SHANGHAI GOLD (USD) FUTURES – QUOTES

VENUE:

GLOBEX

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Last Updated 05 Jan 2024 09:39:39 AM CT.

Market data is delayed by at least 10 minutes.

MONTH	LAST	CHANGE	PRIOR SETTLE	OPEN	HIGH	LOW	VOLUME	UPDATED
JAN 2024 SGUF4	–	–	2081.9	–	–	–	0	08:50:01 CT 05 Jan 2024
FEB 2024 SGUG4	2090.1	-2.3 (-0.11%)	2092.4	2091.6	2092.1	2088.4	82	08:50:01 CT 05 Jan 2024
MAR 2024 SGUH4	–	–	2102.9	–	–	–	0	08:50:01 CT 05 Jan 2024
APR 2024 SGUJ4	–	–	2102.8	–	–	–	0	08:50:01 CT 05 Jan 2024
JUN 2024 SGUM4	–	–	2103.4	–	–	–	0	08:50:01 CT 05 Jan 2024
AUG 2024 SGUQ4	–	–	2104.0	–	–	–	0	08:50:01 CT 05 Jan 2024
OCT 2024 SGUV4	–	–	2104.6	–	–	–	0	08:50:01 CT 05 Jan 2024
DEC 2024 SGUZ4	–	–	2105.2	–	–	–	0	08:50:01 CT 05 Jan 2024

About this Report

Bitcoin morning price:, 43,932 DOWN 168 DOLLARS

Bitcoin: afternoon price: $43,742 DOWN 358 dollars

Platinum price closing $964.50 UP $6.20

Palladium price; $1034,50 DOWN $3.90

END

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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: $2,731.90 UP $2.90 CDN dollars per oz( * NEW ALL TIME HIGH 2,795.90 CDN DOLLARS PER OZ//DEC 1 272023)

*BRITISH GOLD: 1607.45 DOWN 4.00- pounds per oz// *(NEW ALL TIME HIGH//CLOSING///1655.17 BRITISH POUNDS/OZ) OCT 2/2023

*EURO GOLD: 1869.03 UP 1.63 euros per oz //* (ALL TIME CLOSING HIGH: 1903.75 EUROS PER OZ//DEC 1.2023)

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EXCHANGE: COMEX

EXCHANGE: COMEX
CONTRACT: JANUARY 2024 COMEX 100 GOLD FUTURES
SETTLEMENT: 2,042.300000000 USD
INTENT DATE: 01/04/2024 DELIVERY DATE: 01/08/2024
FIRM ORG FIRM NAME ISSUED STOPPED

363 H WELLS FARGO SEC 11
435 H SCOTIA CAPITAL 75
624 H BOFA SECURITIES 13
661 C JP MORGAN 54
737 C ADVANTAGE 7 4

TOTAL: 82 82
MONTH TO DATE: 2,768

JPMorgan stopped 54/82 contracts.

FOR JAN.:

GOLD: NUMBER OF NOTICES FILED FOR JAN/2023. CONTRACT: 82 NOTICES FOR 8200 OZ or 0.2550 TONNES

total notices so far: 2768 contracts for 276,800 oz (8.6096 tonnes)

FOR JANUARY:

SILVER NOTICES 10 NOTICE(S) FILED FOR 50,000 OZ/

total number of notices filed so far this month : 515 for 2,575,000 oz

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END

BOTH GLD AND SLV ARE FRAUDULENT VEHICLES

GLD

WITH GOLD UP $0.80

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

INVENTORY RESTS AT 874.21 TONNES

SLV//

WITH NO SILVER AROUND AND SILVER UP 20 CENTS AT THE SLV// HUGE CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV: A DEPOSIT OF 916,000 OZ INTO THE SLV

INVESTORS ARE SWITCHING SLV TO SPROTT’S PSLV.

CLOSING INVENTORY: 435.972 MILLION OZ

Let us have a look at the data for today

SILVER//OUTLINE

SILVER COMEX OI FELL BY A HUMONGOUS SIZED 2480 CONTRACTS TO 132,256 AND CLOSER TO THE RECORD HIGH OI OF 244,710, SET FEB 25/2020 AND THIS HUGE SIZED LOSS IN COMEX OI WAS ACCOMPLISHED DESPITE OUR SMALL GAIN OF $0.05 IN SILVER PRICING AT THE COMEX ON THURSDAY. WE HAD A SOME LONG LIQUIDATION WITH CONSIDERABLE T.A.S. LIQUIDATION (WITH MINOR SHORT COVERING ) AT THE COMEX SESSION. WE HAD A HUGE 1092 T.A.S ISSUANCE AND 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 THURSDAY NIGHT: 1092 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 WITH THE HELP OF SPECULATORS AND HIGH FREQUENCY TRADERS WERE UNSUCCESSFUL IN KNOCKING THE PRICE OF SILVER DOWN (IT ROSE BY $0.05), BUT WERE SUCCESSFUL IN KNOCKING SOME SILVER LONGS AS WE HAD A HUGE SIZED LOSS OF 1301 OI CONTRACTS ON OUR TWO EXCHANGES.

WE MUST HAVE HAD:

A GIGANTIC SIZED 1179 ISSUANCE OF EXCHANGE FOR PHYSICALS) iiii) AN INITIAL SILVER STANDING FOR COMEX SILVER MEASURING AT 6.650 MILLION OZ (FIRST DAY NOTICE) FOLLOWED BY TODAY’S 55,000 OZ QUEUE. JUMP NEW TOTALS 5.825 MILLION OZ//

//NEW STANDING FOR SILVER IS THUS 5.825 MILLION OZ

//HUMONGOUS SIZED COMEX OI LOSS/ GIGANTIC SIZED EFP ISSUANCE/ VI) HUGE SIZED NUMBER OF T.A.S. CONTRACT ISSUANCE 1092 CONTRACTS)/

I AM NOW RECORDING THE DIFFERENTIAL IN OI FROM PRELIMINARY TO FINAL – REMOVED – 44 CONTRACTS //

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

TOTAL CONTRACTS for 4 days, total 3917 contracts: OR 19.585 MILLION OZ (979 CONTRACTS PER DAY)

TOTAL EFP’S FOR THE MONTH SO FAR: 19.585 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: 171.43 MILLION OZ (THIS MONTH IS GOING TO BE HUGE //2ND HIGHEST ON RECORD

SEPT: 72.705 MILLION OZ (SMALLER THIS MONTH)

OCT: 97.455 MILLION OZ

NOV. 50.050 MILLION OZ

DEC. 66.140 MILLION OZ//

TOTAL 2023: 1,104.10 MILLION OZ/

JAN ’24 : 19.585 MILLION OZ

RESULT: WE HAD A HUMONGOUS SIZED DECREASE IN COMEX OI SILVER COMEX CONTRACTS OF 2480 CONTRACTS DESPITE OUR GAIN IN PRICE OF SILVER PRICING AT THE COMEX//THURSDAY.,. THE CME NOTIFIED US THAT WE HAD A HUGE EFP ISSUANCE CONTRACTS: 1179 ISSUED FOR FEB 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 JAN. OF 6.665 MILLION OZ FOLLOWED BY TODAY’S 55,000 OZ QUEUE JUMP //NEW TOTAL 4.825 MILLION OZ TO WHICH WE ADD EX. FOR RISK ISSUANCE/PRIOR FOR 1.0 MILLION OZ //NEW TOTALS; 5.825 MILLION OZ/

NEW STANDING 5.825 million OZ /// WE HAVE A GIGANTIC SIZED LOSS OF 1301 OI CONTRACTS ON THE TWO EXCHANGES DESPITE THE GAIN IN PRICE. THE TOTAL OF TAS INITIATED CONTRACTS TODAY: A HUGE SIZED 1092 CONTRACTS//CONSIDERABLE FRONT END OF THE TAS CONTRACTS WERE LIQUIDATED DURING THE THURSDAY COMEX SESSION/RAID// WITH SOME SHORT COVERINGS FROM OUR SPEC SHORTS. THE NEW TAS ISSUANCE THURSDAY NIGHT (1092) WILL BE PUT INTO “THE BANK” TO BE COLLUSIVELY USED AT A LATER DATE., .

WE HAD 10 NOTICE(S) FILED TODAY FOR 50,000 OZ

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

GOLD//OUTLINE

IN GOLD, THE COMEX OPEN INTEREST FELL BY A FAIR SIZED 1044 CONTRACTS TO 496,045 AND FURTHER FROM THE RECORD (SET JAN 24/2020) AT 799,733 AND PREVIOUS TO THAT: (SET JAN 6/2020) AT 797,110.

THE DIFFERENTIAL FROM PRELIMINARY OI TO FINAL OI IN GOLD TODAY: – removed 534 CONTRACTS

WE HAD A FAIR SIZED DECREASE IN COMEX OI ( 1044 CONTRACTS) WITH OUR $7.60 GAIN IN PRICE//THURSDAY. WE ALSO HAD A RATHER STRONG INITIAL STANDING IN GOLD TONNAGE FOR JAN. AT 8.214 TONNES ON FIRST DAY NOTICE FOLLOWED BY TODAY’S 18,200 OZ QUEUE JUMP//NEW STANDING: 8.749 TONNES // ALL OF THIS HAPPENED WITH OUR $7.60 GAIN IN PRICE WITH RESPECT TO THURSDAY’S TRADING. WE HAD A FAIR SIZED GAIN OF 2280 OI CONTRACTS (7.091) PAPER TONNES) ON OUR TWO EXCHANGES.

E.F.P. ISSUANCE

THE CME RELEASED THE DATA FOR EFP ISSUANCE AND IT TOTALED A STRONG SIZED 3324 CONTRACTS:

The NEW COMEX OI FOR THE GOLD COMPLEX RESTS AT 496,579

IN ESSENCE WE HAVE A FAIR SIZED INCREASE IN TOTAL CONTRACTS ON THE TWO EXCHANGES OF 2280 CONTRACTS WITH 1044 CONTRACTS DECREASED AT THE COMEX// AND A STRONG SIZED 3324 EFP OI CONTRACTS WHICH NAVIGATED OVER TO LONDON. THUS TOTAL OI GAIN ON THE TWO EXCHANGES OF 2280 CONTRACTS.. WE HAD THE FOLLOWING TAS CONTRACTS INITIATED (ISSUED): A FAIR SIZED 1321 CONTRACTS.

CALCULATIONS ON GAIN/LOSS ON OUR TWO EXCHANGES

WE HAD A STRONG SIZED ISSUANCE IN EXCHANGE FOR PHYSICALS (3324 CONTRACTS) ACCOMPANYING THE SMALL SIZED LOSS IN COMEX OI (510) //TOTAL GAIN FOR OUR THE TWO EXCHANGES: 2280 CONTRACTS. WE HAVE ( 1) NOW RETURNED TO OUR FORMER FORMAT OF BANKERS GOING LONG AND SPECULATORS GOING SHORT ,2.) STRONG INITIAL STANDING AT THE GOLD COMEX FOR JAN AT 8.214 TONNES FOLLOWED BY TODAY’S 18,200 OZ QUEUE JUMP//NEW STANDING 8.749 TONNES. / 3) ZERO LONG LIQUIDATION AND CONSIDERABLE TAS LIQUIDATION WITH ZERO SHORT LIQUIDATION// 4) SMALL SIZED COMEX OPEN INTEREST LOSS/ 5) STRONG ISSUANCE OF EXCHANGE FOR PHYSICAL PAPER///6: FAIR T.A.S. ISSUANCE: 1321 CONTRACTS

HISTORICAL ACCUMULATION OF EXCHANGE FOR PHYSICALS IN 2023 INCLUDING TODAY

JAN.

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

TOTAL EFP CONTRACTS ISSUED: 12,368 CONTRACTS OR 1,236,800 OZ OR 38.47 TONNES IN 4 TRADING DAY(S) AND THUS AVERAGING: 3092 EFP CONTRACTS PER TRADING DAY

TO GIVE YOU AN IDEA AS TO THE SIZE OF THESE EFP TRANSFERS : THIS MONTH IN 4 TRADING DAY(S) IN TONNES 38.47 TONNES

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

THUS EFP TRANSFERS REPRESENTS 38.147/3550 x 100% TONNES 1.07% 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: 195.28 TONNES (A STRONGER MONTH)//FINAL

SEPT: 254.709 TONNES (WILL BE LARGER THAN LAST MONTH AND A STRONG MONTH)

OCT. 248.09 TONNES. LIKE SILVER, THIS MONTH IS GOING TO BE A STRONG E.F.P. ISSUANCE.

NOV. 239.16 TONNES//WILL BE STRONG THIS MONTH,

DEC. 213.704 TONNES. A STRONG MONTH//

TOTAL FOR YEAR 2023: 2,569.57 TONNES VS 2578 TONNES LAST YEAR

JAN ’24: 38.147 TONNES

SPREADING OPERATIONS

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

SPREADING LIQUIDATION HAS NOW COMMENCED AS WE HEAD TOWARDS THE NEW ACTIVE FRONT MONTH OF DEC. 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 NOV HEADING TOWARDS THE ACTIVE DELIVERY MONTH OF FEB., FOR GOLD: AND MARCH FOR SILVER

YOU WILL ALSO NOTICE THAT THE COMEX OPEN INTEREST STARTS TO RISE BUT SO IS THE OPEN INTEREST OF SPREADERS. THE OPEN INTEREST IN WILL CONTINUE TO RISE UNTIL ONE WEEK BEFORE FIRST DAY NOTICE OF AN UPCOMING ACTIVE DELIVERY MONTH (FEB), 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 GIGANTIC SIZED 2480 CONTRACTS OI TO 132,256 AND CLOSER TO THE 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 1179 CONTRACTS

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

MARCH 1179 and ALL OTHER MONTHS: ZERO. TOTAL EFP ISSUANCE: 1179 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 2480 CONTRACTS AND ADD TO THE 1179 OI TRANSFERRED TO LONDON THROUGH EFP’S,

WE OBTAIN A HUGE SIZED LOSS OF OPEN INTEREST CONTRACTS FROM OUR TWO EXCHANGES OF 1301 CONTRACTS

THUS IN OUNCES, THE LOSS ON THE TWO EXCHANGES TOTAL 6.285 MILLION OZ

OCCURRED DESPITE OUR $.05 GAIN 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//

FRIDAY MORNING/THURSDAY NIGHT

SHANGHAI CLOSED DOWN 25.17 PTS OR 0.85% //Hang Seng CLOSED DOWN 110.65 PTS OR 0.66% /The Nikkei CLOSED UP 89.13 PTS OR .27% //Australia’s all ordinaries CLOSED DOWN 0.16% /Chinese yuan (ONSHORE) closed DOWN AT 7.1539 /OFFSHORE CHINESE YUAN CLOSED DOWN TO 7.1644 /Oil DOWN TO 72.96 dollars per barrel for WTI and BRENT UP AT 78.813/ Stocks in Europe OPENED ALL RED// ONSHORE YUAN TRADING ABOVE LEVEL OF OFFSHORE YUAN/ONSHORE YUAN TRADING WEAKER AGAINST US DOLLAR/OFFSHORE WEAKER

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 FELL BY A FAIR SIZED 1044 CONTRACTS TO 496,045 DESPITE OUR GAIN IN PRICE OF $7.60 WITH RESPECT TO THURSDAY TRADING. WE MUST HAVE HAD ZERO LONG SPEC LIQUIDATIONS IN THE COMEX SESSION WITH FEW SPEC SHORT COVERINGS

EXCHANGE FOR PHYSICAL ISSUANCE

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

THAT IS 3324 EFP CONTRACTS WERE ISSUED: : FEB 3324 & ZERO FOR ALL OTHER MONTHS:

TOTAL EFP ISSUANCE: 3324 CONTRACTS

ON A NET BASIS IN OPEN INTEREST WE GAINED THE FOLLOWING TODAY ON OUR TWO EXCHANGES: A FAIR SIZED TOTAL OF 2280 CONTRACTS IN THAT 3324 LONGS WERE TRANSFERRED AS FORWARDS TO LONDON AND WE HAD A FAIR SIZED LOSS OF 1044 COMEX CONTRACTS..AND THIS FAIR GAIN ON OUR TWO EXCHANGES HAPPENED WITH OUR GAIN IN PRICE OF $7.60//THURSDAY 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 THURSDAY NIGHT WAS A FAIR SIZED 1321 CONTRACTS. THROUGHOUT THE PAST SEVERAL 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 LIGHT AMOUNT OF GOLD TONNAGE STANDING: JAN (8.7490 TONNES) ( NON ACTIVE MONTH)

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: 38.855 TONNES(INCLUDING .6842 EXCHANGE FOR RISK)

SEPT: 15.281 TONNES FINAL

OCT. 35.869 TONNES + 1.665 EXCHANGE FOR RISK =37.0355 tonnes

NOV: 18.7122 TONNES + 16.2505 EX. FOR RISK = 34.9627 TONNES

DEC. 47.073 + 4.634 TONNES OF EXCHANGE FOR RISK = 51.707TONNES

TOTAL 2023 YEAR : 436.546 TONNES

JAN ’24. 8.7490 TONNES

THE SPECS/HFT WERE UNSUCCESSFUL IN LOWERING GOLD’S PRICE( IT GAINED $7.60) //// AND WERE UNSUCCESSFUL IN KNOCKING ANY SPECULATOR LONGS AS WE HAD A FAIR SIZED GAIN OF 2280 TOTAL CONTRACTS ON OUR TWO EXCHANGES. WE HAD A GOOD T.A.S. LIQUIDATION ON THE FRONT END OF THURSDAY’S TRADING . THE T.A.S. ISSUED ON THURSDAY NIGHT, WILL BE “PUT INTO THE BANK” TO BE USED AT A LATER DATE AT THE COLLUSIVE CHOOSING OF OUR BANKERS. WE ALSO EXPERIENCED CONSIDERABLE SPECULATOR SHORT COVERING

WE HAVE GAINED A TOTAL OI OF 7.091 PAPER TONNES FROM OUR TWO EXCHANGES, ACCOMPANYING OUR INITIAL GOLD TONNAGE STANDING FOR JAN. (8,214 TONNES) ON FIRST DAY NOTICE FOLLOWED BY TODAY’S 18,200 OZ QUEUE JUMP (.1181 TONNES)/ ALL OF THIS WAS ACCOMPLISHED WITH OUR GAIN IN PRICE TO THE TUNE OF $7.60.

WE HAD – REMOVED 534 CONTRACTS TO THE COMEX TRADES TO OPEN INTEREST (CROOKS)

NET GAIN ON THE TWO EXCHANGES 2280 CONTRACTS OR 228,000 OZ OR 7.091 TONNES.

Estimated gold volume today:// 226,107 raid/drastic banker manipulation

final gold volumes/yesterday 147,300// poor

//speculators have left the gold arena

JAN 5 INITIAL

/ /// THE JAN 2023 GOLD CONTRACT

Gold	Ounces
Withdrawals from Dealers* Inventory in oz*	nil
Withdrawals from Customer* Inventory in oz*	nil OZ .
Deposit to the Dealer* Inventory in oz*	nil oz
Deposits to the Customer* Inventory, in oz*	nil oz
No of oz served (contracts) today	82 notice(s) 8200 OZ 0.2550 TONNES
No of oz to be served (notices)	45 contracts 4500 oz 0.1399TONNES
Total monthly oz gold served (contracts) so far this month	2768 notices 276,800 oz 8.6096 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

we had 0 withdrawals

total withdrawals nil oz

Adjustments; 1

i) Out of JPMorgan//dealer to customer; 482.245 oz or 15 kilobars.

CALCULATIONS FOR THE AMOUNT OF GOLD STANDING FOR JAN.

For the front month of JANUARY we have an oi of 127 contracts having GAINED 31 contracts. We had 151 notices served on Thursday, so we gained 182 contracts or an additional 18,200 oz will stand for delivery at the comex

FEB LOST 6323 CONTRACTS FALLING TO 359,296

March gained 38 contracts to stand at 83.

APRIL GAINED 4649 CONTRACTS RISING TO 80,587.

We had 82 contracts filed for today representing 8,200 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 82 contract(s) of which 0 notices were stopped (received) by j.P. Morgan dealer and 54 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 JAN. /2023. contract month, we take the total number of notices filed so far for the month (2,768 x 100 oz ), to which we add the difference between the open interest for the front month of JAN. (127 CONTRACTS) minus the number of notices served upon today 82 x 100 oz per contract equals 281,300 OZ OR 8.749 TONNES

thus the INITIAL standings for gold for the JAN. contract month: No of notices filed so far (2,768) x 100 oz + (127) {OI for the front month} minus the number of notices served upon today (82) x 100 oz) which equals 281,300 oz standing OR 8.749 TONNES

TOTAL COMEX GOLD STANDING FOR JAN: 8.749 TONNES WHICH IS GREAT FOR AN INACTIVE DELIVERY MONTH IN THE CALENDAR.

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: 1,511,832.621 47,02 tonnes

TOTAL OF ALL GOLD ELIGIBLE AND REGISTERED GOLD: 20,036,481.348 OZ

TOTAL REGISTERED GOLD 10,253,557.088 (318,92 tonnes).

TOTAL OF ALL ELIGIBLE GOLD: 9,782,924.280 OZ

REGISTERED GOLD THAT CAN BE SERVED UPON: 8,741,725 oz (REG GOLD- PLEDGED GOLD) 271.90 tonnes

END

SILVER/COMEX

JAN 5/INITIAL

//2023// THE JAN 2023 SILVER CONTRACT//INITIAL

Silver	Ounces
Withdrawals from Dealers* Inventory*	NIL oz
Withdrawals from Customer Inventory	1,212,306.514 oz CNT Brinks .
Deposits to the Dealer* Inventory*	nil OZ
Deposits to the Customer Inventory	1,212,306.514 oz Brinks CNT
No of oz served today (contracts)	10 CONTRACT(S) (50,000 OZ)
No of oz to be served (notices)	450 contracts (2,250,000 oz)
Total monthly oz silver served (contracts)	515 Contracts (2,575,000 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: nil oz

i) We had 0 dealer withdrawal

total dealer withdrawals: 0 oz

We had 2 deposits customer account:

i) Into Brinks 1,188,682.03 oz

ii) Into CNT 23,624.484 oz

total customer deposits: 1,212,306.514 oz oz

JPMorgan has a total silver weight: 133.1390 million oz/281.148 million or 47.34%

Comex withdrawals

i)out of Manfra 588,214.069 oz

ii) Out of Delaware 8191.953 oz

total withdrawals 596,406,922oz

TOTAL REGISTERED SILVER: 41.911 MILLION OZ//.TOTAL REG + ELIGIBLE. 281.148 million oz

CALCULATIONS FOR THE NEW STANDING FOR SILVER FOR DECEMBER:

silver open interest data:

FRONT MONTH OF JAN. /2023 OI: 460 CONTRACTS HAVING LOST 140 CONTRACT(S). WE HAD 151 NOTICES SERVED ON THURSDAY, SO WE GAINED 11 CONTRACTS OR AN ADDITIONAL 55,000 OZ WILL STAND FOR DELIVERY AT THE COMEX

FEB LOST 16 CONTRACTS TO STAND AT 636

MARCH LOST 3012 CONTRACTS TO 107,600

TOTAL NUMBER OF NOTICES FILED FOR TODAY: 10 for 50,000 oz

Comex volumes// est. volume today 61,818// fair/raid

Comex volume: confirmed yesterday 56,57 fair

To calculate the number of silver ounces that will stand for delivery in JAN. we take the total number of notices filed for the month so far at 515 x 5,000 oz = 2,575,000 oz

to which we add the difference between the open interest for the front month of JAN. (460) and the number of notices served upon today 10 x (5000 oz) equals the number of ounces standing.

