13Aug2021 Midday Update: Oil Dips As Demand Concerns Grow, WTI 68.41, DOW Trading Sideways At 1:00 ET Up 41 Points, Nasdaq Up 0.1%, Bitcoin Down Fractionally 46400

Here is the current market situation from CNN Money

North and South American markets finished mixed as of the most recent closing prices. The Bovespa gained 1.21%, while the IPC led the S&P 500 lower. They fell 1.14% and 0.06% respectively.

Iran Oil Output Falls To 40-year Low In 2020

Irans crude oil production fell to the lowest in 40 years, according to an updated analysis by the U.S. Energy Information Administration. At less than 2 million bpd, the EIA said, the countrys oil output was affected by both the pandemic, which decimated demand for oil, and U.S. sanctions targeting specifically the Iranian oil industry. Before the U.S. withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal and the snap-back of sanctions, Iran was pumping around 2.6 million barrels daily and exporting some 2.5 million bpd, the EIA also said. Still,

Asia Buys More U.S. Crude As Middle East Hikes Oil Prices

Despite a slowdown in fuel demand due to the Delta variant, Asian refiners have booked more crude oil from the United States for the fourth quarter, taking advantage of the lower U.S. benchmark prices than last month, traders told Bloomberg on Friday. Refiners in Asia seek cheaper crude, especially after Saudi Aramco raisedlast week its official selling prices for crude oil loading for Asia in September to the highest premiums to benchmarks since February 2020. Since other major Middle Eastern producers follow the trends in Saudi pricing,

Why The Market Doesnt Need Much More OPEC+ Oil

While the Biden Administration calls on OPEC+ to boost production more than planned, the major oil forecasters scaled back their outlook on how much OPEC+ crude the market would need. Earlier this week, the White House called on the OPEC+ group to increase oil production more than they had planned in order to tame rising gasoline prices that could derail the global economic recovery. However, also this week, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), the International Energy Agency (IEA), and OPEC itself revised down their forecasts for

Oil Dips As Demand Concerns Grow

Oil prices fell for a second consecutive day early on Friday, hit by weakening demand estimates and China closing a key terminal at the third-busiest port in the world. As of 8:49 a.m. EDT, the U.S. benchmark WTI Crude was down 0.41% at $68.79 and Brent Crude traded down 0.32% at $71.08. Oil extended the losses from Thursday when prices were hit by a warning from the International Energy Agency (IEA), which said that new mobility restrictions in Asia to fight the Delta variant are set to slow global oil demand growth in the second half of

Brazil Soon To Become King Of Offshore Oil

Brazil is on its way toward becoming the biggest supplier of offshore oil globally, contributing some 1.3 million bpd in 2025, World Oil reports, citing a new report by GlobalData. This means Brazils share of the global offshore oil output will come in at 23 percent. The United States will be a distant second, with 655,000 bpd in offshore oil production in 2025, or 11 percent of the global total. While Saudi Arabia dominates liquids production globally, mostly from already producing projects, Brazil leads crude and condensate production

Environmentalists Slam Biden For OPEC Plea

Environmentalists have lashed out at President Biden after he called on OPEC+ to boost oil production in a bid to arrest the price climb at the pump. If Bidens going to urge OPEC to increase oil production one day after the UNs code red climate report, he may as well come to California and personally light more wildfires, the director of the Center for Biological Diversitys Climate Law Institute, Kassie Siegel, told The Independent. This US statement is horrifying, and we wont stand

Stocks making the biggest moves midday: Disney, Airbnb, Honest Company and more

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

27 vaccinated people test positive for Covid on a Carnival cruise ship

Only one of the positive cases on the Carnival cruise ship was a passenger and the remaining 26 were crew members.

SkyBridge founder Scaramucci on his firm’s Covid vaccine mandate: ‘This is a freedom issue for all people’

“This is a freedom issue for all people. The vaccines will create more freedom, not less freedom,” Scaramucci told CNBC.

Space company Momentus begins trading on the Nasdaq, with new CEO after turbulent SPAC merger

Space company Momentus debuted on the Nasdaq on Friday, completing a nearly year-long and turbulent merger process.

Texas deploys 2,500 out-of-state medical workers to fight Covid as younger patients crowd hospitals

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said the state was bringing in 2,500 out-of-state medical personnel to relieve exhausted doctors and nurses.

With college kids returning to campus, back-to-dorm spending on track to make bigger “but later “splash

Some shoppers are putting off purchases until later in the season, as they juggle summer activities and wait for details about colleges’ plans for the fall.

Richard Branson dumps another huge Virgin Galactic stake, this one worth $300 million

Virgin Galactic founder Sir Richard Branson sold more of his ownership of the space tourism company this week.

Ryan Reynolds’ ‘Free Guy’ is the box office barometer Hollywood has been looking for

“Free Guy” is getting a rare theatrical-only release this weekend and is an original concept with no franchise ties.

‘Breaking society apart’: Unvaccinated people are angry as they face more Covid restrictions

The divide between the vaccinated and unvaccinated when it comes to Covid is likely to become even deeper as time goes on.

Olympic Games: CJ Ujah, silver medalist for GB in 4x100m relay, handed provisional anti-doping suspension

CJ Ujah, a member of Great Britain’s silver medal-winning men’s 4x100m relay team at the Olympics in Tokyo, has been provisionally suspended for an anti-doping violation.

