Thursday Watch

Around X:

• @Business 

• The UK’s opposition Conservative Party plans to scrap the Climate Change Act if it returns to power, the latest indication that the longstanding political consensus on climate action in Britain has shattered. 
• Japan will sell benchmark 10-year bonds on Thursday, just two days before the ruling party elects a new leader in a key vote that will determine fiscal and economic policy.
• Get up to speed on what's moving global markets.
• Here's what you need to know to start your day. 

• @ZeroHedge

• Trump Keeps Oil Permits Flowing In Shutdown, Some Renewables On Hold.
• *APPLE SHELVES HEADSET REVAMP TO PRIORITIZE META-LIKE AI GLASSES.
• Joy Reid Says Earning Money And Leaving It To Your Kids Is "Dangerous".
• ANTIFA By Night, NGOs By Day: Left-Wing Political Machine Runs 24/7 Outside Portland ICE Facility.
• ICE agents to attend Super Bowl after Bad Bunny announcement, says Lewandowski.
• Trump's Economic Statecraft Now Covers Trade, Capital And "Other".
• OpenAI Readies TikTok-Style App Powered Only By AI Videos.
• Freight Expected To Roll On During Shutdown.
• Harvard's newest faculty member is the Indian drag queen "Lawhore Vagistan." He will be teaching two courses: Queer Ethnography and RuPaulitics: Drag, Race, and Desire. He is described as an "eminent scholar."   
• JUST IN: Many Democrats are now furious with Indian-born Rep. Shri Thanedar for admitting that they shut down the government on purpose - openly and blatantly. "If this means we got to shut the government down, SO BE IT," the Democrat congressman said.
• Trump Inks Article-5 Style Defense Deal With Qatar After 'Apology' Over Israel's Doha Bombing
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• ICE Arrests More Than 400 Illegal Immigrants In Week-Long Operation In Central Florida
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• Stocks Celebrate Government Shutdown By Surging To New Record High.
   

• @CNBC

• SK Hynix shares hit multidecade highs, Samsung also surges on OpenAI partnership.
• Asia markets set to open higher after Wall Street shrugs off U.S. government shutdown.
• Stock futures are little changed as investors look past government shutdown: Live updates. 
• Thursday's big stock stories: What’s likely to move the market in the next trading session

• @WSJ 

• Exclusive: The White House is calling it the “Compact,” a sweeping set of operating principles it wants universities to adopt in exchange for federal funding preference.
• Walmart is taking the biggest step yet to overhaul ingredients used in America’s food supply.
• Exclusive: Jeffrey Epstein never got kicked out of Wall Street’s VIP club. His banking and investment activities before his death were more widespread than previously known, including accounts at multiple banks.  
• The Trump administration will provide Ukraine with intelligence for long-range missile strikes on Russia’s energy infrastructure.

• @harryfisherEMTP

• To Mr. Kennedy, and the Other So Called “Masterminds,” I heard Pfizer’s Albert Bourla call you that word recently, “the masterminds.” He meant it as praise. I can’t tell you how sick that makes me feel. Seventy billion dollars invested into Pfizer and called an achievement, called brilliance. But when I hear the word mastermind, I don’t think of heroes or leaders. I think of criminals. Criminal masterminds who profit while people like me clean up the aftermath. Because here’s my vantage point. I’m not in the halls of Congress. I don’t sit in pharma boardrooms. I don’t speak at press conferences about “science” that’s been bought and sanitized. I’m on the ground. I’m the one running the sudden death calls. I start the IOs. I push the meds. I intubate, and I hold back tears constantly. I often work knowing it may all be hopeless, then I call the time of death. And then… then I go into the living room. I look a husband or a wife in the eyes and shatter their world with words they will never forget “She/He’s gone, I’m so very sorry for Your loss.” That happens more than you want to know. And it will keep happening, because you all play with human lives like pieces in your strategic “investments.” Do you know what it feels like to still be on shift after holding the weight of death in your hands? Most of the public has no idea. If they saw what I see in a single day, they’d never again clap when you announce “record profits” or new “breakthroughs.” They’d realize the trail of bodies behind your billion dollar smiles. Masterminds? That word doesn’t honor you. It condemns you. Because true leaders don’t enrich themselves while the ground crew drowns in blood, grief, and unanswered questions. (video)

• @LauraLoomer

• Today marks 8 years since the Las Vegas Shooting terrorist attack. And 8 years later, we still have zero answers and many abnormalities about what happened that day at the Mandalay Bay hotel. It’s very strange. Isn’t it?