Thus the standings for silver for the DEC/2023 contract month: 515 (notices served so far) x 5000 oz + OI for the front month of JAN. (460) – number of notices served upon today (10 )x 500 oz of silver standing for the JAN contract month equates to 4.825 MILLION OZ. to which we add our exchange for RISK of 1.0 million oz//new total 5.825 million oz/

New total standing: 5.825 million oz.

There are 41.911 million oz of 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//

BOTH GLD AND SLV ARE MASSIVE FRAUDS!

JAN 5/WITH GOLD UP $0.80 TODAY: NO CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD:///. // INVENTORY RESTS AT 874.21 TONNES

JAN 4/WITH GOLD UP $7.60 TODAY: NO CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD:///. // INVENTORY RESTS AT 874.21 TONNES

JAN 3/WITH GOLD DOWN $29.40 TODAY: HUGE CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD: A WITHDRAWAL OF 4.90 TONNES OF GOLD INTO THE GLD///. // INVENTORY RESTS AT 874.21 TONNES

JAN 2/WITH GOLD UP $1.50 TODAY: HUGE CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD: A WITHDRAWAL OF 1.44 TONNES OF GOLD INTO THE GLD///. // INVENTORY RESTS AT 879.11 TONNES

DEC 29/WITH GOLD DOWN $10.25 TODAY: HUGE CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD: A WITHDRAWAL OF 1.16 TONNES OF GOLD INTO THE GLD///. // INVENTORY RESTS AT 880.55 TONNES

DEC 28/WITH GOLD DOWN $8.35 TODAY: HUGE CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD: A DEPOSIT OF 1.45 TONNES OF GOLD INTO THE GLD///. // INVENTORY RESTS AT 881.71 TONNES

DEC 27/WITH GOLD UP $23.25 TODAY: HUGE CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD: A DEPOSIT OF 2.01 TONNES OF GOLD INTO THE GLD///. // INVENTORY RESTS AT 880.26 TONNES

DEC 26/WITH GOLD UP $1.25 TODAY: NO CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD:/. // INVENTORY RESTS AT 878.25 TONNES

DEC 22/WITH GOLD UP $17,85 TODAY: NO CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD:/. // INVENTORY RESTS AT 878.25 TONNES

DEC 21/WITH GOLD UP $5.10 TODAY: HUGE CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD:A DEPOSIT .58 TONNES OF 2.02 TONNES OF GOLD INTO THE GLD//. // INVENTORY RESTS AT 878.25 TONNES

DEC 20/WITH GOLD DOWN $3.60 TODAY: HUGE CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD:A WITHDRAWAL OF 2.02 TONNES OF GOLD FROM THE GLD//. // INVENTORY RESTS AT 877.67 TONNES

DEC19/WITH GOLD UP $12.15 TODAY: NO CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD:. // INVENTORY RESTS AT 879.69 TONNES

DEC18/WITH GOLD UP $5.50 TODAY: HUGE CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD:. /A DEPOSIT OF 173 TONNES INTO THE GLD// INVENTORY RESTS AT 879.69 TONNES

DEC14/WITH GOLD UP $47.35 TODAY: HUGE CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD:. /A DEPOSIT OF 2.42 TONNES FROM THE GLD// INVENTORY RESTS AT 877.96 TONNES

DEC13/WITH GOLD UP $3.90 TODAY: HUGE CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD:. /A WITHDRAWAL OF 2.89 TONNES FROM THE GLD// INVENTORY RESTS AT 875,65 TONNES

DEC12/WITH GOLD DOWN $0.60 TODAY: HUGE CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD:. /A WITHDRAWAL OF 2.01 TONNES FROM THE GLD// INVENTORY RESTS AT 878.54 TONNES

DEC11/WITH GOLD DOWN $21.20 TODAY: NO CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD:. // / / // INVENTORY RESTS AT 880.55 TONNES

DEC 8/WITH GOLD DOWN $30,80 TODAY: SMALL CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD:. // / / // A WITHDRAWAL OF .28 TONNES OF GOLD FROM THE GLD/// INVENTORY RESTS AT 880.55 TONNES

DEC 7/WITH GOLD DOWN $.20 TODAY: NO CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD:. // / / // // INVENTORY RESTS AT 880.83 TONNES

DEC 6/WITH GOLD UP $11.70 TODAY:SMALL CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD: A WITHDRAWAL OF 0.29 TONNES OF GOLD FROM THE GLD. // / / // // INVENTORY RESTS AT 880.83 TONNES

DEC 5/WITH GOLD DOWN $5.85 TODAY:HUGE CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD: A DEPOSIT OF 2.30 TONNES OF GOLD FROM THE GLD. // / / // // INVENTORY RESTS AT 881.12 TONNES

DEC 4/WITH GOLD DOWN $43.15 TODAY:HUGE CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD: A DEPOSIT OF 2.31 TONNES OF GOLD FROM THE GLD. // / / // // INVENTORY RESTS AT 878.82 TONNES

DEC 1/WITH GOLD UP $32.05 TODAY:HUGE CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD: A WITHDRAWAL OF 2.02 TONNES OF GOLD FROM THE GLD. // / / // // INVENTORY RESTS AT 876.51 TONNES

NOV 30/WITH GOLD DOWN $8.70 TODAY:HUGE CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD: A WITHDRAWAL OF 2.02 TONNES OF GOLD FROM THE GLD. // / / // // INVENTORY RESTS AT 878.53 TONNES

NOV 29/WITH GOLD UP $7.20 TODAY:HUGE CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD: A WITHDRAWAL OF 1.73 TONNES OF GOLD FROM THE GLD. // / / // // INVENTORY RESTS AT 880.55 TONNES

NOV 28/WITH GOLD UP $26.45 TODAY:NO CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD: // / / // // INVENTORY RESTS AT 882.28 TONNE

NOV 27/WITH GOLD UP $9,85 TODAY:NO CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD: // / / // // INVENTORY RESTS AT 882.28 TONNES

NOV 24/WITH GOLD UP $11.20 TODAY:HUGE CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD: A WITHDRAWAL OF 1.15 TONNES OF GOLD FROM THE GLD// / / // // INVENTORY RESTS AT 882.28 TONNES

NOV 22/WITH GOLD DOWN $8.45 TODAY:NO CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD / / // // INVENTORY RESTS AT 883.43 TONNES

NOV 21/WITH GOLD UP $21.65 TODAY:NO CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD / / // // INVENTORY RESTS AT 883.43 TONNES

NOV 20/WITH GOLD DOWN $4.15 TODAY:HUGE CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD A MAMMOTH DEPOSIT OF 12.98 TONNES INTO THE GLD:/ / // // INVENTORY RESTS AT 883.43 TONNES

GLD INVENTORY: 874.21 TONNES

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

JAN 5/WITH SILVER UP 20 CENTS TODAY HUGE CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV A DEPOSIT OF 916,000 OZ INTO THE SLV//:././/////INVENTORY RESTS AT 435.972 MILLION OZ

JAN 4/WITH SILVER UP 5 CENTS TODAY NO CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV/:././/////INVENTORY RESTS AT 435.056 MILLION OZ

JAN 3/WITH SILVER DOWN 78 CENTS TODAY HUGE CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV/: A WITHDRAWALOF 2.294 MILLION OZ OZ FROM THE SLV././/////INVENTORY RESTS AT 435.056 MILLION OZ

JAN 2/WITH SILVER DOWN 9 CENTS TODAY HUGE CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV/: A WITHDRAWALOF 915,000 OZ FORM THE SLV././/////INVENTORY RESTS AT 437.35 MILLION OZ

DEC 29/WITH SILVER DOWN 29 CENTS TODAY NO CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV/: //////INVENTORY RESTS AT 438.265 MILLION OZ

DEC 28/WITH SILVER DOWN 25 CENTS TODAY NO CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV/: //////INVENTORY RESTS AT 438.265 MILLION OZ

DEC 27/WITH SILVER UP 20 CENTS TODAY:HUGE CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV/: A WITHDRAWAL OF 1.374 MILLION OZ FROM THE SLV//////INVENTORY RESTS AT 438.265 MILLION OZ

THIS IS THE 3RD STRAIGHT DAY THAT THE SLV HAS ENGAGED IN WITHDRAWALS

DEC 26/WITH SILVER DOWN 14 CENTS TODAY:HUGE CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV/: A WITHDRAWAL OF 1.465 MILLION OZ FROM THE SLV//////INVENTORY RESTS AT 439.639 MILLION OZ

DEC 22/WITH SILVER UP 0 CENTS TODAY:HUGE CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV/: A WITHDRAWAL OF 2.289 MILLION OZ FROM THE SLV//////INVENTORY RESTS AT 441.104 MILLION OZ

DEC 21/WITH SILVER DOWN 2 CENTS TODAY:NO CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV/: NO CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV//////INVENTORY RESTS AT 443.393 MILLION OZ

DEC 20/WITH SILVER UP 28 CENTS TODAY:NO CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV/: NO CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV//////INVENTORY RESTS AT 443.393 MILLION OZ

DEC 19/WITH SILVER UP 27 CENTS TODAY:BIG CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV/: A MASSIVE DEPOSIT OF 2.747 MILLION OZ INTO THE SLV////INVENTORY RESTS AT 443.393 MILLION OZ

DEC 18/WITH SILVER DOWN 9 CENTS TODAY:BIG CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV/: A WITHDRAWAL OF 0.794 MILLION OZ FROM THE SLV////INVENTORY RESTS AT 440.646 MILLION OZ

DEC 14/WITH SILVER DOWN 8 CENTS TODAY:BIG CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV/: A MASSIVE WITHDRAWAL OF 3.00000 MILLION OZ FROM THE SLV////INVENTORY RESTS AT 441.470 MILLION OZ

DEC 13/WITH SILVER DOWN 8 CENTS TODAY:BIG CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV/: A DEPOSIT OF 10.326 MILLION OZ FROM THE SLV////INVENTORY RESTS AT 444.470 MILLION OZ

DEC 12/WITH SILVER DOWN 5 CENTS TODAY:BIG CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV/: A WITHDRAWAL OF 594,000 OZ FROM THE SLV////INVENTORY RESTS AT 434.144 MILLION OZ

DEC 11/WITH SILVER DOWN 19 CENTS TODAY:NO CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV/: A ////INVENTORY RESTS AT 434.735 MILLION OZ

DEC 8/WITH SILVER DOWN 80 CENTS TODAY:NO CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV/: A DEPOSIT OF 1.648 MILLION OZ INTO THE SLV////INVENTORY RESTS AT 434.735 MILLION OZ

DEC 7/WITH SILVER DOWN 15 CENTS TODAY:NO CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV/: // //://// //INVENTORY RESTS AT 433.090 MILLION OZ

DEC 6/WITH SILVER DOWN 25 CENTS TODAY:NO CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV/: // //://// //INVENTORY RESTS AT 433.090 MILLION OZ

DEC 5/WITH SILVER DOWN 34 CENTS TODAY:SMALL CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV/: A WITHDRAWAL OF 0.305 MILLION OZ FROM THE SLV// //://// //INVENTORY RESTS AT 433.090 MILLION OZ

DEC 4/WITH SILVER DOWN 90 CENTS TODAY:HUGE CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV/: A WITHDRAWAL OF 0.7333 MILLION OZ FROM THE SLV// //://// //INVENTORY RESTS AT 433.395 MILLION OZ

DEC 1/WITH SILVER UP 15 CENTS TODAY:HUGE CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV/: A WITHDRAWAL OF 1.923 MILLION OZ FROM THE SLV// //://// //INVENTORY RESTS AT 434.128 MILLION OZ

NOV 30/WITH SILVER UP 20 CENTS TODAY:NO CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV/ //://// //INVENTORY RESTS AT 436.051 MILLION OZ

CLOSING INVENTORY 435.972 MILLION OZ//

PHYSICAL GOLD/SILVER COMMENTARIES

1:Peter Schiff/Mike Maharrey

END

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

END

3. CHRIS POWELL//GATA GOLD COMMENTARIES:

Metals market riggers aren’t beaten yet, GATA chairman tells GoldSeek Radio

Submitted by admin on Thu, 2024-01-04 19:18 Section: Daily Dispatches

7:15p ET Thursday, January 4, 2024

Dear Friend of GATA and Gold:

Gold seems to be breaking away from its Western price controllers but not silver, GATA Chairman Bill Murphy tells GoldSeek Radio’s Chris Waltzek. But, Murphy adds, the “bad guys” have yet to be defeated.

The interview is 13 minutes long and can be heard at GoldSeek here:

https://goldseek.com/article/goldseek-radio-nugget-bill-murphy-has-gold-cartel-lost-control-gold-price

CHRIS POWELL, Secretary/Treasurer
Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee Inc.
CPowell@GATA.org

END

Endeavor Mining chief dismissed over $5.9 million ‘irregular payment’

Submitted by admin on Fri, 2024-01-05 11:28 Section: Daily Dispatches

By Harry Dempsey
Financial Times, London
Friday, January 5, 2024

Endeavour Mining, one of the world’s top gold producers, has fired boss Sébastien de Montessus for alleged “serious misconduct” after discovering an allegedly irregular multimillion-dollar payment instruction.

The FTSE 100 company said in a statement on Thursday that the dismissal of de Montessus as president and chief executive would take place “with immediate effect.” It also said it had received separate allegations regarding his personal conduct with colleagues.

De Montessus said in response that he was given “48 hours’ notice of the concerns and no proper opportunity to answer them” and is taking his time with his advisers to consider his position.

The ousting came after the group, which operates four mines in West Africa, alleged it discovered an irregular payment of $5.9 million made on de Montessus’ instructions in relation to an asset disposal. The board’s investigation into the allegedly irregular payment is ongoing. …

… For the remainder of the report:

https://www.ft.com/content/ede4ad77-4118-4055-954c-649be23313a7

* * *

4. OTHER GOLD/SILVER //COMMENTARIES//PODCASTS

Gold Set To Make History In 2024

FRIDAY, JAN 05, 2024 – 06:30 AM

Authored by Stefan Gleason via Money Metals,

The gold market is poised to make history in 2024. It enters the New Year within striking distance of new all-time highs.

How high will gold go? Much depends on how low interest rates and the U.S. dollar go.

The Federal Reserve ended its rate hiking campaign last fall. It is expected to pivot toward monetary easing later this year.

That should work to the benefit of gold and other hard assets.

Of course, there remains much uncertainty surrounding the economy, inflation, and interest rates. If persistent inflation pressures force central bankers to keep rates elevated, then stock and bond markets could tank – possibly taking down precious metals markets with them at least temporarily.

Market volatility could also ramp up later in the year around the presidential election.

With partisan prosecutors and judges threatening to jail the leading rival to incumbent President Joe Biden, and some state election officials moving to remove former President Donald Trump from the ballot, questions about the legitimacy of the election are already being raised.

Some pundits are warning that something akin to a civil war could break out if the declared winner of the election is perceived to have stolen it.

Regardless of the outcome, larger questions loom about the ability of the political system to deal with the mounting debt crisis. Neither Republicans nor Democrats in positions of power have any realistic plans to get spending under control, balance the budget, or pay down the debt.

It will cost the government more than $1 trillion in 2024 just to make interest payments on the debt.

As the national debt crosses the $34-trillion mark, Social Security and Medicare are rapidly heading toward insolvency and represent trillions more in unfunded liabilities.

Taxes can never be raised high enough to cover these massive obligations. And the political reality is that spending will never be cut and promised benefits will never be taken away either.

An inflection point is nearing. The U.S. government’s credit rating was twice downgraded by ratings agencies in 2023.

Under our fiat monetary system, however, the Treasury Department can always “borrow” more dollars into existence by dumping bonds onto the balance sheet of the Federal Reserve in exchange for cash created out of nothing.

Inflating the currency supply is the way the government will manage to keep paying its bills.

The way to preserve purchasing power amid rampant currency depreciation is to hold physical gold and silver.

Unlike fiat Federal Reserve notes, precious metals are scarce. In fact, they face widening supply deficits in 2024.

Major gold, silver, copper, platinum, and palladium mines are struggling with rising operations costs and degrading reserves.

As mining output hits a ceiling, demand for metals among industries, consumers, and investors continues to grow.

Investment demand is a wild card for gold and silver markets. It surged following the COVID-19 outbreak but softened in 2023 as higher interest rates lured savers into money market funds and rising equity markets diminished the perceived safe-haven appeal of bullion.

That could change in 2024. The prospect of Fed rate cuts, election uncertainty, and a gathering debt storm makes holding physical precious metals mandatory for those who seek to protect their wealth.

end

5 a. IMPORTANT COMMENTARIES ON COMMODITIES /WHEAT

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

END

6.CRYPTOCURRENCY//DIGITAL CURRENCY// COMMENTARIES/

end

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

ONSHORE YUAN: CLOSED DOWN AT 7.1539

OFFSHORE YUAN: DOWN TO 7.1644

SHANGHAI CLOSED DOWN 25.17 PTS OR 0.85%

HANG SENG CLOSED DOWN 110.65 PTS OR 0.66%

2. Nikkei closed UP 89.13 PTS OR .27%

3. Europe stocks SO FAR: ALL RED

USA dollar INDEX DOWN TO 102.40 EURO FALLS TO 1.0917 DOWN 29 BASIS PTS

3b Japan 10 YR bond yield:FALLS TO. +.606 Japan buying 100% of bond issuance)/Japanese YEN vs USA cross now at 145.10/JAPANESE YEN NOW RISING 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 DOWN /JAPANESE Yen DOWN CHINESE ONSHORE YUAN: DOWN// OFFSHORE: DOWN

3f Japan is to buy INFINITE TRILLION YEN 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 DOWN for WTI and DOWN FOR Brent this morning

3h European bond buying continues to push yields lower on all fronts in the EMU. German 10yr bund UP TO +2.1755***/Italian 10 Yr bond yield UP to 3.867** /SPAIN 10 YR BOND YIELD UP TO 3.177…**

3i Greek 10 year bond yield UP TO 3.302

3j Gold at $2040.40 silver at: 22.99 1 am est) SILVER NEXT RESISTANCE LEVEL AT $30.00

3k USA vs Russian rouble;// Russian rouble UP 0 AND 25 /100 roubles/dollar; ROUBLE AT 91.08//

3m oil into the 72 dollar handle for WTI and 78 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 144,22// 10 YEAR YIELD AFTER FIRST BREAKING .54% LAST YEAR NOW EXCEEDS THAT LEVEL TO 0.619% 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 0.8530 as the Swiss Franc is still rising against most currencies. Euro vs SF: 0.9312 well above the floor set by the Swiss Finance Minister. Thomas Jordan, chief of the Swiss National Bank continues to purchase euros trying to lower value of the Swiss Franc.

USA 10 YR BOND YIELD: 4.042 UP 5 BASIS PTS…

USA 30 YR BOND YIELD: 4.179 UP 4 BASIS PTS/

USA 2 YR BOND YIELD: 4.414 UP 3 BASIS PTS

USA DOLLAR VS TURKISH LIRA: 29.84…(TURKEY SET TO BLOW UP FINANCIALLY)

GREAT BRITAIN/10 YEAR YIELD: UP 8 BASIS PTS AT 3.847

end

2.a Overnight: Newsquawk and Zero hedge.

Futures Slide, Yields Jump Above 4% As Jobs Report Looms

FRIDAY, JAN 05, 2024 – 08:22 AM

What was already the worst start to a new year for stocks since 2008…

… was set to turn even uglier with futures and global markets sliding on the last day of the first week of 2024, which is set to be the biggest weekly retreat since October, fuelled by specualtion that a resilient labor market – expected in Friday’s December jobs report (full preview here) – may delay interest-rate cuts by the Fed. Global stocks sank and the dollar strengthened for a sixth day as 10Y Treasury yields rose above 4%, last trading at 4.04% or 5bps higher, after flirting with the “nice round number” level for the past 3 days.

In premarket trading, Apple shares are down 0.7%, putting the stock on track for its fifth straight decline. The company has had a rough start to the year, with at least two brokers downgrading the stock on iPhone demand concerns. Here are some other notable premarket movers:

Agilon Health sinks 25% after cutting its adjusted Ebitda outlook for the year, missing estimates.
Allogene Therapeutics shares fall 28% as analysts noted that the company’s plan to streamline its trial footprint could cause delays entering the market. JMP cut its rating to market perform.
Beyond Inc. gains 3.7% after the company behind Bed Bath & Beyond and Overstock is upgraded to buy from hold at Needham & Co. due to the household goods retailer’s self-help initiatives.
Carnival shares are up 1% after Wells Fargo Securities upgraded the cruise operator to overweight from equal-weight.
PayPal Holdings drops 1% after picking up a second downgrade this week.
Peloton rises 4.7%. The stock surged 14% on Thursday amid residual optimism over the company’s partnership with TikTok for a new fitness hub, which Evercore ISI analysts said is positive.

Traders are now waiting for the latest US nonfarm payroll report, which is expected to show that employers added 175,000 positions last month, although there is a wide divergence in opinions among sellside strategists, while the whisper number edges up to 189k following Thursday’s ADP employment change and weekly jobless claims data.

That said, the whisper is higher than the consensus, with Goldman expecting a number just shy of 200K as it reflects a “boost from mild winter weather and a favorable swing in the December seasonal factors (worth roughly +50k). While Big Data employment indicators indicate a lackluster pace of hiring, initial jobless claims fell further, consistent with fewer end-of-year layoffs.”

While the consensus estimate reflect slower hiring pace than November, it would still suggest economic strength and add to evidence that wagers on easier monetary policy have gone too far (full preview available here).

Meanwhile, with data coming in hotter than expected so far in 2024, swaps traders now see around a 65% chance the Fed will cut rates by the Fed’s March meeting, down from almost fully pricing such a move a week ago. As a result, investors are backtracking on some of last year’s most popular trades. Futures on the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 Index slid 0.3% on Friday and the index has lost more than 3% so far this week. The yield on 10-year notes is back above 4%.

“We are seeing a bit of scaling back,” said Timothy Graf, head of EMEA macro strategy at State Street. “The only thing that can change things dramatically is a super-weak or super-strong NFP number today, an on-consensus print wont change anything.”

