After three consecutive days with temperatures in the 90s, I've got nothing left. I don't have much to say after yesterday's effort anyway. Talk about anything you want today. The floor is yours.
The Big News is the dramatic slowdown of the global economy. I've written frequently about That Sinking Feeling over the last few weeks. I've got little to add today.
Undoubtedly the European economy is contracting.
LONDON, June 21 (Reuters) - The downturn in the euro zone's private sector is becoming entrenched and Chinese factories are finding the going increasingly tough, business surveys showed on Thursday, painting a darker outlook for the world economy.
June was the fifth consecutive month that activity across the euro zone has declined, dragging down heavyweights Germany and France and putting pressure on the European Central Bank to take further action to support the economy...
The euro zone's private sector contracted at its fastest pace since June 2009, when the bloc was mired in a deep recession, according to Markit's Flash Composite Purchasing Managers' Index for June.
A combination of the services and manufacturing sectors which is seen as a guide to growth, the PMI fell to 46.0, slightly better than the fall to 45.5 predicted by economists in a Reuters Poll...
Unhealthy data from China, the cornerstone of the oil market, dictated heavy losses for basic resources equities and oil prices. The HSBC China manufacturing PMI fell to 48.1 June, edging down from a final reading of 48.4 in May. It was the eighth straight month of a reading below 50. HSBC's data also pointed to weakness in the months ahead.
[My note: readings below 50 indicate contraction.]
Commodity prices are falling fast. I'll publish my biweekly Saturday Oil Report tomorrow.
Have a good weekend and enjoy the video.
Now, you wouldn't know it, for some of the things I've said over the years, but I like people...
105 deg. F. here in Independence, California. Not a cloud in the sky to temper Solar ferocity. Thankfully, the burning of fossil fool keeps me cool. Please keep those kilowatts coming. (Imminent collapse? Oh, well.)
Posted by: Andrew Kirk | 06/22/2012 at 02:05 PM