02Aug2021 Market Close: Stocks, Bond Yields, And Crude Tumble As ISM Peaks, DOW Closes Down 97 Points, Nasdaq Flat +0.06%, WTI Crude 71.39, Bitcoin Lower 38900

Written by Gary

ISM and Markit Manufacturing surveys continue to show strong growth (SPY -0.2%). Construction Spending marginally improves.

The Market in Perspective

Here are the headlines moving the markets.
	The Fascinating Rise And Fall Of Bitcoin Mining In China For much of the past decade, the energy-intensive mining infrastructure that made bitcoin possible resided deep inside China’s hinterlands, close to cheap if heavily polluting sources of energy, where millions of bitcoin mining machines would crank out trillions in computations every second to solve the mathematical problems that power the Proof of Work token, and which generate generous rewards for the miners. All of this changed this year, however, when the double whammy of an ESG-inspired blowback against the miners’ high electricity consumption
	Saudi Oil Giant Aramco Denies Its Launching Bitcoin Mining The worlds largest oil firm, Saudi Arabias state-held Aramco, denied on Monday reports from the past days that it would start Bitcoin mining activities. With reference to recent reports claiming that the Company will embark on Bitcoin mining activities, Aramco confirms that these claims are completely false and inaccurate, the Saudi state oil giant and one of the worlds most valuable listed firms, said today in a one-sentence denial of an earlier media report. Before the Saudi oil firm denied the Bitcoin mining
	The U.S. Retains Its Crown As Worlds Top Oil Producer Last month BP released its Statistical Review of World Energy 2021. The Review provides a comprehensive picture of supply and demand for major energy sources on a country-level basis. Each year, I do a series of articles covering the Reviews findings. In the previous article, I discussed the trends in global carbon dioxide emissions. Today, I want to cover the production and consumption of petroleum. A Record Decline in Oil Demand For 2020, the Review reported the largest decline in oil* consumption on record. After nine consecutive years
	Chinas First Deepwater Oil Project Reaches Full Capacity China has launched full-capacity production at its first independently developed deepwater oil project, which is located in the eastern section of the South China Sea, China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) said in a statement sent to Global Times on Monday. The Liuhua 16-2 oilfield cluster started production in September 2020, CNOOC said back then. As part of the project, CNOOC plans to put into production and development a total of 26 wells via a floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) and three underwater production systems,
	Venezuelas Oil Production Plans Are Entirely Unrealistic Despite a near economic collapse, shattered petroleum industry infrastructure and empty government coffers, Venezuelas oil minister Tareck El Aissami continues to talk-up the prospects of the OPEC members crude oil output significantly expanding. In a June 21 interview with Bloomberg El Aissami claimed that Venezuela would quadruple its oil output by the end of 2021. The oil minister further asserted that regardless of U.S. sanctions foreign investment would gush into the founding OPEC members petroleum industry and production would
	Iran Ready To Deliver “Crushing” Military Response After Tanker Attack Iran on Sunday issued a formal denial that it was behind the majorThursday night drone attackon the Mercer Streetoil tanker off Oman that was managed by an Israeli firm which left two crew members dead. But both the United States and Israel on the same daycharged that Tehran was without doubt behind the attack, which the US Navy previously said involved multiple explosive drones targeting the vessel in the Arabian Sea. Iran’s PressTV subsequently responded on Monday by vowing a”strong and crushing” military response
	American Airlines, Spirit Airlines passengers face hundreds of cancellations following storms American Airlines and Spirit Airlines suffered hundreds of delays and cancelations after storms disrupted operations at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport
	GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham reveals Covid infection, lauds vaccine: ‘My symptoms would be far worse’ GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham commended the vaccine after saying he tested positive for Covid, saying that his “symptoms would be far worse” without it.
	Amazon’s ‘Lord of the Rings’ series has wrapped filming, will debut September 2022 Amazon Studios’ “Lord of the Rings” series completed filming in New Zealand Monday. It will debut on the streaming service Sept. 2, 2022.
	U.S. reaches 70% Covid vaccine milestone for adults about a month behind Biden’s goal While the vaccine milestone is a significant achievement, it should be seen as a floor, rather than a ceiling, health experts say.
	NJ Gov. Murphy mandates vaccines for state health-care and other front-line workers New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy mandated vaccines for a variety of the state’s front-line workers at a news conference Monday.
	The Dallas Cowboys are improving stadium cell coverage before fans return for 2021 season MatSing makes high-end antennas that cost up to $250,000 and help wireless networks improve connectivity during live sporting events.
	Equinox and SoulCycle to require proof of vaccination starting in September Equinox Group said its gym members, SoulCycle riders and staff will be required to show proof of vaccination to enter its facilities beginning next month.
	Reese Witherspoon’s Hello Sunshine to be sold to Blackstone-backed media company for $900 million Reese Witherspoon’s company “Hello Sunshine” will be sold to a Blackstone-backed media company headed by former Disney executives Kevin Mayer and Tom Staggs.
	Dr. Scott Gottlieb sees Covid vaccine boosters for vulnerable people in U.S. as early as September “My guess is sometime by September or October we will be giving booster shots to older individuals and certainly immunocompromised,” Dr. Scott Gottlieb said.
	McDonald’s, Target and Kohl’s to enforce masks for store workers in high-risk areas McDonald’s, Target and Kohl’s will begin requiring masks for store employees in high-risk areas in the United States as determined by the latest CDC rankings.