“Equity valuations are largely priced for a very benign macro outcome which makes it tough for the market to move higher from here,” said Wolf von Rotberg, equity strategist at Bank J. Safra Sarasin. “The first half of 2024 may thus be a difficult one for equity markets as downside risks prevail.”

The Vol market is currently pricing in just a 67bp move for S&P through Friday’s s close; here is how the Goldman trading desk is thinking about S&P’s reaction function to the headline print:

>250k S&P sells off at least 150bps
200k – 250k S&P sells off 75 – 150bps
150k – 200 S&P + / – 50bps
50k – 150k S&P rallies 50 – 100 bps
<50k S&P sells off at least 75bps

European stocks and bonds also fall in tandem as traders also pared bets on interest-rate cuts from the ECB and Bank of England following key inflation data in the region on Friday. The pace of Euro-zone price growth quickened for the first time since April, in line with expectations, the data showed. Money markets now see less than 145 basis points of cuts from the European Central Bank by the end of 2024.

Europe’s Stoxx 600 benchmark fell around 1%, on track to end a seven-week run of gains. Remy Cointreau SA and Pernod Ricard SA led a drop in liquor stocks as China launched an anti-dumping investigation into products like brandy from the European Union. All subindexes trade in the red, with retail the biggest laggard. Here are the biggest movers Friday:

Remy Cointreau falls as much as 12% to May 2020 lows and was among several liquor stocks suffering after China launched an anti-dumping investigation into liquor products from the EU
Ubisoft falls as much as 6.8% after JPMorgan lowers price target on the French video game maker for a second time in a month, citing signs of weakness in sales of its Avatar game
Croda shares fall as much as 2.1% as Berenberg says it sees another round of cuts to FY24 consensus ahead of the specialty chemicals firm’s results
Swatch shares fall as much as 2.2% after both Stifel and Vontobel cut their estimates and price targets on the luxury Swiss watchmaker, citing headwinds from the Swiss franc’s strength
Signify falls as much as 3.3% after receiving its only negative analyst rating, as Barclays initiated the lighting manufacturer at underweight due to its exposure to non-residential spending
Endeavour Mining shares in London fall as much as 15%, the most on record, after firing president and chief executive Sébastien de Montessus for serious misconduct
Ithaca Energy drops as much as 3.9% to the lowest level since Aug. 31 after announcing that CEO Alan Bruce is standing down to pursue new opportunities, with the CFO named as interim CEO
Clarkson shares surge as much as 9.7%, to highest since 2022, after the shipping company guided that underlying pretax profit will probably come in ahead of expectations
Redcare Pharmacy rises as much as 6.4%, while DocMorris surges as much as 12%, after Berenberg upgraded both stocks to buy, citing positive momentum for e-prescriptions
Ariston and Nibe rise after being both initiated at overweight by Barclays, saying the heat pump producers are well positioned with the industry’s structural oversupply narrative looking overdone

“A tempering of rate cut expectation euphoria will inevitably translate into soggier market performance,” said Charles Hepworth, Investment Director, GAM Investments. “That is what we are seeing so far this year.”

Earlier in the session, Asian equities seesawed, with a regional gauge headed for its worst start to a year since 2016 as investors remain cautious ahead of the US jobs report later today. The MSCI Asia Pacific Index swung between a gain of as much as 0.3% and a drop of 0.1%, as the measure heads for a weekly loss of about 2%. Benchmarks in Korea and China were also set for their worst first week of trading in at least eight years. Regional stocks’ lackluster start to the year matches that of global peers as doubts over the Federal Reserve’s scope to cut interest rates and China’s continued weak economic momentum cloud the outlook for Asian stocks. “In the lead-up to the upcoming US job numbers, sentiment is back to wait-and-see,” said Jun Rong Yeap, a strategist at IG Asia. “We may have to see a substantial weakening of the US labour market to justify market pricing of a rate cut as early as March,” he said.

Hang Seng and Shanghai Comp moved between gains and losses but held a downside bias towards the end of the session, whilst the PBoC drained a net CNY 2.423tln through open market operations this week, marking the biggest weekly cash withdrawal on record, according to Reuters calculations.
ASX 200 was initially supported by gold-related names alongside the Financials and Healthcare sectors, but gains were later countered by losses in Tech.
Nikkei 225 outperformed and briefly topped 33,500 with the weak JPY providing tailwinds, although the index closed under the level.
KOSPI fell into the red after South Korea ordered an evacuation on Yeonpyeong Island near the North Korean border “due to the situation related to North Korea’s provocation”.

In China, shadow banking giant Zhongzhi Enterprise Group filed for bankruptcy. The downfall marks one of China’s biggest-ever corporate collapses, putting more stress on already fragile consumer and investor sentiment.

In FX, the Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index adds 0.2% and up a total of 1.4% in six trading sessions; the dollar has risen for a six straight trading session – the longest winning streak since late September – ahead of payrolls data; all G-10 currencies retreated, led by the Swedish krona and Norwegian krone.

EUR/USD resumes decline, down for the third time in four days to 1.0920.
GBP/USD falls 0.2% to 1.2662, down the first time in three days
USD/JPY extends gains for a 4th day, the longest winning streak since Nov. 13; the pair now trades at 145.15, back to levels seen before the Dec. 13 FOMC meeting
USD/CHF rises 0.4% to 0.8533, up for a second day

In rates, Treasuries extended this week’s losses ahead of December payrolls data, following wider selloff seen across core European rates and bunds and gilts underperform. US yields are cheaper by 4bp across the curve with front-end leading losses on the day, flattening 2s10s, 5s30s spreads by 0.3bp and 1.5bp; 10-year yields around 4.035% with bunds and gilts underperforming by 1.2bp and 4bp in the sector. Gilts lead the selloff in European government bonds, with UK 10-year yields rising 8bps.

In commodities, oil prices advanced, with WTI rising 0.6% to trade near $72.60. Spot gold falls 0.2%.

To the day ahead now, US data includes December non-farm payrolls, unemployment rate, average hourly earnings, factory, durable and capital goods orders as well as the ISM Services Index. Fed’s Barkin is scheduled to speak to Maryland Bankers Association at 1:30pm ET

Market Snapshot

S&P 500 futures down 0.2% to 4,721.75
STOXX Europe 600 down 0.8% to 474.00
German 10Y yield little changed at 2.15%
Euro down 0.2% to $1.0927
Brent Futures up 1.0% to $78.36/bbl
MXAP down 0.1% to 165.52
MXAPJ down 0.4% to 515.34
Nikkei up 0.3% to 33,377.42
Topix up 0.6% to 2,393.54
Hang Seng Index down 0.7% to 16,535.33
Shanghai Composite down 0.9% to 2,929.18
Sensex up 0.3% to 72,091.70
Australia S&P/ASX 200 little changed at 7,489.07
Kospi down 0.3% to 2,578.08
Brent Futures up 1.0% to $78.36/bbl
Gold spot down 0.1% to $2,042.16
U.S. Dollar Index up 0.18% to 102.61

Top Overnight News

Taiwan’s CPI for Dec comes in firmer than anticipated, including +2.71% headline (vs. the Street +2.6% and vs. +2.9% in Nov) and +2.43% core (vs. the Street +2.3% and vs. +2.39% in Nov). BBG
Beijing has informally asked some money managers in China to prioritize the launch of equity funds over other products like bond funds, four sources with direct knowledge of the matter said, as authorities scramble to revive its lagging stock market. RTRS
China is launching an anti-dumping investigation into liquor products like brandy from the European Union, in a relatively modest step after the bloc opened a probe last fall into its electric vehicle subsidies. BBG
Biden planning to retain most of Trump’s China tariffs and will increase them on EVs and certain critical materials (like cobalt and lithium) while cuts could take place on certain consumer goods. Axios
Huawei’s newest laptop runs on a 5-nanometer chip made in Taiwan—not China. A TechInsights teardown found a chip made by TSMC, countering speculation that Shanghai-based SMIC may have achieved a major leap in fabrication technique. BBG
Tesla recalled virtually every car it’s ever sold in China due to issues with the driver-assistance system Autopilot that increase the risk of crashes. The carmaker will deploy an over-the-air software fix to more than 1.6 million vehicles produced between August 2014 and December 2023, including locally built Model 3s and Model Ys and imported premium models, the State Administration for Market Regulation said in a statement. BBG
EU inflation mostly inline with expectations, including the Dec headline CPI (+2.9% vs. the Street +2.9% and up from +2.4% in Nov), the Dec core CPI (+3.4% vs. the Street +3.4% and down from +3.6% in Nov), and the Nov PPI (-8.8% vs. the Street -8.6% and up from -9.4% in Oct). BBG
Fundraising by US venture capital firms hit a six-year low in 2023, an ominous sign for start-ups with dwindling cash reserves and fledging businesses reliant on such backing for survival. The $67bn raised by US VCs in 2023 is the lowest annual total since 2017 and represents a 60 per cent drop from the $173bn raised in 2022, the peak year for fundraising, according to analysis by private markets data provider PitchBook and the National Venture Capital Association. FT
COST reported core Dec comps +8.1% (about ~80bp ahead of the Street), including the US +7.4% (about ~40bp ahead of the Street) and Canada +11.9% (this is ahead of plan). RTRS
Goldman estimates nonfarm payrolls rose 190k in December (mom sa), somewhat above consensus of +175k. Our forecast reflects a favorable swing in the December seasonal factors worth roughly +50k and a boost from mild winter weather, as snowfall was minimal in major cities in the Northeast and Midwest. While Big Data employment indicators indicate lackluster hiring, initial jobless claims fell further, consistent with fewer end-of-year layoffs. On the negative side, we assume another sizeable decline in retail payrolls, reflecting soft brick-and-mortar spending trends during the holiday season

A more detailed look at global markets courtesy of Newsquawk

Asian stocks eventually traded mixed as the earlier positivity gradually waned despite a lack of major newsflow but in the run-up to the US NFP and ISM Services PMI. ASX 200 was initially supported by gold-related names alongside the Financials and Healthcare sectors, but gains were later countered by losses in Tech. Nikkei 225 outperformed and briefly topped 33,500 with the weak JPY providing tailwinds, although the index closed under the level. KOSPI fell into the red after South Korea ordered an evacuation on Yeonpyeong Island near the North Korean border “due to the situation related to North Korea’s provocation”. Hang Seng and Shanghai Comp moved between gains and losses but held a downside bias towards the end of the session, whilst the PBoC drained a net CNY 2.423tln through open market operations this week, marking the biggest weekly cash withdrawal on record, according to Reuters calculations.

Top Asian News

PBoC drained a net CNY 2.423tln via open market operations this week, marking the biggest weekly cash withdrawal on record, according to Reuters calculations.
PBoC injected CNY 75bln through 7-day reverse repos at a maintained rate of 1.80% for a net drain of CNY 411bln.
Nikkei published an article titled “BoJ easing exit in the first half still on the table despite earthquake” citing market implied rates, and noted that if the Yen avoids a sharp upswing, “we can thoroughly gauge domestic wages and prices,” according to a BoJ insider.
Foxconn (2317 TT) December Sales -26.89%; overall operations in Q1-2024 gradually entering the traditional off-peak season. Outlook for Q1 expected to decrease Y/Y.
China shadow bank Zhongzhi files for bankruptcy; Beijing court says application was on the grounds that it could not pay off its due debts and its assets were insufficient to pay off all its debt.

European equities, Eurostoxx50 (-0.9%), extended losses throughout the session following a negative APAC handover with newsflow light and data having little equity follow through. European sectors are entirely in the red; Retail slumps following dire German Retail Sales, whilst Energy fares best amid higher Crude prices. US Equity Futures are lower, though not the same magnitude as their European peers, with the tone a touch more cautious stateside into NFP; ES -0.3%.

Top European News

Maersk (MAERSKB DC) says all of its vessels travelling through Red Sea and Gulf of Aden are to be diverted South around the Cape of Good Hope for the foreseeable future; situation is constantly evolving, remains highly volatile, security risks still elevated.
China’s Commerce Ministry is launching an anti-dumping investigation on brandy imported from the EU; Remy Cointreau (-9.9%), Pernod Ricard (-5.5%)

DXY is firmer, peaking at 102.80 thus far, in a seemingly safe-haven play as participants position ahead of US NFP later today, also deriving strength from pressure in the EUR.
EUR was initially weighed on by broader Dollar strength before then being dragged lower post softer German Retail Sales, testing but not losing 1.09. Unreactive to Flash EZ HICP.
The Yen continues its horror run as the USD/JPY jumps above the 145.00 mark; 145.99 marks the 13th Dec high before the round 146 level.
Antipodeans continue to sink as risk sentiment remains subdued.
PBoC set USD/CNY mid-point at 7.1029 vs exp. 7.1593 (prev. 7.0997)
China’s major state-owned banks have been seen active in USD/CNY swaps and selling USDs for Yuan in the spot-FX market during the week, via Reuters citing sources; seen curtailing Yuan lending in offshore FX on Friday

Fixed Income

USTs are directionally led by EGBs, but with magnitudes slightly more contained ahead of December Payrolls and ISM services thereafter; yields firmer across the curve and slightly steeper.
Bunds began with a dovish reaction on soft Retail Sales, lifting the benchmark to a 136.13 peak; though entirely pared the move and continue to move lower, currently pivoting the 135.52 trough.
Gilts conformed with broader price action alongside peers; action slightly more pronounced with specifics light but perhaps some influence from Halifax House Prices, though this is caveated by being supply rather than demand driven.

Commodities

WTI and Brent are firmer but well within Thursday’s boundaries amid reports that the US is drafting plans to respond to Houthi militants.
As such, benchmarks are shy of their respective USD 74.00/bbl and USD 79/42/bbl WTD peaks.
Spot Gold is marginally weaker amid the recent strength in the Dollar but struggling for direction somewhat into payrolls; Base Metals hold a negative bias in-fitting with the broader risk tone.
China’s oil trade talks with Iran has stalled after Tehran sought higher prices, via Reuters citing sources; seeks to narrow discounts on Crude sales to China by USD 4-5/bbl

Geopolitics – Middle East

The US military is drafting plans to hit back at Iran-backed Houthi militants who have been attacking commercial shipping in the Red Sea, according to Politico sources; plans also include striking Houthi targets in Yemen. “Biden administration officials are drawing up plans for the US to respond to what they’re increasingly concerned could expand from a war in Gaza to a wider, protracted regional conflict” “Four officials familiar with the matter, including a senior administration official, described internal conversations about scenarios that could potentially draw the US into another Middle East war.”
US State Department said Secretary of State Blinken will visit Turkey, Greece, Saudi, Israel, West Bank, and Egypt from Jan 4th-11th; Blinken to raise the need to take steps to deter the Houthis’ attacks on shipping in the Red Sea.
UK maritime security firm Ambrey received intelligence of missiles fired from Yemen’s Taiz towards Bab Al Mandab, according to an advisory note.
US Pentagon official said the US carried out a strike in Baghdad that killed a leader of an Iraqi faction loyal to Iran that was involved in attacks on US forces, according to Sky News Arabia.
Iraqi armed factions announce the attack on a US base in the field of Omar in Syria with drones, according to Sky News Arabia.

Geopolitics – Korea

Yonhap, “due to the situation related to North Korea’s provocation”.
North Korean military fired over 200 coastal artillery shells between 9-11 am (local time) in the northern part of Baeknyeong Island and Yeonpyeong Island, no damage was reported from South Korea, and shells landed north of the northern limit line, according to Yonhap and Reuters.
South Korea is preparing a show of force after North Korea fired artillery near Yeonpyeong Island; South Korea to carry out live-fire drills in response to North Korean artillery near Yeonpyeong Island, according to Yonhap.
Residents of a second South Korean island asked to evacuate, according to AFP citing a local official.

US Event Calendar

08:30: Dec. Change in Nonfarm Payrolls, est. 175,000, prior 199,000
- 08:30: Dec. Change in Private Payrolls, est. 130,000, prior 150,000
- 08:30: Dec. Change in Manufact. Payrolls, est. 5,000, prior 28,000
08:30: Dec. Unemployment Rate, est. 3.8%, prior 3.7%
- 08:30: Dec. Labor Force Participation Rate, est. 62.8%, prior 62.8%
- 08:30: Dec. Underemployment Rate, prior 7.0%
08:30: Dec. Average Hourly Earnings MoM, est. 0.3%, prior 0.4%
- 08:30: Dec. Average Weekly Hours All Emplo, est. 34.4, prior 34.4
- 08:30: Dec. Average Hourly Earnings YoY, est. 3.9%, prior 4.0%
10:00: Nov. Factory Orders, est. 2.3%, prior -3.6%
- 10:00: Nov. Factory Orders Ex Trans, est. -0.1%, prior -1.2%
- 10:00: Nov. Durable Goods Orders, est. 5.4%, prior 5.4%
- 10:00: Nov. Durables-Less Transportation, est. 0.5%, prior 0.5%
- 10:00: Nov. Cap Goods Ship Nondef Ex Air, prior -0.1%
- 10:00: Nov. Cap Goods Orders Nondef Ex Air, prior 0.8%
10:00: Dec. ISM Services Index, est. 52.5, prior 52.7

DB’s Jim Reid concludes the overnight wrap

Morning from a very wet London. I don’t think I can remember being much wetter than during my long walk home from the station last night or seeing bigger lakes form. And then to make matters worse, I scalded myself as soon as I got in from pouring hot water into my daughter’s very long and thin (and cuddly) hot water bottle she got for Xmas that is proving a nightmare to fill every night without accident! Blooming Santa!

The recent extended Santa Claus rally has turned into a little bit of a memory with the New Year hangover continuing as we welcome in yet another payrolls Friday today. DM 10yr government yields sold off 8-12bps yesterday as the 10yr Treasury yield closed above 4% for the first time since mid-December, while the Nasdaq (-0.56%) completed a five-day losing streak for the first time since December 2022. So the set-up is a little weak as we turn to the employment report.

Our US economists see nonfarm payrolls slowing to +150k in December, having been at +199k in November (consensus +175k). That mainly reflects an unwind from the boost by returning auto workers in the November data. Otherwise, they see the unemployment rate moving up a tenth to 3.8% (in line with consensus), and average hourly earnings growth to moderate after November’s spike, coming down two tenths to +0.2% (consensus +0.3%). See here for their full preview and details of how to register for their webinar after the report. After payrolls, the US Services ISM will also be out today.

Ahead of this, the US employment data yesterday was positive which didn’t actually help risk much due to the higher yields we saw throughout the day yesterday. This was kick-started by better European PMI data with the euro area composite PMI revised up from the flash reading of 47.0 to 47.6, and with services revised up from 48.1 to 48.8. This upward surprise was broadly shared across the euro area, erasing the PMI decline seen in the flash December reading and with services actually inching up to a 5-month high. We then had the US ADP’s report of private payrolls, which showed an increase of +164k in December (vs. 125k expected). That’s the highest print since August, and it was also the first time since the July print that it had come in above consensus. Then 15 minutes later, we had the latest weekly claims data, which showed initial jobless claims were down to 202k over the week ending December 30 (vs. 216k expected), which was an 11-week low. Xmas seasonals likely lowered this to some degree but it was still a decent number. Continuing claims also surprised to the downside at 1.855m (vs. 1.881m expected) .

With the data looking more promising, yesterday saw investors grow increasingly sceptical about the likelihood of a rate cut by March. For the Fed, the probability of a 25bp cut by March was down to 69% by the close, which is its lowest since the December meeting, back when they published the dot plot that was more dovish than the consensus expected. And in turn, Treasuries sold off across the curve, with the 2yr yield up +5.4bps to 4.39%, whilst the 10yr yield was up +8.3bps to 4.00%. That’s the first time it’s closed above 4% since December 13, the day of the last Fed meeting .

Over in Europe, the sovereign bond sell-off was even bigger, with yields on 10yr bunds (+10.0bps), OATs (+10.0bps), and BTPs (+11.4bps) all seeing sizeable increases even with softer inflation than expected. German CPI was up to +3.8% (vs. +3.9% expected) on the EU-harmonised measure, up from +2.3% in November. But it’s worth noting that was partly down to base effects rolling out of the annual comparison, as support for heating bills last winter had helped push down energy prices. Similarly in France, headline CPI was back up two-tenths to +4.1%, but the reading was in line with expectations .

Later this morning, we’ll also get the euro-area wide release, which will be one to look out for in terms of the potential for any ECB rate cuts. Following the country prints so far, our European economists see the euro-area print tracking in line with consensus at +3.0% yoy for headline and +3.4% yoy for core inflation, though with risks tilted to the downside for core. While for headline inflation this represents a rise from the previous month due to volatile energy base effects, for core inflation this would be the lowest print since March 2022.

Risk appetite had begun to recover again yesterday but lost momentum during the US session, in part held back by the rise in yields. Over in Europe, the STOXX 600 (+0.69%) recorded its first advance of 2024 so far. In the US, the S&P 500 had traded nearly +0.5% up on the day around the time of the European close, but then lost ground over the rest of session to close down -0.34%. Tech stocks lost ground as the NASDAQ (-0.56%) fell for a 5th consecutive session and for the first time in over a year. This included underperformance for the Magnificent Seven (-0.69%). Within the S&P 500, energy stocks also lost ground (-1.63%) after their recent outperformance as oil prices saw a modest retreat again (Brent down -0.84% to $77.59/bbl). Overnight, Brent crude futures (+0.46%) have slightly rebounded as I type.

Asian equity markets are mixed this morning with the Nikkei (+0.68%) leading the way, helped by further weakness in the yen, with the CSI (+0.17%) also seeing gains for the first time this week. Elsewhere, the Hang Seng (-0.14%), the Shanghai Composite (-0.13%) and the KOSPI (-0.40%) are losing ground. US futures are fairly flat.

Early morning data showed that Japan’s December service activity expanded at a slightly faster pace after the final estimate of the services PMI climbed to 51.5 in December from 50.8 in November. The expansion was still the second weakest recorded in 2023. In FX, the Japanese yen (-0.15%) is drifting lower for the fourth straight day, trading at 144.85 against the dollar amid significantly reduced bets for a BoJ policy shift in January.

Yesterday did also brighter economic data from the UK. First, mortgage approvals were stronger than expected in November at 50.1k (vs. 48.8k expected), taking them up to a 5-month high. And alongside that, there were positive revisions in the final PMI readings, as the services PMI was revised up to 53.4 (vs. flash 52.7), and the composite PMI was revised up to 52.1 (vs. flash 51.7). There was also a bit more speculation about the date of the next UK election, after Prime Minister Sunak said that his “working assumption is we’ll have a general election in the second half of this year”.

To the day ahead now, and US data releases include the December jobs report, the ISM services index for December, and factory orders for November. Meanwhile in the Euro Area, we’ll get the flash CPI release for December. From central banks, we’ll also hear from Richmond Fed President Barkin.

