Thursday, June 1, 2023

WTI Holds Gains After Biden Admin's 9th Straight Weekly SPR Drain

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https://www.zerohedge.com/energy/wti-holds-gains-after-biden-admins-9th-straight-weekly-spr-drain

Oil prices have been choppy overnight, since API reported a big surprise crude build, with WTI hovering around $68. China's factory activity and the OPEC+ meeting over the weekend in Vienna to discuss the group’s production policy are weighing on traders' minds, as US debt ceiling doubts fade.

“Today the market will look to US weekly inventory data and in particular the pace of Strategic Petroleum Reserve selling last week,” said Jens Pedersen, director of oil and commodities research at Danske Bank.

“Oil prices are stabilizing after better-than-expected Chinese PMIs and a halt in the recent dollar rally,” he added, referring to the purchasing managers’ index, a measure of economic activity.

The big question is whether the official data will confirm API's big build...

API

  • Crude +5.2mm (-5.1mm exp)

  • Cushing +1.777mm

  • Gasoline +1.89mm (-900k exp)

  • Distillates +1.849mm (+500k exp)

DOE

  • Crude +4.49mm (-5.1mm exp)

  • Cushing +1.63mm

  • Gasoline -207k (-900k exp)

  • Distillates +985k (+500k exp)

The official inventory data confirmed API's report that crude stocks rose significantly last week - after the massive draw the prior week. Cushing stocks rose for the 6th straight week. Gasoline stocks fell very modestly...

Source: Bloomberg

For the 9th straight week, the Biden admin drained the SPR last week...

Source: Bloomberg

US crude production remains flat at cycle highs despite the ongoing slide in rig counts...

Source: Bloomberg

WTI rallied up to $69 ahead of the official inventory data and extended those gains...

 

Finally, we note that US demand for oil and diesel was more robust in March than previously thought, but remained below levels seen at the same time a year ago.

Wednesday, May 31, 2023

Target’s Share Prices Plunge For Longest Streak In Almost 5 Years

https://familypolicyalliance.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/Target-Stock-Drop.jpg

https://www.dailywire.com/news/targets-share-prices-plunge-for-longest-streak-in-almost-5-years 

By the end of the day Tuesday, the plummet in Target’s share prices reached the longest losing streak the chain has suffered in almost five years.

Target’s share prices have fallen for eight straight days, plunging another 3.66% on Tuesday reaching $133.88 as the store has lost a staggering $12 billion in market value in the last 14 days to rest at $61.85 billion in the wake of a consumer boycott triggered by its LGBTQ merchandise.

“What you’ve seen in recent days went well beyond discomfort, and it has been gut-wrenching to see what you’ve confronted in our aisles,” Target CEO Brian Cornell stated to employees last week, adding there were “two guiding principles when it came time for us to act: do all we can to keep our team safe, and do all we can to honor our commitment and connection to the LGBTQIA+ community.”

As far back as 2014, Target announced it would no longer divide certain products by gender.

In 2016, Target introduced a gender-neutral line for children and also asserted they would allow transgender people to use whatever bathroom they preferred, prompting criticism. Target then spent $20 million to put private bathrooms in their stores.

The vice president for brand management at Target also serves as treasurer of an LGBT group that has received millions of dollars in donations from Target and urges schools to adopt policies to help trans and nonbinary school students hide their  “gender identity” from their parents.

Target made “emergency” calls in Mid-May to managers and senior directors at the store after the company faced backlash for its Pride collection, which included “tuck-friendly” female swimwear and other products, according to a source inside the company.

The calls were to direct some stores to make their Pride products display less prominent in order to avoid a “Bud Light situation,” a Target insider told Fox News.

“We were given 36 hours, told to take all of our Pride stuff, the entire section, and move it into a section that’s a third the size. From the front of the store to the back of the store, you can’t have anything on mannequins and no large signage,” the insider reportedly said.

Leif Le Mahieu contributed to this article.

Related: ‘Bud Light Situation’: Target Makes ‘Emergency’ Calls After Backlash To ‘Tuck-Friendly’ Female Swimwear: Report

Why US Factories Are Closing at an Astounding Rate.

Alone on the other side of Cuba 🇨🇺

Tuesday, May 30, 2023

Bobby Kennedy's Speech for Humanity

New Yorkers Shout At AOC Over Border Crisis, Ukraine War During Chaotic Town Hall

 https://uproxx.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/aoc-mask.jpg?w=1024

https://www.dailywire.com/news/new-yorkers-shout-at-aoc-over-border-crisis-ukraine-war-during-chaotic-town-hall

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) faced a handful of enraged constituents during a Friday night town hall in Queens. 

Some New Yorkers in attendance took issue with the congresswoman’s soft stance on illegal immigration, raising the debt ceiling, and her support of seemingly endless U.S. funding for Ukraine. One man wearing a shirt with a Cuban flag on it and holding an American flag in his hand got up and walked toward the stage, shouting “American citizens before migrants!”

“Where are you on the migrant issue? You’re absent!” the man shouted as he was escorted out of the hall by security. Before being forced out of the room as most of the crowd booed him, the man got five more words in: “You’re a piece of s***!”

The second-term socialist Democrat laughed off the incident, but she received more pushback as the night went on. 

