04Jun2021 Market Close: U.S. Rig Count Falls As Drillers Show Discipline, WTI Settles At 69.44, DOW Closes Up 179 Points, Nasdaq Up1.5%, Dogecoin Up Fractionally $0.38

Written by Gary

Labor shortage hits epic levels: record 48% of businesses can’t fill job openings (SPY +0.9%). May 2021 BLS Jobs Situation – Job gains good but on the low side of expectations.

The Market in Perspective

Here are the headlines moving the markets.
	WTI Nears $70 As Bulls Run Rampant Oil bulls are out in force as OPEC+ succeeds in draining global inventories while successful vaccine programs give hope that the end of the global pandemic may be in sight.Friday, May 28th, 2021WTI is testing the $70 threshold, and the oil bulls are out in full force this week.Oil Prices Poised For A Breakout As WTI Nears $70. Oil prices were rising early on Friday and headed to a second consecutive week of gains after the U.S. signaled that there may not be an imminent announcement of an agreement for the United States and Iran to
	Russia Claims Its Compliance With OPEC+ Cuts Was Almost 100% In May Russia was close to complying 100 percent with its oil production quota under the OPEC+ deal in May, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said on Friday. It will be better than in April. Close to 100%, Novak told reporters on the sidelines of an economic forum in Russia, as quoted by the TASS news agency. Russia, the key ally of Saudi Arabia in the OPEC+ oil production agreement, has regularly failed to comply with its quota under the deal. It was estimated to have achieved just a 91 percent compliance rate in April.
	Peak Oil Demand May Be Ten Years Away The world is past peak coal consumption and may reach peak oil consumption within the next ten years, Alexei Kudrin, the head of the Russian Accounts Chamber, told media this week. The official noted Russia will need to learn to rely less on oil export revenues over these next ten years. Otherwise, Kudrin added, this will become a serious problem in 20 years. Meanwhile, investments are necessary now to diversify the Russian economy away from oil, Kudrin said, noting steps being made in that direction, specifically in the digitalization of the economy
	U.S. Rig Count Falls As Drillers Show Discipline Baker Hughes reported on Friday that the number of oil and gas rigs in the United States fell this week, bringing the total rig count to 456still a more than 100-rig gain since the start of the year. In the week prior, the U.S. oil and gas rig count increased by 2. But the longer trend in rig count additions bodes well for the U.S. oil industry, as drillers pick up the pace but at least so far, displaying some level of trepidation in roaring back. U.S. drillers have added 105 rigs so far this year, more than half of which were added in Texas.
	Africas Oil Nations Push Against Global Drive To Shun Oil And Gas Africas largest oil producers do not plan to abandon oil and gas exploration and production and could consider creating a continent-wide bank to fund new projects when international banks refuse to finance new developments. Nigeria, an OPEC member and the largest oil producer in Africa, hosted this week a round table on local content in oil and gas projects, attended by Nigerias Oil Minister Timipre Sylva, the Secretary-General of the African Petroleum Producers Organization (APPO), Omar Ibrahim, and representatives of other
	Traders Rush To Ship Masked Venezuelan Crude To China Commodity traders are in a rush to ship as much Venezuelan heavy crude to China as possible before a new fuel tax kicks in, causing a 40-50-percent rise in prices, Reuters reports, citing industry insiders and shipping data. Over the last 12 months, China has seen a 13-fold increase in imports of bitumen blends, some 90 percent of which was actually heavy crude from Venezuela, according to data from cargo tracker Vortexa Analytics. The crude was labeled as Malaysian bitumen blend to avoid sanction action from the United States. According to Vortexa,
	The Pentagon wants to use private rockets like SpaceX’s Starship to deliver cargo around the world The U.S. military is expanding a development program that wants to leverage reusable rockets, like those of SpaceX, to deliver cargo anywhere in the world.
	Walmart joins Target in saying stores will be closed on Thanksgiving Day The discounter’s decision illustrates how the pandemic has permanently changed the retail industry.
	Quiet, deadly and expensive: The Navy’s costly plan to upgrade aging submarines Submarines remain the cornerstone of the Navy’s strategic plan to keep the seas safe, but cost overruns could slow down the pace of production.
	Avengers Campus is now open at Disneyland Resort ” take a look inside The Avengers Campus is now open and features a Spider-Man attraction, a dining center called Pym Test Kitchen, rides and a portal to Doctor Strange’s sanctum.
	A severe drought is gripping the Western U.S. as wildfire season begins Hot and arid conditions in the American West are set to exacerbate the threat of wildfires and water shortage issues this summer.
	Project to develop hydrogen-powered ferry moves forward after contract for design awarded Ferries are not the only mode of transportation where hydrogen fuel cells could have a role to play.
	United offers flight attendants, pilots extra pay for proof of Covid vaccination United Airlines’ flight attendants’ and pilots’ unions reached agreements to offer extra pay to members who provide proof of vaccination.
	Mudrick Capital no longer owns debt or equity in AMC, sources say Investment firm Mudrick Capital has exited both its debt and equity positions in AMC Entertainment, sources tell CNBC’s David Faber.
	AMC worth about half its skyrocketing stock price, says retail investor Trey Collins Trey Collins, the host of the Trey’s Trades YouTube channel, said the fundamental value of AMC shares will be $20 to $25 at the end of 2021.
	A TikTok tune is becoming Sally Beauty’s new anthem as it embraces vivid hair color to fuel growth The retailer’s new ad was inspired by a viral TikTok post by Heather Chelan that celebrates colored hair as a form of self-expression and authenticity.
	Mall favorite Fossil struggles in the era of the smartwatch Fossil Group was a shopping mall fixture ” with its leather belts, handbags, and of course, quartz watches sold in collectible tins. And now it is struggling