2 B) NOW NEWSQUAWK (EUROPE/REPORT)

Sentiment turns sour as attention turns to US NFP, DXY bid with EUR lower; US ISM & Fed’s Barkin due – Newsquawk US Market Open

FRIDAY, JAN 05, 2024 – 06:10 AM

US Equities post losses but to a lesser magnitude than their European counterparts, as attention turns to US NFP
Dollar is firmer and Yen continues its losing run; Antipodeans lower amid a subdued risk tone
Bunds initially lifted on softer German Retail Sales, though entirely pared the move ahead of key US data; unreactive to Flash EZ HICP
WTI and Brent are firmer on reports that the US is drafting plans to respond to Houthi militants
Maersk announces all vessels through Red Sea/Gulf of Aden to be diverted south for the foreseeable future
Looking ahead, Canadian Leading Index, US NFP, Durable Goods, ISM Services Employment Index, Canadian Ivey PMI, Speech from Fed’s Barkin.

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EUROPEAN TRADE

EQUITIES

European equities, Eurostoxx50 (-0.9%), extended losses throughout the session following a negative APAC handover with newsflow light and data having little equity follow through.
European sectors are entirely in the red; Retail slumps following dire German Retail Sales, whilst Energy fares best amid higher Crude prices.
US Equity Futures are lower, though not the same magnitude as their European peers, with the tone a touch more cautious stateside into NFP; ES -0.3%.
Click here and here for the sessions European pre-market equity newsflow, including earnings.
Click here for more details.

FX

DXY is firmer, peaking at 102.80 thus far, in a seemingly safe-haven play as participants position ahead of US NFP later today, also deriving strength from pressure in the EUR.
EUR was initially weighed on by broader Dollar strength before then being dragged lower post softer German Retail Sales, testing but not losing 1.09. Unreactive to Flash EZ HICP.
The Yen continues its horror run as the USD/JPY jumps above the 145.00 mark; 145.99 marks the 13th Dec high before the round 146 level.
Antipodeans continue to sink as risk sentiment remains subdued.
PBoC set USD/CNY mid-point at 7.1029 vs exp. 7.1593 (prev. 7.0997)
China’s major state-owned banks have been seen active in USD/CNY swaps and selling USDs for Yuan in the spot-FX market during the week, via Reuters citing sources; seen curtailing Yuan lending in offshore FX on Friday
Click here for more details.
Click here for the Option Expires for the NY Cut.

FIXED INCOME

USTs are directionally led by EGBs, but with magnitudes slightly more contained ahead of December Payrolls and ISM services thereafter; yields firmer across the curve and slightly steeper.
Bunds began with a dovish reaction on soft Retail Sales, lifting the benchmark to a 136.13 peak; though entirely pared the move and continue to move lower, currently pivoting the 135.52 trough.
Gilts conformed with broader price action alongside peers; action slightly more pronounced with specifics light but perhaps some influence from Halifax House Prices, though this is caveated by being supply rather than demand driven.
Click here for more details.

COMMODITIES

WTI and Brent are firmer but well within Thursday’s boundaries amid reports that the US is drafting plans to respond to Houthi militants.
As such, benchmarks are shy of their respective USD 74.00/bbl and USD 79/42/bbl WTD peaks.
Spot Gold is marginally weaker amid the recent strength in the Dollar but struggling for direction somewhat into payrolls; Base Metals hold a negative bias in-fitting with the broader risk tone.
China’s oil trade talks with Iran has stalled after Tehran sought higher prices, via Reuters citing sources; seeks to narrow discounts on Crude sales to China by USD 4-5/bbl
Click here for more details.

NOTABLE EUROPEAN HEADLINES

Maersk (MAERSKB DC) says all of its vessels travelling through Red Sea and Gulf of Aden are to be diverted South around the Cape of Good Hope for the foreseeable future; situation is constantly evolving, remains highly volatile, security risks still elevated.
China’s Commerce Ministry is launching an anti-dumping investigation on brandy imported from the EU; Remy Cointreau (-9.9%), Pernod Ricard (-5.5%)

DATA RECAP

EU HICP Flash YY (Dec) 2.9% vs. Exp. 3.0% (Prev. 2.4%); HICP-X F&E Flash YY 3.9% vs. Exp. 3.9% (Prev. 4.2%); HICP-X F,E,A&T Flash YY 3.40% vs. Exp. 3.50% (Prev. 3.60%); EU HICP-X F, E, A, T Flash MM 0.40% (Prev. -0.60%).
EU Producer Prices MM (Nov) -0.3% vs. Exp. -0.1% (Prev. 0.2%, Rev. 0.3%); YY -8.8% vs. Exp. -8.7% (Prev. -9.4%)
Italian CPI (EU Norm) Prelim MM (Dec) 0.2% vs. Exp. 0.1% (Prev. -0.6%)
German Retail Sales YY Real (Nov) -2.4% vs. Exp. -0.5% (Prev. -0.1%); Nominal +0.1%; MM Real (Nov) -2.5% vs. Exp. -0.1% (Prev. 1.1%); Nominal -2.6%
UK Halifax House Prices MM (Dec) 1.1% (Prev. 0.5%); House prices predicted to fall by between -2% and -4% in 2024; YY (Dec) 1.7% (Prev. -0.95%, Rev. -0.80%)
EU HCOB Construction PMI (Dec) 43.6 (Prev. 43.4)
UK S&P Global/CIPS Construction PMI (Dec) 46.8 vs. Exp. 46 (Prev. 45.5)
German HCOB Construction PMI (Dec) 37.0 (Prev. 36.2)
French HCOB Construction PMI (Dec) 42.6 (Prev. 44.6)
Italian HCOB Construction PMI (Dec) 55.2 (Prev. 52.9)

NOTABLE US HEADLINES

Tesla (TSLA) recalls a total of 1.62mln vehicles, including models S, X, 3 & Y, via China’s Market Regulator.
Tesla (TSLA) Model Y range estimate reduced by 6%, via electrek.
Netflix (NFLX) is eyeing way to make money from videogames in a potential pivot; ideas include charging extra for some games and incorporating ads and in-game purchases, via WSJ.
Indian antitrust is investigating global delivery firms for alleged price collusion, via Reuters citing documents; DHL (DHL GY), UPS (UPS) & FedEx (FDX) are co-operating.
Click here for the US Early Morning Note.

GEOPOLITICS

MIDDLE EAST

The US military is drafting plans to hit back at Iran-backed Houthi militants who have been attacking commercial shipping in the Red Sea, according to Politico sources; plans also include striking Houthi targets in Yemen. “Biden administration officials are drawing up plans for the US to respond to what they’re increasingly concerned could expand from a war in Gaza to a wider, protracted regional conflict” “Four officials familiar with the matter, including a senior administration official, described internal conversations about scenarios that could potentially draw the US into another Middle East war.”
US State Department said Secretary of State Blinken will visit Turkey, Greece, Saudi, Israel, West Bank, and Egypt from Jan 4th-11th; Blinken to raise the need to take steps to deter the Houthis’ attacks on shipping in the Red Sea.
UK maritime security firm Ambrey received intelligence of missiles fired from Yemen’s Taiz towards Bab Al Mandab, according to an advisory note.
US Pentagon official said the US carried out a strike in Baghdad that killed a leader of an Iraqi faction loyal to Iran that was involved in attacks on US forces, according to Sky News Arabia.
Iraqi armed factions announce the attack on a US base in the field of Omar in Syria with drones, according to Sky News Arabia.

KOREAN PENINSULA

South Korea ordered an evacuation on Yeonpyeong Island near the North Korean border, according to Yonhap, “due to the situation related to North Korea’s provocation”.
North Korean military fired over 200 coastal artillery shells between 9-11 am (local time) in the northern part of Baeknyeong Island and Yeonpyeong Island, no damage was reported from South Korea, and shells landed north of the northern limit line, according to Yonhap and Reuters.
South Korea is preparing a show of force after North Korea fired artillery near Yeonpyeong Island; South Korea to carry out live-fire drills in response to North Korean artillery near Yeonpyeong Island, according to Yonhap.
Residents of a second South Korean island asked to evacuate, according to AFP citing a local official.

CRYPTO

Bitcoin weakened below USD 44k in overnight trade, and has since stabilised just shy of the aforementioned level.

APAC TRADE

APAC stocks eventually traded mixed as the earlier positivity gradually waned despite a lack of major newsflow but in the run-up to the US NFP and ISM Services PMI.
ASX 200 was initially supported by gold-related names alongside the Financials and Healthcare sectors, but gains were later countered by losses in Tech.
Nikkei 225 outperformed and briefly topped 33,500 with the weak JPY providing tailwinds, although the index closed under the level.
KOSPI fell into the red after South Korea ordered an evacuation on Yeonpyeong Island near the North Korean border “due to the situation related to North Korea’s provocation”.
Hang Seng and Shanghai Comp moved between gains and losses but held a downside bias towards the end of the session, whilst the PBoC drained a net CNY 2.423tln through open market operations this week, marking the biggest weekly cash withdrawal on record, according to Reuters calculations.

NOTABLE HEADLINES

PBoC drained a net CNY 2.423tln via open market operations this week, marking the biggest weekly cash withdrawal on record, according to Reuters calculations.
PBoC injected CNY 75bln through 7-day reverse repos at a maintained rate of 1.80% for a net drain of CNY 411bln.
Nikkei published an article titled “BoJ easing exit in the first half still on the table despite earthquake” citing market implied rates, and noted that if the Yen avoids a sharp upswing, “we can thoroughly gauge domestic wages and prices,” according to a BoJ insider.
Foxconn (2317 TT) December Sales -26.89%; overall operations in Q1-2024 gradually entering the traditional off-peak season. Outlook for Q1 expected to decrease Y/Y.
China shadow bank Zhongzhi files for bankruptcy; Beijing court says application was on the grounds that it could not pay off its due debts and its assets were insufficient to pay off all its debt.

DATA RECAP

Japanese JibunBK Services PMI Final SA (Dec) 51.5 (Prev. 52.0); Composite Op Final SA (Dec) 50.0 (Prev. 50.4)

2C ASIA AFFAIRS

FRIDAY MORNING/THURSDAY NIGHT

2 d./NORTH KOREA/ SOUTH KOREA/

NORTH KOREA/SOUTH KOREA

North Korea Fires Hundreds Of Artillery Rounds Toward South’s Border Islands

FRIDAY, JAN 05, 2024 – 02:25 PM

Tensions are once again ratcheting on the Korean peninsula, after North Korea fired over 200 artillery rounds off its West coast which landed near the South’s Yeonpyeong and Baengnyeong Islands on Friday.

Seoul condemned the “provocative act” while the North responded by saying the islands weren’t in danger due to these drills. There have been no casualties, and the shells appear to have fallen harmlessly into the sea, but there are fears of a repeat of a 2010 incident which saw North Korean artillery fire killing four people on Yeonpyeong island.

South Korea’s military responded by launching live-fire drills of its own in the same area. Drills were initiated on Yeonpyeong in particular by marines stationed there, with alerts telling civilians to stay sheltered during the exercises. South Korea’s Joint Chiefs issued a statement warning the Kim Jong Un government that it is “solely responsible for this escalating crisis” and urged his regime “to stop immediately.”

North Korea’s artillery fire is in apparent response to more joint US-South Korean drills. These fresh live-fire exercises the day prior, Thursday, were also provocatively close to the border with North Korea.

The US Army said the focus is joint combat readiness, with South Korea’s Capital Mechanized Infantry Division and the US Stryker Brigade Combat Team from the 2nd Infantry Division participating in the exercise.

It marked the allies’ first joint training of the year, and importantly, it involved more than just ground fire and maneuvers, according to Yonhap:

The drill involved 110 weapons systems from South Korea and the U.S, including K1A2 tanks, A-19 combat aircraft, Stryker armored vehicles and artillery systems.

The exercise simulated A-10 combat aircraft’s precision-guided strike on simulated targets, K1A2 tanks’ firing and integrated tank-air defense shooting.

The presence of US tanks and combat aircraft near the border, engaged in live fire drills to boot, is especially alarming from Pyongyang’s perspective.

Given last year involved increased tit-for-tat ‘shows of force’ from both sides, especially after the US docked a nuclear submarine in a South Korean port, this trend is expected to continue in 2024.

END

2e) JAPAN

JAPAN

3 CHINA

This is something we must be cognizant about: protests in China. They are surging the most in 7 years

(zerohedge)

Protests By Angry Chinese Workers Surge To Most In 7 Years, Posing A Threat To Beijing’s Rule

THURSDAY, JAN 04, 2024 – 06:20 PM

Chinese workers staged twice as many protests to defend their rights in 2023 compared to the previous year, according to a Hong Kong-based human rights group. As the of Epoch Times notes, China observers say that such widespread demonstrations could lead to the downfall of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

China Labor Bulletin (CLB), a Hong Kong nonprofit organization that “supports and actively engages with the emergent workers’ movement in China,” reported 1,793 protests as of Dec. 31 amid massive layoffs, reduced wages, and business closures in the country. This was the largest number of annual protests in 7 years and the most since the “summers of violence” 2015 and 2016 when the Yuan devaluation sparked widespread economic turmoil across the country.

The emergence of large-scale Chinese workers’ protests is “an inevitable outcome“ of China’s economic crisis,” Lai Jianping, a former Chinese lawyer and current affairs commentator based in Canada, said in a recent interview with the Chinese language edition of The Epoch Times.

Mr. Lai believes that the protests may lead to the demise of China’s communist regime.

Nationwide Workers’ Protests in 2023

China’s economy remained sluggish in 2023 despite an abrupt relaxation of the draconian zero-COVID measures since December 2022. Reduced orders from international buyers and poor economic conditions in the country have led factories to lay off workers, relocate to minimize costs, or shut down altogether, according to the CLB.

The CLB’s report reveals that the protests were mainly related to export-oriented industries—such as electronics, garments and apparel, toys, and automotive—and that workers protested over wages, layoffs, and relocations and demanded compensation.

Protests broke out across China, including the four municipalities under the direct administration of the CCP.

Guangdong Province, a major manufacturing hub, recorded 510 protests of various sizes last year, the highest in the country, according to the CLB report.

The second highest number of protests (108) is reportedly in China’s eastern Shandong Province, followed by central Henan Province and northern Shanxi Province (100 protests recorded in each one).

Of the four municipalities, Beijing, China’s capital city, reportedly recorded 33 protests last year, while Shanghai recorded 47 protests, Chongqing recorded 35, and Tianjin recorded 25.

On Jan. 7 last year, a large-scale protest broke out in Chongqing after thousands of workers were abruptly laid off by Zybio, Inc., a manufacturer of COVID-19 test kits, one of the earliest protests in the first month of the year that was recorded in CLB’s report. The local authorities sent out riot police to suppress the protest.

Other Protests

According to Nikkei Asia, 1,777 demonstrations were recorded in the country that were linked to the property sector between June 2022 and October 2023. Two-thirds of these demonstrators were homebuyers and homeowners who protested over “project delays, contract violations, alleged fraud, and shoddy workmanship,” the report said. Most of the remaining protesters were construction workers demanding unpaid wages.

On July 21, 2023, thousands of parents rallied at various government agencies in Xi’an city, Shaanxi Province, to protest against a government policy limiting students’ access to high school and college education opportunities.

Due to Chinese authorities’ record of covering up information, it is difficult to assess the true scale of these protests.

‘They Have to Fight for Their Survival’

Mr. Lai said the recent rights-defending campaigns in China involve “more numbers” of participants and that the events are “more intense than ever.”

He added that many people are currently facing extreme poverty, lacking the financial resources to support their families, pay for their children’s education, cover medical expenses, and repay mortgages.

“These individuals can only stand up to defend their legitimate rights, to demand wages arrears, and to request job opportunities,” Mr. Lai said.

Furthermore, by reverting to the revolutionary era of Mao Zedong, Chinese leader Xi Jinping “has deterred foreign investors and Chinese private entrepreneurs from engaging with China.”

Li Yuanhua, a former scholar of Chinese history now residing in Australia, believes that the widespread protests among workers primarily stem from their “will to survive.”

“The privileged class within the CCP has been plundering social assets, while Chinese workers at the bottom of society have been pushed to their limits. Unable to secure their basic needs and survival, they are compelled to take a stand,” Mr. Li told The Epoch Times in a recent interview.

China’s social welfare system is on the brink of collapse and cannot provide any support to the poor working class, he said, adding that “they have to fight for their survival.”

Mass Protests May End CCP’s Rule

The CCP has adopted a heavy-handed approach to suppress dissidents and protesters to maintain its authoritarian rule.

Nevertheless, when the people struggle for survival, they no longer fear the CCP’s suppression, Mr. Li said, adding that this is what the regime fears.

“This kind of resistance from the people is genuine, and they don’t fear the CCP’s violent suppression. For them, resistance may lead to death, but without resistance, death is inevitable. So why wouldn’t they resist?!”

According to Mr. Lai, the CCP cannot effectively quash all the nationwide protest campaigns.

The question is how much longer can Beijing delay injecting a massive stimulus to appease the angry crowds, one which will send the prices of all commodities across the globe soaring higher and end the Fed’s dream of a “soft landing”…

Continue reading here.

end

CHINA

China’s shadow banking giant , Zhongzi files for bankruptcy. The real estate collapse certainly was the big contriubting factor.

China’s Shadow-Banking Giant Files For Bankruptcy

FRIDAY, JAN 05, 2024 – 12:25 PM

One of China’s “secretive” shadow-banking giants filed for bankruptcy on Friday due to its inability to repay tens of billions of dollars in debt, a warning sign contagion from the downturn in the real estate industry continues to spread and raises questions if the property crisis in the world’s second-largest economy will accelerate into the new year.

2023 has seen China’s Shadow Banking system mostly acting as a liquidity-suck (red bars) while corporate bond issuance has barely offset the withdrawals.

Zhongzhi Enterprise Group Co., also called “China’s Blackstone,” which once oversaw more than 1 trillion yuan ($140 billion) before the property crisis, filed an application for bankruptcy in Beijing’s First Intermediate People’s Court, according to Bloomberg.

Zhongzhi wrote in a filing that it “obviously” could not repay its debts. A letter to shareholders in November explained its debts total 420 billion yuan to 460 billion yuan ($64.4 billion), compared with assets of 200 billion yuan.

On the Chinese social media platform WeChat, the Beijing court published a statement saying that Zhongzhi’s “assets are insufficient to pay off all debts, and it clearly lacks the ability to repay in full.”

Zhongzhi was once the most prominent firm in the country’s $3 trillion trust industry, which pools savings from wealthy households and corporate clients to make loans and invest in real estate, stocks, bonds, and commodities. The bank first came on our radar last August when it skipped payments on several investment products, sparking rare protests outside its buildings by angry investors.

In November, Chinese authorities opened a criminal investigation into the firm’s management business after revealing a $36.4 billion hole in its balance sheet.

“The persistent decline in the real estate market, coupled with stringent policies and increased financial anti-corruption measures, has hindered timely asset collection,” said Zhao Jian, head of the Atlantis Financial Research Institute in Beijing.

Jian warned: “Redeeming these assets has become exceedingly challenging.”

According to Bloomberg, the trust sector’s exposure to real estate is about 2.2 trillion yuan, or 10% of total assets as of the end of 2022.

“The big danger is that a negative feedback loop kicks in, with property stress causing strains in the financial system, undermining credit expansion and depressing growth, which, in turn, exacerbates the slump in the property sector,” Bloomberg Economics wrote in a recent note.

The latest developments at Zhongzhi stoke worries about contagion amid China’s deflationary pressures and, of course, a struggling property market, which, as a reminder, is the largest asset class on earth…

It’s an age-old dilemma for the central bank, faced with a weakening economy and an imploding property market. In November, the People’s Bank of China planned to unleash a trillion yuan in low-cost funding to shore up property markets, hoping to stabilize the downward spiral.

end

4.EUROPEAN AFFAIRS//UK /SCANDINAVIAN AFFAIRS

EU/ECB/

ECB rate cut odds tumble as EU inflation re accelerates in December

(zerohedge)

ECB Rate-Cut Odds Tumble As EU Inflation Re-Accelerates In December

FRIDAY, JAN 05, 2024 – 08:17 AM

Eurozone inflation re-accelerated in December, breaking seven months of declines, leaving analysts questioning whether The ECB will be able to cut rates as aggressively as the market had thought.

Euro area headline HICP inflation rose 52bp in December to 2.92% YoY, in line with consensus expectations.

The breakdown by main expenditure categories showed services inflation remained unchanged at 4.0%YoY, and non-energy industrial goods inflation fell four-tenths of a percentage point to 2.5%YoY. Of the non-core components, energy inflation rose 4.8pp to -6.7%YoY, while food, alcohol and tobacco inflation fell eight-tenths of a percentage point to 6.1%YoY.

But, you should just ignore this:

“December’s jump in headline inflation in the eurozone was widely anticipated and entirely due to a base-effects driven increase in energy inflation, so it won’t alter ECB policymakers’ views on the outlook for monetary policy,” said Jack Allen-Reynolds, deputy chief eurozone economist at Capital Economics.

Except the market is not, as it prompted the market to cut the odds of a March ECB rate-cut significantly…

Source: Bloomberg

“The increase (in inflation) serves as a reminder that interest rate cuts in the first quarter are unlikely but this shouldn’t dispel expectations of cuts later in the year,” said Bert Colijn, senior eurozone economist at ING.

And expectations for total 2024 cuts have fallen to 140bps (from 190bps last week)…

Source: Bloomberg

“150 basis points of cuts is still ambitious,” said Christoph Rieger, head of rates research at Commerzbank AG.

He expects the ECB will only deliver half of that, broadly matching the majority of economists surveyed by Bloomberg.

“The gap versus consensus forecasts will probably shrink from both sides.”

Will we see the EUR slide back at the rate-differential implies?

And send the dollar even higher?

end

FRANCE

Carrefour, France’s largest supermarket chain boycotts Pepsi Co. food and drink price increases stating that they are unacceptable

(zerohedge)

Largest French Supermarket Chain Boycotts PepsiCo Due To “Unacceptable Price Increases”

FRIDAY, JAN 05, 2024 – 05:45 AM

The global consumer is so tapped out, it’s becoming virtually impossible to pass on constant price increases.

France’s largest supermarket chain, Carrefour, is boycotting food and drinks manufacturing giant PepsiCo, pulling the company’s snacks and soft drinks from store shelves due to recent price increases in the latest flare-up of a long-running clash between retailers and food companies over the cost of popular items.

Starting Thursday morning, the chain has removed PepsiCo items from supermarkets in France, and is placing banners in aisles for PepsiCo products such as Lay’s and Doritos crisps, and 7Up drinks and Lipton tea, advising customers: “We are no longer selling this brand due to unacceptable price increases,” a Carrefour spokesperson confirmed to news agency Reuters, adding the veto only applies to stores in France.

