Week in Review

---

Week in Review

06/14/2023

For the week 6/12-6/16

Earlier edition due to travel….

[Posted 9:30 PM ET, Wednesday…and just updated Friday night from Wahoo, NE, for the end of week market returns...in town for the College World Series.]

Edition 1,261

---

The Trump Indictment

In his first public appearances since the indictment last Friday in Georgia and North Carolina, Donald Trump alleged that Joe Biden orchestrated the criminal charges in order to undermine his main political rival’s presidential campaign, as well as to distract from federal and congressional investigations into Hunter Biden.

“The ridiculous and baseless indictment of me by the Biden administration’s weaponized department of injustice will go down as among the most horrific abuses of power in the history of our country,” Trump told a crowd of party officials in Georgia.  “This vicious persecution is a travesty of justice.”

Trump portrayed his campaign to return to the White House as part of an “epic struggle” to defeat the “sinister forces” that he said were a bigger threat to the country than foreign adversaries like Russia, North Korea and Iran.  “Think of that: from within is worse than without,” he said.

He referred to Special Counsel Jack Smith as a “thug” and called for his removal.  “This is a sick nest of people that needs to be cleaned out immediately.  Get ‘em out,” he added to applause.

Trump said over the weekend in an interview with longtime friend and adviser Roger Stone: “We need strength in our country now,” calling on his supporters to join a planned protest at the Miami courthouse, where he was to be arraigned. “And they have to go out and they have to protest peacefully.  They have to go out.”

“Look, our country has to protest. We have plenty to protest. We’ve lost everything,” Trump went on.

At the Georgia state convention, Kari Lake, who refused to concede the Arizona election for governor in 2022 and who is an ardent defender of Trump, emphasized that many of Trump’s supporters owned guns.

“I have a message tonight for Merrick Garland and Jack Smith and Joe Biden – and the guys back there in the fake news media, you should listen up as well, this one is for you,” Lake said.  “If you want to get to President Trump, you are going to have to go through me, and you are going to have to go through 75 million Americans just like me. And I’m going to tell you, most of us are card-carrying members of the N.R.A.”

The crowd cheered.

Lake added: “That’s not a threat, that’s a public service announcement.”

Oh brother.

Of the 37 counts against Trump, 31 of them relate to secret and top secret classified documents that he kept at his home in Palm Beach, Florida, refused to give them back to the government, and tried to hide them from the FBI and even his own attorney after a grand jury issued him a subpoena demanding that he turn over all records bearing classified markings.

The indictment warns:

“The disclosure of these classified documents could put at risk the national security of the United States, foreign relations, the safety of the United States military and human sources, and the continued viability of sensitive intelligence collection methods.”

This goes to the heart of DOJ’s attempt to prove the charges that Trump violated the Espionage Act, as prosecutors will have to demonstrate that Trump illegally possessed sensitive national defense information.

Trump has previously defended his retention of classified records, claiming without evidence he declassified them while in office – a defense that his allies have also repeated.  “I go on the president’s word that he said he did,” House of Representatives Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan told CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday when asked if he had any evidence to back up Trump’s claim.

“He said he declassified this material. He can put it wherever he wants.  He can handle it however he wants.  That’s the law,” Jordan said.

In previous litigation related to the FBI’s search of his Florida home, however, Trump’s lawyers repeatedly declined to make that argument in their court filings, and the indictment also contains evidence that Trump knew he had retained records that remained highly classified.

“As president, I could have declassified it,” the indictment quotes Trump as saying about one military document he allegedly displayed during a meeting at his Bedminster, N.J. golf club in July 2021.  “Now I can’t, you know, because this is still a secret.”

Trump attorney Alina Habba, who is not representing him in this case, told Fox News Sunday, “He has every right to have classified documents that he declassifies under the Presidential Records Act.”

But former Trump attorney general William Barr said the claim that the documents were Trump’s personal records is “facially ridiculous.”  The records referenced in the indictment are “official records” prepared by government intelligence agencies, he said, and therefore they are the property of the U.S. government.  “Battle plans for an attack on another country or Defense Department documents about our capabilities are in no universe Donald J. Trump’s personal documents,” Barr said.

A new ABC News/Ipsos poll finds that three in five Americans view the federal indictment against Donald Trump as serious.

Overall, 61% say the federal charges related to Trump’s handling of classified documents are serious, compared to 52% answering the same about Trump’s April indictment in New York on charges related to a payment of hush money.

The movement is driven by Americans across the political spectrum. Notably, however, the biggest increase is among Republicans.  Now, 38% of Republicans view the federal indictment charges as serious, compared to 21% in April.  Democrats have shifted slightly (7 percentage point increase), though the vast majority believed April’s charges to be serious (91% now, 84% then).  Nearly two in three independents (63%) view these charges as serious, compared to 54% in April.

A CBS News/YouGov survey of likely GOP primary voters had some of the following results after the indictment.

76% said the indictment was politically motivated
12% documents a national security risk
12% both

Was it a national security risk that Trump kept nuclear/military documents?

38% of likely GOP primary voters said yes
80% of the rest of the country said it was

If convicted over classified docs should Trump be able to be president?

80% of likely GOP primary voters said yes
20% said no

Who would you vote for today? [likely GOP primary voters]

Trump 61%
DeSantis 23%
Scott 4%
Pence 4%
Haley 3%

William Barr on Sunday also defended Jack Smith’s 37-count indictment, saying if the allegations the former president willfully retained hundreds of highly classified documents are proven true, then “he’s toast.”

“I was shocked by the degree of sensitivity of these documents and how many there were…and I think the counts under the Espionage Act that he willfully retained those documents are solid counts,” Barr told “Fox News Sunday.”

“If even half of it is true, then he’s toast.”

Barr’s comments were notable and made at a time when many other prominent Republicans have been hesitant to criticize the former president.

Trump told Politico on Saturday that he would continue his presidential campaign, even if he were convicted in the case, saying “I’ll never leave.”

Tuesday, Trump then pleaded not guilty to federal criminal charges that he unlawfully kept national-security documents when he left office and lied to officials who sought to recover them.

Trump’s plea, entered before U.S. Magistrate Judge Jonathan Goodman in federal court in Miami, sets up a legal battle likely to play out during the entire presidential campaign, as it could be a year or more before a trial takes place.

Trump was allowed to leave court without conditions or travel restrictions and no cash bond was required.