	New York Gov. Cuomo asks private businesses to require Covid vaccination for admission “I am asking them, and suggesting to them, go to vaccine-only admission,” Cuomo told reporters.
	Gov. Cuomo mandates vaccinations for transit workers as New York’s Covid cases surge New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo mandated vaccines for state transportation workers, giving them the option to get vaccinated or face weekly coronavirus testing.
	Affluent Americans are ready to spend on family, luxury travel again, Amex finds ” and they’re often paying with vouchers Amex Trendex survey finds affluent travelers want to take a family vacation again soon. They’re will to pay for luxury, but they’re also using travel credits.
	Stocks, Bond Yields, & Crude Tumble As ISM Peaks & Fed Speaks Stocks, Bond Yields, & Crude Tumble As ISM Peaks & Fed Speaks The all-important (when it’s rising) Manufacturing ISM survey (green line) fell to its lowest of 2021, with the ‘soft’ survey data starting to catch down to ‘hard’ data’s reality (red line)… Source: Bloomberg This prompted a plunge in Treasury yields… Source: Bloomberg This sparked a plunge in the 10Y to a 1.14% handle, before the European close, which sparked some bond selling…
	Shrinking Rolls Of Toilet Paper? Blame The Fed! Shrinking Rolls Of Toilet Paper? Blame The Fed! Via SchiffGold.com, We’ve been talking a lot about rising prices. TheÂ CPI has come in hotter than expectedÂ every month this year. We’reÂ paying more to buy less. We see the impacts of inflation on price tags, but sometimes it squeezes us more subtlety. It’s known as œshrinkflation. Rising prices don’t just hit consumers. In fact, they impact producers first. As the cost of materials, labor and equipment goes up, companies feel the pinch. Eventually, they pass those costs on to their customers. A lot of companies have been doing this of late.Â Chipotle is just one example. But raising prices is bad for business, so sometimes, companies find other ways to cut costs. They shrink packages, or simply put less stuff in the same size box. Consumers rail against this practice, but economist Doug French suggests their anger may be directed in the wrong place. Perhaps they should blame the Fed.
	Stealth QE Is Over: Treasury Projects Adding $300BN In Cash By Dec 31, Reversing “Liquidity Tsunami” Stealth QE Is Over: Treasury Projects Adding $300BN In Cash By Dec 31, Reversing “Liquidity Tsunami” Three months ago, at the start of May when the Treasury was busy spending hundreds of billions of cash parked in the Fed’s Treasury General Account in a form of stealth QE, the US government surprised markets when it announced that it expected to release just $100BN in cash in May and June, bringing its total cash balance to $800BN by the end of June, and then just another $50BN lower three months later, or $750BN at the end of Sept. Additionally, the Treasury assumed a cash balance of approximately $450 billion at the expiration of the debt limit suspension on July 31 based on expected outflows under its cash management policies. And while the Treasury caveat that “the actual cash balance on July 31 may vary from this assumption based on changes to expected outflows in that period” its estimate was surprisingly spot on, with the latest Daily Treasury Statement showing roughly $500 billion as of the end of July, not too far from its forecast. And as a …
	World’s Largest Pension Fund Slashes US Treasury Exposure By Record Amount World’s Largest Pension Fund Slashes US Treasury Exposure By Record Amount The world’s largest pension fund, Japan’s Government Pension Investment Fund, made a record cut to the weighting of Treasuries in its portfolio last fiscal year, sparking a global debt selloff. GPIF slashed it US government bonds and bills to 35% of foreign debt holdings in the 12 months ended March, from 47% previously, according to an analysis by Bloomberg of the latest data. Source: Bloomberg Notably, that level of exposure is below FTSE Russell’s World Government Bond Index’s 38% weight in Treasuries (so GPIF is actually underweight USTs on a global basis). The giant Japanese fund shifted into mostly European sovereigns with France, Italy, and Germany benefiting the most…
	Goldman Sachs raises banker pay after 95-hour week complaint The pay rise comes as top city banker says young recruits should stop moaning about long hours.
	Government could intervene in Meggitt takeover The UK government is “closely monitoring” a US firm’s plan to buy the UK defence and aerospace company.
	Banking giant HSBC sees first half profit more than double The UK-based firm said the jump in profits was driven by an economic rebound in Britain and Hong Kong.
	View: Are we on the cusp of another capex boom? Conversations on capex revival are once again back on the center stage with utilizations going up in much of the core industries.
	Bharti Airtel Q1 preview: Telco likely to see 24.5% sequential fall in PAT; ARPU may remain flat The company’s PAT is expected to fall due to muted ARPU and higher expenses for the same period.
	Adani Wilmar files papers for Rs 4,500 crore IPO Adani Wilmar will raise Rs 4,500 crore through a fresh issue of equity shares. The company’s existing shareholders will not sell any stake in the IPO, Adani Enterprises said.
	July 2021 ISM and Markit Manufacturing Surveys Continue To Show Strong Growth Written by Steven Hansen The ISM Manufacturing survey insignificantly declined but remains in expansion. The Markit PMI manufacturing index marginally improved and is now at a record high.
	June 2021 Headline Construction Spending Marginally Improves Written by Steven Hansen The headlines say construction spending marginally improved month-over-month. Our analysis shows the rolling averages improved.
	Deep Dive: Semiconductor stocks are rallying ” and they still look like bargains Stellar earnings are propelling chip makers’ shares, which trade cheaply compared with the broader stock market.
	: The next Barbie movie will be directed by Oscar nominee Greta Gerwig Lena Dunham is also involved in a live-action version of Polly Pocket.
	Bond Report: Treasury rally sends 10-year yield to nearly 6-month low Treasury yields are mostly lower amid mixed U.S. data on Monday, after the 2- and 10-year notes saw their biggest monthly yield declines since March 2020.