04Sep2023 Market Close & Major Financial Headlines: Closed For Labor Day

September 4, 2023Posted inmarketsNo Comments

The stock markets are closed today for Labor Day but there is still news. Click on the “Read More” below to read all the headlines we are following today.

Summary Of the Markets Today:

  • The Dow n/a,
  • Nasdaq n/a,
  • S&P 500 n/a,
  • Gold n/a,
  • WTI crude oil n/a,
  • 10-year U.S. Treasury n/a,
  • USD index n/a,
  • Bitcoin $25,900 down $70

Click here to read our Economic Forecast for September 2023

Today’s Economic Releases Compiled by Steven Hansen, Publisher:

No economic releases today

Here is a summary of headlines we are reading today:

  • Alaska Air Force Base Home To Mini-Nuclear Reactor Pilot Project
  • Putin’s Natural Gas Leverage Over The EU Is Not Entirely Gone
  • UK Fuel Prices See One Of The Largest Monthly Increases In 23 Years
  • Venezuela’s Oil Exports Plunge By 38% From Three-Year High
  • Biden gets low marks on economy and major concerns about his age as he looks to Trump rematch, new poll shows
  • BMW: Gasoline Car Ban Poses “Imminent Risk” To European Automakers
  • Putin and Erdogan discuss grain deal; Kyiv replaces defense minister
  • Germany is the ‘sick man of Europe’ — and it’s causing a shift to the right, top economist says
  • Zuckerberg’s “Twitter Killer” App Struggles For Traction
  • “Exodus Begins”: Thousands Attempt To Flee Burning Man

Click on the “Read More” below to access these, other headlines, and the associated news summaries moving the markets today.

Tonight, Tomorrow, Next Day, Five Days, and Intermediate-Term Outlooks for the U.S. and a Six-Day Forecast for the World: posted September 4, 2023

September 4, 2023Posted inweatherNo Comments

Here is what we are paying attention to in the next 48 to 72 hours. The article also includes weather maps for longer-term outlooks and a five-day World weather outlook.

We start with the U.S. Information. You can update this section here but these are 48 to 72-hour forecasts so if I have not been able to update this area twice daily, what is shown is still valid and the images in the body of the article update automatically but sometimes they are a bit slow to update.

Short Range Forecast Discussion
NWS Weather Prediction Center College Park MD
Mon Sep 04 2023

Valid 12Z Mon Sep 04 2023 – 12Z Wed Sep 06 2023

…There is a Slight Risk of excessive rainfall over the parts of the
Northern Rockies/Northern High Plains on Monday…

…There is a Slight Risk of severe thunderstorms over parts of the
Northern/Central High Plains…

…There are Heat Advisories over parts of the Upper Mississippi Valley
and Northeast on Monday…

Tonight, Tomorrow, Next Day, Five Days, and Intermediate-Term Outlooks for the U.S. and a Six-Day Forecast for the World: posted September 3, 2023

September 3, 2023Posted inweatherNo Comments

Here is what we are paying attention to in the next 48 to 72 hours. The article also includes weather maps for longer-term outlooks and a five-day World weather outlook.

We start with the U.S. Information. You can update this section here but these are 48 to 72-hour forecasts so if I have not been able to update this area twice daily, what is shown is still valid and the images in the body of the article update automatically but sometimes they are a bit slow to update.

Short Range Forecast Discussion
NWS Weather Prediction Center College Park MD
Sun Sep 03 2023
Valid 12Z Sun Sep 03 2023 – 12Z Tue Sep 05 2023

…There is a Slight Risk of excessive rainfall over the parts of the
Great Basin/Northern Intermountain Region on Sunday and Northern Rockies
on Monday…

…There are Heat Advisories over parts of the Northern/Central Plains and
Upper Mississippi Valley on Sunday…

…Upper-level ridging will build over the Great Lakes/Ohio Valley…

Fifth Circuit Court Decision on State’s Rights with Respect to Nuclear Waste Storage – September 2, 2023

September 2, 2023Posted inopinionNo Comments

In this article, I present the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit decision in case No. 21-60743 relating to the rejection of a license to store spent nuclear power plant rods from out of state in a facility in Texas.