The supermarket giant’s latest backlash to consumer products manufacturers follows a ‘shrinkflation’ campaign launched in September, when PepsiCo was also targeted, along with Nestlé, Unilever and Lindt & Sprüngli. However, the US-based food and beverages producer has been singled out this time around, although as Just Food reports, it is unclear whether PepsiCo has been trying to force through further price increases for products sold in France.

The dispute with PepsiCo coincided with the issuance today of France’s latest inflation figures, which, while preliminary numbers for December, show food prices continue to rise at a faster pace than those in the wider economy. France’s national statistics body, Insee, said food prices likely rose at an annualised rate of 7.1% last month, easing slightly from 7.7% in November. That compares, for instance, to 12.1% in December 2022.

Nevertheless, food inflation remains at almost twice the rate of the government’s headline measure.

The French consumer price index increased 3.7% in the 12 months through December, up from 3.5% in November, Insee reported today for its provisional figures. In December 2022, the annualised rate stood at 5.9%. Month-on-month, overall inflation rebounded to a positive 0.1%, from a 0.2% decline in November, the statistics agency noted.

As reported previously, the French government has waged a campaign in recent months against both food retailers and their suppliers to bring down prices and ease the burden on consumers.

Authorities are now also joining Carrefour’s fight against shrinkflation, where manufacturers reduce pack sizes without necessarily making a corresponding drop in price. It has emerged that the government has reportedly applied to the EU to clear a move that would oblige grocers to tell consumers if a product has been reduced in size but its price has stayed the same.

Carrefour’s latest agitation against prices and the government’s plans on shrinkflation suggest concerns still remain about the pressures on consumers, despite food prices easing somewhat. Other supermarkets have also occasionally resorted to the more aggressive step of dropping products amid heated price disputes — notably when UK grocer Tesco Plc removed Unilever Plc’s Marmite spread from shelves in 2016. In a more recent price dispute in 2022, Mars Inc. stopped supplying two of its pet food brands to Tesco, while Kraft Heinz Co. withheld ketchup and baked beans.

When food inflation in France was still in double digits last August, Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire held talks with retailers and food producers to press for a reduction in consumer goods prices. The meetings followed a warning by Thierry Cotillard, the boss of the Les Mousquetaires supermarket chain, that people were cutting back on food purchases and shop prices were unlikely to fall until around March 2024.

Meanwhile, Carrefour’s own boss, CEO Alexandre Bompard, said in August consumers were curtailing purchases because of the impact of inflation on their spending power.

END

5 RUSSIA//UKRAINE AND MIDDLE EASTERN AFFAIRS

ISRAEL

Cabinet meeting turns into shouting match as politicians attack IDF – report

Several ministers expressed outrage that supporters of the Disengagement were being considered for an inquiry about October 7.

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, flanked by Defense Minister Yoav Gallant (left) and IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Herzi Halevi, holds a security assessment in Tel Aviv. (photo credit: HAIM ZACH/GPO) — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, flanked by Defense Minister Yoav Gallant (left) and IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Herzi Halevi, holds a security assessment in Tel Aviv.(photo credit: HAIM ZACH/GPO)

A cabinet meeting on Thursday night exploded after several ministers attacked representatives of the IDF who were present at the meeting, including Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi, Israeli media reported overnight.

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, Transportation Minister Miri Regev, and Regional Cooperation Minister David Amsalem expressed outrage that the IDF was reportedly planning to have officials who had supported the Disengagement from the Gaza Strip in 2005 take part in an inquiry into the events leading up to the October 7 massacre.

At a certain point, War Cabinet Minister Benny Gantz shouted at the ministers who were attacking the chief of staff, saying “This is a professional investigation, what does it have to do with the Disengagement and the ‘conceptzia’ (line of reasoning)? The chief of staff is f***ing conducting an investigation into what happened now to serve the goals of the war and our ability to prepare for a conflict in the north. This is not a national investigation,” according to Walla.

‘A despicable discussion’

One of the ministers told KAN news that “it was a despicable discussion that exploded. They attacked the army. Some senior members of the defense establishment left in the middle.”Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu convenes a security cabinet meeting on April 6, 2023 (credit: AMOS BEN-GERSHOM/GPO)

Another minister stated that “we were told that they heard the yelling of the ministers from outside the meeting room.”

“It’s a shame and disgrace what happened there. You can criticize the army, but they attacked the chief of staff personally and endlessly. You have to think about whether this forum is worthy of making decisions at the level of our security policy. I don’t want to think what will happen when our soldiers in the field hear about what happened there and how they attacked their chief of staff,” said another minister to KAN.

Eventually, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu broke up the meeting, telling Halevi “sometimes you need to listen to the ministers.”Go to the full article >>

end

/HAMAS//ISRAEL

Friday morning

Sirens sound in Ashkelon, Gaza border communities

Sirens sound in and around the southern city of Ashkelon and the Gaza border area, warning residents of possible incoming rocket fire.

The sirens are activated in the Gaza border city of Sderot, as well as Nitzanim and Kibbutz Nir Am, among other locations.

end

ISRAEL/HAMAS

IDF uncovers Hamas terror lab, more tunnels in Gaza’s high-rise district

YAHALOM forces destroyed terrorist observation posts, boobytrapped buildings, and underground tunnel shafts as part of the operation.

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF

Israeli forces uncover an underground tunnel shaft in Gaza’s high-rise district, January 5, 2024 (IDF SPOKESPERSON’S UNIT)

The IDF found tunnel shafts, a chemical lab for weapon production, and anti-tank launch sites in a raid of a central Gaza neighborhood’s high-rise district, the Israeli military said Friday.

The military said that an operation led by the 646th Brigade, in cooperation with the Yahalom special engineering unit, targeted many high-rise buildings the IDF said were used by Hamas as launch sites, targeting Israeli tanks and fighter jets.

During the operation, Israeli forces found launches loaded with rockets and several tunnel shafts across the neighborhood.

IDF finds chemical laboratory used for terror in Gaza

The IDF also found a chemical laboratory used by Hamas terrorists for weapon production. The weaponry found and seized included sniper rifles, rocket-propelled grenade (RPG) launchers, AK-47 assault rifles, and pistols. Israeli forces seize Hamas weaponry in Gaza’s high-rise district, January 5, 2024 (credit: IDF SPOKESPERSON’S UNIT)

Yahalom forces destroyed terrorist observation posts, booby-trapped buildings, and underground tunnel shafts as part of the operation.

The IDF added that “many terrorists” were killed by forces during their raid of the Gaza district, as the IDF continued its war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip.Go to the full article >>

END

ISRAEL //HAMAS

IDF hits over 100 Hamas targets as battles rage in Gaza; rocket hits Sderot building

Military destroys rocket launchers in Hamas stronghold of Khan Younis, pursues terror squad attempting to attack tank in central Gaza’s al-Bureij

By EMANUEL FABIAN and AGENCIESToday, 5:27 pm 0

Israel Defense Forces soldiers operating in the Gaza Strip, January 5, 2024. (IDF)

The Israel Defense Forces said Friday it carried out strikes on more than 100 Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip over the past day, hitting a range of facilities used by the terror group, as intense battles continued in the central and southern areas of the enclave.

The strikes in Gaza, carried out by air, sea and ground forces, hit Hamas command centers, launch positions, weapons depots and other infrastructure, according to the IDF.

Meanwhile, rocket sirens blared north of the Gaza border on Friday.

One rocket hit a building in the southern city of Sderot, a spokeswoman for the city said. A second rocket fell outside of the city. No injuries were reported, although the building was damaged in the direct impact.

Rocket fire has drastically declined as the army has tightened its control over the Strip, but the military has warned that the terror group still has capabilities to launch projectiles into Israel.

The operations came as Defense Minister Yoav Gallant presented his vision for a four-pronged plan for how to handle the Gaza Strip after the ongoing war with the terror group ends, with the IDF retaining full military control but no civilian presence, and local Palestinian authorities playing a central role in civil affairs.

A building in Sderot was damaged by rocket fire from Gaza on January 5, 2023. (Sderot Municipality)

It was the first time a senior Israeli official had presented a scenario for the day after the war and was meant to be discussed in a cabinet session Thursday night, which instead descended into a loud and angry dustup when right-wing ministers cried foul over IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi’s plans for the army to probe its own mistakes during the October 7 massacre.

In central Gaza’s al-Bureij, the military said troops of the Border Defense Corps’ 414th Combat Intelligence Collection Unit spotted a group of Hamas operatives attempting to attack an IDF tank.

Troops launched a pursuit after the gunmen used a drone, and the army called in a fighter jet airstrike after the operatives were spotted fleeing into a building, the IDF said, publishing footage of the strike.

In southern Gaza’s Khan Younis, reservists of the Kiryati Brigade found several rocket launch sites used to fire projectiles at Israel.

The IDF said the troops destroyed the launchers and killed “many” Hamas operatives during several battles in the area.

The IDF also stated it completed an operation in a central Gaza neighborhood, where troops located tunnel shafts, booby-trapped homes and weapons.

Troops of the 646th Reserve Paratroopers Brigade and elite Yahalom combat engineering unit were operating in the neighborhood over the past week, in an area dubbed by the IDF “the towers neighborhood” after its high-rise buildings.

“The buildings of the neighborhood were used as anti-tank missile and machine gun fire positions,” the IDF said.

It said troops battled and killed many Hamas gunmen, and located several primed rocket launchers, booby-trapped buildings, tunnel shafts and explosive devices during operations in the neighborhood.

The IDF said troops also found a warehouse and chemical lab used to manufacture weapons.

Combat engineers destroyed the Hamas infrastructure, including tunnels in the area.

War broke out following the Hamas terror group’s October 7 massacres, which saw some 3,000 terrorists burst across the border into Israel from Gaza, killing some 1,200 people and seizing over 240 hostages, mostly civilians.

In response, Israel vowed to destroy Hamas and launched a wide-scale military campaign in Gaza aimed at destroying the group’s military and governance capabilities.

The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza said Thursday at least 22,600 people have been killed in the Strip since the war erupted on October 7. The Hamas figure does not differentiate between civilians and combatants and includes Palestinians killed by errant rocket fire from Gaza. Israel says it has killed 8,500 terrorists since launching the war.

Palestinians and international aid groups said the humanitarian condition in Gaza continued to be fraught.

AFPTV footage Friday from Gaza showed families continuing to seek safety from the violence, arriving in the southern border city of Rafah in overloaded cars and on foot, pushing handcarts stacked with possessions.

“We fled Jabaliya camp to Maan (in Khan Younis) and now we are fleeing from Maan to Rafah,” said one woman who declined to give her name. “(We have) no water, no electricity and no food.”

A spokesman for the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, told AFP that Rafah is overwhelmed by the influx.

“The city is usually home to only 250,000 persons. And now, it’s more than 1.3 million,” said Adnan Abu Hasna.

“We have recently noticed a major collapse in health conditions” and a “significant spread” of disease, he added.

Ahmad al-Sufi, head of the Rafah emergency committee said there was an urgent need for 50,000 tents to house the refugees.

A picture taken from Rafah shows smoke billowing over Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip during Israeli strikes on January 5, 2024. (AFP)

Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken headed to the region for talks on plans to wind down fighting and ultimately hand over civil control of Gaza.

During his visit, Blinken plans to discuss with Israeli leaders “immediate measures to increase substantially humanitarian assistance to Gaza,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said.

Germany’s top diplomat Annalena Baerbock will also travel to the region, a German foreign ministry spokesman said, beginning Sunday in Israel and also meeting with Palestinian leaders.

She plans to discuss “the dramatic humanitarian situation in Gaza” and tensions on the Israel-Lebanon border, spokesman Sebastian Fischer said.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken waves before boarding an aircraft at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, to travel to the Middle East on January 4, 2024. (EVELYN HOCKSTEIN / POOL / AFP)

Visits by Western diplomats came amid rising fears of regional war, following deadly blasts in Iran and the killing of Hamas terror chief Saleh al-Arouri in an alleged Israeli strike in Lebanon.

Hezbollah and Hamas have vowed revenge over the killing of Arouri, while Iran has blamed Israel and the United States for the twin blasts that ripped through a crowd commemorating General Qassem Soleimani, the former head of Iran’s elite Quds Force, who was killed in a US drone strike in Iraq exactly four years ago. On Thursday, the Islamic State group took responsibility for the bombings.

Hostilities also threatened to expand to Yemen after the United States and its allies jointly warned the country’s Houthi rebels of unspecified consequences unless they immediately halted attacks on Red Sea shipping carried out in solidarity with Hamas.

END

WEST BANK/ISRAEL/

IDF still operating in West Bank’s Nur Shams more than 30 hours after start of operation

By EMANUEL FABIAN

Smoke rises above buildings in the Nur Shams refugee camp in the West Bank, during an ongoing IDF raid on January 4, 2024. (Zain JAAFAR / AFP)

The IDF says it is continuing a counter-terror operation in the West Bank’s Nur Shams refugee camp that began more than 30 hours ago.

So far, it says troops have questioned hundreds of suspects in the camp near Tulkarem, although only some of them have been arrested.

The IDF says troops also seized several weapons during the raid.

In all, across the West Bank, the IDF says it arrested 29 wanted Palestinians in overnight raids.

Since October 7, troops have arrested more than 2,600 wanted Palestinians across the West Bank, including more than 1,300 affiliated with Hamas, according to the IDF.

END

HOUTHIS/USA/IRAN/THE WEST

Retired US general calls for ‘violent’ response to Iran over proxy attacks

By REUTERS

Retired four-star Marine general Frank McKenzie, who led US forces in the Middle East until retiring in 2022, says the Biden administration’s indecisive response to attacks in the Red Sea and against US troops at bases in Iraq and Syria has failed to deter Iran and its proxies carrying them out.

“Even before Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack, Iranian forces were launching missile and drone strikes on our bases across the region, acting through proxies that gave them a measure of deniability,” he writes in an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal. “Our response has consistently been tentative, overly signaled and unfocused.”

“To reset deterrence, we must apply violence that Tehran understands,” McKenzie writes.

Asked whether Operation Prosperity Guardian, the coalition dispatched to protect Red Sea shipping lanes, might target Houthi positions with strikes to prevent them from attacking ships, Vice Admiral Brad Cooper, who leads US Naval forces in the Middle East, says the 22-nation coalition is purely defensive in nature.

“Anything that happens outside of the defensive aspect of this operation is a completely different operation,” he says.

END

Iran should have its oil assets wiped out in a eraid and the west should attack south Yemen

(Reuters/)

Houthi leader: Any country involved in US-led Red Sea task force will be targeted

By REUTERSToday, 10:12 pm 1

FILE – This photo released by the Houthi Media Center shows a Houthi forces helicopter approaching the cargo ship Galaxy Leader on November 19, 2023 in the Red Sea. (Houthi Media Center via AP)

Mohammed Ali al-Houthi, head of Yemen’s Houthi supreme revolutionary committee, said that any country to involve itself with the United States-led Red Sea coalition will lose its maritime security and be targeted.

Al-Houthi made the comments on Friday in an interview with the BBC.

Joining the US-led coalition to protect Red Sea shipping routes targeted by the Houthis are Australia, Bahrain, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Germany, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, New Zealand, Republic of Korea, Singapore and the United Kingdom.

USA/IRAQ/MILITANTS

US strike kills leader of Iranian backed group in Baghdad responsible for all of the uSA base attacks

(Dave DeCamp/Antiwar.com)

US Strike Kills Iran-Backed Leader In Baghdad Believed Behind Attacks On US Bases

THURSDAY, JAN 04, 2024 – 10:40 PM

Authored by Dave DeCamp via AntiWar.com,

A US drone strike in Baghdad killed a senior militia leader on Thursday, marking another significant escalation that could lead to a full-blown regional war.

The strike killed Mushtaq Talib al-Saidi, also known as Abu Taqwa, a deputy commander of the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) operations in Baghdad. The PMF is a coalition of mostly Shia Iraqi militias that are part of the government’s security forces.

At least one other militia member was killed in the strike, which targeted a PMF base in Baghdad. Later on Thursday, the Pentagon confirmed it was responsible for the bombing.

The Pentagon claims Abu Taqwa was believed to be responsible for attacks on US bases in Iraq and Syria that started in October in response to US support for Israel’s onslaught in Gaza, but the US has not provided any evidence for the assertion.

The drone strike has enraged the Iraqi government, which condemned it as a “flagrant violation of the sovereignty and security of Iraq” and said it was “no different from a terrorist act.”

The US has launched several rounds of airstrikes in Iraq since October, all of which have been strongly condemned by the government of Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani, the US’s supposed partner in the country.

Al-Sudani’s government has also condemned the attacks on US bases in Iraq but wants to work to find the perpetrators and strongly opposes the unilateral US airstrikes and extra-judicial killings.

Al-Sudani said last week that his government was “heading towards” ending the presence of foreign forces in Iraq, which includes 2,500 US troops.

Iraq’s parliament voted to expel US troops back in 2020 following the US drone strike that killed Iranian Gen. Qasem Soleimani and PMF leader Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, but the US has refused to leave.

END

great commentary tonight from Ayelet Frish….

Countering the South African claims of Israeli genocide

An analysis of the Israel-Hamas war by international strategic advisor Ayelet Frish.

By AYELET FRISHJANUARY 5, 2024 17:24

Strategic Advisor, Ayelet Frish (photo credit: SIVAN FARAG) — Strategic Advisor, Ayelet Frish(photo credit: SIVAN FARAG)

Two significant developments in the war occurred in the past week. First, the IDF has begun to reduce its forces in the Gaza Strip, sending thousands of reservists home to their families, their livelihoods, and their educational pursuits. This reduction should not be confused with a de-escalation of the fighting- it is the beginning of a more targeted phase of the operation against Hamas, which may last for many months.

Second, last Friday South Africa launched a case against Israel at the International Court of Justice in The Hague, alleging that Israel’s military operation in Gaza amounts to genocide. This week, to much of the world’s surprise, Israel announced that it would defend its military actions in front of a panel of judges in the Great Hall of Justice, in a highly sensitive case that will likely drag on for years and become a subject of international debate following the war.

Operational Updates:

As Israel changes its operational strategy in Gaza, the IDF continues its offensive from the ground, the air and the sea, with a week marked by important discoveries of Hamas terror facilities and equipment heavily embedded in civilian infrastructure throughout Gaza’s residential areas.

The IDF uncovered a tunnel shaft in a Gazan school, and in civilian homes in the El Bureij area, troops discovered complex tunnel shafts, intelligence data, and weapons and rockets, including long-range rockets discovered inside a family home. In a residential complex, ground troops identified and destroyed a large stockpile of Hamas’ weapons and ammunition, including dozens of shoulder-fired missiles and grenades.

On the northern border, since the onset of the war the IDF eliminated over 130 Hezbollah terrorist cells with tactical air strikes backed by precise intelligence. Hezbollah continues to send rockets, anti-tank missiles and mortar shells into Israel from the southern Lebanon area, attempting to deflect Israel from its ongoing operation in the south. The IDF remains on high-alert in the North and its troops remain in the area.

The withdrawal of reserve units from Gaza should not be misconstrued as a lowering of the intensity of Israel’s war with Hamas, nor is the redeployment and readjustment of Israeli forces a result of American pressure to end the war. In fact, the opposite is true. The new phase of the operation is expected to last for many months and Israel is more determined than ever to destroy Hamas. The returning reservists realize that their release from duty may be temporary, depending on the security situation on the Northern border and the developments on the ground in Gaza.

As thousands of Hamas terrorists hide in the Gaza’s underground city of terror, attempting to attack Israeli soldiers from within the endless terror tunnel shafts hidden across the Strip, the IDF shifts its focus to the complex and high-risk subterranean war. Advertisement

At this stage, the IDF’s main objective is to root out the terrorists hiding in the underground terror city and destroy the entirety of Hamas’ tunnel network, which will require advanced technological solutions, precision intelligence and great creativity. Complicating this objective is the fact that Hamas has likely taken the remaining captives – including women, children, the elderly, and chronically ill civilians – and spread them throughout the tunnels, using the hostages as human shields in an effort to avoid the elimination of the heads of the organization, which the State of Israel has declared as one of its war goals.

During this phase, we will undoubtedly see Hamas increase and amplify its use of videos and photos of the Israeli hostages to sow fear and spread disinformation within Israel in an effort to influence its decision making.

In the international arena, South Africa made a bold statement with its filing in the International Court of Justice in the Hague against Israel, claiming that it violated its obligations under the Genocide Convention, stating that “acts and omissions by Israel… are genocidal in character” as they are committed with the intent “to destroy Palestinians in Gaza as a part of the broader Palestinian national, racial and ethnical group.” Furthermore, South Africa asked the court to issue an interim order for Israel to suspend its military operations in Gaza.

In an unprecedented move, Israel announced that it will send representatives to appear before the court to defend Israel’s position, and Israel’s Foreign Ministry stated that it rejected “with contempt the blood libel by South Africa in its application to the International Court of Justice” and held Hamas responsible for the Israeli response in Gaza, stating that Hamas attempted to “carry out genocide on October 7,” when thousands of terrorists invaded Israel, murdering 1,200 people and taking hundreds of hostages.

Israel will not back down and leave terror on its doorstep. Hamas’ well-documented strategy of embedding itself in Gaza’s civil infrastructure and among its civilian population has left Israel with no choice- in order to defeat the enemy, the IDF must search, clear and destroy Hamas strongholds located in schools, mosques, hospitals and homes and unfortunately, civilians will get caught up in the crossfire of war. The picture is clear. Gaza has become a city of terror where its citizens – men, women, and children – are just scenery. It has become a city that is entirely composed of weapons, explosives, bombs, and an industry that manufactures terror and death. Hamas, under the guise of a civil government, developed a complete terror operation that brought disaster upon Israelis and Gazans alike.

The word must open its eyes and remove its mask of hypocrisy. Those countries and groups who are now criticizing Israel for its conduct of the war in Gaza were silent during the civil war in Syria, in which more than 230,000 civilians were killed. They were utterly silent in the face of terrible crimes committed in Africa. They remain silent in the face of tyrannical dictatorship and the slaughter of civilians in countries around the world, such as Iran. They have completely ignored the actions of Hamas, whose crimes have been well documented and filmed, with ample testimony supplied by survivors, and about its widespread use of the civilian population and public buildings for the benefit of terror.

With the press of a button, the international court can view and see all of the proof of the war crimes committed by Hamas and their use of innocent civilians as human shields. The pictures that have come through since the IDF’s entry into Gaza cannot be contested. We have seen it in photographs, in videos, in documents, and via the interrogation of Hamas terrorists. They hide missiles and weapons in mosques, in schools, underneath the beds of children, under couches in private homes, prepare explosive suicide vests for children, and place warheads inside toy chests in a Gaza kindergarten. Every second house in Gaza is a weapons cache of lethal explosives.

After the discoveries made by IDF forces of these weapons, the briefings on the subject from the IDF Spokesperson, and the overwhelming evidence presented to foreign correspondents, who took correspondents to Gaza with all of the evidence, the facts are indisputable.