• @newstart_2024 

• Globalist elites are advancing yet another chilling scheme to control the most basic elements of human life: food and reproduction. This time, billionaire Bill Gates, already the largest private owner of U.S. farmland, is bankrolling efforts to replace breastfeeding with a lab-grown “milk” product called “Biomilq.” Health authorities worldwide, from the WHO to the CDC, agree that exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months of life is critical for infant health.
• The mask slips for a moment. In a recent interview, Bill Gates bemoaned the "major cuts" to global health funding, but a closer listen reveals the true agenda. What Gates is really saying is that the financial spigot for his vast, unelected network of influence has been temporarily turned down. He isn't talking about charity; he's talking about a disrupted business model. The "debts going up" are the IOUs of nations and organizations now dependent on his foundation's capital and conditions. (video)

• EricLDaugh

• BREAKING: Director Kash Patel announces the FBI has SLASHED all ties with the ADL, after the group called Christian Identity and Turning Point USA "HATEFUL" and causes of "terror." "James Comey wrote 'love letters' to the ADL and embedded FBI agents with them - a group that ran disgraceful ops spying on Americans. That era is OVER. This FBI won’t partner with political fronts masquerading as watchdogs."

• @DowdEdward

• Remember Albert Bourla called folks criminals for putting forth a different narrative on his Covid vaccine. Now Trump praises him today. Just outrageous. Always comforting when a CEO of a pharmaceutical company wants to criminalize those who questioned a company that wanted to hide its clinical trial data for 75 years. (video)
• Time to recirculate this documentary since it appears Trump wants to memory hole all of Covid vaccine damage by praising Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla. 

• @Rothbard1776

• Albert Bourla should be tried for Crimes Against Humanity. This isn’t 4D chess. You’re never getting accountability from Trump’s administration for the millions of injuries and deaths that were suffered, runaway inflation and the violations of your God-given rights during COVID. (video)

• @MJTruthUltra

• The FBI and USCIS Discovered how Muslims have been taken over Minnesota, including TERRORISTS — Nearly HALF of ALL Immigrants Involved Sham Marriages, Forged Documents, and Visa Abuses. (video)

• @NicHulscher

• 8.7 MILLION People, 2 Landmark Studies: mRNA “Vaccines” Increase Your Risk of SEVEN Types of Cancer. Breast, bladder, lung, prostate, thyroid, gastric and colorectal cancers — ALL surge after vaccination. Operation Warp Speed unleashed a turbo cancer epidemic. (video)

• @SidneyPowell1

• Look at the drug companies’ own tests and information. They knew the likelihood of injuries, deaths and birth defects from their Covid injections. They even had to redefine the term “vaccine” to force their death jabs on us!! @SecKennedy WTH?!?! (pic)

• @SenseReceptor

• Pfizer whistleblower Brook Jackson's lawyer: "Bobby Kennedy knows all about the Pfizer [Covid-jab] fraud...he's the [DOJ's client] in this case...We...appeal to [him & the admin] to change its position on this case" Note RFKJr.'s called the C19 jabs "mass murder." See tweet 2. (video)

• @stella_immanuel

• After harming the people they provide 50% off to the customers they created. Go figure. (video)

• @HustleBitch_

• “I AM CERTAIN THIS IS A MATCH.” Candace Owens: “This has never happened in the history of all our investigations.” Two mystery figures appear in photos with the relative of former Utah State Rep Phil Lyman, the same relative who posted photos and videos retracing the killer’s steps in Charlie Kirk’s assassination before his entire profile suddenly went private and was scrubbed. (video) 

• @Libsoftiktok

• YIKES. Ada Twist, Scientist, a show for 7-YEAR-OLDS on @Netflix, showcases young students coming together to set up and celebrate their teacher’s gay wedding. Oh, and Barack and Michelle Obama are the show's executive producers. (video)

• @EmeraldRobinson

• BREAKING: According to multiple sources (including Trump's personal lawyer Peter Tiktin) the person who is actually running the DOJ is @DAGToddBlanche and Blanche is stopping Trump's agenda inside the DOJ.