It is a long decision as court decisions usually are. It may be a strange way to introduce the enormous topic of the storage of nuclear waste.  There are two main types of nuclear waste:

A. Related to Nuclear Weapons

B. Related to Nuclear Fission Energy Plants (this case is related to this category of nuclear waste but the two topics are very intertwined)

There are other minor categories including medical.

The common characteristic in all categories of nuclear waste is generally no one wants to store it. There are many reasons for that. Some are obvious. By no one, I mean no states. Some communities see the storage of nuclear waste as an economic development opportunity.

I am reporting on this decision mostly because it is recent and addresses the state’s rights aspects of the problem. If you read the decision carefully, you will glean additional information.

I will summarize some of that at the end of the article.

I know that court decisions are boring but this topic is very important. Some of the environmental issues were touched in this decision but the issue of the transport of nuclear waste and the risk this creates was only hinted at.

This is a large problem for the U.S. and many other nations and I have had difficulty addressing it because of all the complications and the large amount of information that is important to understand. In this case, the focus was on legal issues so it was perhaps a good way to introduce the topic. The legal issues are extremely important but the technical issues are also extremely important. I will be getting into those in future articles and I plan to write a number of articles on this topic because of its importance.

At the end of the article, there is an opportunity to submit comments and I encourage readers to do so. It is usually better to submit a comment that way than to me directly because more people will see the comment and responses by me and others to the comment will also be seen by others. So it stimulates discussion. Please feel free to send this article to anyone who you think will benefit from reading it.

Tonight, Tomorrow, Next Day, Five Days, and Intermediate-Term Outlooks for the U.S. and a Six-Day Forecast for the World: posted September 2, 2023

September 2, 2023Posted inweatherNo Comments

Here is what we are paying attention to in the next 48 to 72 hours. The article also includes weather maps for longer-term outlooks and a five-day World weather outlook.

We start with the U.S. Information. You can update this section here but these are 48 to 72-hour forecasts so if I have not been able to update this area twice daily, what is shown is still valid and the images in the body of the article update automatically but sometimes they are a bit slow to update.

Short Range Forecast Discussion
NWS Weather Prediction Center College Park MD
Sat Sep 02 2023

Valid 12Z Sat Sep 02 2023 – 12Z Mon Sep 04 2023

…There is a Slight Risk of excessive rainfall over the parts of the
Southwest/Great Basin on Saturday and Great Basin/Northern Intermountain
Region on Sunday…

…There is an Elevated Risk of fire weather over parts of the Central
Plains on Saturday, extending into Upper Mississippi Valley on Sunday…

01 Sept 2023 Market Close & Major Financial Headlines: Wall Street Opened Near Yesterday’s Highs, Then Waterfalls To Close Mixed

September 1, 2023Posted inmarketsNo Comments

Summary Of the Markets Today:

  • The Dow closed up 116 points or 0.33%,
  • Nasdaq closed down 0.02%,
  • S&P 500 closed up 0.18%,
  • Gold $1,967 up $1.10,
  • WTI crude oil settled at $86 up $2.25,
  • 10-year U.S. Treasury 4.179% up 0.088 points,
  • USD Index $104.26 up $0.640,
  • Bitcoin $25,618 down $482,
  • Baker Hughes Rig Count: U.S. -1 to 631 Canada -3 to 187

*Stock data, cryptocurrency, and commodity prices at the market closing.

Click here to read our Economic Forecast for September 2023

Today’s Economic Releases Compiled by Steven Hansen, Publisher:

Total nonfarm payroll employment increased by 187,000 in August 2023 and the unemployment rate rose to 3.8 percent. Employment continued to trend up in health care, leisure and hospitality, social assistance, and construction. Employment in transportation and warehousing declined. There were a massive 736,000 people added to the workforce this month which fully explains the increase in the unemployment rate (this is from the household survey portion of the jobs report which extrapolates data from 50,000 households). Comparing the gains, the household survey increased employment by 222,000 whilst the establishment survey increased 187,000 which reasonably correlates. Average weekly earnings grew from $1,119 in August 2022 to $1,163 in August 2023. The bottom line is that employment gains have been growing for the last 2 months and remains relatively strong. The decline in transport jobs this month is an idiosyncrasy caused by several factors facing this sector.

Construction spending grew in July 2019 by 5.5% year-over-year (red line on the graph below). Inflation-adjusted, construction spending grew 1.7% year-over-year (blue line on the graph below).

