See the latest Australian dollar analysis here:
Asian stock markets are having mixed returns in response to the selloff on Wall Street on Friday night in the wake of the disappointing NFP jobs report.Β The USD remains strong against all the majors as the Australian dollar broke below the 70 cent level while gold is holding on above the $1785USD per ounce level, finally not making any new session lows. Bitcoin on the other hand is getting assaulted on all sides with a mammoth drop to well below the $50K level after some very volatile weekend trading:

Mainland Chinese shares fell sharply going into the close with the Shanghai Composite down nearly 0.5% to cross back below the 3600 point level while the Hang Seng Index continues to bury itself with another deep loss, down 1.3% to 23466 points. Japanese markets remain under pressure with the Nikkei 225 closing 0.4% lower at 27927 points with the USDJPY pair bouncing just slightly above the 113 level for a weak start to the trading week:

Australian stocks were one of the lucky ones, with the ASX200 just able to put in a positive session, lifting 0.1% to close at 7245 points as the Australian dollar managed to get back above the 70 handle after the big selloff on Friday night sent it down into the 60’s, but this bounce maybe shortlived:

Eurostoxx futures and S&P futures are lifting a little going into the London open, with the S&P500 four hourly chart showing price still wanting to breakout above the week long downtrend line but buying support remains insufficient despite the key 4500 point level holding in the recent downmove:

The economic calendar is always quiet post the NFP print with just the latest factory orders from Germany and a few US Treasury auctions to keep an eye on.
- Macro Afternoon - May 23, 2022
- Macro Morning - May 23, 2022
- Macro Afternoon - May 20, 2022
Hello!
Hello, hello, hello
Boy! That’s an echoy room I was in!
Is it me you’re looking for?
I can’t tell, all echos sound the same
Gimme gimmes version
Fried chicken.
it’s me
its always you darling!
I thought you said never to call you that?
it flew past me! and I’m sure its giant plane (plain) !
Hey Gav! How’s the in-laws, hopefully out of covid danger zone and out of hospital? What’s their Oxygen blood saturation?
Father in law is back home, apparently doing a bit better. Mother in law has aches and feeling quite fatigued. My sister in law is double vaccinated and is living in the same house and tested negative (for the second time today), so she’s been looking after them, but I believe the mother in law now regrets not having been vaccinated – I don’t know about father in law yet, since I haven’t spoken to him. I just wish they would have listened to me and the rest of the family.
Hopefully they will get better.. it’s good that father in law is out of hospital.
This sets a new standard of corruption.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-12-06/dendrobium-coal-mine-granted-state-significant-infrastructure/100677460
The NSW Minerals Council CEO, Stephen Galilee said it was a bold and positive step.
That should tell you all you need to know about the decision.
Bye bye Winter Olympics.
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/white-house/diplomatic-boycott-winter-olympics-beijing-expected-announced-rcna7691
It was always on the agenda, but I believe imprisoning Peng Shuai was the straw that broke the camel’s back. I expect Australia to follow USA with the boycott.
It’s not an athlete boycott is it? Just some weird diplomatic one (which feels like it is more likely to hurt the Diplomats etc who don’t get to go on a junket).
This article is an eye opener, could be a very interesting book to read, given the disappearance of the female Chinese tennis player… basically, if you back the wrong faction, you are ruined or dead! But I tell you what, they did bloody well in the interim. My wife was ‘disappeared’ by China’s elite β now I want to expose their corruption https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2021/12/04/wife-disappeared-chinas-elite-now-want-expose-corruption/
Shum spent more than a decade at Beijingβs heart of power, where he and then-wife Whitney Duan were business partners and consiglieres to the Wen family, whose patriarch Wen Jiabao was the Chinese prime minister from 2003 to 2013. Together, Duan and Shum rose from nothing to become gatekeepers at the highest levels of power and amassed a fortune worth billions. Then, it all went wrong…
After graduating, he worked at a private equity firm in Hong Kong and was sent back to China to tap into the economic boom unleashed by its abandonment of Maoism. But his years in Hong Kong and the US had changed him. He no longer understood the hidden codes and norms essential to doing business in his homeland. After nearly a decade of struggling, he met Whitney Duan…
Her experience of Communist Party corruption and harassment pushed Duan to pursue success as an entrepreneur, outside the party. But no one in China can succeed against the system and she still needed political patrons. She cultivated βAuntie Zhangβ, otherwise known as prime minister Wen Jiabaoβs wife. Like Duan and Shum, both Wen and his wife had worked their way up from outside the Red aristocracy of revolutionary leadersβ families, for whose benefit the whole system is run.