Trump’s aide Walt Nauta, who is also charged in the case, appeared in court alongside Trump but will not have to enter a plea until June 27 because he does not have a local lawyer.  He, too, was released without having to post bond and was ordered not to talk to other witnesses.

Trump lawyer Alina Habba delivered a furious statement outside the Miami courthouse, attacking not only the prosecutors, but those who continue to probe his activities in New York and in Fulton County, Georgia.

“In recent years, we have seen the rise of politically motivated prosecutors who don’t care for impartiality, don’t care for due process for equal protection of laws,” Habba said.

“They have been quietly, but aggressively cultivating a two-tiered system of justice. From the Russia hoax to the attorney generals to the corrupt DAs in Georgia and New York. And now this.  The people in charge of this country do not love America.  They hate Donald Trump,” she said, echoing the language of her client.

“What is being done to the president should terrify all citizens of this country,” Habba said.

Her statement the people in charge “do not love America” is outrageous.  

The former president then flew to Bedminster, New Jersey, Tuesday after the Miami court hearing, and delighted donors with all his old schtick…very tired, boring schtick.

As London’s Independent put it:

“The most interesting part of the ex-president’s remarks was certainly the firehose of accusations he aimed at his predecessors and successor in the White House. While none of the individual points he raised were particularly surprising, what was revealing was to hear them all together, hastily cobbled together in a sort of ‘everybody does it’ defense….

“His inclusion of a throwaway anecdote about a paper shredder being spotted near former Vice President Dick Cheney’s house was the icing on top: Mr. Trump is now resorting to making baseless suggestions of wrongdoing targeting fellow Republicans to save his own skin.”

What a loser.

Gerard Baker / Wall Street Journal

“I would bet that most decent Americans are sufficiently enlightened and flexible to hold two wholly consistent thoughts in their heads at the same time:

“First, that Mr. Smith’s case against Mr. Trump is a devastating charge sheet that, if validated in court, suggests behavior by a former president so recklessly indifferent to U.S. national security, so contemptuous of the law, and so preening and vain as to be – on its own, aside from anything else we may have ever heard or read about this man – disqualifying for any public office, let alone the highest in the land.

“Second, that the decision by Joe Biden’s Justice Department to pursue a criminal case against Mr. Biden’s predecessor and likely opponent is a radical and dangerous overreach, a fateful move that can only undermine public faith in the law, and a troubling suggestion of selective justice, following the non-prosecution of Hillary Clinton in 2016 and the proliferating evidence of a lack of prosecutorial zeal by this administration over investigations relating to the president’s own family.

“This is more than a guess on my part. A solid bloc of Americans are appalled by and tired of being confronted with yet more evidence of Mr. Trump’s dishonesty, moral turpitude and utter shamelessness, and the current president’s chicanery, divisive opportunism and rising unfitness.

“A new ABC/Ipsos poll finds less than one-third of American voters have a favorable view of each man.

“So what?  Voters have to make a choice.  Choices are always binary. In the end the majority of voters who aren’t fans of either man will have to decide whose flaws are greater. The presidential ballot doesn’t allow for a nuanced moral calculus.

“This view holds that the likeliest outcome of this latest legal bombshell will be to polarize further and make it even likelier that the least appealing outcome for most Americans – a rerun of 2020 – is what they will face.  The move will further energize motivated Republicans to get out and vote for Mr. Trump; while the prospect of a rematch will propel enough Democrats to swallow their doubts and send Mr. Biden in for one more tilt.

“I find myself doubting this conventional wisdom and for the first time in a while starting to wonder whether the latest developments might bring a reprieve from zero-sum partisan warfare.

“The problem is that we know for sure now that a Trump-Biden rematch will never end the national standoff. Whoever wins is now guaranteed a judgment of illegitimacy. If Mr. Trump loses, his supporters can claim – more credibly than in 2020 – that the election was stolen, that his candidacy was hobbled by the endless criminalization of politics.  If Mr. Biden loses, chances are, given the law’s delay, that Mr. Trump would be both president-elect and a defendant in a series of criminal cases.  Democrats will treat him as ipso facto illegitimate. On top of this, either man would be constitutionally limited to one more term in the White House, further guaranteeing that 2024 will be nothing more than a massive and dangerous roadblock on the path to any sort of American progress.

“There is no escape from this outcome – a presidential election that produces a hollow and pyrrhic victory – unless one or both parties’ voters cut the Gordian knot and free the country from this debilitating and demoralizing political and legal warfare. This latest occasion for partisan anger may, strangely, offer us a chance for its own redemption.”

Editorial / Wall Street Journal

“Donald Trump pleaded not guilty to federal charges on Tuesday, with the typical array of supporters and opponents.  It’s depressing to think this could continue for another two years as the indictment and trial dominate the 2024 presidential campaign. Republican primary voters may be the last resort to spare the country this fate.

“We’re on record as believing that Attorney General Merrick Garland’s indictment of Mr. Trump is a misguided use of prosecutorial power that could have destructive consequences.  It intervenes in a presidential election campaign, unleashing political furies that are impossible to predict.  It keeps Mr. Trump the dominant issue of the presidential campaign, denying the country the larger debate the public deserves.

“The shame is that this is exactly what both Mr. Trump and the White House want.  Mr. Trump would rather not be charged, but he is already brandishing the indictments against him as a campaign credential.  He’s all but saying Republicans must nominate him as the only defense Americans have against Democrats and the deep state. Democrats want to run against Mr. Trump because they think he’d be the easiest Republican to beat, or to ruin in office if he does win again.

“GOP primary voters can benefit from reading the latest Trump indictment and asking what it means for a second Trump term. The facts alleged show that Mr. Trump has again played into the hands of his enemies. His actions were reckless, arrogant and remarkably self-destructive. This is the same Donald Trump they will get if they nominate him for a third time.

“Mr. Trump believes he had the right to keep the documents under the President Records Act, and we think he has a stronger case than the press claims.  But once he received a subpoena for those documents, Mr. Trump should have known he was at legal peril if he concealed them or lied about having them.

“Yet if the indictment is correct, that is precisely what he did. He allegedly suggested to a lawyer that he could ‘pluck’ out a page and not turn it over.  In the most striking episode, he brandished a classified document related to a war plan in front of his staff and a writer.