While discussing the ongoing debt-ceiling negotiations between the White House and Republican leadership, Ocasio-Cortez said, “We should eliminate the debt limit in the United States,” a remark met by a mixture of cheers and boos. One man in the audience expressed his frustration with the congresswoman’s comment by pointing out that she supports the U.S. sending billions of dollars to Ukraine. 

“$100 billion for Ukraine that you voted for!” he said. The man was met with shouts from someone else in the crowd who told him it wasn’t his turn to speak.

Another person at the town hall held signs that read: “America First: Vetted & Legal Migrants Only” and “Stop Funding Ukraine.” Others displayed signs saying, “AOC Stop Crying” and “AOC An Obvious Criminal.” 

Ocasio-Cortez has faced angry people who have questioned her support of funding Ukraine in the past. In October, two people attending her town hall confronted her and accused her of supporting nuclear war.

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“Why are you playing with the lives of American citizens?” he pressed. “You’re playing with our lives!”

“You voted to mobilize and send money to Ukrainian Nazis,” Jose Vega yelled. “You’re a coward!”

Read more in:

US Marshals Rescue 225 Endangered or Missing Children in National Operation

https://media.gettyimages.com/id/51739632/photo/the-shadows-of-iraqi-children-playing-on.jpg?s=1024x1024&w=gi&k=20&c=6djbBQFjzWxouqMFnRQj-EC5TyUnT7GiGx8xG8TQO3A=

https://www.theepochtimes.com/us-marshals-rescue-225-endangered-or-missing-children-in-national-operation_5295834.html 

The U.S. Marshals Service announced this week that 225 missing or endangered children were recovered as part of a 10-week, multi-state effort dubbed “Operation We Will Find You.”

In a news release on May 24, the federal law enforcement agency said the children include runaways as well as abductees by non-custodial individuals.

The operation, described by the agency as an effort focused on areas with high clusters of critically missing or endangered children, resulted in the safe location of 56 children and the recovery of 169 children. The children were found in areas both inside and outside the United States.

The youngest child who was rescued during the multi-agency effort was just six months old, the agency revealed. Additionally, of the missing children recovered, 62 percent were found within a week of the U.S. Marshals Service assisting with the investigation.

Meanwhile, U.S. Marshals also noted that 42 children were found outside of the city they went missing in, with 10 of those children being located in Mexico. Additionally, a number of teenage girls—described by the agency as possible victims of human trafficking—were located in the Los Angeles County, San Bernardino County, and Riverside County areas from March 1 to May 15 as part of the nationwide sting operation, according to a separate May 24 news release.

Data released by the agency shows that 86 percent of the children were endangered runaways, 9 percent were family abductions, and 5 percent were considered otherwise missing.

Also as part of the operation, U.S. Marshals arrested a “Top 15 Most Wanted” couple after they fled from Washington state to Mexico with their five children—who they had taken into hiding. Investigators said charges for individuals taken into custody include sex offender violations, as well as “other related charges.”

Epoch Times Photo
Members of the U.S. Marshals Service monitor an area in New York City on April 2, 2015. (Victor J. Blue/Getty Images)

“The U.S. Marshals Service is fully committed to the important mission of protecting the American people, especially our most vulnerable population—our children,” Ronald Davis, director of the federal law enforcement agency, said in a statement.

“The results of this operation underscore that commitment, but also highlight the necessity of these critical efforts,” he continued. “Our continued success can only be achieved through our collaboration with state and local law enforcement agencies, and partnership with NCMEC.”

The operation was largely conducted in federal districts across the United States, including the District of Columbia; Maryland; Massachusetts; South Carolina; New Orleans; San Antonio; Detroit; Yakima, Washington; Orlando, Florida; Los Angeles; eastern Virginia; northern Ohio; Guam; Puerto Rico; and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Most Challenging Cases

The agency noted that the missing or endangered children were regarded as some of the “most challenging recovery cases” in the area largely due to indications of “high-risk factors such as victimization of child sex trafficking, child exploitation, sexual abuse, physical abuse, and medical or mental health conditions.”

A total of 28 cases, meanwhile, were handed to law enforcement agencies for further investigation into crimes such as drugs, weapons, sex trafficking, and sex offender violations, according to the agency. Law enforcement reported allegations of human trafficking in over 40 of the cases the U.S. Marshals Service assisted with.

“Operation We Will Find You is a great example of how the U.S. Marshals Service continues to prioritize child protection,” NCMEC president and chief executive Michelle DeLaune said. “NCMEC is proud of our long-standing partnership with the USMS and commends them and the participating state and local agencies who helped recover the 225 endangered missing children.”

Since the passage of the “Justice for Victims of Trafficking Act” in 2015, the U.S. Marshals Service (USMS) in partnership with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) recovered over 3,100 missing children, Davis said.

The 2015 law enhances law enforcement’s tool kit to recover endangered missing children regardless of whether a fugitive or sex offender was involved.

“The U.S. Marshals Service established a Missing Child Unit to oversee and manage the implementation of its enhanced authority under the act,” the agency stated.

Any information about missing or endangered children should be reported to local police offices or to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children at 1-800-The-Lost. Information about violent fugitives can be provided to the U.S. Marshals Service at (504) 589-6872, via email at usms.wanted@usdoj.gov, or with the USMS tips app. Crimestoppers GNO may also be contacted with tips at (504) 822-1111.