18Aug2021 Midday Update: Wall Street At 1 ET Continues To Show Weakness, DOW Down 90 Points, Nasdaq Flat -0.05%, WTI Crude Slides To 65.80, Bitcoin Up Fractionally 45700, US Dollar Down To 92.24

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.

EIA Cuts Forecast For OPECs Oil Production This Year

OPECs total petroleum production in the second half of this year is now set to be 600,000 barrels per day (bpd) lower than previous forecasts because of lower-than-expected ramp-up in output, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) said on Wednesday. The EIA revised down its estimate for OPECs production in the August Short-Term Energy Outlook (STEO) compared to the July STEO. Last month, the U.S. administration expected that OPEC would raise production by more than the group ultimately agreed to in order to meet global demand.

Standard Chartered: Fundamentals Justify $65 Oil More Than $75

The oil market is not as tight as the Wall Street consensus view, and with the current slowdown in demand growth, the fundamentals justify more like $65 a barrel Brent rather than $75, Standard Chartered said in a research note dated Tuesday. At present, the oil market is in a mild surplus. The bank’s commodity analysts said that it will continue to be in surplus in September. Standard Chartered’s view echoes last week’s warning from the International Energy Agency (IEA) that new mobility restrictions in Asia to fight the Delta variant are set

Oil Jumps As Crude Inventories Fall

Crude oil prices climbed higher today after the Energy Information Administration reported an inventory draw of 3.2 million barrels for the week to August 13. This compared with a small draw of 400,000 barrels for the previous week and a slightly bigger draw of 1.1 million barrels reported for the week to August 13 by the American Petroleum Institute. Analysts had expected an inventory draw of 1.26 million barrels for the period. In fuels, inventory movements were mixed. The authority estimated a gasoline inventory build of 700,000 barrels for

China To Build Massive Green Hydrogen Project

China will build a large-scale green hydrogen production site in Inner Mongolia that will utilize a generation capacity of 1.85 GW of solar and 370 MW of wind to produce close to 67,000 tons of hydrogen annually. This amount of hydrogen, if used in fuel cell cars, could eliminate the demand for about 28,000 tons of gasoline, BloombergNEF analyst Xiaoting Wang said, as quoted by Bloomberg. Fuel cell cars are indeed on the Chinese authorities pollution-fighting agenda. Earlier this week, Argus reported Beijings authorities are already

India Taps Into Strategic Oil Reserve: Report

India has started selling crude from its strategic oil reserve in a bid to monetize the assets by leasing out space in them to oil companies, Reuters reported, citing unnamed sources. An earlier report by Reuters said that the entity managing the countrys strategic petroleum reserve was allowed to lease out 30 percent of its capacity to both local and foreign companies by a change of policy. The strategic reserves capacity is some 37 million barrels. Yet the strategic reserve is currently full because of the record low prices last

Wall Street Bullish On Oil Despite Losing Streak

Oil prices fell on Friday but still managed to eke out a slight weekly gain at $68.44/bbl, as investors continued to weigh a bullishly tight global market against the worrying spread of the coronavirus delta variant. Oil prices have been highly volatile over the past few weeks, with the International Energy Agency (IEA) warning that the spread of the delta variant would slow the global oil demand recovery in its latest report “Growth for the second half of 2021 has been downgraded more sharply, as new COVID-19 restrictions imposed in several major

Classic car insurer Hagerty to go public via SPAC in $3 billion deal with Aldel Financial

Classic car insurance company Hagerty is going public via a special purpose acquisition company, in a deal valued at more than $3 billion.

Apple backs Biden’s proposal to eliminate greenhouse gases from power plants by 2035

Apple VP of environment Lisa Jackson said she expects to discuss Biden’s infrastructure bill at a meeting on Apple’s campus with EPA head Michael Regan.

U.S. will begin wide distribution of Covid booster shots next month, saying vaccine protection wanes over time

U.S. agencies are preparing to offer booster shots to all eligible Americans beginning the week of Sept. 20.

The toughest carbon emissions for companies to capture have climate experts worried

As corporations set net-zero carbon goals, getting there means tackling Scope 3 emissions, and progress on that challenge has climate experts worried.

BMW secures funding for EV battery aiming to rival range of a traditional engine

Project is one of four to receive funding via the Advanced Propulsion Centre Collaborative Research and Development competition.

Southwest Airlines offers staff referral bonuses worth $300 as carrier struggles to fill jobs

Southwest Airlines says it is having trouble hiring staff because of the tight labor market.

Target CEO Brian Cornell quells fears about out of stocks this holiday season

Target CEO Brian Cornell is confident the big-box retailer will have plenty of merchandise this holiday season, despite industry-wide supply chain obstacles.

The need for trip insurance amid the pandemic is reshaping the travel landscape

The wisdom of acquiring comprehensive travel insurance with coverage for medical costs associated with Covid-19 is reshaping the travel landscape, insurers say.

The Fed is closing in on the taper, but there’s a lot the market, economy still can’t know for sure

Inflation has cooled a bit and the Fed seems more ready to taper. Here’s what is coming next for the economy, market and investors before 2021 is over.

Tesla is facing a critical technical support level ” and a break below could mean ‘bulls are no longer in charge,’ trader warns

Investors should pay attention to the $610 level on the downside and the $730 level on the upside in Tesla, MKM Partners’ JC O’Hara says.

Molson Coors’ bet on Dwayne Johnson’s Zoa Energy is off to a promising start

Zoa Energy, which is distributed by Molson Coors Beverage, is the top new energy drink in the last four weeks of IRI data.