“Incredibly, the indictment says he did this while he knew he was being tape-recorded: ‘Mr. Trump: Secret. This is secret information.  Look, look at this.  You attack, and – ‘

“In the same conversation, he allegedly admitted that he hadn’t declassified the document, as he previously told the public he had done with all documents he retained.  He thus undercut his own potential defense.  The narcissism and wretched judgment are familiar, but still hard to believe.

“It’s also telling that Mr. Trump is now struggling to find lawyers to replace the two who resigned last week.  How can a former President not find a lawyer? ….

“If Mr. Trump is the GOP nominee, he is unlikely to defeat Joe Biden. But if he did win, the document fiasco is what a second term would be like. He wouldn’t be able to deliver the conservative policy victories that Republicans want because he can’t control himself. He’d be preoccupied with grievance and what he calls ‘retribution.’  The best people won’t work for him because they see how he mistreated so many loyalists in the first term.

“If Republicans really want to defeat Democrats, the press and a hostile bureaucracy, they’ll nominate a candidate who won’t shrink from a fight but will also be smart enough not to blunder into obvious traps.

“If Republicans nominate Mr. Trump again, they won’t ‘own the libs,’ as the faddish saying goes.  The libs will own them.”

---

This Week in Ukraine….

As Ukraine formally announced it had launched its long-awaited counteroffensive against entrenched Russian occupiers, the West is on pins and needles as Kyiv and its backers hope for a rapid retaking of strategically significant territory.  Anything less is going to prove problematic for the U.S. and its allies.

“Everybody’s hopeful that, you know, you’d see overwhelming success,” Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told reporters last week.  But, he said, adding a note of caution, “I think most people have a realistic outlook on this.”

Heading into his reelection campaign, President Biden needs a battlefield success to show that his unqualified support for Ukraine has burnished U.S. global leadership.

Biden and leaders of more than 50 other countries backing Ukraine have couched their support as part of an apocalyptic battle for the future of democracy and international rule of law.

--Saturday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the counteroffensive and defensive operations were taking place but gave no details.

--Sunday, Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar said the Khakhovka dam was blown up by Russian forces to prevent Ukrainian troops from advancing in the southern Kherson region.

Ukraine has accused Russian forces of blowing up the dam from inside its associated hydroelectric power station.  Moscow blamed the destruction of the dam on Ukraine.

--Russia on Sunday said it had destroyed at least seven German-made Leopard tanks and five U.S.-made Bradley vehicles over 48 hours while repelling Ukrainian attacks, though Russian bloggers reported Ukraine had briefly pierced part of the Russian line.  Russia’s defense ministry said it had repelled more than a dozen Ukrainian attacks over the past day in three major directions and had destroyed a column of armored vehicles in the Zaporizhzhia region.

--Three people were killed on Sunday and 10 were wounded when Russian forces attacked a boat carrying evacuees from flooded occupied territory to the Ukrainian-controlled city of Kherson, the regional governor said.  The area has been stricken by the catastrophic flooding after the destruction of the Kakhovka dam.

--Monday, Minister Maliar said the country’s troops had recaptured a total of seven villages spanning 35 square miles of eastern Ukraine over the past week – small successes in the early phases of the counteroffensive, underscoring the difficulty of the battle ahead for Ukrainian forces.

President Zelensky said on Monday that despite rain and fierce fighting, his forces were making progress on the battlefield and inflicting necessary losses.  “The battles are fierce, but we have movements and that is crucial,” he said in his nightly video address.  “The enemy’s losses are exactly what we need,” he added.

--Russia’s air attack in the Kyiv region early Tuesday was repelled, with Ukraine’s air defense systems destroying all missiles headed toward the capital, officials said.

--Vladimir Putin said Tuesday that Moscow had been able to fight off Ukraine’s counteroffensive so far but acknowledged losing a significant number of tanks and missing key equipment such as drones as fighting in southern and eastern Ukraine heats up.

The Kremlin leader also said that Russia needed to do more to root out enemy agents and secure its own domestic defenses after a series of attacks in Russian border areas.

--The death toll in a Russian missile strike on the central Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rih hit 12, this being President Zelensky’s hometown.

The strike involving cruise missiles hit a five-story residential building, which was engulfed in fire.

--Russian forces fired cruise missiles at the southern Ukrainian city of Odesa overnight Wednesday and shelling destroyed homes in the eastern Donetsk region, killing at least six people and wounding dozens, regional officials said.

A Ukrainian military spokesman said Russian forces have stepped up aerial strikes, just as the country’s troops have reported limited gains in an early counteroffensive.

--Wednesday, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said his country has started taking delivery of Russian tactical nuclear weapons, some of which he said were three times more powerful than the atomic bombs the U.S. dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945.

The deployment is Moscow’s first move of such warheads – shorter-range, less powerful nuclear weapons that could potentially be used on the battlefield – outside Russia since the fall of the Soviet Union.

“We have missiles and bombs that we have received from Russia,” Lukashenko said in an interview with Rossiya-1 Russian state TV channel which was posted on the Belarusian Belta state news agency’s Telegram channel.

Last Friday, Vladimir Putin said Russia, which will retain control of the tactical nukes, would start deploying them in Belarus after special storage facilities to house them were made ready.  He had given an original timetable of July 7-8.

Earlier, Lukashenko said, “It (the deployment) was my demand. It wasn’t Russia who imposed it on me.  Why?  Because no one in the world has ever gone to war with a nuclear power. And I don’t want anyone to go to war with us.  Is there such a threat? There is.  I must neutralize that threat.”

--UN nuclear chief Rafael Grossi delayed a trip to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant Wednesday because of security concerns, diplomats said.

Grossi, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said in Kyiv after meeting with President Zelensky that he was “very concerned” that the nuclear plant could be caught in Ukraine’s counteroffensive to retake Russian-occupied territory, the Russians controlling the region around the plant.

Additionally, the falling water level of the Dnipro River as a result of the destruction of the Kakhovka dam impacts the operation of the Zaporizhzhia facility.