Having picked Shum as a husband for his business experience and trustworthiness, Duan schooled him in the ways of power in China: how to dress, sit and speak, exactly how to fawn over officials β and which ones β and how to subordinate his own desires and interests to serve those of the Wens. βI became her project, Eliza Doolittle…
Did the diplomats go to Berlin in 1936 I wonder
Don’t know if they will care all things considering … why would they want the international travelers …
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-12-06/kingston-road-loxton-damage-freight-rought/100676396
Warranty !
https://www.news.com.au/finance/economy/world-economy/china-erases-entire-country-in-draconian-trade-ban/news-story/0a89fc56c8af8101067163433e49207e?amp
https://amp.smh.com.au/national/nsw/i-ve-been-raided-public-servant-sought-to-hide-luxury-car-after-icac-raid-20211206-p59f9h.html
V!brants on government teat
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-12-05/china-developer-sunshine-100-defaults-on-170-million-of-bonds
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2021/dec/06/evergrande-shares-plummet-12-as-it-edges-closer-to-default
On the weekend I hopped on the trusty steed and headed off to the quarantine station and Fort Nepean. The old quarantine station looks in spectacular condition.
Is there any reason why it couldn’t have been cleaned up and readied for the wretched refuse of teh WuFlu?
Maybe Harold Holt’s Chinese Subs brought WuFlu there in the first place.
LOL
It’s Hunt’s electorate. As Health Minister he doesn’t want the plague in his patch.
That’ll explain why everyone at the Portsea Golf Club looked and acted like Bill Heslop.
lol. It’s the permanent resident retiree playground with a significantly higher median age than other Vic and Aust.
“You can’t stop progress.”
Yeah, you can. Didn’t see one highrise.
Edit: not a word of a lie, the first person I saw at the club was an older, portly type, slicked hair covering the bald, dressed all in black with a belt cutting him in half, carrying a bottle of bubbly and walking with great intensity. At 7.30 in the morning.
He screamed Bill Heslop, as did the grumpy bloke in charge of the bistro. The same look!
Only that it might lose its value as a potential development site. (And Airport access.)
“A chainsaw can get out of hand really quickly.”
Anon Far North Police Member.
(late submission for observation of the year)
i think i know that policeman , his first name is Q?
I think Queensland is missing the point, it is : lower teh rates! not the drawbridge
https://www.theage.com.au/national/lower-the-drawbridge-queensland-to-reopen-from-next-monday-20211206-p59f3f.html
Just in time for Omicron!
Wonder if they will regret that decision?
sad , the traffic congestion nearly killed their wedding, youngsters are crushed with inability to buy houses, lack of secure jobs and now go to their weddings in trams
https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/we-re-all-melburnians-here-comes-the-bride-cutting-through-post-lockdown-traffic-on-route-48-20211206-p59f2r.html#comments
I hope CB will be putting up a live commentary Ashes page – I assume that’s the only reason he chose to chip in extra hours this week to help out DLS. ππ
https://www.news.com.au/national/western-australia/shocking-footage-shows-outofcontrol-boat-surging-through-a-busy-marina/news-story/1a82b987d5b66b4f2544f7c0bdf7831e
i hope your boat is safer than this ^^ one Harry
Looks like the bottom fishers are giving up on Evergrande at last
https://twitter.com/InvariantPersp1/status/1467758861964627971
German Factory orders sick
https://twitter.com/YTradingAdvisor/status/1467750769386409984
What is it with Scotty Marketing and Gladys? Where is the upside to his defiant allegiance? Is she really a contender for pre-selection while ICAC is incomplete? Why wouldn’t SfM postpone his crush until after ICAC concludes and results are known? If it’s still unknown when pre-selection closes is hers a realistic candidacy? Clear downside is of course any adverse finding, whether prosecuted or not. Would SfM still endorse her?