• @itsmorganariel

• OH MY GOSH. The initial patsy decoy boy, George Zinn, is connected to Rep Phil Lyman and has even publicly endorsed him on Lyman’s website during his run for Utah governor. Phil Lyman has been exhibiting strange behavior after the assassination such as showing up to one of the witnesses home. It’s also worth noting that Phil met with Charlie on campus before the event that day and happened to be the same person in possession of some of the only video footage we saw of the suspect walking through the neighborhood. Even more coincidentally, is that the footage was recorded on his aunts house camera whose driveway he just so happened to be parked in. This is getting really weird. (pic)

• @WallStreetApes

• The truth came out. DC Lobbyist Desirée Townsend spoke with Congress Reps. The REAL REASON Democrats are fighting for illegal’s healthcare is because states like California have so many illegals their entire healthcare system runs on the taxpayer money for illegals. (video)
• WOW!! Heritage Foundation exposes Hillary Clinton was directly behind getting the European Union to use their Digital Services Act to pressure Elon Musk and America back into censorship. Hillary Clinton flew overseas for a meeting to facilitate this against America “They (The European Union) gathered in Berlin, and it was the most anti-free speech gathering I've ever been part of — Hillary Clinton was there, and she really fueled the anger. (video) 

• @FiveTimesAugust

• I’m sorry to all the vaccine injured who’ve waited so long for justice. Clearly, you are not and never were a priority, and those responsible for maiming society will continue to be rewarded and walk free. (video)

• @KobeissiLetter

• Government Shutdown Facts The Media Won't Cover: 1. The average length of a shutdown is only ~8 days 2. The S&P 500 has ended higher one year after a shutdown in 86% of cases 3. The S&P 500 posts an average gain of +13% one year after the shutdown ends 4. During the 35 day shutdown in 2018, the S&P 500 rallied +11% 5. While the government is shut down, the US defers ~$400M/day in costs 6. The Fed generally turns more dovish if government data releases are paused. Historically, the market actually WELCOMES shutdowns.

• @wideawake_media

• "Vietnam has closed 86 million bank accounts... because they refused... the digital ID." "You had to register a digital ID with biometric data... And if you don't do it, we'll take your money, whether you like it or not." "It's coming here. They're pushing for digital IDs." (video)
• Forget the excuses they use to sell you on digital ID: "Convenience", "security", "stopping illegal immigration", etc. This is what it's really for—complete and total control over every aspect of you life. (video)

Night Trading 

• Asian equity indices are +.75% to +1.75% on average. 
• Asia Ex-Japan Investment Grade CDS Index 64.5 -.75 basis point.
• China Sovereign CDS 37.75 -.5 basis point.
• China Iron Ore Spot 103.4 USD/Metric Tonne -.4%. 
• Swiss Franc/Offshore Chinese Renminbi Cross 8.95 +.02%.
• Bloomberg Emerging Markets Currency Index 36.42 -.05%.
• Bloomberg Global Risk-On/Risk Off Index 84.1 +.1%.
• US 10-Year Yield 4.10% unch.
• Volatility Index(VIX) futures 19.2 unch.
• Euro Stoxx 50 futures +.52%. 
• S&P 500 futures +.14%. 
• NASDAQ 100 futures +.22%.

Morning Preview Links

BOTTOM LINE: Asian indices are modestly higher, boosted by technology and industrial shares in the region. I expect US stocks to open mixed and to rally into the afternoon, finishing modestly higher.  The Portfolio is 100% net long heading into the day.