---

--President Putin said on Tuesday that Russia was considering withdrawing from the Black Sea grain deal because the West had cheated Moscow by implementing none of the promises to get Russian agricultural goods to world markets. The deal allowing Ukraine to resume seaborne grain exports was brokered by the UN and Turkey last July.  To convince Moscow to approve the pact, a three-year accord was struck at the same time under which UN officials agreed to help Russia with its own food and fertilizer exports.  But Putin said that commitment had not been honored due to the treachery of the West.  In response, Russia has slowed down Black Sea grain shipments.  “We are thinking of getting out of this grain deal now,” Putin told a meeting of reporters and military bloggers.  “Unfortunately, we were once again cheated – nothing was done in terms of liberalizing the supply of our grain to foreign markets.”

--The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday that the CIA warned the Ukrainian government not to attack the Nord Stream gas pipelines last summer after it obtained detailed information about a Ukrainian plot to destroy a main energy connection between Russia and Europe, officials familiar with the exchange said.

Weeks later, in August, the CIA informed at least seven different NATO allies that Ukraine no longer appeared to be plotting to sabotage the pipelines and that the threat had diminished, European officials said. Those officials now believe Ukraine hadn’t canceled the original plan but had modified it.

On Sept. 26, the pipelines were hit.  Ukraine has vehemently denied that it had anything to do with the attack.

--Pakistan announced Sunday that the first cargo of discounted Russian crude oil arranged under a new deal struck between Islamabad and Moscow had arrived in Karachi.

Yet another example of how Russia is beating the sanctions to bring in money* for its war effort by flooding the market, which also helps to hold down crude prices worldwide, and it has to be driving the Saudis crazy, as they’ve been cutting production to support prices.

*In this instance, Pakistan’s payment is likely to be part of a barter trade with Russia, not hard currency.

--Turkish President Recep Erdogan continues playing hardball with Sweden’s bid to join NATO, both Reuters and AP reported Wednesday from Ankara, where officials from Sweden, Finland, and NATO met to discuss Erdogan’s impasse over Sweden’s accession (though Hungary, too, has yet to approve Sweden’s alliance bid).

--A U.S. musician and former paratrooper was arrested in Moscow last weekend on drug dealing charges.  Michael Travis Leake, 51, who was formerly a songwriter and musician in the Russian “Lovi Noch” rock band, was shown on state television, locked in the now all-too-familiar metal cage.  He will initially remain in custody until at least Aug. 6.

The U.S. State Department was attempting to gain consular access to Leake, who could face up to 12 years in prison.  Leake said he had no idea why he was arrested on Saturday.  He’s been living in Moscow about ten years and originally worked as an English teacher and helped translate songs for Russian bands.

--Opinion….

Editorial / Wall Street Journal

“Ukraine’s greatest advantage (as the counteroffensive begins) has been the willingness of its people to fight and die for their homeland. Russians have been conscripted to fight a war of occupation for reasons they don’t fully understand.  Ukrainians are fighting for independence.

“The stakes for Europe and the U.S. are great. A Ukraine advance that recaptures much of its land would vindicate Western military and financial support.  It would weaken Russia and draw Ukraine closer to the West. Russia without Ukraine as a Belarus-like satrapy is a much weaker threat to NATO, which has already expanded.  Europeans have awakened to the need to rearm after decades of neglect.

“A Ukrainian failure to advance would encourage the isolationists on the U.S. right and left to block more support.  The next phase of the war will be difficult, and maybe long, but backing Ukraine is in America’s national interest. It would help if President Biden explained the stakes to the American people.”

Not once has he done so.  Instead, the president uses the Oval Office for the first time to talk about the debt ceiling deal.  Pathetic.

---

Wall Street and the Economy

As the Federal Reserve’s Open Market Committee met on Tuesday it received important inflation data, with May’s consumer price index coming in basically as expected, 4.0% year-over-year vs. a previous 4.9% in April, and ex-food and energy, 5.3% Y/Y, vs. April’s 5.5%.

The headline figure is down from its high of 9.1% last June, down 11 months in a row, but the Fed looks at the core and still sees 5.3%, which isn’t good, sports fans.  Wednesday, we then had producer price data for May, and it continued its own downward trend, to a 1.1% rate from a year ago, 2.8% on core, which means less pricing pressure at the supply chain level.  But it’s the core CPI (and core personal consumption expenditures index, which came in at 4.7% for April) that are the Fed’s two key gauges, as well as a reading on service sector inflation, less energy services (6.6% year-on-year).

With all that in mind, at 2:00 p.m. Wednesday, the FOMC left its benchmark lending rate unchanged, ending its lengthy series of rate increases that started in March last year, holding the policy rate steady at 5% to 5.25%, in line with the Street’s projections.

“Holding the target range steady at this meeting allows the committee to assess additional information and its implications for monetary policy,” the FOMC said in its statement.

“In determining the extent of additional policy firming that may be appropriate to return inflation to 2% over time, the committee will take into account the cumulative tightening of monetary policy, the lags with which monetary policy affects economic activity and inflation, and economic and financial developments.”

But the Fed’s accompanying Summary of Economic Projections (SEP) suggests that further tightening is expected.  The end of 2023 fed funds rate expectation was revised up to 5.6% from 5.1% in the previous SEP, suggesting another 50 basis points of tightening the remainder of the year.

At his press conference, Chair Jerome Powell said “nearly all” committee members expected that further rate tightening will be needed in 2023 to bring down inflation.  Powell said no decisions were made on the July 25-26 meeting or after, repeating that the incoming data will drive policy decisions meeting-by-meeting.

While noting some moderation in inflation since last year, Powell said that it remains too high and will take some time to slow even as the conditions to bring it down are developing.  “The risks to inflation are still to the upside.”

At the same time, he said that the labor market remains very tight and has shown “extraordinary resilience.”

Meanwhile, the U.S. budget deficit swelled in May from a year earlier as revenue tumbled (further confirmation Janet Yellen’s early June target on the debt ceiling front was accurate) and Medicare spending surged, the Treasury Department said on Monday.

The May deficit shot up to $240 billion from $66 billion a year earlier, more than offsetting the $176 billion surplus recorded in April.  The median forecast was for a deficit of $236 billion.

Revenues for May totaled $307 billion, down 21% from $389 billion a year earlier, while outlays rose 20% to $548 billion, with Medicare driving much of the increase.

Through the first eight months of the fiscal year, which began in October, the Treasury reported a cumulative deficit of $1.165 trillion, up from $426 billion a year earlier.

Treasury announced its cash position had fallen to below $23 billion earlier in June.

Europe and Asia

A report on industrial production in April for the eurozone showed it being up 1.0% over March, but up just 0.2% year-over-year.

