TKK8Wpcl8g

Positive aspects of previous session
Industrial commodities declined
The DJUA rallied modestly

Negative aspects of previous session
Bonds declined again.  Houston, we have a US debt problem!
The ¥/$ got hammered despite, or maybe due to, Japan’s verbal intervention
US stocks sank despite China’s intervention in its equity markets

Ambiguous aspects of previous session
Who directed The Big Guy to extoll and campaign on Bidenomics?

First Hour/Last Hour Action [S&P 500 Index]: 1st Hour from NYSE Open: Up; Last Hour: Down

Pivot Point for S&P 500 Index [above/below indicates daily trend to traders]: 4419.28
Previous session S&P 500 Index High/Low: 4449.95; 4403.55

Target reports first quarterly sales drop in 6 years after ‘Pride Month’ disaster
A result of customers’ “negative reaction” to its spring “Pride” clothing collection that featured “tuck-friendly” swimwear and LGBTQ-friendly gear for infants and children…   https://trib.al/eaa4aiK

Target facing ‘unacceptable amount’ of retail theft and organized retail crime, CEO says
Cornell highlighted safety threats that Target employees are facing, saying that during the first five months of 2023, Target stores saw a 120% increase in theft involving violence or threats of violence…
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/target-facing-unacceptable-amount-of-retail-theft-and-organized-retail-crime-ceo-says/ar-AA1flJra

Gee, if only we knew who was responsible for allowing, enabling, and facilitating these crimes!
Target rallied 7.2% before the NYSE opening despite comparable sales falling 5.4% (-38% expected), revenue of $24.77B with $25.6B expected, and a lower forecast for Q3 ($7 to $8, 7.81 exp.) because it reported EPS of 1.80 with 1.40 expected. Walmart shares soared 12% in pre-NYSE opening trading on the belief that it will report stupendous results today.

@zerohedge: Few things are funnier than Apollo founder Leon Black paying Jeffrey Epstein $158 million for “tax work.”

Emergency room doctors beg for help treating children with mental health illnesses
She said that the number of kids seeking psychiatric emergency care in her ER has grown from approximately 30 a month in recent years to 30 a day…
    A nationwide mental health problem…
https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/other/emergency-room-doctors-beg-for-help-treating-children-with-mental-health-illnesses/ar-AA1fkXmy

@RMConservative: Homelessness jumped 11% this year. Not even during the Great Recession did we see such a sharp one-year jump. (US solons continue to ignore the US mental health crisis.)

WSJ: More Americans Are Ending Up Homeless—at a Record Rate  https://t.co/7ZR0kospZT

Credit card delinquencies jump past pre-pandemic levels – Axios
The rate of new credit card delinquencies has surpassed its pre-COVID level, clocking in at 7.2% in the second quarter, per a report out this month from the New York Fed…Americans are increasingly relying on credit cards to make their budgets work…
https://www.axios.com/2023/08/15/credit-loan-delinquency-2023-above-pre-pandemic-levels

Some Team Obama dolt has commanded Biden to extoll ‘Bidenomics’ and run on it – despite Americans’ overwhelming disgust with Biden’s economy.  ‘They’ keep posting ‘Bidenomics’ banners at The Big Guy’s appearances!!! Joe keeps risibly bragging about it!!! Do ‘they’ want The Big Guy to lose?

@TheFirstonTV: What is wrong with this man? BIDEN to CHILDREN: ‘I know some really great ice cream places around here… Daddy owes you… Talk to me afterwards.’
https://twitter.com/TheFirstonTV/status/1691903310075224274

Today – Yesterday’s King Report: Bulls must halt downside momentum today or else!

Stocks are now threatening to follow bonds and the yen into the abyss. The probability of a gamma-induced downward spiral is high. The S&P 500 Index low on Wednesday was 4403.55. A significant breach of 4400 could ignite momentum selling and a downward squeeze on expiry August puts.

ESUs are -5:75 at 20:30 ET; USUs are -3/32 and the Yen/$ is 146.45. Trading is very cautious.

Expected Economic data: Initial Jobless Claims 240k, Continuing Claims 1.7m; Aug Phil Fed Business Outlook -10.0; July LEI -0.4%

Expected Earnings: WMT 1.70, ROST 1.16, AMAT 1.73

S&P 500 Index 50-day MA: 4449; 100-day MA: 4289; 150-day MA: 4197; 200-day MA: 4125
DJIA 50-day MA: 34,595; 100-day MA: 33,999; 150-day MA: 33,756; 200-day MA: 33,670
(Green is positive slope; Red is negative slope)

S&P 500 Index – Trender trading model and MACD for key time frames
Monthly: Trender and MACD are positive – a close below 3752.81 triggers a sell signal
Weekly: Trender and MACD are positive – a close below 4372.50 triggers a sell signal
Daily: Trender and MACD are negative – a close above 4526.55 triggers a buy signal
Hourly: Trender and MACD negative – a close above 4456.30 triggers a buy signal

Karine Jean-Pierre mocked for deleted tweet saying she ran for president (Historic incompetence)
“Investing in America means investing in ALL of America,” read Jean-Pierre’s since-deleted tweet on X, formerly known as Twitter. “When I ran for President, I made a promise that I would leave no part of the country behind.” The social media blunder left users scratching their heads, with some wondering if Jean-Pierre mistakenly logged into her Twitter account instead of President Biden’s to post the tweet.
   “Oh wow! They tweeted from the wrong account! @PressSec Karine Jean-Pierre has not run for President, at least to the best of my knowledge,” Simon Ateba, Today News Africa’s chief White House correspondent, mused… (Team Obama won’t let Joe tweet for good reason! Who runs his account?)
https://nypost.com/2023/08/15/karine-jean-pierre-mocked-for-deleted-tweet-saying-she-ran-for-president/