The vast mountain of evidence that illustrates how Hamas turned Gaza into a place of terror must be placed before the judges at The Hague. The entire responsibility for this tragedy rests upon the heads of Hamas, and not the State of Israel.

Despite the anger and pain caused by the Hamas massacre of October 7, the Jewish people is a nation that always prefers to extend its hand for peace and shared life, rather than living by the sword and war.

It is hypocritical of South Africa, a country that instituted apartheid racial separation, to lecture Israel on issues of morality. Just this week, Israel’s Supreme Court’s decision to strike down the government’s plan to limit the powers of the judiciary shows that Israel will remain a beacon of democracy in the Middle East with a strong and independent court. This includes Israel’s military legal advisors, who accompany every decision made by the Israeli military and provide legal backing to its actions, enabling it to fight against terror while observing ethics and international law.

The IDF Prosecutor’s Office is a part of all of the military operations and the decision-making process. The commanders and pilots are doing as much as they can to minimize the damage, but we must understand that thousands of Hamas terrorists attach themselves to the civilian population, and they built all of their terror infrastructure among the population. If the Gazans want a future for their children, they have no choice but to get rid of the infrastructure of terror in order to build anew.

But when terror is millimeters away, when we are speaking of tens of thousands of active terrorists who hide among the population and use it as human shields, who crossed Israel’s borders and decapitated people, murdered and raped, we have no choice but to fight a complex war, and keep fighting the war, despite the significant losses. The destruction in Gaza is a warning sign for those countries who choose terror – for Beirut, for Hezbollah, for the Huthi in Yemen, and for everyone who wants or values terror or death over life.

Israel will reply to the charges of genocide by South Africa and explain and justify its actions. In the meantime, the judges in The Hague must view the proof of the true genocide and murders perpetrated by Hamas. The truth is in plain sight

UKRAINE/RUSSIA

end

GLOBAL VACCINE/COVID ISSUES

OME // BIG PHARMA

BBC accidentally admits that COVID jabs created historic death spike

01/03/2024 // Ethan Huff // 5.5K Views

Tags: badhealth, badmedicine, BBC, Big Pharma, biological weapon, Censored Science, covid-19, Dangerous Medicine, deception, depopulation, fake news, genocide, mainstream media, news cartels, pandemic, pharmaceutical fraud, propaganda, spike protein, truth, Vaccine deaths, vaccine wars, vaccines

As the world’s focus remains dead set on the Middle East, publicly funded BBC News has inadvertently admitted that 2022’s historic death spike was caused by Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) “vaccines.”

BBC ran a piece called “Excess deaths in 2022 among worst in 50 years” that tries really, really hard to avoid blaming COVID jabs on the historic death spike. In fact, its reporters state falsely that the data somehow shows that COVID jabs are not the cause of the death spike.

“Figures up to June 2022 looking at deaths from all causes show unvaccinated people were more likely to die than vaccinated people,” BBC claims. “If vaccines were driving excess deaths, we would expect this to be the other way around.”

BBC pointed to data from the United Kingdom government institution known as the Office for National Statistics (ONS), which in and of itself has been tampering with the data in such a way as to keep probing eyes away from linking COVID injections to the historic 2022 death spike.

As the Exposé has been covering at length ever since the “pandemic,” ONS data in actuality shows that unvaccinated people are faring the best, statistically speaking, while the fully jabbed are dying in droves, and at rates much higher than pre-pandemic figures.

“And we can reveal that mortality rates per 100,000 in every single age group, even children, in England and Wales were lowest among the unvaccinated in some age groups as early as 2021, and lowest among the unvaccinated in all age groups by May 2022 at the latest,” the Exposé reports.

“Therefore, BBC News has not only lied to the public, but they have also admitted in black and white that the Covid-19 injections are to blame for 2022 being the worst year for deaths in half a century by confirming that ‘if vaccines were driving excess deaths, we would expect this to be the other way around (highest mortality rates among the vaccinated).'”

(Related: Next year is not looking so good for Pfizer – the company needs another fake “pandemic” to reinvigorate its business and get the profits flowing.)

BBC can’t be trusted

This is hardly the first time that BBC has fudged the numbers to cover for its corporate overlords – and it will likely not be the last. Anyone paying attention can see that BBC is running cover for Big Pharma as it tries to deflect eyes away from COVID jabs as the cause of the ongoing COVID genocide.

The COVID jab scandal continues to unravel, and the only thing BBC and other fake news media outlets like it can do is try to deflect, project, and if all else fails, deny and pull the “anti-science” card on anyone who rejects its pro-jab narrative.

The UK government has already unequivocally confirmed that the mortality rate per 100,000 people is highest among those who got jabbed – and in every single age group.

“This means that people who have taken the Covid-19 vaccine have a higher chance of dying than the general population due to the intense damage it can do to the most vital organ in the human body, the heart, and the devastating decimation it does to the natural immune system,” the Exposé warns.

“Official figures prove that in the ‘Five Eyes’ countries and most of Europe there were nearly 2 million excess deaths recorded by November 2022 since the roll-out of the Covid-19 injections … And in the USA there have been half a million deaths among young adults and children resulting in 118,000 excess deaths since the Covid-19 injections were first administered to the wider population.”

More of the latest news about the after-effects of Operation Warp Speed can be found at Genocide.news.

END

Florida Surgeon General Warns Against Using mRNA COVID Vaccines Over Possible Cancer Risk

THURSDAY, JAN 04, 2024 – 10:00 PM

Authored by Jacob Burg via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

Florida’s Surgeon General, Dr. Joseph Ladapo, is warning against any use of the Pfizer and Moderna COVID-19 mRNA vaccines citing cancer concerns.

Dr. Ladapo says a Canadian study found “billions to hundreds of billions” of DNA molecules per dose, exceeding guidelines set forth by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the World Health Organization (WHO).

He sent a letter on Dec. 6, to the FDA Commissioner Dr. Robert Califf and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Dr. Mandy Cohen outlining his concerns about the high presence of DNA molecules in the mRNA vaccines alongside lipid nanoparticles (LNPs) used to deliver medicine into human cells.

If LNPs are so effective at administering the vaccine’s medicine into human cells, Dr. Ladapo says he fears they will deliver the contaminant DNA molecules simultaneously.

He cites a 2007 guidance report from the FDA on the regulatory limits for DNA in vaccines, which indicated risks of affecting the human genes that transform healthy cells into cancerous cells.

The report also discusses the risk of how this integration of DNA in vaccines can lead to issues with the heart, brain, blood, kidney, liver, bone marrow, lung, ovaries, and testes, draining lymph nodes, spleen, and the vaccine’s administration and injection site.

“DNA integration poses a unique and elevated risk to human health, and to the integrity of the human genome, including the risk that DNA integrated into sperm or egg, gametes could be passed onto offspring of mRNA COVID-19 vaccine recipients.

“If the risks of DNA integration have not been assessed for mRNA COVID-19 vaccines, these vaccines are not appropriate for use in human beings,” Dr. Ladapo said in a news release.

He is not calling for a widespread rejection of all vaccines and instead urges health care providers to prioritize non-mRNA COVID-19 vaccines and treatment while assessing research into overall vaccine risks.

Dr. Ladapo was in hot water in April 2023 after a public records request discovered edits he made to a state-commissioned survey on mRNA vaccines, garnering accusations of “exaggerating” the data to fit his position against giving COVID-19 vaccines to “healthy” children and adults of certain ages.

He defended the move as a scientific “revision” and felt justified in removing a certain data analysis from the original survey.

But others have raised concerns with the mRNA COVID-19 vaccines as well, including Dr. Eduardo Balbona, an internal medicine doctor from Jacksonville, Florida.

Dr. Balbona has been practicing for three decades and advocates for evidence-based medicine that emphasizes preventing disease and maintaining health with “education and a deliberative proactive approach to lifelong care.”

After receiving single or repeat doses of the mRNA vaccines, some of his patients experienced a host of different symptoms and felt “ill immediately afterward.”

In “some people, it takes a couple of weeks. So there [are] different patterns of injury. And I would say [for] some people, it’s almost an anaphylactic reaction.

“They have the vaccine, and from that moment on, they’re just not well. Often … they lose their blood pressure, or they have a crazy blood pressure. It either drops to 70 or goes to 200,” Dr. Balbona told The Epoch Times.

Several of his patients also developed posterior orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS) which, according to the Cleveland Clinic, is a condition that “causes your heart to beat faster than normal when you transition from sitting or lying down to standing up.”

POTS is not easy to diagnose because several of its symptoms, including dizziness, fainting, chest pain, headaches, and heart palpitations, can occur over time despite resulting from a common cause.

There is currently no cure for POTS, although exercise, physical activity, and a cardiac rehabilitation program can be used as treatment.

Dr. Balbona also saw patients with increased blood pressure and others who had developed a hypercoagulable state, which is when the blood coagulates excessively in the absence of bleeding, according to the National Institutes of Health.

He was also concerned by the number of men in their late teens, 20s, and 30s who developed pulmonary embolisms without genetic predispositions or pre-existing health issues that would cause them.

A pulmonary embolism occurs when a fragment, most likely a blood clot, gets stuck in a lung artery and blocks the flow of blood, according to the Mayo Clinic.

Other patients developed myocarditis and pericarditis directly after receiving the vaccine, Dr. Balbona said.

According to the CDC, “myocarditis is inflammation of the heart muscle, and pericarditis is inflammation of the outer lining of the heart.”

The symptoms of myocarditis and pericarditis are chest pain, shortness of breath, and “feelings of having a fast beating, fluttering, or pounding heart.”

The CDC admits that some patients developed these conditions after receiving the mRNA COVID-19 vaccines but that cases are “rare” and that many heal on their own.

However, since the symptoms can mimic anxiety reactions, some patients might be unaware they have either myocarditis or pericarditis, making data collection difficult.

Dr. Balbona spoke with patients who went to hospitals with these symptoms and were turned away by nurses and doctors who told them the issues were psychological, possibly assuming the patients were anxious or experiencing acute panic attacks.

He also believes some who received the vaccines were given “blanks” instead of shots with active medicine inside. Dr. Balbona said he tested several patients after they received their shots, and they lacked COVID-19 antibodies, which should be present in the blood after vaccination.

Dr. Balbona believes some patients might have been vaccinated with just saline solution as a result of poor storage and handling of the vaccines themselves, which required cold storage at all times to prevent the destruction of the medicine inside.

Patients often tell him they’re worried about falling ill because of having had one or many COVID-19 vaccines.

“So if you had the vaccine several years ago, and you feel fine, and you have no problems, you’re likely okay,” he added.

Dr. Balbona believes the research will eventually catch up with what he and other physicians are seeing while treating their patients.

“At some point—I think that point is long past due—these vaccines will be withdrawn from the market. They’re not safe. They’re harming people. They may be harming people in ways that are durable. The recent DNA contamination is very concerning for increasing risk of cancer,” he said.

However, despite the alleged cancer risks of using mRNA inside COVID-19 vaccines, he said, “the underlying technology is something that’s actually very remarkable.

“mRNA technology was misused in the COVID pandemic,” he said. “It should not be given indiscriminately.

“It’s gene therapy; there’s no question of that. And it has the ability to do some remarkable things in terms of good in the right situation. If you can turn on and off a gene or a protein in a patient who has a very serious illness, that’s fine.

“That may be a fabulous tool in the future, but you have to disclose the risks and the benefits.”

Nanette Holt contributed to this report.

GLOBAL ISSUES: FREIGHT

END

Dr Paul Alexander

Ladapo, Florida’s surgeon General (Dr. Joe Ladapo) calls for halt on mRNA covid vaccines in humans! Dr. Joseph Ladapo called for at least a temporary end to the use of the most common type of COVID-19

vaccines; Surgeon General outlined concerns regarding nucleic acid contaminants in the approved Pfizer and Moderna COVID-19 mRNA vaccines, particularly in the presence of lipid nanoparticle complexes

DR. PAUL ALEXANDERJAN 5

READ IN APP

https://www.floridahealth.gov/about/_documents/12-06-2023-DOH-Letter-to-FDA-RFI-on-COVID-19-Vaccines.pdf?utm_source=floridahealth.gov&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=PressRelease&utm_content=Florida%27s_Future_Budget&url_trace_7f2r5y6=Press_Release_Template_fry_2023_alt.docx

end

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

END

7//OIL ISSUES//NATURAL GAS ISSUES//ELECTRICAL GRID ISSUES// RENEWABLE ENERGY ISSUES//USA AND GLOBE

END

8. EMERGING MARKETS//AUSTRALIA NEW ZEALAND ISSUES//

ARGENTINA/

END

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

EURO VS USA DOLLAR: 1.0917 DOWN .0029

USA/ YEN 145.10 UP 0.327 NOW TARGETS INTEREST RATE AT 1.00% AS IT WILL BUY UNLIMITED BONDS TO GETS TO THAT LEVEL…//YEN STILL FALLS//

GBP/USA 1.2664 DOWN .0017

USA/CAN DOLLAR: 1.3374 UP .0018 (CDN DOLLAR DOWN 18 BASIS PTS)

Last night Shanghai COMPOSITE CLOSED DOWN 25.17 PTS OR 0.85%

Hang Seng CLOSED DOWN 110.65 PTS OR 0.66%

AUSTRALIA CLOSED DOWN 0.34% // EUROPEAN BOURSE: ALL RED

Trading from Europe and ASIA

I) EUROPEAN BOURSES: ALL RED

2/ CHINESE BOURSES / :Hang SENG DOWN 110.65 PTS OR 0.66%

/SHANGHAI CLOSED DOWN 25.17 PTS OR 0.85%

AUSTRALIA BOURSE CLOSED DOWN 0.16%

(Nikkei (Japan) CLOSED UP 89.13 PTS OR .27%

INDIA’S SENSEX IN THE GREEN

Gold very early morning trading: 2040.40

silver:$23.02

USA dollar index early FRIDAY morning: 102,40 UP 27 BASIS POINTS FROM THURSDAY’s CLOSE.

FRIDAY MORNING NUMBERS ENDS

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And now your closing FRIDAY NUMBERS 11: 30 AM

Portuguese 10 year bond yield: 2.882% DOWN 1 in basis point(s) yield

JAPANESE BOND YIELD: +0.606% DOWN 1 AND 6//100 BASIS POINTS /JAPAN losing control of its yield curve/

SPANISH 10 YR BOND YIELD: 3.109 UP 1 in basis points yield

ITALIAN 10 YR BOND YIELD 3.794 DOWN 1 points in basis points yield ./ THE ECB IS QE’ ING ITALIAN BONDS (BUYING ITALIAN BONDS/SELLING GERMAN BUNDS)

GERMAN 10 YR BOND YIELD: 2.1260 UP 1 BASIS PTS

END

IMPORTANT CURRENCY CLOSES FOR FRIDAY

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

Euro/USA 1.0991 UP 0.0045 or 45 basis points

USA/Japan: 143.95 DOWN 0.829 OR YEN UP 83 basis points/

Great Britain/USA 1.2768 UP .0088 OR 88 BASIS POINTS //

Canadian dollar UP .0035 OR 35 BASIS pts to 1.3320

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The USA/Yuan, CNY: closed ON SHORE CLOSED (UP) …7.1410

THE USA/YUAN OFFSHORE: (YUAN CLOSED (UP)…. (7.1497)

TURKISH LIRA: 29.84 EXTREMELY DANGEROUS LEVEL/DEATH WATCH/HYPERINFLATION TO BEGIN.//ON DEATH WATCH

the 10 yr Japanese bond yield at +0.606…VERY DANGEROUS

Your closing 10 yr US bond yield DOWN 3 in basis points from THURSDAY at 3.960% //trading well ABOVE the resistance level of 2.27-2.32%) very problematic

USA 30 yr bond yield 4.129 DOWN 1 in basis points ON THE DAY/12.00 PM

USA 2 YR BOND YIELD: 4.322 DOWN 6 BASIS PTS.

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

London: CLOSED DOWN 18.93 PTS OR .45%

German Dax : CLOSED DOWN 17.55 PTS OR 0.11%

Paris CAC CLOSED DOWN 25.76 PTS OR 0.35%

Spain IBEX CLOSED DOWN 20.10 PTS OR 0.20%

Italian MIB: CLOSED UP 44.45 PTS OR 0.15%

WTI Oil price 73.76 12: EST

Brent Oil: 78.63 12:00 EST

USA /RUSSIAN ROUBLE /// AT: 90.81; ROUBLE UP 0 AND 52//100

GERMAN 10 YR BOND YIELD; +2.1250 UP 1 BASIS PTS

UK 10 YR YIELD: 3.768 UP 2 BASIS PTS

CLOSING NUMBERS: 4 PM

Euro vs USA: 1.0940 DOWN 6 0.0006 OR 6 BASIS POINTS

British Pound: 1.2719 UP .0039 or 39 basis pts

BRITISH 10 YR GILT BOND YIELD: 3.8397% UP 7 BASIS PTS//

JAPAN 10 YR YIELD: 0.608%

USA dollar vs Japanese Yen: 144.67 DOWN 0.098 //YEN UP 9 BASIS PTS//

USA dollar vs Canadian dollar: 1.3363 UP 0.0007 CDN dollar DOWN 7 basis pts)

West Texas intermediate oil: 73.80

Brent OIL: 78.92

USA 10 yr bond yield UP 6 BASIS pts to 4.047%

USA 30 yr bond yield UP 7 BASIS PTS to 4.208%

USA 2 YR BOND: UP 1 PTS AT 4.395%

USA dollar index: 102.17 UP 3 BASIS POINTS

USA DOLLAR VS TURKISH LIRA: 29.84 (GETTING QUITE CLOSE TO BLOWING UP/

USA DOLLAR VS RUSSIA//// ROUBLE: 90.95 UP 0 AND 38/100 roubles

GOLD 2044,25 3:30 PM

SILVER: 23.17 3:30 PM

DOW JONES INDUSTRIAL AVERAGE: UP 25.70 PTS OR 0.07%

NASDAQ UP 23.97 PTS OR 0.15%

VOLATILITY INDEX: 13.44 DOWN .67 PTS 4.88%

GLD: $189.36 UP 0.04 OR 0.02%

SLV/ $21.21 UP .13 OR 0.62%

end

USA AFFAIRS

TODAY’S TRADING IN GRAPH FORM

Global Markets Suffer Worse Start In Over 20 Years As ‘Soft’ Data Stalls, Financial Conditions Tighten

FRIDAY, JAN 05, 2024 – 04:00 PM

In terms of total wealth destroyed, 2024 has started with the worst record ever as global bond and stock markets saw over $3 trillion wiped away…

The losses are dominated by global stocks (down around $2 trillion), while bonds are down around $1 trillion (but still up massively from the major inflection point at the start of November)…

Source: Bloomberg

This shift has dramatically changed the trend for financial conditions (which have tightened by the most over the past week since October)…

Source: Bloomberg

And hope is rung out of the economy as ‘soft’ data starts to catch down to ‘hard’ data’s somber reality…

Source: Bloomberg

Despite initial appearances (payrolls rose more than expected), the jobs reports was a shitshow and markets began to realize it after a while with rate-cut hopes, bond yields, gold and stock prices all reversing the initial kneejerk move.

Rate-cut expectations initial tumbled on the ‘good’ jobs data then whipped higher on the ‘bad’ ISM before settling back around unch on the day (though March odds and 2024 total cuts both hawkishly dropped this week)…

Source: Bloomberg

All the US Majors were down to start the year with Small Caps and Nasdaq the biggest losers (down around 3.5-4%). The Dow was the least harmed but still down 1% on the week

This was Nasdaq’s worst week since last March.

Today saw stocks swing wildly around the macro data but a late day charge lifted most majors barely green…

Magnificent 7 stocks saw over $400 Billion of market cap wiped away this week, erasing all of December’s gains…

Source: Bloomberg

As financial conditions have tightened so the laggards that became major leaders in the last two months of 2023 have once again become laggards…

Source: Bloomberg

Anti-Obesity drug-stocks managed gains on the week…

Source: Bloomberg

Notably, this was not a “AI-bubble-burst” moment – as AI-beneficiaries and those ‘at risk’ from AI were both hit just as hard this week as rates rose…

Source: Bloomberg

While the entire curve was higher in yield on the week, 30Y yields rose the most (up 16bps – the second biggest yield jump to start a year since 2011)

Source: Bloomberg

…but 2Y yields were up 13.5bps – the biggest yield increase to start a year since 2005…

Source: Bloomberg

Today was a little more crazy that most with yields spiking on payrolls beat, then tumbling on ISM Services miss, then rising back as the ugly reality of the jobs data hit home.

Source: Bloomberg

That was a 17bps hi-lo range for 2Y yields…

Source: Bloomberg

The dollar rallied to start the year and had a wild day today (like bonds)…

Source: Bloomberg

Gold fell to start the year but not after ramping up to green for a few brief minutes after this morning’s weak ISM…

Source: Bloomberg

Oil prices chopped around wildly this week but ended higher – in fact WTI had its best week since October trading up to $74…

Source: Bloomberg

Finally, are cyclical stocks about to start rolling over and catching down to the de-growth reality of US macro and oil prices?

Source: Bloomberg

That’s quite a gap! Can stocks remain buoyant as reserves bleed?

Source: Bloomberg

Meanwhile, the AAPL has fallen far from the tree (down almost 10% from its record highs…

Source: Bloomberg

…far enough to now be ‘oversold’.

END

MORNING TRADING//jobs report//phony

Jobs Shocker: December Payrolls Unexpectedly Surge As Unemployment Rate Slides, Wages Jump

FRIDAY, JAN 05, 2024 – 08:43 AM

So much for a March rate cut.

In our preview of today’s jobs report we quoted Goldman trader John Flood who said that a “hot print was the worst case scenario” (with the whisper number around 190K also well above consensus of 175K), and as if hearing that and eager to make an already ugly week even more painful for traders, moments ago the BLS reporter that in December the US added a whopping 216K jobs, smashing estimates of 175K and coming above almost all Wall Street estimates.

That said, we are comfortable with predicting that next month today’s print will be revised sharply lower (perhaps even below 175K, meaning today was a miss). Why do we say that? Because once again the BLS revised not just one but both previous months sharply lower:

October revised down 45K from 150K to 105K
November revised down 26K from 199K to 173K

This means that ten of the past 11 jobs reports have been revised substantially lower.

Developing

end

initial trading:

Stocks, Bonds, & Bullion Dump As Rate-Cut Hopes Plunge Post-Payrolls

FRIDAY, JAN 05, 2024 – 08:49 AM

A hotter than expected payrolls print and re-acceleration in wage growth are not the recipe for a dovish Fed that so many had banked on in the last two months of 2023.

And so , the rate-cut hype is eviscerated.