The August 2023 Manufacturing PMI registered 47.6 percent, 1.2 percentage points higher than the 46.4 percent recorded in July. This figure indicates a ninth month of contraction after a 30-month period of expansion. The New Orders Index remained in contraction territory at 46.8 percent, 0.5 percentage points lower than the figure of 47.3 percent recorded in July. No question that the manufacturing sector remains in a recession.

Here is a summary of headlines we are reading today:

  • Drilling Continues To Disappoint As Oil Prices Climb
  • Oil Reaches New 2023 High
  • Massive Copper Theft Scandal Sends Shockwaves Through Metal Market
  • The Largest Threat To The Solar Industry
  • Oil Prices Climb As Traders Refocus On Fundamentals
  • Hollywood sheds 17,000 jobs in August amid ongoing strikes
  • Dow closes more than 100 points higher to kick off September, notches best week since July: Live updates
  • Home prices may be on the verge of cooling off
  • Dell has best day on stock market since its relisting in 2018 after earnings sail past estimates
  • Russia Puts Its Longest Range Nuke-Capable Missile On Combat Duty, Nicknamed ‘Satan II’
  • Market Snapshot: S&P 500 heads for weekly gain as U.S. stocks trade mixed after jobs report

Click on the “Read More” below to access these, other headlines, and the associated news summaries moving the markets today.

NOAA Updates It’s September, 2023 Outlook on August 31, 2023 – There Have Been Some Dramatic Changes from the Mid-Month Outlook

September 1, 2023Posted inweatherNo Comments

At the end of every month, NOAA updates its Outlook for the following month which in this case is September of 2023. We are reporting on that tonight.

There have been some dramatic changes in the Outlook for September and these are addressed in the NOAA Discussion so it is well worth reading.  We provided the prior Mid-Month Outlook for September for comparison. It is easy to see the changes by comparing the Mid-Month and Updated Maps.

The article includes the Drought Outlook for September. NOAA also adjusted the previously issued Seasonal Drought Outlook to reflect the changes in the September Drought Outlook. We have included a map showing the water-year-to-date precipitation. We also provide the Week 2/3 Tropical Outlook for the World.

The best way to understand the updated outlook for September is to view the maps and read the NOAA discussion. I have highlighted the key statements in the NOAA Discussion.

I am going to start with graphics that show the updated Outlook for September and the Mid-Month Outlook for September. This is followed by a graphic that shows both the Updated Outlook for September and also the three-month outlook SON 2023. So you get the full picture in three graphics.

Here is the updated Outlook for September 2023

For Comparison Purposes, Here is the Mid-Month Outlook for September.

There have been some dramatic changes. Remember, it is the top set of maps that are the current outlook for September.

Combination of the Updated Outlook for September and the Three-Month Outlook

The top row is the Updated Outlook for the new month. There is a temperature map and a precipitation map. The second row is a three-month outlook that includes the new month. I think the outlook maps are self-explanatory. What is important to remember is that they show deviations from the current definition of normal which is the period 1991 through 2020.  So this is not a forecast of the absolute value of temperature or precipitation but the change from what is defined as normal or to use the technical term climatology.

Tonight, Tomorrow, Next Day, Five Days, and Intermediate-Term Outlooks for the U.S. and a Six-Day Forecast for the World: posted September 1, 2023

September 1, 2023Posted inweatherNo Comments

Here is what we are paying attention to in the next 48 to 72 hours. The article also includes weather maps for longer-term outlooks and a five-day World weather outlook.

We start with the U.S. Information. You can update this section here but these are 48 to 72-hour forecasts so if I have not been able to update this area twice daily, what is shown is still valid and the images in the body of the article update automatically but sometimes they are a bit slow to update.

Short Range Forecast Discussion
NWS Weather Prediction Center College Park MD
Fri Sep 01 2023
Valid 12Z Fri Sep 01 2023 – 12Z Sun Sep 03 2023

…There is a Slight Risk of excessive rainfall over the parts of the
Southwest/Great Basin on Friday/Saturday and Eastern Gulf Coast on
Friday…

…There is a Marginal Risk of severe thunderstorms over parts of the
Southwest/Great Basin on Friday…

…There is an Elevated Risk of fire weather over parts of the Central
Plains on Friday…