	Government confident India will have over 2 billion vaccine doses by December, minister says India has so far reported more than 28.5 million cases and over 340,000 deaths.
	AMC CEO Adam Aron urges shareholders to support plan to issue 25 million more shares Aron’s latest push to persuade investors to allow AMC to issue more stock comes after it failed to gain shareholder support to add 500 million shares.
	Dollar & Bond Yields Plunge To End Meme-orable Week Dollar & Bond Yields Plunge To End Meme-orable Week The headline grabber for the week was the return of the meme-stock-mania from January with Reddit Rebels sending heavily-shorted stonks “to the moon”. This was the biggest weekly gain since the last week of January for the Reddit shorts… Source: Bloomberg While GME sadly did nothing, the attention shifted to AMC and GTT this week… Source: Bloomberg Was this the vinegar strokes of the exuberance?
	Wall Street Banks Clamp Down On Hedge Fund Shorting Of Meme Stonks Wall Street Banks Clamp Down On Hedge Fund Shorting Of Meme Stonks Wall Street is sticking it to… the man? Following Wednesday’s decision by Jefferies’ Prime Brokerage to suspend short sales in meme stocks such as AMC, Gamestop and Microvision, other banks are following through with steps of their own, and as Bloomberg just reported that more of Wall Street’s top brokers are quietly tightening their rules for who can short the most-popular meme stocks which have soared in recent days. In addition to Jefferies, Bank of America and Citigroup are now also among firms that have adjusted their risk controls at prime-brokerage operations, Bloomberg reports citing people familiar with the moves. With memories of the massive Archegos losses still fresh, the banks are trying to protect themselves against fallout from extreme surges and dips that have characterized trading in the most prominent meme stonks. As a result, hedge funds and other institutional investors who wish to short the “memes” now face higher collateral requirements or are simply prohibited from shorting certain stocks. œUntil further notice, Jefferies Prime Brokerage will no longer offer custody on naked options in GameStop, AMC and MicroVision, the firm said in a memo to clients seen by Bloomberg News. Naked options allow investors to short a stock without owning the underlying securities. Jefferies, which told clients that other stocks may be added to the list, will also no longer permit short sales of those securities. According to Bloomberg, the decision may change the f …
	Labor Shortage Hits Epic Levels: Record 48% Of Businesses Can’t Fill Job Openings Labor Shortage Hits Epic Levels: Record 48% Of Businesses Can’t Fill Job Openings Joe Biden’s Universal Basic Income is making the unprecedented labor shortage and general chaos in the labor market worse by the day. Two months ago we first made a remarkable observation: despite some 100 million Americans not in the labor force (of which 94 million do not want a job)… … there is now a full-blown labor shortage in the US, for one simple reason – trillions in Biden stimulus are now incentivizing potential workers not to seek gainful employment, but to sit back and collect the next stimmy check for doing absolutely nothing in what is becoming the world’s greatest “under the radar” experiment in Universal Basic Income. Consider the following striking anecdotes : Early in the Covid-19 pandemic, Melissa Anderson …
	Traders Rush To Ship Masked Venezuelan Crude To China Traders Rush To Ship Masked Venezuelan Crude To China Authored by Charles Kennedy via OilPrice.com, Commodity traders are in a rush to ship as much Venezuelan heavy crude to China as possible before a new fuel tax kicks in, causing a 40-50-percent rise in prices, ReutersÂ reports, citing industry insiders and shipping data. Over the last 12 months, China has seen a 13-fold increase in imports of bitumen blends, some 90 percent of which was actually heavy crude from Venezuela, according to data from cargo tracker Vortexa Analytics. The crude was labeled as Malaysian bitumen blend to avoid sanction action from the United States. According to Vortexa, the average daily rate of Venezuelan oil imports into China over the past year was some 324,000 barrels, which represented about two-thir …
	Rich nations ‘millimetre away’ from tech tax deal Finance chiefs from the G7 are meeting in London, and the French finance minister said a minimum tax deal is very close
	Facebook suspends Trump accounts for two years Former US President Donald Trump called the platform’s decree “abuse” and “an insult” to his voters.
	Some Portugal passengers still plan to travel despite rule change Half of Tui passengers are going ahead with travel to Portugal, despite it being moved to the amber list.
	RBI Governor says it upfront: not ready to live with cryptos The statement comes just a few days after the central bank issued a circular that prohibits Indian banks from referring to its now-scrapped April 2018 circular cautioning customers for trading in cryptocurrency.
	Elon Musk good for Bitcoin even on down day: Binance.US CEO Bitcoin’s volatility has intensified in recent weeks in response to various social-media posts from the Tesla Inc. founder.
	RBI’s latest dip in the pool of liquidity! The central bank will conduct a Rs 40,000-crore GSAP purchase on June 17. This time, one-fourth of the quantum would involve state-government bond purchases.
	April 2021 Headline Manufacturing New Orders Declined Written by Steven Hansen US Census says manufacturing new orders declined month-over-month with unfilled orders again improving. Our analysis shows the rolling averages improved and remain in expansion.
	Market Extra: Shortages of chips and parts aren’t denting appeal of auto bonds Auto bonds are rallying, led by Ford Motor Co. and General Motors, even as some industry giants warn the worst fallout from supply-chain bottlenecks could still come.
	Deep Dive: We put AMC, GameStop and other meme stocks’ numbers to the test ” here’s which ones came out on top AMC, GameStop and Nokia are lumped together, but not all meme stocks are alike ” whether you are a day-trader or a long-term investor.
	Robert Powell: Rule No. 1 when searching for a financial adviser: Trust no one No amount of due diligence is excessive