March odds plunged…

And 2024 expectations are tanking…

Stocks tumbled…

Bond yields spiked…

And gold dropped (as the dollar rallied)…

Did goldilocks just die?

end

THE REAL STORY! WHAT A DISASTER

IN REALITY A HUGE 1.51 MILLION FULL TIME JOBS DISAPPEARED TO WHICH 700 PLUS PART TIME JOBS WERE ADDED.

(JOBS REPORT)

Inside The Catastrophic Jobs Report: Record 1.5 Million Crash In Full-Time Jobs, Multiple Jobholders Soar To Record, Native Born Workers Plunge And Much More

FRIDAY, JAN 05, 2024 – 11:05 AM

While the prevailing post-payrolls narrative has focused on the surprisingly strong headline payrolls number (at 216K, this not only came above most estimates but was the highest in 4 months, denting the Fed’s case for a March rate cut) and the far stronger than expected hourly earnings (which rose to 4.1%, but only because hours worked dropped again to 34.3, a level last seen in the pre-covid days from 34.4) and unchanged unemployment rate, which at 3.7% further makes the case for rate cuts quite challenging, a closer look at the details of today’s jobs report reveals just how ugly the reality behind the the Budget-Busting Bidenomics truly is.

Let’s start with the now monthly revisions.

Regular readers are aware that earlier this year we spotted a peculiar trend when it comes to economic data releases by the Biden admin which – without fail – had been revised lower…

… and this month was no different. In fact, as shown in the chart below, the jobs print from 10 of the past 11 months has been revised lower! Why? So that the White House can take credit for a strong number (one which also sparks algorithmic buying in the market) only to quietly revise it lower one and two months later when nobody is looking.

But that’s just the start. Next we turn to the numbers behind the headline job prints which were rather terrible: the monthly nonfarm payrolls (from the Establishment Survey) may have been weak at 216K but the far more accurate Household Survey showed that the number of Employed workers actually collapsed by an unprecedented 683K, the biggest drop since the US economy was shutdown by covid!

Even scarier, while the monthly grind higher in the payrolls number (pulled from the far less accurate Establishment Survey) means that US jobs hit a record high every month with bizarre consistency and in December this was certainly the case, the total nonfarm employment number rose to an all time high 157.232 million, the abovementioned collapse in US Employment (per Household survey) meant that there were only 161.183 million employed people in the US, the lowest since June, with the now traditional divergence between these two surveys glaringly obvious in the chart below.

While that’s bad, unfortunately it gets much worse, because while we already know that there is something very troubling with jobs quantitatively, the Household Survey also looks at the quality of jobs gained or lost, and specifically it breaks down the jobs into full-time and part-time jobs (Source: Table A-9).

Here, one look at this month’s adjustment and it’s literally a shocker: you will not hear anyone from the Biden admin, the mainstream media, or associated economist cheerleaders mention this, but the BLS reported that in December the number of full-time jobs plunged by 1.531 million to 133.2 million, the biggest monthly drop since the record covid crash of 14.7 million jobs!

Of course, as full-time jobs crashed, something had to offset the plunge, and sure enough, it was all in the surge of part-time workers. In December, the number of part-timers soared by a whopping 762,000, the second highest monthly increase since the covid lockdowns, to 27.794 million, the highest print since March 2018!

Putting this in context, it means that since February of 2023, the US has not added a single full-time job (in fact it has lost 34,000), while adding 774 part-time jobs!

But wait, there’s more, because going back to a quantitative read of the data, we look at the number of multiple jobholders – those workers who have to work more than one job at a time to make ends meet. In December, that number surged by 222K, and at 8.565 million was the highest print on record!

Putting it all together, if one believes the headlines, in December the US added 216K payrolls (which included a record number of double-counted multiple jobholders), and yet the number of employed workers actually crashed by 683K, the biggest drop in 4 years. Furthermore, taking a closer look at the composition we find that in December, the number of well-paid, full-time workers collapsed by a near record 1.5 million, offset by a 762K surge in part-time workers. As for the balance, it was the 222K people who discovered last month that to keep up with the economic miracle that is Bidenomics, they need to work at least one more job.

In short: December was a catastrophic month for the jobs market, which is why we expect the usual theater: non-stop spin and lies from the Biden admin, and not a single relevant question from the liberal media whose job is not to educate or inform, but to carry water, spread lies and enable propaganda.

But wait there’s even more, because just as we enter the peak of election season and political talking points will be thrown around left and right, especially in the context of the immigration crisis created intentionally by the Biden administration (maybe the US can hold the presidential election in Honduras or Guatemala, after all it is their citizens that will be (illegally) casting the key votes in November), what we find is that in December, the number of native-born worker

Said otherwise, not only has all job creation in the past 4 years has been exclusively for foreign-born workers, but there has been zero job-creation for native born workers since 2018!

This is a huge issue – especially at a time of an illegal alien flood at the border – and is about to become a huge political scandal, because once the inevitable recession finally hits, there will be millions of furious unemployed Americans demanding a more accurate explanation for what happened – i.e., the illegal immigration floodgates that were opened by the Biden admin. Which is also why the Biden admin will do everything in his power to insure there is no official recession before November… and is why after the election is over, all economic hell will finally break loose.

AFTERNOON TRADING

TUCKER CARLSON

II USA DATA

What will the regional banks do in March to cover their $141 billion shortfall. It will be impossible for the Fed to renew the program

(zerohedge)

Bank Bailout Fund Usage Just Keeps Soaring, Money-Market Funds Biggest Inflow Since SVB Crisis

THURSDAY, JAN 04, 2024 – 04:40 PM

Money-market funds saw massive inflows in the week-ending Jan 3rd, jumping $79BN to a new record high just below $6TN…

Source: Bloomberg

Both institutional and retail funds saw large inflows (+$40.7BN and +$38.9BN respectively) for the biggest combined inflow since the SVB crisis…

Source: Bloomberg

In a breakdown for the week to Jan. 3, government funds – which invest primarily in securities like Treasury bills, repurchase agreements and agency debt – saw assets rise to $4.878 trillion, a $64.7 billion increase.

Prime funds, which tend to invest in higher-risk assets such as commercial paper, meanwhile, saw assets rise to $961.7 billion, a $10.3 billion increase.

Interestingly, bank deposits are rising rapidly at the same time as money-market inflows are soaring…

Source: Bloomberg

The Fed’s balance sheet shrank by around $32BN last week to its smallest since March 2021 (down almost $1.3TN from its highs)…

Source: Bloomberg

US equity market cap has rolled over in the last few days but remains notably decoupled from the sliding bank reserves at The Fed (but we note that the RRP drawdowns have resumed since the new year, subsidizing any liquidity needs for now)…

Source: Bloomberg

Usage of The Fed’s BTFP bank bailout facility surged by over $5BN to a new record high of $141BN…

Source: Bloomberg

The BTFP-Fed Arb continues to offer ‘free-money’ (and usage of the BTFP has risen by $32BN since the arb existed), but the spread has narrowed a smidge from a peak near 60bps to 50bps today…

Source: Bloomberg

Which will make it hard for The Fed to defend leaving the facility open after March when its “temporary” nature is supposed to expire.

“In justifying the generous terms of the original program, the Fed cited the ‘unusual and exigent’ market conditions facing the banking industry following last spring’s deposit runs,” Wrightson ICAP economist Lou Crandall wrote in a note to clients.

“It would be difficult to defend a renewal in today’s more normal environment.”

Which makes us wonder, just WTF will the regional banks do to cover the $140BN-plus hole in their balance sheets that they are currently filling…

Source: Bloomberg

And what exactly does that mean for regional bank stocks which appear to exist in a world of their own for now.

end

The world should pay more attention to this than the stupid made up jobs report

Services are 70% of the GDP

(zerohedge)

ISM Services Plunged In November, Employment Crashed

FRIDAY, JAN 05, 2024 – 10:09 AM

Despite yesterday’s Services PMI acceleration (as opposed to Manufacturing PMI’s declines), analysts expected this morning’s ISM Services survey print for December to slide lower (trending the same direction as the weakness in ‘hard’ data). Instead it tumbled from 52.7 to 50.6 (52.5 exp) – the lowest since May 2023…

Source: Bloomberg

“The services sector had a pullback in the rate of growth in December, attributed to the decrease in the rate of growth for new orders and contraction in employment,” said Anthony Nieves, CPSM, C.P.M., A.P.P., CFPM, Chair of the Institute for Supply Management® (ISM®) Services Business Survey Committee.

Prices slowed modestly (good news), but new orders dropped (still in expansion though), while employment crashed into the deepest contraction since the COVID lockdowns…

Source: Bloomberg

“Respondents’ comments vary by both company and industry. There are concerns related to economic uncertainty, geopolitical events and labor constraints,” Neieves added.

Is bad news, good news for stocks? Is this terrible ‘soft’ data bad enough to offset the ‘good’ headline data from payrolls?

END

Looks like another phony

(zerohedge)

US Factory Orders Surged In November – Biggest Jump Since Jan 2021, But…

FRIDAY, JAN 05, 2024 – 10:16 AM

After plunging in October, US Manufacturers New Orders were expected to rebound significantly in November as the noisiest time series in America continues to flip-flop (despite US Manufacturing surveys going in only one direction – lower). Sure enough, Factory Orders rose 2.6% MoM (+2.4% exp) and October’s 3.6% decline was revised modestly hiugher to a 3.4% MoM decline. The 2.6% MoM jump is the biggest since January 2021 and dragged orders up 3.1% YoY…

Source: Bloomberg

Core factory orders rose just 0.1% MoM (leaving core orders down 0.8% YoY)…

Source: Bloomberg

So manufacturing orders surged as manufacturers survey data continues to suggest anything but strength…

Source: Bloomberg

WTF is going on here?

III USA ECONOMIC COMMENTARIES

Renters Rejoice? US Apartment Supply Hits Highest Level In Four Decades

FRIDAY, JAN 05, 2024 – 01:05 PM

There is some encouraging news for the millions of Americans forced onto the sidelines by the worst housing affordability crisis in a generation and stuck in expensive apartments: The supply of apartments in the US has reached its highest levels in nearly forty years and is anticipated to expand even more this year. This increase may provide renters with greater bargaining power when renegotiating their leases.

“US apartment supply in 2023 surged to the highest levels since 1987, with more than 439,000 units completing. Even more will complete in 2024,” Jay Parsons, chief economist at RealPage, wrote in a post on social media platform X. He continued:

That means renters suddenly have a lot more options, and in turn, rent growth has evaporated.

The upside is that apartment demand rebounded strongly in 2023 following a sluggish 2022, but not enough to keep pace with the 36-year high in supply.

Not ironically, this wave of supply is resulting from construction starts that began back when rent growth and occupancy rates were at/near record highs. Those projects are delivering into a very different environment in 2023-24, and consequently, starts have plunged. Supply will drop way off in 2025-26.

The good news:

Remember: It’s all about supply. Rents fell in 2023 across 40% of US metro areas – and nearly all of them (primarily in the Sun Belt, Mountains or West Coast) saw significant new supply entering the market. By comparison, nearly one-third of US metro areas (almost all in the Midwest or Northeast) produced rent growth of 3% or more in 2023, and nearly all of them had little supply to work through.

And more supply is coming:

In all likelihood, 2024 will bring another year of more supply than demand – adding another challenge for apartment investors also confronting higher expenses and elevated debt costs. The outlook should substantially improve in 2025-26, barring a collapse in the economy, given the certainty of far less supply.

The good news is more supply will lead to further rent declines.

The bad news is that lower rents will pressure multi-family owners amid a commercial real estate downturn already hammering offices.

END

US Bankruptcies Jump 18% In 2023 Amid High Interest Rates

FRIDAY, JAN 05, 2024 – 02:45 PM

Authored by Naveen Athrappully via The Epoch Times,

Overall bankruptcies in the United States jumped by almost a fifth in 2023 as both businesses and households struggled with high-interest rates and the end of pandemic stimulus.

Total U.S. bankruptcy filings rose by 18 percent to 445,186 last year, up from 378,390 filings in 2022, according to data from Epiq AACER, a provider of U.S. bankruptcy filing data. This includes both commercial and personal bankruptcy filings until the month of November. “As anticipated, we saw new filings in 2023 increase momentum over 2022 with a significant number of commercial filers leading the expected increase and normalization back to pre-pandemic bankruptcy volumes,” said Michael Hunter, vice president of Epiq AACER.

“We expect the increase in number of consumer and commercial filers seeking bankruptcy protection to continue in 2024 given the runoff of pandemic stimulus, increased cost of funds, higher interest rates, rising delinquency rates, and near historic levels of household debt.”

Overall commercial filings grew to 25,627 last year from the 21,479 registered in the previous year, an increase of 19 percent.

Commercial Chapter 11 filings rose from 3,819 to 6,569, an increase of 72 percent. Chapter 11 bankruptcy filings are made by companies to restructure debt and allow the businesses to retain assets while drafting a plan to pay back what they owe.

Personal bankruptcy filings rose 18 percent to 419,559 in 2023, with Chapter 13 filings increasing by 18 percent and Chapter 7 by 17 percent.

Chapter 13 is used by individuals to restructure their debts. A big benefit of Chapter 13 filing is that the individual’s home will not be at risk of foreclosure when the proceedings are underway. They can repay some debts in full and others in part. To qualify, the individual has to meet certain debt threshold conditions and must have regular income.

Chapter 7 allows filers to be exempt from certain debts while giving up some of their assets. Only individuals with incomes below their state’s median income can qualify.

Commenting on the higher bankruptcy filings, Amy Quackenboss, executive director of the American Bankruptcy Institute (ABI) said that “as interest rates remain elevated, increasing geopolitical tensions weigh on global supply chains and debt loads continue to grow, struggling businesses and families can turn to the proven process of bankruptcy for a financial fresh start.”

Loan interest rates for businesses and households have risen over the past two years due to the U.S. Federal Reserve’s rapid rate hikes. In late December 2021, the federal funds rate was around 0.7 percent, which has now grown to 5.33 percent.

Rising Bankruptcies

According to a report by S&P Global Market Intelligence, there were 591 corporate bankruptcy filings in 2023 until November, which is the highest for this period since 2020 and the second highest since 2010.

S&P’s bankruptcy tracker covers two types of businesses: (a) public or private firms with public debt who have assets and liabilities greater than or equal to $2 million at the time of bankruptcy, and (b) private companies with assets and liabilities greater than or equal to $10 million at the time of bankruptcy.

The consumer discretionary sector saw the most number of bankruptcy filings at 76, followed closely by industrials and health care at 75 each, financial at 34, and consumer staples at 23.

“The end of ultra-low interest rates that started in 2008, ushered in a resurgence of bankruptcy filings” but the trend could normalize going forward, Art Hogan, chief market strategist at B. Riley Wealth said in an interview with Reuters.

Amid a high-interest rate environment, companies are struggling to repay debts that are currently maturing.

“Retail will be a particularly hot sector next year [for bankruptcies]. … There are plenty of retailers that saw a boom in profit during the pandemic that have since dried up,” said Catherine Corey, global head of restructuring data at Debtwire.

In an interview with Business Insider in late November, Collin Martin, Charles Schwab director and fixed income strategist, estimated that borrowing costs for some businesses doubled or even almost tripled last year compared to the previous years. This has put financial pressure on firms.

“When corporations are managing their balance sheets and looking to issue or refinance debt, they have to issue debt with significantly higher yields than what they’ve seen over the past number of years, and that’s just a big hit to their earnings. It’s more interest they have to pay, which can affect their corporate profits in an environment where revenues are already slower,” he said.

As to personal bankruptcies, many Americans are now not in a good financial condition. According to data from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, household debt hit a record $17.29 trillion in the third quarter of 2023.

While debt is high, the personal savings rate is at a low level. Data from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis shows that the savings rate in November was 4.1 percent, lower than the pre-pandemic rate of 6.4 percent in December 2019.

It is also far lower than the very high savings rate seen during the pandemic—32 percent in April 2020 and 26.1 percent in March 2021.

IIIB USA COMMENTARIES RE ISRAEL/HAMAS WAR/ and PERVASIVE ANTISEMITISM/WOKISM

McDonald’s CEO Says Global Boycott Fueled By “Misinformation” Has Caused “Meaningful Business Impact”

THURSDAY, JAN 04, 2024 – 03:45 PM

Some Western brands in countries where pro-Palestinian sentiment has been traditionally strong have been battered with boycotts as consumers turn to local alternatives following Israel’s large-scale invasion of the Gaza Strip in late October.

McDonald’s locations across the Middle East have been hit the hardest with boycotts since McDonald’s Israel on X said it would give out 100,000 free meals.

That’s the moment when boycotts hit McDonald’s operators across the Middle East.

Bloomberg data in late October into early November shows the number of news headlines featuring “Boycott McDonald’s” surged after the McDonald’s Israel’s X post and the IDF’s subsequent invasion of Gaza on Oct. 27.

“Boycott McDonalds. Let them feel the hurt,” said one X user who responded to McDonald’s Israel post in October.

Cairo resident Reham Hamed, who boycotted McDonald’s, told Reuters in November:

“I feel that even if I know this will not have a massive impact on the war, then this is the least we can do as citizens of different nations so we don’t feel like our hands are covered in blood.”

Following the controversial McDonald’s Israel X post, franchise groups in Kuwait, Pakistan, and other Middle East countries issued statements stating they disagreed with their Israeli counterparts.

Folks are still boycotting the fast-food chain.

Fast forward to Thursday morning. McDonald’s CEO Chris Kempczinski wrote a LinkedIn post explaining that the Middle East boycotts have had a “meaningful business impact.” He said the boycotts were “due to the war and associated misinformation.”

I also recognize that several markets in the Middle East and some outside the region are experiencing a meaningful business impact due to the war and associated misinformation that is affecting brands like McDonald’s. This is disheartening and ill-founded. In every country where we operate, including in Muslim countries, McDonald’s is proudly represented by local owner operators who work tirelessly to serve and support their communities while employing thousands of their fellow citizens. That local community connection is the genius of the McDonald’s System.

Bloomberg noted franchises operate the majority of McDonald’s restaurants around the world. The company generates about 10% of its revenues from the Middle East.

It’s not just McDonald’s. Reuters said other Western brands, such as Starbucks and KFC, have been boycotted.

END

FREIGHT ISSUES/USA

END

VICTOR DAVIS HANSON

end

USA// COVID//VACCINE

end

SWAMP STORIES

Justice Department Sues Texas Over New Law Cracking Down On Illegal Immigrants

THURSDAY, JAN 04, 2024 – 06:40 PM

Authored by Katabella Roberts via The Epoch Times,

The Department of Justice (DOJ) has filed a lawsuit against Texas over a new state law aimed at increasing security at the southern border by granting police broader powers to arrest, prosecute, and deport immigrants who illegally cross the U.S.-Mexico border.

The DOJ filed the lawsuit against Senate Bill 4 (SB 4) in an Austin federal court on Jan. 3 on behalf of the United States federal government, including the Department of Homeland Security, and the Department of State.

It lists Gov. Greg Abbott and Texas Department of Public Safety Director Steve McCraw as defendants.

Plaintiffs argue SB 4 is preempted by federal law and thus violates the Supremacy Clause of the United States Constitution and the Foreign Commerce Clause.

The legislation at the center of the lawsuit was introduced by Republican state Sen. Charles Perry and sponsored in the House by Republican state Rep. David Spiller in November.

It was passed by the Republican-controlled Texas legislature that same month and signed into law by Mr. Abbott in December.

The measure makes it a state misdemeanor to illegally cross or attempt to cross into Texas from Mexico at any location other than a lawful port of entry.

It also allows state and local law enforcement officials to arrest suspected illegal immigrants, take their fingerprints, and conduct a background check.

According to the legislation, judges would be granted the option to order some illegal immigrants to return to the country from which they illegally entered the United States, in lieu of prosecution, but only after all identifying information is obtained and cross-referenced with local, state, and federal criminal databases.

However, the misdemeanor charge would be raised to a felony charge if the illegal immigrant has previously been convicted of two or more misdemeanors involving drugs, crimes against a person, or both or if the individual refuses to comply with the judge’s order to return to leave the United States.

‘Clearly Unconstitutional’

The maximum penalty for a misdemeanor charge is one year in prison while for a felony, the penalty is two to 20 years in prison.

Republicans have argued that the measure, which is scheduled to take effect on March 5, is needed amid what they say is mishandling by the Biden administration of the ongoing immigration crisis. U.S. Customs and Border Protection data shows that agents encountered a record-setting 2.48 million illegal immigrants at the southern border in fiscal year 2023.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) estimated in its December 2023 report that the number of non-detained illegal immigrants inside the United States has now exceeded 6 million.

A Texas National Guard soldier directs migrants during a dust storm at a makeshift camp located between the Rio Grande and the U.S.–Mexico border fence in El Paso, Texas, on May 10, 2023. (John Moore/Getty Images)

In their lawsuit, the DOJ urges the court to declare SB 4 unconstitutional and prevent Texas from implementing it, arguing that immigration laws can only be enforced by the federal government, not states.

“SB 4 is clearly unconstitutional,” said Associate Attorney General Vanita Gupta in a statement announcing the lawsuit.

“Under the Supremacy Clause of the Constitution and long-standing Supreme Court precedent, states cannot adopt immigration laws that interfere with the framework enacted by Congress. The Justice Department will continue to fulfill its responsibility to uphold the Constitution and enforce federal law.”

The DOJ noted that the Supreme Court, in Arizona v. United States, previously confirmed that decisions relating to the removal of noncitizens from the United States touch “on foreign relations and must be made with one voice.”

The Department argued that SB 4 impedes the federal government’s ability to enforce entry and removal provisions of federal law and interferes with its conduct of foreign relations.

Associate Attorney General Vanita Gupta speaks at a press conference at the Department of Justice in Washington on Dec. 6, 2021. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

‘Prepared to Fight Lawsuit’

SB 4 includes some exceptions, including that law enforcement officials may not arrest immigrants who entered the United States illegally if the individual is on the premises or grounds of a public or private primary or secondary school for educational purposes; in a church, synagogue, or other established place of religious worship; or in a health care facility.

It also states that suspects can provide evidence that they are in the country legally during the prosecution.

The DOJ’s lawsuit comes after Civil Rights groups including the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the ACLU of Texas, and the Texas Civil Rights Project filed a lawsuit against SB4 in December, claiming it is preempted by federal law and infringes upon the federal government’s authority under the U.S. Constitution to enforce immigration laws.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott speaks during a news conference in Austin, Texas, on March 15, 2023. (Brandon Bell/Getty Images)

Mr. Abbott responded to the DOJ’s lawsuit on X on Wednesday evening. “Biden sued me today because I signed a law making it illegal for an illegal immigrant to enter or attempt to enter Texas directly from a foreign nation. I like my chances. Texas is the only government in America trying to stop illegal immigration,” he wrote.

“The Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives says that I and the state of Texas have the ‘constitutional authority’ to secure [the] border. Remember, it is Congress, not the President, that has the Constitutional power to regulate immigration,” he added.

