In his podcast addressing the markets today, Louis Navellier offered the following commentary.
Apple Boosted Qualcomm Stock
Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL) will be announcing its iPhone 15 today, so it will be interesting to see how many preorders the company receives. The fact that the iPhone 15 will be utilizing Qualcomm chips, boosted Qualcomm Inc (NASDAQ:QCOM) stock. The other suppliers of the iPhone 15 are also expected to benefit.
Important Core CPI And PPI Statistics
The big news this week will be the Consumer Price Index (CPI) and Producer Price Index (PPI) on Wednesday and Thursday, respectively. As far as the CPI is concerned, we want to see evidence that owners’ equivalent rent is moderating, while on the PPI, we want to see wholesale service costs coming down. There is nothing the Fed can do about energy inflation, so the core CPI and PPI statistics will be the most important.
UAW Strike
The other big news will be whether or not the UAW goes on strike on Friday, which is expected to push the unemployment rate above 4%. Essentially, the Big 3 want to use their profits to make a transition to EVs, which are currently unprofitable. The UAW lowered its demand for a 40% pay increase over the next few years to 36% but remains far apart from the Big 3. UAW President Shawn Fain has repeated his mantra that “record profits mean record contracts.” Since both sides are far apart, a strike is becoming increasingly likely.
Speaking of a strike, natural gas prices are up due to an LNG strike in Australia. There is also a lot of talk in the wake of the G20 meeting in Italy that Saudi Arabia wants to get crude oil prices up to $100 per barrel. Right now, global supply and demand for crude oil is very fragile and any disruption, such as a Russian pipeline break or a hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico, could disrupt crude oil production and send crude oil prices to $100 per barrel.
Net Zero in 2250
After Germany’s August wind auction only offered to develop 1.4 gigawatts of electricity, down from 1.6 gigawatts at its July auction, Britain failed to attract any bids on its latest offshore wind auction. Naturally, this is a massive setback for countries like Britain and Germany, which are striving to achieve net zero by 2050.
Britain’s Ed Miliband, who is commonly referred to as Labor’s “shadow climate secretary,” said failing to secure and new offshore wind generating capacity is an “energy security disaster.” The fact of the matter is that bidding on offshore wind projects remains especially weak, since the economics of wind energy is erratic, especially if there is a cold snap in winter that can damage wind turbines.
I can tell you the green police were not happy with the G20 meeting in India, since the Financial Times said that G20 leaders were “missing in action” on a timeline for ending fossil fuel use. The G20 accounts for about 80% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions and did agree on a goal to triple renewal energy by 2030. However, as Britain and Germany’s wind auctions demonstrated, there is not a reliable economic incentive currently to boost wind production.
So the truth of the matter is the world might be able to reach net zero by 2250, 200 years later than originally planned. Of course, in 2250, satellites with massive solar sails will be able to transmit solar energy from space, until all the space junk takes out their sails. So even in 2250, fossil fuels may still be necessary. The good news is those massive solar sails will also help to cool the plant by blocking sunlight, which of course will impact food production. Confused? We all are, since the planet, climate and space are all interrelated and complex.
The big news from the G20 was that Italian Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni, privately signaled that Italy is planning to exit the “Belt and Road” Initiative with China, which is a global infrastructure pact. Due to the fact that Chinese President Xi Jinping missed the G20, there were plenty of rumblings that China is disengaging with the world. President Joe Biden said that China will not be invading Taiwan any time soon, since President Xi Jinping has to solve domestic problems, like high youth unemployment.
Coffee Beans: Return of the Jedi.
A long-lost X-wing fighter model used on screen in the original Star Wars from 1977 has resurfaced and is being auctioned with an opening bid of $400,000. Source: UPI. See the full story here.