Friday, a reading on May inflation came in at 6.1% for the euro area, down from 7.0% in April, but still up 6.9% ex-food and energy.  Meaning the European Central Bank has more to do.

Britain: Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland’s former first minister, was arrested on Sunday by police officers investigating the finances of the Scottish National Party, which dominates the country’s politics and which she led until her unexpected resignation in February.

The news deepens the crisis engulfing the S.N.P., which campaigns for Scottish independence, following the earlier arrests of Ms. Sturgeon’s husband, Peter Murrell, the party’s former chief executive, and then of Colin Beattie, its former treasurer.

Both men were arrested without being charged after questioning, but the latest development is a dramatic fall from grace for Sturgeon, a popular politician who served as Scotland’s first minister for more than eight years until she announced her resignation.

That decision was a surprise and prompted a divisive race to succeed her that was ultimately won by Humza Yousaf, previously Scotland’s health secretary.

But Yousaf’s efforts to establish himself as first minister have been overshadowed by the broadening police investigation into the S.N.P.’s finances.

The authorities are thought to be looking into whether money intended to fight for another vote on independence was diverted for a different purpose, and to be investigating why Mr. Murrell made a loan to the party.

Meanwhile, the Bank of England meets next week to discuss monetary policy and it has to deal with record wage growth, as revealed by the Office of National Statistics, for the three months to April, a 7.2% clip.

With inflation running above 8% and households and businesses grappling with a cost-of-living crisis, the central bank must contain price growth without triggering a recession.

Italy: Former Italian leader Silvio Berlusconi, a media tycoon known internationally for bouncing back from a series of sex scandals, corruption allegations and adopting a politically populist style, died Monday. He was 86.

Berlusconi led four Italian governments from 1994 to 2011.  He had recently been admitted to a Milan hospital where he spent 45 days this spring being treated for a lung infection and chronic leukemia.

Berlusconi was a flamboyant billionaire whose political career at the top of Italian politics was often overshadowed by his personal life.  He appeared in court dozens of times to fight charges connected to, among other things, embezzlement, tax fraud and attempted bribery.  He led a hedonistic and extravagant lifestyle, routinely boasted of his sexual conquests and unleashed a wave of anger from Italian women for his casual misogyny.  Berlusconi made his fortune owning TV stations that helped promote his personal brand.  He also owned the AC Milan soccer club.  He began his business life selling vacuum cleaners.

Matteo Renzi, a former Italian prime minister himself, said in a lengthy tweet: “Silvio Berlusconi made history in this country.  Many loved him, many hated him: everyone today must recognize that his impact on political but also economic, sporting and television life was unprecedented.”

Berlusconi’s state funeral was Wednesday in Milan’s Cathedral, part of a national day of mourning.  Some opposition politicians, including former premier Giuseppe Conte, refused to attend the service, while former center-left minister Rosy Bindi said an “inappropriate sanctification” was taking place.

Italy is ruled today by a right-wing coalition consisting of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s party Brothers of Italy, Matteo Salvini’s League and Berlusconi’s former party Forza Italia.

Meloni has been impressive thus far.

Turning to Asia…China reported out key economic data for May Wednesday, with industrial production up 3.5% year-over-year, retail sales up 12.3% Y/Y and fixed asset investment increased 4% year-to-date, all less than consensus.  May unemployment came in at 5.2%.

Vehicles sales in China increased 27.9% year-on-year to 2.382 million units in May, following an 82.7% surge in the previous month, according to data from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers.  Sales of new energy vehicles (hybrids, EVs) jumped 60.2%.  Year-to-date, car sales are up 11.1%, with those of new energy vehicles jumping nearly 47%.

The People’s Bank of China capitulated to reality and cut short-term lending rates on Tuesday.  More cuts to longer term rates are likely in the coming days.  But highly leveraged households and companies will continue to weigh on the nation’s post-Covid recovery.

PBOC data, also released Tuesday, showed lending slowed sharply in May.

Japan’s May producer price index rose 5.1% year-on-year vs. 5.9% previously.  As in China, and the U.S., producer (factory gate) prices have been falling steeply.

May exports were up only 0.6% year-over-year, imports -9.9% Y/Y, both disappointing vs. expectations.

Street Bytes

--Fifth consecutive up week for the S&P 500, up 2.6% to 4409. Nasdaq had its eighth straight up week, longest since 2019, gaining 3.3%, and the Dow Jones advanced 1.3% to 34299.

--U.S. Treasury Yields [Friday's close]

6-mo. 5.30%  2-yr. 4.71%  10-yr. 3.76%  30-yr. 3.85%

--The Paris-based International Energy Agency said global oil demand will taper off over the next few years as high prices and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine speed up the transition away from fossil fuels.

Consumption in 2024 will grow at half the rate seen in the prior two years, and an ultimate limit for demand will arrive this decade as electric vehicles send the use of gasoline by cars into decline, the IEA said in a medium-term outlook.  With production capacity still growing, markets will remain “adequately supplied” through to 2028, it said.

“Growth in the world’s demand for oil is set to slow almost to a halt in the coming years,” said the agency.  “The shift to a clean energy economy is picking up pace, with a peak in global oil demand in sight before the end of this decade.”

But, the short-term and long-term outlooks differ greatly. World oil markets may tighten “significantly” over the next few months as China’s fuel consumption rebounds from the pandemic, while OPEC+ producers led by Saudi Arabia reduce production, the IEA said.

Next year also looks tight, particularly in the second half, with oil inventories set to decline even as global demand growth drops to 860,000 barrels a day, compared with 2.4 million barrels a day this year, or about 2%.

--JPMorgan Chase has reached a settlement in a class action lawsuit with victims of financier Jeffrey Epstein, agreeing to pay about $290 million to Epstein’s victims.  The lawsuit filed in Manhattan federal court in November sought to hold JPMorgan financially liable for Epstein’s decades-long abuse of teenage girls and young women.  A related lawsuit has been filed in the U.S. Virgin Islands.

“We all now understand that Epstein’s behavior was monstrous, and we believe this settlement is in the best interest of all parties, especially the survivors, who suffered unimaginable abuse at the hands of this man,” JPMorgan Chase said in a written statement early Monday.

Litigation is still pending between the U.S. Virgin Islands and JPM, as well as JPMorgan Chase’s claims against former executive, Jes Staley.