He said in previous comments that SB 4 was needed to “help stop the tidal wave of illegal entry into Texas” and that President Biden’s “deliberate inaction has left Texas to fend for itself.”

Texas builds its own border wall in its effort to secure the border. (Courtesy Office of Greg Abbott)

In recent years, Texas has spent more than $4 billion a year on efforts to curb illegal immigration at the border, including deploying $11 million in rolls of concertina wire to reinforce portions of the Texas-Mexico border and constructing steel border structures. The Abbott administration has also bused tens of thousands of migrants to sanctuary cities across the country, including Washington, D.C., New York City, Chicago, and Los Angeles. In prior years, Texas spent about $400 million on border security and immigration, Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick previously said.

In a post on X on Wednesday evening, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said the measure was created to “address the endless stream of illegal immigration facilitated by the Biden administration.”

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton speaks at the “Save America” rally in Robstown, Texas, on Oct. 22, 2022. (Brandon Bell/Getty Images)

“Millions of unvetted foreign aliens have been released into Texas due to President Biden’s policies of dismantling border security at the US-Mexico border, collaborating with cartels, and inviting violent criminals and drug traffickers to enter the country,” Mr. Paxton said.

“Just as I am prepared to fight the lawsuit brought by the extremist ACLU and the nonprofits enriching themselves due to the federal government’s open borders doctrine, I am prepared to fight the Biden Administration whose immigration disaster is leading our country to ruin,” he continued.

“Texas has the sovereign right to protect our state.”

END

Insanity!!

“The Narrative Is Insane” – Trump Org Refutes House Democrat Report On Trump’s Finances

BY TYLER DURDEN

FRIDAY, JAN 05, 2024 – 12:45 PM

Authored by Samantha Flom and Janice Hisle via The Epoch Times,

The Trump Organization denied on Jan. 4 that former President Donald Trump improperly profited from his presidency, describing House Democrats’ claims to the contrary as “insane.”

A new report published by the Democrats on the House Oversight Committee asserts that the 45th president’s businesses took in at least an estimated $7.8 million from 20 foreign governments—including those of China, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and others—during his term, in violation of the Constitution.

The outlined payments mostly included spending on rent at Trump Tower and Trump World Tower—both in New York—and on stays at the Trump International Hotels in Washington and Las Vegas.

The report also alleges that President Trump allowed those payments to influence his foreign policy moves, citing his decision not to sanction the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC)—which leases office space in Trump Tower—as an example.

But Kimberly Benza, a Trump Organization spokesperson, told The Epoch Times via email that such claims were ridiculous.

“That narrative is insane, especially given there is no President in United States history who was tougher on China than Donald Trump… a President who introduced billions and billions of dollars’ worth of tariffs on their goods and services,” she said.

Ms. Benza stressed that ICBC – which accounted for roughly $5.4 million of the payments detailed in the report – had been a preexisting, long-term tenant at Trump Tower since 2008 – “almost a decade before President Trump entered office.”

As for the remaining funds, Ms. Benza noted that the Trump Organization does not have the “ability or viability” to prevent individuals from making reservations through third-party booking websites.

Nonetheless, she said the company voluntarily implemented a program to track payments from foreign governments, which the company donated to the U.S. Treasury Department annually.

Department records confirm that the company donated $151,470 in 2018, $191,538 in 2019, $105,465 in 2020, and $10,577 in 2021, bringing the total to $459,050.

Eric Trump, the former president’s son and the executive vice president of his company, noted that information has been publicly available for years.

“I would tweet a picture of the checks that I sent every single year,” he told The Epoch Times. But some mainstream media outlets—and the Democrats’ report—failed to note that fact.

He also pointed out that, while his father disconnected himself from the family’s business when he became president, the opposite was true of Hunter Biden. The first son, Mr. Trump said, got into foreign business dealings when his father became vice president.

“We’ve been in the hotel industry for more than 40 years.”

Dueling Investigations

The Democrats’ report follows their multiyear investigation into whether President Trump violated the emoluments clause of the Constitution.

The clause, found under Article I, Section 9, prohibits any person holding “any office of profit or trust” under the United States from accepting any “present, emolument, office, or title, of any kind whatever” from a foreign leader or state without the consent of Congress.

The investigation sparked a court battle over President Trump’s financial records, which the lawmakers subpoenaed in 2019. The 2022 settlement that ended the dispute required Mazars USA, the Trump Organization’s long-time accounting firm, to turn over certain documents to the House Oversight Committee, which was then under Democrat leadership.

But when Republicans took control of the House last year, they stopped pursuing those records, focusing their investigative efforts on the Biden family’s foreign business dealings.

The Democrats’ report points to that move as the reason for its lack of a “more comprehensive account” of all the foreign emoluments they believe President Trump to have accepted.

“We still don’t know the extent of the foreign payments that Donald Trump received—or even the total number of countries that paid him and his businesses while he was President—because Committee Chairman James Comer and House Republicans buried any further evidence of the Trump family’s staggering corruption,” Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), the top Oversight Democrat, charged in a Jan. 4 statement.

“Despite these efforts, today’s report makes clear that former President Trump put lining his pockets with cash from foreign governments seeking policy favors over the interests of the American people.”

‘Desperate to Save Face’

The former president’s staff and advisers see the report differently.

For Ms. Benza, it’s confirmation that House Democrats are “desperate to save face” amid Republicans’ ongoing investigations of President Joe Biden and his family members.

“There is a large difference between someone who leases commercial office space to a foreign company a decade ago … versus the son and family members of the Vice President extracting money from China, Ukraine, and Romania and others while providing no apparent or tangible goods and services,” she said.

“It would be dishonest to not clearly distinguish between the two.”

That view was echoed by Jason Meister, a member of President Trump’s campaign advisory panel in New York, who told The Epoch Times that there is no valid comparison between President Biden’s family finances and the Trump family’s businesses.

“Democrats desperately want you to believe that diplomats in D.C. reserving hotel rooms or buying candied bacon at the Trump Hotel over four years is the same thing as Joe Biden converting his son into a bag man, to collect and then split with him the millions in graft he took from all around the world,” Mr. Meister said.

He added, on a humorous note, “That bacon is really good by the way! I don’t blame the diplomats.”

Mr. Meister said that, in his opinion, “Joe Biden is handily the most corrupt human being to ever occupy the Oval Office. The Biden family peddled influence in exchange for bribes.”

President Biden, for his part, has maintained that he had no knowledge of or involvement in his family members’ business affairs.

House Republicans are currently conducting an impeachment inquiry into the matter.

THE KING REPORT

The King Report Fanuary 5, 2024 Issue 7153

Independent View of the News

Negative aspects of previous session
After a robust morning rally, US stocks and ESHs declined sharply.
The S&P 500 Index closed below its triple bottom near 4694 and trigger a BBG Trender sell signal
Nasdaq closed negative for a 5^th straight day, its longest losing streak since October 2022.
The S&P 500 Index negative for the 4^th straight day.
Bonds declined sharply.

Ambiguous aspects of previous session
Did someone discover that there will be no rate cut in March?

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]: 4701.00
Previous session S&P 500 Index High/Low: 4726.78; 4687.53

The US said North Korea recently provided Russia with ballistic missiles and launchers, some of which Russia has fired into Ukraine
https://reut.rs/3S6Y3D9

@zerohedge: “Just the third time in its history that the Nasdaq has started the year with back to back 1%+ declines. Other two years were 1980 and 2005.” – Goldman

Fed Balance Sheet: -$31.757B, Treasuries: -$37.217B; Reserves at Fed: -$183.564B (No wonder stocks & bonds are falling!) https://www.federalreserve.gov/releases/h41/current/default.htm

@Geiger_Capital: BTFP new record high! $141.2B… Banks are now making money by borrowing from the Fed’s newest bailout facility (BTFP), which charges a lower rate, and then just parking that money into another spot at the Fed, which pays higher interest. Arbitraging the Fed itself. No risk. Absolute clown show. (Latter post from 12/22/223)
https://twitter.com/Geiger_Capital/status/1738213920005865751

S&P 500 Index with 3-day EMA and 10-day EMA

Today – The December Employment Report could impact pre and post NYSE open trading. A soft NFP will provoke a transitory rally. A strong NFP should induce spirited selling. Thereafter is a crapshoot.

Traders will play for the Friday rally, emboldened by the perception that stocks are oversold on a short-term basis. A wicked short-term rally could appear at any instance. However, stocks have experienced significant technical damage. It will take considerable time and movement to repair the technical damage.

Remember: Bulls want a soft NFP; Team Big Guy wants a stronger-than-reality NFP

ESHs are +5.50; USHs are -3/32; and Feb AU is +1.60 at 20:02 ET.

Expected economic data: Dec NFP 171k, Mfg. 5k, Rate 3.8%, Earnings 0.3% m/m & 3.9% y/y, Workweek 34.4, Labor Force Participation Rate 62.8%; Nov Factory Orders 2.3% m/m; Nov Durable Goods Orders 5.4% m/m; Dec ISM Services Index 52.5; Richmond Fed Pres Barkin 13:30 ET

S&P Index 50-day MA: 4531; 100-day MA: 4456; 150-day MA: 4450; 200-day MA: 4365
DJIA 50-day MA: 35,554; 100-day MA: 34,844; 150-day MA: 34,730; 200-day MA: 34,380
(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 4026.83 triggers a sell signal
Weekly: Trender and MACD are positive – a close below 4482.88 triggers a sell signal
Daily: Trender and MACD are negative – a close above 4793.80 triggers a buy signal
Hourly: Trender and MACD are negative – a close above 4729.58 triggers a buy signal

Biden is abandoning Israel
America is distancing itself from the IDF’s military action, even as their hostages remain in peril
    Barak Ravid reported, “Two US officials told Axios [that] Israel was behind Tuesday’s strike but stressed it didn’t notify the Biden administration in advance of the attack.” Joseph Haboush, Washington Correspondent for the leading Arab news site Al Arabiya reported that “US officials were not given prior notice by Israel about its operation to take out Hamas official Saleh al-Arouri in Beirut, but they cautioned against concluding that the assassination would further escalate tensions between Lebanon and Israel.”   Richard Goldberg, a senior advisor for the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies (FDD) fumed on X that “Israel just killed one of the major architects of October 7. The White House response is a rush to deny any involvement and leak that it advised against such a strike. What a terrible look. No one suspects the US carried it out, but most shocked to learn of disapproval.”…
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/us/comment/2024/01/03/joe-biden-israel-netanyahu-gaza-hamas-aid/

Trump holds private meeting with top union (Teamsters) boss, vexing liberals
https://t.co/sCvDuY7GvQ

GOP Rep. @Jim_Jordan: We’re on track to see 12,000,000 illegal aliens during President Biden’s first term. That’s more than the population of Ohio.

“The System Is Not Going to Let Trump Win” – Dems’ Real Puppet Isn’t Gavin, It’s Nikki: Tucker and Vivek – Tucker starts by pointing out the dilemma Democratic megadonors face with Joe Biden’s declining popularity and Kamala Harris’s unpopularity, suggesting that these donors might be attempting to subvert the Republican Party by backing a candidate like Nikki Haley.
    “Strip away all the outward characteristics, and Nikki Haley is identical in her priorities to Joe Biden and the people who back Joe Biden,” Carlson said…
    Tech entrepreneur Ramaswamy then weighed in on Tucker’s claims, concurring… “I think the true puppet masters, the thing about them, is they’re fundamentally nonpartisan in nature,” the businessman said.
    “There are a few things they care about: Keeping the foreign war machine humming is high on the list. Keeping the administrative state’s control of the United States is also high on the list. They found a much more convenient puppet within the Republican Party itself.” “They have their core objectives, and Nikki makes for a far better Trojan horse to actually accomplish that objective than anybody else.”…
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/system-not-going-let-trump-win-dems-real-puppet-isnt-gavin-its-nikki-tucker-and-vivek

@FoxNews: Pro-Trump group hits Haley over past comments declaring people shouldn’t call illegal immigrants ‘criminals’

DeSantis campaign accuses Haley of ‘insulting’ Iowans by saying NH will ‘correct’ caucus results
Campaigning in Milford, New Hampshire, on Wednesday, Haley told the large crowd listening to her that “we have an opportunity to get this right. And I know we’ll get it right, and I trust you. I trust every single one of you. You know how to do this. You know Iowa starts it. You know that you correct it.“…
     But another popular GOP governor, Kim Reynolds of Iowa, didn’t seem to care for Haley’s remark.
Reynolds, who endorsed DeSantis in November, took to social media soon after Haley’s comment grabbed attention to write, “I trust Iowans to make their own decisions. No ‘corrections’ needed!”…
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/desantis-campaign-accuses-haley-insulting-iowans-saying-nh-will-correct-caucus-results

Biden drops campaign ad warning of ‘extremist movement’ against democracy
The Biden campaign released a one-minute campaign ad on Wednesday warning of an “extremist movement” working against American democracy and featuring images of the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol Riot…
https://justthenews.com/politics-policy/biden-drops-campaign-ad-warning-extremist-movement-against-democracy

Now that the dolts running The Big Guy have accepted the fact that ‘Bidenomics’ is a loser, they have pivoted to ‘saving democracy,’ the Dem default position when running on issues is futile.

@EndWokeness: Kamala Harris defining equity: “It means everyone ends up in the same place.” Equity is identity-based Marxism and is one of the most dangerous political ideologies facing the US today.
https://twitter.com/EndWokeness/status/1742807733420577034

Dallas Maverick owner Mark Cuban chastised Elon Mush over DEI: “The loss of DEI-Phobic companies is my gain… Having a workforce that is diverse and representative of your stakeholders is good for business…”  Musk: “Cool, so when should we expect to see a short white/Asian women on the Mavs?”
https://twitter.com/CollinRugg/status/1742996668944118243

@realchrisrufo: Mark Cuban needs to think beyond euphemisms. His support of DEI is like hearing about “re-education camps” and thinking: “Great idea. I support education and I love camping.” Read your Orwell, @mcuban.

@TheBabylonBee: Liberals Warn Harvard President Ouster Could Lead to Terrifying World Where People Are Held Responsible for Their Own Actions
https://buff.ly/48kBe4I

@charliekirk11: Iowa school shooter at Perry High School confirmed by police to be student Dylan Butler, tied to ‘genderfluid’ and ‘transitioning’ social media posts. Was this student on Benzos? Cross-sex hormones? We deserve to know. (Another mass shooter with issues! Butler reportedly shot himself.)

@CBSNews: Law enforcement responding to the deadly shooting at Perry High School in Iowa uncovered an “improvised explosive device,” which officials then rendered safe before securing the school, the sheriff said.

@Techno_Fog: More Jeffrey Epstein files have been unsealed… More on Bill Clinton – and his threats to a publisher to protect Epstein (and thus himself). “B. Clinton walked into [Vanity Fair] and threatened them not to write sex-trafficking articles about his good friend” Jeffrey Epstein.
https://twitter.com/Techno_Fog/status/1743055858605461600

@alx: “Epstein also trafficked Jane Doe #3 for sexual purposes to many other powerful men, including numerous prominent American politicians, powerful business executives, foreign presidents, a well-known Prime Minister, and other world leaders. Epstein required Jane Doe #3 to describe the events that she had with these men so that he could potentially blackmail them.”
https://twitter.com/alx/status/1743072303729029531

Pritzker family under fire as members are key players in Harvard, Epstein scandals
https://trib.al/bQQrsH6

@JackPosobiec: In 2005, Jeffrey Epstein was under an 11-month FBI investigation. 40 underage girls alleged Epstein assaulted them.  After Epstein gave information to the FBI, federal charges were dropped. Who was head of the FBI then? Robert Mueller

GREG HUNTER

War, Dem Division, Vote Fraud, Tanking Economy and CV19 Kill Shots

War, Dem Division, Vote Fraud, Tanking Economy and CV19 Kill Shots

By Greg Hunter On January 5, 2024 In Weekly News Wrap-Ups6 Comments

By Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com (WNW 615 1.5.24)

We start 2024 the same way we ended it–with five unstoppable trends. War on all fronts are increasing. From the Middle East to China, big trouble is brewing with no way to divert all-out war.

The Democrats continue to be deeply divided, and one big wedge issue is mass illegal immigration. Black voters are taking the brunt of this abuse, and many vow to vote Republican, and that means Trump 2024.

A big case was won by “True the Vote” (TTV) that shows you can question vote fraud that makes for a crooked election. In this case, Georgia, where the Biden DOJ sued because of revelations uncovered about voter fraud. They wanted to suppress this. TTV uncovered how the 2020 election was full of votes that should not have been counted. The left framed the investigation as some sort of voter suppression, but the only thing that was suppressed was the truth about a stolen election. One of the many frauds in Georgia was 67,000 votes came from ineligible voters in an election decided by less than 12,000 votes. Meanwhile, President Trump released his summary of election fraud in the five battleground states he lost after being way ahead on election night. It’s stunning proof of fraud.

The economy is breaking, and this year got off to a terrible start. More than 400 companies are planning on laying off workers, interest rates are not going down and the USA has a record $34 trillion in debt to finance. We are headed into the Greatest Depression ever right alongside the greatest war ever, too.

Another week and more CV19 vax murders passed off as no big deal, but people are waking up. The latest wake-up call comes from Florida Surgeon General Dr. Joseph Ladapo. Dr. Ladapo is ordering the complete stoppage of CV19 mRNA vaccines in his state. Why may you ask? Dr. Ladapo says, “There is no clinical trial showing that it is a safe product for people.” Many doctors also say the CV19 shots did not help a single person, and the ingredients are “intentionally toxic.” The CV19 shots are intended to hurt and kill people. There is no longer any debate on this point.

There is much more in the 50-minute newscast.

Join Greg Hunter of USAWatchdog.com as he talks about these stories and more in the Weekly News Wrap-Up for 1.5.24.

(To Donate to USAWatchdog.com Click Here)

After the Wrap-Up:

War, Dem Division, Vote Fraud, Tanking Economy and CV19 Kill Shots

SEE YOU ON MONDAY

SHANGHAI GOLD (USD) FUTURES – QUOTES

GOLD: NUMBER OF NOTICES FILED FOR JAN/2023. CONTRACT: 82 NOTICES FOR 8200 OZ or 0.2550 TONNES

total notices so far: 2768 contracts for 276,800 oz (8.6096 tonnes)

FOR JANUARY:

SILVER NOTICES 10 NOTICE(S) FILED FOR 50,000 OZ/

total number of notices filed so far this month : 515 for 2,575,000 oz

Metals market riggers aren’t beaten yet, GATA chairman tells GoldSeek Radio

Endeavor Mining chief dismissed over $5.9 million ‘irregular payment’

Gold Set To Make History In 2024

Futures Slide, Yields Jump Above 4% As Jobs Report Looms

Sentiment turns sour as attention turns to US NFP, DXY bid with EUR lower; US ISM & Fed’s Barkin due – Newsquawk US Market Open

EUROPEAN TRADE

EQUITIES

FX

FIXED INCOME

COMMODITIES

GEOPOLITICS

CRYPTO

APAC TRADE

North Korea Fires Hundreds Of Artillery Rounds Toward South’s Border Islands

Protests By Angry Chinese Workers Surge To Most In 7 Years, Posing A Threat To Beijing’s Rule

Nationwide Workers’ Protests in 2023

Other Protests

‘They Have to Fight for Their Survival’

Mass Protests May End CCP’s Rule

China’s Shadow-Banking Giant Files For Bankruptcy

ECB Rate-Cut Odds Tumble As EU Inflation Re-Accelerates In December

Largest French Supermarket Chain Boycotts PepsiCo Due To “Unacceptable Price Increases”

Cabinet meeting turns into shouting match as politicians attack IDF – report

Several ministers expressed outrage that supporters of the Disengagement were being considered for an inquiry about October 7.

‘A despicable discussion’

Sirens sound in Ashkelon, Gaza border communities

IDF uncovers Hamas terror lab, more tunnels in Gaza’s high-rise district

YAHALOM forces destroyed terrorist observation posts, boobytrapped buildings, and underground tunnel shafts as part of the operation.

IDF finds chemical laboratory used for terror in Gaza

IDF hits over 100 Hamas targets as battles rage in Gaza; rocket hits Sderot building

Military destroys rocket launchers in Hamas stronghold of Khan Younis, pursues terror squad attempting to attack tank in central Gaza’s al-Bureij

IDF still operating in West Bank’s Nur Shams more than 30 hours after start of operation

Retired US general calls for ‘violent’ response to Iran over proxy attacks

Houthi leader: Any country involved in US-led Red Sea task force will be targeted

US Strike Kills Iran-Backed Leader In Baghdad Believed Behind Attacks On US Bases

Countering the South African claims of Israeli genocide

An analysis of the Israel-Hamas war by international strategic advisor Ayelet Frish.

Operational Updates:

GLOBAL VACCINE/COVID ISSUES

BBC can’t be trusted

Florida Surgeon General Warns Against Using mRNA COVID Vaccines Over Possible Cancer Risk

Ladapo, Florida’s surgeon General (Dr. Joe Ladapo) calls for halt on mRNA covid vaccines in humans! Dr. Joseph Ladapo called for at least a temporary end to the use of the most common type of COVID-19

vaccines; Surgeon General outlined concerns regarding nucleic acid contaminants in the approved Pfizer and Moderna COVID-19 mRNA vaccines, particularly in the presence of lipid nanoparticle complexes

LATEST REPORTS FOR NEWS JUNKIES

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

Global Markets Suffer Worse Start In Over 20 Years As ‘Soft’ Data Stalls, Financial Conditions Tighten

Jobs Shocker: December Payrolls Unexpectedly Surge As Unemployment Rate Slides, Wages Jump

Stocks, Bonds, & Bullion Dump As Rate-Cut Hopes Plunge Post-Payrolls

Inside The Catastrophic Jobs Report: Record 1.5 Million Crash In Full-Time Jobs, Multiple Jobholders Soar To Record, Native Born Workers Plunge And Much More

Bank Bailout Fund Usage Just Keeps Soaring, Money-Market Funds Biggest Inflow Since SVB Crisis

ISM Services Plunged In November, Employment Crashed

US Factory Orders Surged In November – Biggest Jump Since Jan 2021, But…

Renters Rejoice? US Apartment Supply Hits Highest Level In Four Decades

US Bankruptcies Jump 18% In 2023 Amid High Interest Rates

Rising Bankruptcies

McDonald’s CEO Says Global Boycott Fueled By “Misinformation” Has Caused “Meaningful Business Impact”

Justice Department Sues Texas Over New Law Cracking Down On Illegal Immigrants

‘Clearly Unconstitutional’

‘Prepared to Fight Lawsuit’

“The Narrative Is Insane” – Trump Org Refutes House Democrat Report On Trump’s Finances

Dueling Investigations

‘Desperate to Save Face’

War, Dem Division, Vote Fraud, Tanking Economy and CV19 Kill Shots

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