Clearing Out The In-Box For The Archives -- July 3, 2020

Re-posting one of the best job reports ever:

Report: US employers added almost 5 million jobs in June, 2020. That's more job creation than any president in history. Five million jobs added in one month. President Trump able to claim all-time new employment records. LOL. It's amazing how bandanas were the answer. If we had only known.

Jobs report, link here:

• prior: 1.480 million
• revised: 1.482 million (note the fake precision)
• consensus: 1.400 million
• actual: 1.427 million

Market response: Dow surges; up over 400 points in pre-market trading

Bad timing: Rachel Maddow predicted the June jobs report to be "absolutely terrible"; link here: https://www.foxnews.com/media/msnbcs-rachel-maddow-predicted-that-junes-jobs-report-would-be-absolutely-terrible.

Other items of interest for the archives posted below.

Oil, Cushing, glut: near-record oil stockpiles at US Gulf Coast pressure prices of domestic grades. Reuters, July 2, 2020. 

• PADD III, stocks along the Gulf Coast
• WTI at Houston for delivery from next month (August) to June next year (2021) ranged about a $1 premium over US crude futures
• had traded at nearly a $4 premium just two months ago (May, 2020)

Oil, refineries, global: sweeter, lighter, cheaper -- refiners seek oil to meet rising gasoline demand. Reuters, July 2, 2020.

Oil, pipelines, Canada: Canadian Supreme Court removes "last" barrier to TransMountain Pipeline.

Investing: Kiplinger most reliable stocks for retirees updated in July, 2020.

Flashback: Saudi Arabia's PIF and Vision 2030 --

• flawed, Winter 2017, Middle East Quarterly; 
• why Vision 2030 will fail, Middle East Eye, July 20, 2018; 

Pandemic:

• the protests of two to four weeks ago did not contribute to the surge of cases now being reported; link here;  

Farm report:

• USDA crop report shocker sends corn futures surging. Link here.  

Chicago corn futures surged 8% in the last two sessions after a massive reduction to the U.S. government's acreage estimate, reported Reuters. The U.S. Department of Agriculture's crop report on Tuesday showed farmers planted 92 million acres of corn in 1H20, which was a huge miss in expectations and 5 million acres below the USDA's March forecast of 97 million acres. 

This was the largest miss in a March-to-June corn acreage crop report since 1983 resulting in an 8% surge in corn futures trading in Chicago. 

[Comment: we certainly know how accurate government estimates are these days.]

Economy, global, Japan: assets in world's largest pension fund plummet --

The world’s biggest pension fund posted a record loss in the first three months of 2020 after the coronavirus pandemic sparked a global market rout in the period.

Japan’s Government Pension Investment Fund lost 11%, or 17.7 trillion yen ($164.7 billion), in the three months ended March, it said in Tokyo on Friday. The decline in value was the steepest based on comparable data back to April 2008, reducing the fund’s total assets to 150.63 trillion yen. Foreign stocks were the worst performing investment, followed by domestic equities.

True patriot, TDS: more concerned about President Trump than the country. Link here. I doubt Trump is having any nightmares.