According to the lawsuits, JPMorgan provided Epstein loans and regularly allowed him to withdraw large sums of cash from 1998 through August 2013 even though it knew about his sex trafficking practices.

“Any association with him was a mistake and we regret it,” the bank said in a prepared statement. “We would never have continued to do business with him if we believed he was using our bank in any way to help commit heinous crimes.”

JPM CEO Jamie Dimon has testified that he never heard of Epstein and his crimes until the financier was arrested in 2019, according to a transcript of his deposition released last month.

The settlement is subject to court approval.

--Oracle late Monday reported fiscal fourth-quarter results that surpassed Wall Street expectations on the back of a revenue boost from cloud services and license support.

Adjusted per-share earnings was $1.67 in the three months ended May 31, higher than $1.54 a year earlier and ahead of consensus of $1.58.

Revenue advanced 17% to $13.84 billion, also beating the Street’s view.  The shares rose 10% in response.

Cloud services and license support sales gained 23% to $9.37 billion, boosted by growing demand from companies deploying AI, while the cloud and on-premise license segment declined 15% to $215 billion.

Oracle’s push into the cloud computing market has started to bear fruit, helped by its acquisition of electronic medical records firm Cerner last year that has helped it better compete with industry giants like Microsoft and Amazon.com.  Cerner contributed $1.5 billion in fiscal fourth-quarter revenue.

Oracle founder Larry Ellison, 78, passed Microsoft Corp. founder Bill Gates to become the world’s fourth-richest person with a net worth of $129.8 billion, according to the Bloomerg Billionaire’s Index.  It’s the first time that Ellison is richer than Gates, whose net worth is currently $129.1 billion (these figures are after Monday’s close), and the first time Ellison has ranked higher than fifth on the list.

--TSA checkpoint numbers vs. 2019

6/15…100 percent of 2019 levels
6/14…96
6/13…95
6/12…97
6/11…103
6/10…100
6/9…98
6/8…98

--The Washington Post analyzed National Highway Traffic Safety Administration data concerning 736 crashes in the U.S. since 2019 involving Teslas in Autopilot mode – far more than previously reported.  “The number of crashes has surged over the past four years, the data shows, reflecting the hazards associated with increasingly widespread use of Tesla’s futuristic driver-assistance technology as well as the growing presence of the cars on the nation’s roadways.”

When authorities first released a partial accounting of accidents involving Autopilot in June 2022, they counted only three deaths definitively linked to the technology.  The most recent data includes 17 fatal incidents, 11 of them since last May, and five serious injuries.

NHTSA said a report of a crash involving driver-assistance does not itself imply that the technology was the cause.  “NHTSA reminds the public that all advanced driver assistance systems require the human driver to be in control and fully engaged in the driving task at all times.  Accordingly, all state laws hold the human driver responsible for the operation of their vehicles.”

In February, Tesla issued a recall of more than 360,000 vehicles equipped with Full Self-Driving over concerns that the software prompted its vehicles to disobey traffic lights, stop signs and speed limits.

--The projected cost-of-living adjustment for Social Security recipients is now at just 2.7% in 2024.  The actual COLA for next year won’t be announced until October, when the Social Security Administration compares the average consumer-price index from the third quarter of 2023 with the average data from the same period las year.

This year, with inflation having soared in 2022, the COLA was 8.7%.

--George Soros, the legendary investor, philanthropist and right-wing target, is handing control of his $25 billion empire to a younger son – Alexander Soros, a self-described center-left thinker who grew up self-conscious of the family’s wealth and wasn’t thought to be a potential successor.

The 37-year-old, who goes by Alex, said in the first interview since his selection that he was broadening his father’s liberal aims – “We think alike,” the elder Soros said – while embracing some different causes. Those include voting and abortion rights, as well as gender equity.  He plans to continue using the family’s deep pockets to back left-leaning U.S. politicians.

“I’m more political,” Alex said, compared with his father.  He recently met with Biden administration officials, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and heads of state, including Brazil’s President Lula da Silva and Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to advocate for issues related to the family foundation.

The Soros’ nonprofit Open Society Foundations, known as OSF, directs about $1.5 billion a year to groups such as those backing human rights around the world and helping build democracies.

Alex said he was concerned about the prospect of Donald Trump’s return to the White House, suggesting a significant financial role for the Soros organization in the 2024 presidential race.

The move to the son is surprising because George, 92, had said, “I didn’t want the foundation to be taken over by one of my children, as a matter of principle. I thought it should be managed by someone who is best suited.”

--Bud Light has lost its position as the best-selling beer in the U.S. after facing a boycott, new figures show.

In the four weeks to June 3, sales were down by almost a quarter, according to consulting firm Bump Williams.

The boycott came about after transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney showed off a personalized can of the beer.

Modelo Especial has taken the top spot, with 8.4% of U.S. beer sales by value in the period.

Bud Light had kept its position as America’s best-selling beer for the first five months of the year, according to Bump Williams and data from Nielsen.

However, the figures show that sales of Bud Light have slumped since April, when Mulvaney posted an image on Instagram of the personalized can.

The chief executive of AB InBev’s North American business, Brendan Whitworth, said in a statement on April 14: “We never intended to be part of a discussion that divides people. We are in the business of bringing people together over a beer.”

The CEO of Anheuser-Busch InBev, Michael Doukeris, said on an investor call May 4: “We need to clarify the facts that this was one can, one influencer, one post and not a campaign.”

Doukeris talked then about giving direct support “to the frontline line teams that work for us and our wholesalers, who got hit hard through zero fault of their own.”

--Pat Sajak announced he was retiring after 41 years helming “Wheel of Fortune,” though one more season to go, the new one beginning in September.  “It’s been a wonderful ride, and I’ll have more to say in the coming months,” Sajak said Monday.

The 76-year-old took over for Chuck Woolery in 1981.  Woolery was the inaugural host when the show launched in 1975.

A year after Sajak started, Vanna White joined the cast.  White, 66, is worried she’s about to lose her job, according to reports.

Foreign Affairs, Part II

China: The United States should “show respect” and stop undermining China’s sovereignty, security and development interests, Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang said on Wednesday.

Qin made the remarks in a phone call with Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

“I hope that the U.S. side will take practical actions to implement the important consensus of the meeting between the two heads of state in Bali, move in the same direction as the Chinese side, effectively manage differences, promote exchanges and cooperation, and promote the stabilization of China-U.S. relations,” Qin said, according to a Chinese foreign ministry readout of the call.

