14Jun2021 Market Close: U.S. Oil Prices Hit 32-Month High On Rising Global Demand, WTI Settles At 71.08, DOW Down 86 Points, Nasdaq Up 0.7%, US Dollar Remains Elevated 90.50

The UAE Is Poised To Become The Next Middle East Energy Giant

Saudi Arabia is synonymous with oil, the EU is obsessed with renewable energy, and the U.S. is the world’s leading natural gas producer, but there are few countries pursuing all three of these energy sources with as much vigor as the UAE. While much of the West, encouraged by the International Energy Agency (IEA) aim for net-zero, is shunning fossil fuels, energy demand continues to rise across the globe. Without sufficient renewable energy development to meet this demand, the UAE is acknowledging its position as a world leader in oil and gas,

The Biggest Threat To Europes Battery Boom

Europe has dozens of battery factories worth billions of dollars of investments that are planned to go online by the end of this decade. But weak carbon dioxide (CO2) emission rules for car sales across the European Union and the UK in the near term risk undermining what is shaping up to be a booming battery manufacturing industry in Europe, a clean transport campaign group has warned. While the EU has stronger car-emission rules for 2030 and beyond, it lacks similarly strong regulations for the next few yearsfor 2025-2027. This

The Renewable Energy Revolution Has A Major Employment Problem

Renewable energy is going gangbusters. The remarkable and unstoppable growth of green energy has been on the horizon for a long time now, with technologies like wind and solar becoming competitively cost-effective and even cheaper than some fossil fuels in most of the world, electric cars becoming more and more accessible and mainstream, and as more consumers become more concerned about their own personal carbon footprints role in the warming of the planet. While the global clean energy transition has been a long time

Perus Copper Industry At Risk As New Administration Takes The Wheel

Peru, the worlds second-largest copper-producing country, could see mining output decrease as socialist candidate Pedro Castillo emerges as the winner of the presidential elections, with 99.6% of the votes already counted. According to the latest update, at 06:21 am ET, Castillo had about 50.2% of the vote, holding a slim lead of roughly 60,300 votes (or 0.344%) over conservative rival Keiko Fujimori, who has yet to concede and has alleged fraud, despite the evidence. Taking a page from Donald Trumps book, Fujimori has asked the JNE

U.S. Oil Prices Hit 32-Month High On Rising Global Demand

Oil prices rose early on Monday, with the U.S. benchmark hitting a 32-month high and Brent rising above $73 per barrel as the market is growing increasingly bullish on demand while the return of Iranian oil looks more distant than initially thought. As of 10:06 a.m. EDT on Monday, WTI Crude prices were up by 1.14 percent at $71.72, after touching a 32-month high in earlier trading. Brent Crude was up by 1.06 percent, surpassing the $73 a barrel mark and trading at $73.46. Oil prices continued their move upward this week, after rising last week

Leak Reported At Chinese Nuclear Power Plant

A nuclear power plant in southeastern China could turn into an imminent radiological threat, the part owner of the facility, a French company, has told the United States, CNN reported on Monday, citing U.S. officials and a letter of the French firm it had obtained. The U.S. has been assessing the report of the fission gas leak over the past week, CNN reports, quoting the warning from the French firm that Chinas authorities had raised the limits of acceptable radiation levels at and around the plant to avoid a shutdown. The

Read SpaceX president Gwynne Shotwell’s speech to 2021 graduates, urging US educational reforms

SpaceX president Gwynne Shotwell returned to her alma mater on Monday and delivered Northwestern University’s commencement address to the class of 2021.

Apps are changing the shopping experience at The Vitamin Shoppe and Tractor Supply Co.

The Vitamin Shoppe and Tractor Supply Co. have made significant investments in digital technology with their mobile apps at the forefront.

WHO says Covid is spreading faster than the global distribution of vaccines

New variants that are more transmissible, such as Alpha and Delta, are driving increased transmission globally, WHO officials said Monday.