Biden’s Food Stamp Increase Means Higher Food Prices For All

Biden’s Food Stamp Increase Means Higher Food Prices For All

Authored by Bruce Wilds via Advancing Time blog,

With the stock market banging out new record highs each day and so many jobs available, it is odd the Biden Administration feels the need to boost the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP by 25 percent. This constitutes the largest single increase in the program’s history. This significant and permanent increase in benefits will be available indefinitely to all 42 million SNAP beneficiaries.

The increase is projected to cost taxpayers an additional $20 billion per year. It coincides with the end of a 15 percent boost in SNAP benefits that was ordered as a “pandemic protection measure.” Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said the change means the U.S. œwill do a better job of providing healthy food for low-income families. It will move the amount of the average monthly per-person benefits for qualified recipients from $121 to $157.Â

Biden’s COVID Team Lays Out Plan For Doling Out “Booster” Jabs 8 Months After 2nd Dose

Biden’s COVID Team Lays Out Plan For Doling Out “Booster” Jabs 8 Months After 2nd Dose

Even as concerns about rare but deadly side effects remain, and questions about vaccines’ efficacy against the delta variant persist, the White House is finally ready to unveil its timeline for doling out “booster” shots to high-risk Americans (and later for everybody) even as billions of people around the world have yet to receive even a single jab.

Even though the WHO has warned it will only serve to worsen vaccine inequality, and Israel’s Health Ministry has found that even with a third dose, mRNA jabs like the Pfizer and Moderna jabs are less than 90% effective at preventing COVID, the White House is pressing ahead with its plan to vaccinate Americans 8 months after getting their first shot, with the jabs becoming an annual tradition for most as the virus continues to evolve, becoming a chronic threat, like the flu.

According to a joint statement from Biden’s team on Wednesday, additional Pfizer and Moderna jabs “will be needed to maximize vaccine-induced protection and prolong its durabilit …

Did The NY Fed Confiscate $1.3 Billion In Afghan Gold: Striking Revelations From Afghanistan’s Central Bank Chief

Did The NY Fed Confiscate $1.3 Billion In Afghan Gold: Striking Revelations From Afghanistan’s Central Bank Chief

Yesterday morning, shortly after the acting Afghan central banker chief, Ajmal Ahmady, fled the country (after he was “somehow pushed on board” of a military plane by his colleagues), and warning on twitter that the country has no dollars left domestically (i.e., any dollars and gold currently stored at the local central bank vault have been pillaged by the Taliban even though the country’s new rulers vowed on Saturday that the treasury, public facilities and government offices were the property of the nation and “should be strictly guarded”), sparking domestic bank runs and a record rout in the local currency, the Afghani, some asked what that means for Afghan reserves stored offshore.

Conveniently, overnight Reuters provided a handy breakdown of the international reserves owned by the DAB (as the Afghani central bank is called). The most recent financial statement posted online shows DAB holds total assets of about $10 billion, including $1.3 billion-worth of gold reserves and $362 million in foreign currency cash reserves, according to currency conversion rates on June 21, the date of the report. Notably, a big chunk of the reserves aren’t held in …

New Photos Expose Taliban’s Barbaric Behavior Across Afghanistan

New Photos Expose Taliban’s Barbaric Behavior Across Afghanistan

Update (1130ET): A photographer for the LAT who is still reporting from Kabul shared a harrowing report exposing the Taliban for not living up to their cuddly new reputation. The photographer said Taliban fighters beat members of a crowd waiting outside the Kabul Airport on Wednesday with the butts of their guns, tied rubber hoses and other weapons. The photographer himself was beaten when he was caught photographing the scene, he said.

Here’s a host of snaps courtesy of the LAT, all taken outside the airport in Kabul, the last piece of territory held by the US.

Northern English regions drive house price growth

Wales also records rapid rises as the UK sees property prices go up at the fastest rate for 17 years.

Nando’s hopes to reopen fully from Saturday after supply shortage

The chain had to shut about 50 restaurants due to food shortages thought to include its signature peri-peri chicken.

Price rises cool amid clothes and shoe discounting

The UK inflation rate fell by more than expected to 2% in July, down from 2.5% the previous month.

Is the stock market closed tomorrow?

Equity, currency and derivatives markets will be closed for trading on Thursday, August 19 as the Street and the nation will observe Muharram.

Market Movers: Midcaps get spotlight; HDFC Bank fails to sustain gains

The Nifty Midcap 100 index ended in the green with gains of 0.3 per cent while the Nifty50 and Nifty Smallcap 100 fell 0.3 per cent each. While not much can be read into one day’s action, midcap investors will breathe a sigh of relief and welcome the move.

Not a smooth ride anymore: Is it time to bite the bullet and sell this multibagger?

In the last five sessions, shares of Eicher Motors, which produces these motorcycles, have fallen nearly 9 per cent. The company recorded a superlative sales growth in the first few years of the last decade, thanks to new designs, product launches and the rising purchasing power of the middle class.

July 2021 Residential Building Growth Rate Continues To Slow

Written by Steven Hansen

Headline residential building permits and construction completions rate of growth slowed. The rolling averages also slowed for both permits and construction completions.

The Wall Street Journal: Senators urge FTC to probe Tesla’s autopilot claims

Two U.S. senators are urging the Federal Trade Commission to open a probe into whether Tesla Inc. used deceptive marketing practices involving driver-assistance features that the electric-vehicle maker calls Autopilot and Full Self-Driving.

The Conversation: Health insurers can’t charge higher premiums to those who don’t get a COVID-19 vaccine ” but those people still could wind up paying more

Life insurers can take COVID-19 vaccination status into account when setting premiums.

NewsWatch: Investors compare 2021 stock-market rally to the pre-crash summer of 1987 ” should they?

Investors are drawing parallels between the stock market’s 2021 climb and the pattern seen in 1987, a year marred by the œBlack Monday crash in October. There are some important differences, analysts note.