The Data Shows The Fed Is Behind The Surging Wealth Gap

The Data Shows The Fed Is Behind The Surging Wealth Gap

Authored by Lance Roberts via RealInvestmentAdvice.com,

The data shows the Fed is behind the surging wealth gap. Such is despite protestations œQuantitative Easing  and œZero Interest Rate Policy  do not affect the financial markets. Such was noted previously by Minneapolis Fed President Neel Kashkari:

œQE conspiracists can say this is all about balance sheet growth. Someone explain how swapping one short-term risk-free instrument (reserves) for another short-term risk-free instrument (t-bills) leads to equity repricing. I don’t see it.

While he may be œtechnically correct,  there is ample evidence of a direct impact on financial markets. As discussed in œPast Performance Is A Guarantee:

œGiven the high correlation between the financial markets and the Federal Reserve interventions, there is credence to Minsky’s theory. With an R-Square of nearly 80%, the Fed is impacting financial markets. œ

D.C. Judge Rules Biden’s Eviction Moratorium Can Remain In Place, Makes Clear She Thinks It’s Illegal

D.C. Judge Rules Biden’s Eviction Moratorium Can Remain In Place, Makes Clear She Thinks It’s Illegal

A federal judge in Washington, D.C., on Friday rejected a request from a group of landlords to block the Biden administration’s renewed eviction moratorium, appearing to overrule The Supreme Court’s ruling that the moratorium is unconstitutional.

As The Hill reports, the ruling by U.S. District Judge Dabney Friedrich, a Trump appointee, leaves intact the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) new freeze on evictions, which is set to run until early October.

Judge Friedrich said that she does not have the authority to halt the eviction ban, and any stop to the moratorium must come from a higher court.

In other words, she punted it up the chain of command…

To lift the stay, the plaintiffs must accordingly seek relief before the D.C. Circuit …

“They’re Experimenting On Us” – Why Black New Yorkers Don’t Trust The Vaccine

“They’re Experimenting On Us” – Why Black New Yorkers Don’t Trust The Vaccine

Many Americans who haven’t been paying close attention to the vaccine rollout could be forgiven for believing that those who are refusing the COVID vaccines are mostly uneducated (and, dare we say, ignorant) whites, often supporters of former President Trump. But while vaccination rates are, generally speaking, higher in a handful of big blue states, these numbers belie some important truths. As we reported earlier this week, one study showed that Americans with undergraduate and graduate degrees are intensely skeptical of the vaccine.

Additionally, minorities, particularly black and Hispanic Americans, are broadly skeptical of the vaccine, a fact that we have been reporting on for some time.

To try and explain this away, progressives have dismissed this hesitancy as the inevitable legacy of historic abuses whereby black Americans were ex …

Rickards: What’s Happening With Gold?

Rickards: What’s Happening With Gold?

Authored by James Rickards via DailyReckoning.com,

The gold market ” at least the paper gold market ” has seen a lot of volatility recently. Gold lost about $80 between August 5 and August 8 before rebounding. Gold gained over $22 today, by the way, to close at $1,753.

Many gold investors are panicked after the recent mini-crash. But today, I want to show you why the case for gold is still intact and why the recent tumble is just a bump in the road.

You shouldn’t let the mini-crash obscure a broader reality. You need to focus on the big picture, not the short-term fluctuations.

Gold has mostly moved sideways for almost a full year.

Gold prices reached an all-time peak of $2,069 per ounce on August 6, 2020. From there, gold moved back under $1,900 per ounce on September 22, 2020.

With the exceptions of three brief spikes (November 6, 2020, January 5, 2021, and June 2, 2021) and two brief dips (March 8, 2021, and March 30, 2021), gold has remained in a range between $1,700 and $1,900 per ounce.

The central tendency is $1,800.

Lord of the Rings: Amazon moves show to UK from New Zealand

The multi-million dollar production is one of the most expensive shows in the history of television.

Gatwick in talks with lenders amid Covid losses

The airport says Covid restrictions and a collapse in customer demand pushed it to a loss.

Crypto hacker offered reward after $600m heist

The anonymous hacker has returned almost all the money, but claims not to be interested in reward.

Index stocks to hog limelight next week as broad market rally pauses

This week, largecap stocks were rank outperformers to smallcap and midcap stocks for the first time in several months and marked a likely shift in trend as the bull market enters its 15th month.

Market Movers: Quality turns the table; Tata Steel plays bull market’s poster boy

Quality stocks were ignored for most of this year by investors because of their supposedly boring returns. The Nifty100 Quality 30 index underperformed other factor indices such as Nifty High Beta and Nifty Alpha 50.

Trouble in paradise as many midcap, smallcap stocks enter bear market

There is trouble brewing under the surface, as more than a quarter of the stocks that are part of the Nifty Smallcap 100 and Nifty Midcap 100 index are now deep in the bear market territory. A stock is said to be technically in the bear market, if it falls more than 20 per cent from its recent high.

06 August 2021 ECRI’s WLI Growth Rate Decline Continues

Written by Steven Hansen

ECRI’s WLI Growth Index which forecasts economic growth six months forward again declined but remains in expansion.

Coronavirus Update: Face mask fights escalate in Texas and Florida as delta variant of COVID forces Louisiana to send ambulances to other states

The war of words over orders implemented by the governors of Florida and Texas seeking to ban school districts from requiring students wear face masks as protection against COVID-19 when they return to classes in person has escalated into a series of lawsuits from concerned parents.

The Margin: First live ‘murder hornet’ of 2021 seen in Washington state

It was attacking a wasp nest…

Outside the Box: How to be happy at work ” even if you’re feeling stuck and cynical

You can find joy in your job