Fyi, have finally bit the bullet and fixed energy price with EDF for 2 years until July 2024.
The Nord Stream pipeline 1 issue over the last few days made me make the final decision.
Would welcome Mr Treacy comment about the recent events with Russia cutting supplies and short and medium-term implications. Will we ever see the energy prices normalize? His comments are always very insightful.
This article from Bloomberg may be of interest to subscribers. Here is a section:
For Slimmon, the beat-down in consumer sentiment has gone far enough to warrant betting on a turnaround.
“There’s a very low expectations in those stocks right now. What if the direction of change is actually higher for consumer sentiment?” he said. He views the risk-reward as attractive.
“Those stocks might recover dramatically because they’re down so much.” He plans to snap up shares “well into the weakness” in August, which is among historically the worst months for equities as volumes are thin and workers are on vacation.
Stock market moves during this period are usually dominated by macro events. “The macro story this year is not very good,” he said, citing a global geopolitical crisis and the lack of an August meeting among Fed officials.“The focus of the market shifts from what ultimately long-term drives stocks, which is earnings. And when the shift goes to other things like macro events that creates volatility.”
As for those areas he will likely stay away from, he offered two sectors. “If you think about what’s worked year-to-date on a relative performance basis, there are two groups that have really done well: energy and defensives,” he said. “It’s a little late to be selling the energy stocks. They’ve been so creamed. I wouldn’t be aggressively buying those stocks.”
This article from NewAtlas.com may be of interest to subscribers. Here is a section:
The team says that the new potential treatment has a few advantages over other techniques currently in use or under development. Pancreas transplants are effective, but subject to organ donor shortages and other complications like rejection. Other teams have converted skin cells into stem cells and used those to produce new beta cells, and although results have been promising in mice, immune-suppressing drugs need to be given to prevent rejection.
The new treatment would work much faster, within a matter of days, and without the need for surgery. But perhaps the biggest advantage is that GSK126 is already approved by the US FDA and elsewhere in the world as a treatment for cancer. Its safety profile is already being assessed in clinical trials, which could reduce hurdles down the road for its use against diabetes.
That said, the scientists caution that it is still very early days. These experiments were conducted on cells in culture – not even in animals yet – so there’s still plenty of work to do. Nevertheless, it remains an intriguing new possible tool.
This presentation by Stuart Kirk at a Financial Times conference in May is a notable discussion on subject of ESG and climate.
What you were saying about the huge migration to Texas makes me wonder if this isn't the right time to buy home builders who are active in that area? Or REITs? What about NXRT, an old favourite of mine which has now come right done (fortunately I got out)? It specialises in refurbishing multi-family properties in the sunbelt. Is it too early to buy again do you think?
This article from Bloomberg may be of interest to subscribers. Here is a section:
London Heathrow is imposing a two-month cap on daily passenger traffic, a dramatic response by the UK’s busiest airport to the flight chaos gripping Europe as airlines and ground crew struggle with a surge in travel demand.
The airport will limit daily passenger traffic to 100,000 departing people through Sept. 11, asking airlines to refrain from selling summer tickets. Current forecasts are modeling for as many as 104,000 passengers a day over the summer, still below the roughly 125,000 passengers that left daily this time before the pandemic.
Thanks to a subscriber for this report by Albert Edwards for SocGen. Here is a section:
The commodity complex is now seeing a collapse in prices, and this shows great similarity to what we saw in mid-2008. Although the oil price decline is slower and lagging, likely because of the Ukraine war, other industrial commodity prices are in virtual freefall. Soft-landing advocates must now face the overwhelming evidence of economic collapse and extricate their heads from the sand. ¢
Despite the fallout from the Ukraine war, agricultural prices too have also imploded, and that will sound a note of caution for those who think the oil price cannot fall as quickly as other industrial commodity prices. With the oil price having slid from $125/b to under $100 in a month, it should not be long before the yoy comparisons are negative, as with food prices.
Headline CPI inflation will likely turn negative, and the inflation narrative will then evaporate (temporarily), so trigging a collapse in US 10y yields back below 1%. What a shock that will be!
This article from Bloomberg may be of interest to subscribers. Here is section:
The Foreign Ministry struck a softer tone on Friday. China was “shocked” by the attack, spokesman Zhao Lijian said at a regular press briefing in Beijing just before news that Abe had died, saying the nation hoped he would recover soon.
“This unexpected incident should not be linked with China-Japan relations,” Zhao added. When asked about some nationalist voices in China cheering the shooting, Zhao declined to “comment on the remarks of net users.”
This article from Bloomberg may be of interest to subscribers. Here is a section:
Germany’s vice chancellor made a public plea to the Canadian government to release a turbine that’s caught up in sanctions against Russia and critical for gas flows to Europe.
Economy Minister Robert Habeck told Bloomberg that the turbine for the Nord Stream 1 pipeline needs to be returned before maintenance work begins on Monday. Releasing the component would remove an excuse for Russian President Vladimir Putin to keep the conduit closed.
“I’ll be the first one who will fight for a further strong EU sanction package, but strong sanctions means it must hurt and harm Russia and Putin more than it does our economy,” Habeck said in a phone interview late Wednesday. “Therefore, I ask for understanding that we have to take this turbine excuse away from Putin.”
This note from Bloomberg may be of interest.
Russia’s currency is set to end four days of losses against the greenback as demand for foreign currency declined in Moscow. The country’s main stock index drops for a second day.
Ruble gains 0.1% to 63.2800/$; adds 0.9% versus euro to 64.1850
USD/RUB rate might correct to 55-60 range in the near future, George Vaschenko, head of Russian trading at Freedom Finance in Moscow, writes in a note
“Ruble weakening was not accompanied by significant trade volumes; the weakening of demand will lead to a decline in the exchange rate”