The election doesn’t matter. This is about undermining ICAC. An independent ICAC could put him and his mates in the big house so he’ll do whatever he can to sully the waters.
To me, this rings true. SfM using others to better self, no scruples, no morals and not a care.
I agree Mr Bogan.
Imagine the debacle if Gladdys won a seat and then had to resign due to ICAC findings leading to a prosecution!
The libs would almost certainly lose any resulting by election but as you say ScoMo doesnβt give a fk about that.
The whole shyte show would simply be framed as an example of why we shouldnβt have these ICACs destroying peoples faith in democracy.
Vomit.
https://twitter.com/ermoplumber/status/1446256395880316931?s=21
Itβs truly bizarre unless weβre missing some truly epic plan by him. All it goes is widen the gulf between Lib and Lab and surely make those like Archer quite uncomfortable.
Yes. This will be one of those fiendishly clever multilayered Machiavellian n-deep 3-d chess political masterstrokes that Sconocchio is so well known for.
Oh. Ok. It’s just truly bizarre.
And won’t end well. What a shame.
It takes one to know one.
Scotty supports Women. Plain as a day in ICAC!
If he gives ’em any more she’ll blow Captain.
Good question Ginger! Almost like she led the bring the covid in brigade, or something? Oh , well its here now, lets all get on with it…
He owes her.
She basically had to do his bidding through out the entire pandemic. What better way to wash away ICAC grime than a Teflon federal stint. Some people actually believe she was victimised, my mum wants her to run, thank god she has no say in it, but I bet there a lot of well heeled middle aged/boomers that feel the same.
Thanks all. Moving to morning links.
Lol,β¦Alan Jones is being touted as a Liberal party candidate in the next federal election!
If he was on the ballot for Bennelong I would definitely vote for him.
Just for the fun of it!
A proper hilarious fkwit like Trump in our parliament!
The laughs would never cease!
https://twitter.com/ermoplumber/status/1467791459642343426?s=21
Tony Abbott isn’t coming back too?
Minister for public toilets
The Cardinal of narthexs.
I thought Trump in the White House would be funny also… back in 2016.. I don’t find it funny anymore…we don’t need Alan Jones, trust me. No amount of laughs are worth the damage that fwit boomer will do.
Play of the day.
https://mobile.twitter.com/ThatsSoVillage/status/1467792177900179460
Enjoyed that.
world class athlete right there
The funny thing is (and I reckon MiBo will back me up on this) is that sport at just about any level will generate sublime moments. Professionalism just irons out the kinks and sterilises it.
https://www.breakingnews.ie/world/omicron-variant-made-e9-billion-for-top-pfizer-and-moderna-shareholders-campaigners-say-1223700.html
Not bad money
New Zealand: Kiwis must obey Jacinda Thought … apparently …
‘It’s a hellscape’: The age of misinformation is here – can government close the rabbit hole? … Michelle Duff … Stuff NZ
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/coronavirus/300469809/its-a-hellscape-the-age-of-misinformation-is-here–can-government-close-the-rabbit-hole
Misinformation can kill, and almost two years since Covid-19 hit our shores itβs a national security issue with no easy solution. How is it impacting how we treat each other, and society at large? Michelle Duff reports. β¦
β¦ An opportunity for change
Society works because people accept rules and regulations, that those at the top know what they are doing and are generally telling the truth and acting in our best interests. This is part of the βsocial contractβ that organises our lives.
Beijing Normal University conspiracy theory researcher, New Zealander M R X Dentith, says this is one of the things conspiracy theories threaten. Incidents like the anti-lockdown traffic protests are a group of people going out of their way to disrupt an agreed way of life because they believe it’s inherently wrong or corrupt. βIf you donβt believe there are a trusted set of people doing the mahi at the top of society, and you start doubting the experts, then you start doubting other rules.β β¦ read more via hyperlink above β¦
β¦ Professor Niall Ferguson explains β¦
Historian Niall Ferguson on the roots of today’s political polarization … Long News Foundation / Youtube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yLiPPtxKRAA
Yeah information needs to be better controlled and people need to be made to comply!