Qin reiterated Beijing’s “stern position” on its core concerns, such as Taiwan, and he urged Washington to “show respect, stop interfering in China’s internal affairs and stop undermining China’s sovereignty, security and development interests in the name of competition.”

Blinken is expected to travel to China for talks this Sunday, Chinese state media saying Blinken would visit June 18 and 19.

A new public opinion poll of people in Singapore, South Korea and the Philippines reveals anxiety over a possible U.S.-China confrontation in the future, analysts at the Eurasia Group Foundation wrote, selecting these three because each one has “significant historical, economic, and diplomatic ties” with both the U.S. and China.

Nearly a quarter of respondents overall said they’re “very worried” about a possible U.S.-China confrontation, and two-thirds said they’re “somewhat worried” about that possibility – for a combination of 90% expressing at least some degree of concern over competition spilling over into confrontation in the years ahead.

Eighty-one percent of Filipinos think their country’s “national security will be put at risk” by ongoing U.S.-China competition…

Seventy percent of South Koreans worry their country’s “politics will intensify as political parties pick sides in the U.S.-China rivalry”…

On the other hand, “More than three in four (76%) think America’s influence has had a positive impact on their country in recent years.  Fewer than half (41%) think this of China’s influence”…

And: “More than twice as many respondents have a favorable view of the U.S. (70%) than of China (34%)”; however, in Singapore, those numbers tilt Beijing’s direction, with 56% viewing China more favorably than the U.S. (at 48% favorability).

I’ve been disturbed with the conversations between Singapore and China in recent years.  I get it that Singapore has long seen itself as a peacemaker, but they have recently signed some military agreements with Beijing I just don’t get, having spent time in Singapore (and loving the place).

Regarding last week’s Wall Street Journal exclusive on China’s intentions to build a large intelligence collection facility in Cuba, which was at first denied by White House and Pentagon officials, a Biden official did admit last weekend after the report hit that China has been spying from Cuba for some time and upgraded its facilities there in 2019.

The official, speaking on condition of anonymity to Reuters, said the media’s characterization “does not comport with our understanding,” but did not specify how the Journal’s story was wrong nor address in detail whether there were efforts by China to build a new eavesdropping facility in Cuba.

China’s embassy in Washington accused the U.S. of “spreading rumors and slander” with the talk of a Cuba spy station, and of being “the most powerful hacker empire in the world.”

Iran: Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Sunday a deal with the West over Tehran’s nuclear program was possible if the country’s nuclear infrastructure remained intact, amid a stalemate between Tehran and Washington to revive the 2015 nuclear pact.

Months of indirect talks between the two to salvage the nuclear accord with six major powers have stalled since September, with both sides accusing each other of making unreasonable demands.

Khamenei’s guarded approval comes days after both Tehran and Washington denied a report that they were nearing an interim deal under which Tehran would curb its nuclear program in return for sanctions relief.  That rumor moved the oil market last Friday.

A State Department spokesperson declined to comment on Khamenei’s remarks.

Echoing Iran’s official stance for years, Khamenei said the Islamic Republic has never sought to build a nuclear bomb.  “Accusations about Tehran seeking nuclear weapons is a lie and they know it.  We do not want nuclear arms because of our religious beliefs.  Otherwise they (the West) would not have been able to stop it,” Khamenei said.

He also said Iranian authorities should not yield to the IAEA’s “excessive and false demands.”

The next day, Monday, Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani denied reports Iran is in talks with the U.S. over an interim nuclear deal.

“We confirm no such thing,” he said, though he added the two sides were engaging through intermediaries about prisoner swaps.

Israel: Steps to advance a new IDF (Israel Defense Forces) conscription bill for Israel’s ultra-orthodox (haredi) citizens will be taken “immediately,” the Shas party said in a statement following a meeting between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the leaders of the haredi parties on Monday.

A draft of the bill, which Shas said would “regularize the status of yeshiva [religious academy] students,” is already being prepared by professional bodies, the party said.

The existing law, which passed in 2014 and was amended in 2015, sets allotments of haredi draftees to the IDF per year and sanctions yeshivot that do not meet these allotments.  However, in September 2017, the Supreme Court deemed the bill unconstitutional, since the exemption it gave was ruled to be too sweeping and thus violated the notion of equality.  We’ll see what happens.

Syria: A helicopter accident in northeastern Syria over the weekend left 22 American service members injured, some seriously, the U.S. military said Tuesday, adding that the cause of the accident was under investigation and that no enemy fire was involved.  We later learned it was a special operations mission, such forces moving in and out of the country.

The U.S. has at least 900 forces in Syria on average, along with an undisclosed number of contractors.  They have been there since 2015 to advise and assist the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces in the fight against Islamic State.

Kosovo: On Wednesday, vehicles with Serbia’s license plates were barred from entering Kosovo in response to the arrest of three of its border police officers by Serbia’s police.  Not good.

Random Musings

--Presidential approval ratings….

Gallup: 39% approve of Biden’s job performance, 57% disapprove; 33% of independents approve (May 1-24).

Rasmussen: 45% approve, 53% disapprove (June 14).

A just-released Quinnipiac University Poll has Biden with a 42% approval rating, 54% disapproving.

--The Quinnipiac survey also has Donald Trump leading Ron DeSantis 53-23 percent.  In May, the same poll had Trump ahead 56-25.

Nikki Haley, Mike Pence, Tim Scott and Chris Christie each receive 4 percent.

And in a hypothetical matchup, Biden leads Trump 48-44 among all registered voters.  On May 24, the survey had Biden up 48-46.

--Chris Christie took his crusade against Donald Trump to a CNN town hall event in New York City, with participants representing all the early voting states, as well as citizens from his native state of New Jersey.  Christie said that Donald Trump’s legal problems and character issues render him unfit for another term in the White House.

A Trump return to the presidency will only be about “settling scores” rather than helping the American people, Christie said.

“He has shown himself…to be completely self-centered, completely self-consumed, and doesn’t give a damn about the American people, in my view.”

Citing Republican setbacks in the 2018, 2020, and 2022 congressional and presidential elections, the former ally of Trump said that “he hasn’t won a damn thing since 2016; three-time loser.”

