In this week’s recap, we saw a general rise in global stocks, with the U.S. market ending positive and the European market having its best performance in 7 months on Friday. Earnings figures from banks boosted the markets a lot. Asia-Pacific stocks rose sharply as investors reacted to the release of China’s inflation data for September. Mainland Chinese stocks closed slightly lower.
William Shatner, a Star Trek actor, traveled into space at the age of 90 on one of the flights made by Jeff Bezos. In an interview after the trip, Shatner stated that we should prepare for a major catastrophic event that was coming. While it can be interpreted in several ways, it is better to be forewarned, Shatner may have information that he could not divulge.
The price of coal used in China’s power plants has surged to a new record high as another of the country’s key mining regions is hit by flooding. The country’s biggest coal-producing province, Shanxi, is dealing with heavy rain in recent days after record floods struck the mining region of Henan in July. Thermal coal on the Zhengzhou Commodity Exchange rose by over +10% on Tuesday, further complicating China’s efforts to increase fuel supplies thus easing its deepening energy crisis.
In a Tuesday report from digital asset manager CoinShares, cryptocurrency products & funds attracted $226.2M in investments last week, marking their 8th straight week of inflows. Over an 8-week run, total crypto product inflows hit $638M, with a year-to-date total of $6.3B. Bitcoin, garnered $225M, for a 4th straight week of inflows, according to data in the week ended Oct. 8.
The United Nations Food & Agriculture Organization food price index reached a 10-year high in September, reflecting skyrocketing worldwide food prices. Prices have increased 32.8% from September 2020. Rising food prices globally, are being caused by tightening supplies & growing demand for staples with wheat prices up 41% & palm & vegetable oil up by 60%, during the past year. Sugar is up 53.5% year-over-year.
Biden administration to reimplement Donald Trump’s “Remain in Mexico” program; Japan’s ruling party pledged to double defense spending; Animal protein prices soar in the U.S.; Tests on metal-eating bacteria could help clean up mining industry; Chaillan: “China has won the artificial intelligence battle with the United States”.
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