London’s most expensive penthouse offered in a whisper listing for $247 million

The nine-figure trophy flat, owned by London real estate developer Nick Candy, spans two floors at 9,000 square feet per level, with a total of five bedrooms.

Stocks making the biggest moves midday: Lordstown Motors, Oatly, Square and more

These are the stocks posting the largest moves in midday trading.

GE, Safran developing cleaner energy aircraft engines that could work with hybrid technology, hydrogen

General Electric’s aviation unit and joint venture partner Safran plan to develop new aircraft engines that would require more than 20% less fuel.

Christian Eriksen ‘in a good mood’ and ‘making jokes’ following cardiac arrest but wants answers from doctors, says agent

Christian Eriksen’s agent says the midfielder is “making jokes” in hospital but wants answers from doctors.

Airport screenings top 2 million a day for first time in pandemic

U.S. airport screenings topped 2 million people a day for the first time in the pandemic,

Novavax says its Covid vaccine is 90% effective, plans to submit data to FDA in third quarter

With an abundance of vaccines already available in the United States, it’s possible that the government would donate the Novavax doses to other countries.

How bad are global shipping snafus? Home Depot contracted its own container ship as a safeguard

The home improvement retailer is one of many companies facing supply chain challenges and trying to find creative solutions to keep merchandise in stock.

India’s ambitious vaccine targets alone will not help immunize its massive population

India set an ambitious target to manufacture more than 2 billion Covid-19 vaccines by December ” enough to inoculate most of its 1.3 billion population.

Big-Tech & Bitcoin Pumped As Banks, Bonds, & Bullion Dumped

Big-Tech & Bitcoin Pumped As Banks, Bonds, & Bullion Dumped

Big-tech was bid as soon as the cash market opened and both Small Caps (Russell 2000) and Big-Caps (Dow Industrials) were dumped with the S&P under water most of the day until the late day panic-bid hit as the gamma-meltup struck…

That’s a record close for the S&P and Nasdaq thanks to this utterly ridiculous meltup…

Illinois Gov Sends Reinforcements To Help Suppress Devastating Chemical Fire

Illinois Gov Sends Reinforcements To Help Suppress Devastating Chemical Fire

Update (1520ET): As the dangerous chemical fire at Berkshire-owned Chemtool plant in Rockton continued to burn Monday, Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker activated the State Emergency Operation Center to mobilize emergency response to monitor and suppress a large chemical fire in Winnebago County.

The Illinois Environmental Protection Agency and Illinois Emergency Management Agency have already dispatched crews to the area to assist local authorities. The Illinois State Emergency Operations Center in Springfield has also been activated, and members of the Illinois National Guard and mobile response vehicles have been dispatched to the area.

“I am monitoring this situation closely and will make all resources available to the surrounding communities as we work to keep people safe,” said Governor JB Pritzker. “Teams from multiple state agencies are on the ground and coordinating closely with local authorities and we will continue to make additional information available as soon we have it.”

According

The Coming ‘Build Back Better’ World

The Coming ‘Build Back Better’ World

By Michael Every of Rabobank

Double Or Nothing

There’s lots to cover today, but let’s start with inflation. Friday’s Michigan consumer sentiment survey saw the headline rise to 86.4 from 82.9 because expectations jumped from 78.8 to 83.8, while current conditions fell; and 1-year ahead inflation expectations dropped from 4.6% back to 4.0%, and five-year inflation from 3.0% to 2.8%, even as the ‘good time to buy a house or car’ sub-indices collapsed due to the inflation being seen in those areas. Perhaps everyone surveyed closely tracks the lumber market, where prices are tumbling; or they instinctively grasp high prices destroy demand; in which case, everything is œtransitory . Like anaesthetic-free dentistry?