He later repeated: “Loser…loser…loser.”

The evidence in the current indictment “looks pretty damning,” Christie said. Trump stands accused of improperly taking sensitive and classified information from the White House and obstructing justice by hiding the documents from investigators who had subpoenaed them.

“He is voluntarily putting our country through this,” Christie said.  “It’s his conduct.”

Christie said he suspects Trump kept the documents in order to “show off” to friends and associates, never mind that he was not legally entitled to them.

Christie also taunted Trump into joining Republican debates later this year, Trump has suggested he may skip the debates because so many opponents are trailing him badly in the polls.

If Trump does refuse the first debate in Milwaukee on Aug. 23, Christie said he will have “a lane” to attack him without a response; that will force Trump to show up for a second session in California in September.

But Christie has to qualify for the debates himself, and as I said last week, that’s not going to be easy.

--Fox News labeled President Biden “a wannabe dictator” who attempted to have “his political rival arrested” during a live broadcast of Trump’s post-arraignment speech.

Towards the end of the speech, viewers were presented with a split screen carrying a separate speech from Biden at the White House. Below the image, the news caption read: “wannabe dictator speaks at the White House after having his political rival arrested.”

The text remained on screen until Sean Hannity came to air at 9 p.m.

--Fox News fired off a cease-and-desist letter to former host Tucker Carlson, ordering him to stop posting episodes of his new Twitter show following his ouster from the network, according to a report.

Carlson remains under contract with Fox, which claims to retain the rights to his exclusive content through 2024, according to Axios, which reported that the cease-and-desist had been sent.

Fox canceled the highly rated “Tucker Carlson Tonight” and parted ways with him in April, days after the network reached a $788 million settlement with Dominion Voting Systems.

Carlson launched his online series, “Tucker on Twitter,” earlier this month.  He has aired two episodes, and his executive producer promoted another on Sunday.

--Ted Kaczynski, former math professor and “twisted genius” who came to be known as the Unabomber when he carried out a 17-year spree of mysterious bombings that killed three people and baffled the FBI, died on Saturday at the age of 81.  He was found unresponsive at the Federal Medical Center Butner, a facility for prisoners with special health needs, in Butner, North Carolina.  It was later ruled a suicide, but just how was not revealed.

The Harvard University graduate, a loner since childhood, targeted academics, scientists and computer store owners and even tried to blow up a commercial airliner in a one-man terror campaign from 1978 to 1995 against what he believed were the evils of modern technology.  For years, he frustrated police who, with no solid clues to the killer’s identity, dubbed his case UNABOM, for University and Airline Bombings.  A breakthrough came when Kaczynski released a rambling, 35,000-word manifesto entitled “Industrial Society and Its Future” that was published in the media in September 1995.  Kaczynski’s younger brother, David, tipped off police that the author’s ideas sounded like those of Ted.  Agents arrested the disheveled Unabomber at his cabin in April 1996.

After rejecting his lawyers’ attempts to have him plead insanity, Kaczynski pleaded guilty to all federal charges relating to the bombings in 1998 and a California court sentenced him to four life terms plus 30 years in prison.

--NYPD Commissioner Keechant Sewell, the first woman to lead the nation’s largest police force, suddenly resigned Monday after 1 ½ years on the job.

“I have made the decision to step down from my position,” Sewell said in an email blasted out to every cop’s smartphone.  “While my time here will come to a close I will never step away from my advocacy and support for the NYPD and I will always be a champion for the people of New York City.”

Sewell maintained a low profile as commissioner, giving few sit-down interviews and often holding press conferences in which she would only take questions about the topic at hand.

As the Daily News reported: “She battled the persistent belief at Police Headquarters and City Hall that Mayor Adams and Deputy Mayor for Public Safety Philip Banks were calling most of the shots, particularly regarding high-level personnel decisions.”

--California’s second-largest reservoir is now completely full after a historic rain/snow season recharged reservoirs across the state following years of drought.

Lake Oroville, about 80 miles north of Sacramento, is at 100% of its capacity, according to the California Department of Water Resources.

Since Dec. 1, the lake’s water level has increased more than 240 feet, putting the reservoir at 127% of its historical average for the date, state data show.

Farther north, Shasta Lake – which now sits at 97% full – was at 38% of capacity in the middle of last summer, this being California’s largest reservoir.

--A report published Wednesday in the journal Nature says Saturn’s moon Enceladus and its cold, dark ocean appears to contain a form of phosphorus, an essential ingredient for life as we know it, the ocean thus containing the six elements needed for life.

As Joel Achenbach reports in the Washington Post, the report is based on data from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft, which explored Saturn and its moons for 13 years before it was sent plunging into the gas giant’s atmosphere in 2017.

Lead author Frank Postberg, a professor at the Free University of Berlin, said “it doesn’t mean that it’s actually hosting life, that it’s inhabited.”

Enceladus seems to have what scientist call a “soda ocean.”  Postberg suggest it might taste a little soapy if you had a glass of it.  The ocean is hidden beneath a layer of ice many miles thick, but frozen particles migrate through cracks in the ice and spurt into space.

To answer the question of the six elements, Achenbach notes phosphorus is the “P” in CHNOPS, which stands for carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, phosphorus and sulfur.  I sure as hell didn’t know this.

But it was Stevie Wonder who in his song “Saturn” first taught us:

On Saturn…
People live to be two hundred and five…

---

Pray for the men and women of our armed forces…and all the fallen.

Pray for Ukraine.

God bless America.

---

Gold $1970 (Fri.)
Oil $71.44 (Fri.)

Regular Gas: $3.58; Diesel: $3.89 [$5.00 / $5.78 yr. ago]

June 14 was high for Reg. Gas at $5.01 a year ago.

Returns for the week 6/12-6/16

Dow Jones  +1.3%  [34299]
S&P 500  +2.6%  [4409]
S&P MidCap  +1.5%
Russell 2000  +0.5%
Nasdaq  +3.3%  [13689]

Returns for the period 1/1/23-6/16/23

Dow Jones  +3.5%
S&P 500  +14.9%
S&P MidCap  +6.2%
Russell 2000  +6.5%
Nasdaq  +30.8%

Bulls 53.4
Bears 20.6…last week’s previously unreported readings; 51.3 / 21.6

Hang in there.

Brian Trumbore

Happy Father’s Day!

 

 

---