Biden Regime Trots Out Dirty John Podesta to Lecture Americans about Climate Change
Podesta admitted Joe Biden’s so-called ‘Inflation Reduction Act’ is actually the Marxist green new deal repackaged with a different name. “We have to cut the carbon pollution that’s driving the climate crisis and that’s what the ‘Inflation Reduction Act’ is all about!” Podesta said…
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/08/biden-regime-trots-dirty-john-podesta-lecture-americans/

Michigan AG acknowledges investigation into 2020 potential voter fraud, referral to FBI
https://justthenews.com/politics-policy/elections/michigan-attorney-general-acknowledges-2020-investigation-potential-voter

After nine months, secretary of state announces Harris County election audit
This is the second Texas Secretary of State audit of Harris County.
    Judge Hidalgo, who recently took a leave of absence citing clinical depression, has maintained there were no widespread problems or voter fraud that occurred on election day. As previously reported by The Center Square, on Nov. 8, 2022, polling locations in specific areas had delayed openings, equipment malfunctioned, there wasn’t enough ballot paper, among other problems, forcing voters to wait for hours or be turned away, and a judge agreed to extend voting hours to enable people to vote.
   Last December, the Harris County Elections Administration published a report acknowledging problems existed and partially blamed them on the U.S. Postal Service and Houston’s Major League Baseball team, the Astros, ABC 13 News Houston reported…
https://justthenews.com/nation/states/center-square/after-nine-months-secretary-state-announces-harris-county-election

Pentagon to shake up DC National Guard after criticism for Jan. 6, BLM protest response
The officials are dealing with the major issue of who should control the D.C. Guard. https://t.co/ocKRTqg242

@charliekirk11: There’s a reason this post went viral: Conservatives are begging their AGs and DAs: Force the left to live by its own rules. They must fear that they will be indicted next.
   My newest in The Federalist lists 5 Dem targets prosecutors can investigate now:

How Should Republicans Respond To Fulton County? Indict the Left – When politicians are tempted to prosecute their enemies for political reasons, they must fear the same thing happening to them.
    The goal of all these indictments is simple: rig the 2024 election in the court system before a single ballot can even be cast, and criminalize the MAGA political movement Trump has built… When politicians are tempted to prosecute their political enemies, for political reasons, they must fear the same thing happening to them. Right now, the left does not have that fear, because conservatives have sat idle, refusing to act. That must change…
   For the sake of rigging an election and imprisoning its enemies, the left got creative. For the sake of defending our system of government from this outlandish attack, we may have to get creative too. I offer the following examples as a starting point, but by no means an endpoint.
   Hunter Biden… James Biden… Alejandro Mayorkas… Black Lives Matter – The charity, from the beginning, was a scam. It spent $6 million on a luxury home in the Los Angeles area… So it’s time Republican AGs acted accordingly. The people of their states were defrauded by BLM. Investigate and indict them…  Southern Poverty Law Center – In a 2019 piece, former staffer Bob Moser said the group was “ripping” off donors and was essentially a “con.”
    Well, the SPLC is headquartered in Alabama. So, I ask, where is the war room in the Alabama AG’s office investigating the SPLC the way New York investigates the NRA?
    Literally Any Democrat, for Anything – The cases against Trump and his associates aren’t the product of a reasoned criminal inquiry. They are the product of years of work that started from the premise of “investigate Trump for literally anything, and bring whatever charges you can come up with, even if they’re invented.”…  https://t.co/5Jrw0WBaql

Fired AG Leading Epstein Inquiry Reveals V.I. Governor Pressured Her on Pedophile’s Behalf
Virgin Islands Attorney General Denise George vigorously prosecuted Jeffrey Epstein-related cases until she was unexpectedly fired by V.I. Governor Albert Bryan Jr. last December…
   In July, George testified under oath that Bryan had personally lobbied her in 2019 to issue a special waiver to the territory’s sex offender law so that Epstein could travel freely, without special notifications or restrictions…George said that Bryan repeatedly pressured her to issue the sex offender travel waiver to Epstein… https://www.leefang.com/p/fired-ag-leading-epstein-inquiry

Philadelphia businesses are being forced to set up BOOBY TRAPS like hidden sprinklers as open-air drug markets take over the city and customers dwindle https://trib.al/JqWmE2g

Homeowner (Atlanta suburb) arrested after trying to evict squatters from his own property: ‘Walked in on weapons, a prostitute, a bunch of dogs’ – Six months later, they are still living in Arko’s home.  Two people have died in the residence from overdoses during that time. Code enforcement has even cited Arko for not properly maintaining the house he legally can’t access. (This is US justice!)
    After lengthy court delays, an eviction order was finally signed. Arko still awaits marshals, however, to conduct the eviction. Arko said he has been informed by marshals that they are hoping for a September eviction…  https://nypost.com/2023/08/16/homeowner-arrested-after-trying-to-evict-squatters-from-his-house/

@PhilipReichert: Democrats want to win 2024. MAGA Republicans want to win 2020, so they’re going to lose 2024.

END

GREG HUNTER.

SEE YOU FRIDAY