Meanwhile, in China there was also major inflation news Friday. Bloomberg stated œChina Turns to Its Huge Commodity Reserves in Bid to Tame Prices , underlining Beijing will be using its stocks of commodities –soft to hard– to cap prices, starting with aluminium, coal, copper, and zinc. China has also stated it will set up a temporary pork reserve system to keep a lid on that key ‘P’ in CPI –along with corn, wheat, edible oil, and vegetables– allowing the state to stockpile whenever domestic prices fall œexcessively , and to sell when prices rise too high. In short, China is effectively trying to act as the global price setter of commodities to keep inflation in check.

Yet commodities are subject to global demand, and are priced in USD not CNY! Against a general reversal in global commodity prices, releasing Chines …

Quad-Witch Quandary: How Will Friday’s $2 Trillion Gamma Expiration Impact Markets

Quad-Witch Quandary: How Will Friday’s $2 Trillion Gamma Expiration Impact Markets

Last week, when discussing the bizarre summer doldrums in the market which pushed the VIX to the lowest level since the onset of the covid pandemic, we said that this period of abnormal market quiet is likely to last until this Friday’ quad-witch, when a massive amount of gamma and delta expire and are de-risked, in the process eliminating one of the natural downside stock buffers (see “4 Reasons Why The Market Doldrums End With Next Friday’s Op-Ex”).

So picking up on the topic of Friday’ potentially market-moving opex, Goldman’ in-house derivatives expert, Rocky Fishman, previews June’s upcoming expiration which he dubs as “large – comparable to a typical quarterly.” Specifically, there are $1.8 trillion of SPX options expiring on Friday, in addition to $240 billion of SPY options and $200 billion of options on SPX and SPX E-mini futures.

Delaying lockdown easing will have ‘critical impact’ on business

Plans to keep Covid rules in place for an extra month will hurt clubs and restaurants, say trade groups.

JD Sports chairman rejects criticism of £4.3m bonus

Peter Cowgill tells the BBC that the “lion’s share” of the pay award related to work done pre-January 2019.

Grenfell Tower: Survivor warns lives are still in danger

On the fourth anniversary of the Grenfell Tower fire, a former resident fears another disaster will happen.

Fed tiptoes towards the taper stage months before the curtain call

The risk of another “taper tantrum” – the market ruckus that erupted eight years ago when Fed policymakers first broached the notion of scaling back their bond-buying after the 2007-2008 financial crisis – appears remote this time.

Government may raise foreign investment limit to aid BPCL sale

If the cabinet clears the proposal, overseas funds would no longer need government approval to purchase a 100% stake in state-run refiners cleared in-principle for disinvestment.

In a first, two rating companies form self-regulatory unit

This is the first time that such a self-regulatory body has been formed for rating agencies, like the ones for the mutual fund industry, bond and currency dealers.

The State of Joe Sixpack in 1Q2021: On Paper, Everyone’s Financial Position Improved

Written by Steven Hansen

The Federal Reserve data release (Z.1 Flow of Funds) – which provides insight into the finances of the average household – showed significant improvement in average household net worth. Our modeled “Joe Sixpack” – who owns a house and has a job, and essentially no other asset – appears much better off than he was last quarter. And Middle Man (an upper-middle-class person) also appears better off.

The Tell: Dimon: JPMorgan is sitting on about $500 million in cash, waiting to invest in higher rates

Banking giant JPMorgan is sitting on a near half-billion-dollar stockpile of cash, waiting to invest in higher rates in the coming months, instead of buying Treasurys or other securities, Chief Executive Jamie Dimon said Monday at a virtual banking conference.

Key Words: Paul Tudor Jones sees ‘green light to bet heavily on every inflation trade’ if Fed ignores price pressures Wednesday

Billionaire investor Paul Tudor Jones says that if the Federal Reserve ignores rising price pressures on Wednesday, it will be a œgreen light on every inflation trade.

Futures Movers: Oil kicks off the week on a mixed note as traders weigh demand prospects

Oil futures start the week on a mixed note, with U.S. crude prices down a few pennies, but global benchmark crude up on optimism over a recovery in global demand.