KLDW News and Press, Knowledge Leaders Developed World From 11/29/21

In the second week in November, portions of the US and European markets topped out, while China’s market was already in decline. This week, a new COVID variant, Omnicron (B.1.1.529), from Africa emerged and is growing very fast. On Friday, most of the world’s stock marke...

We stay invested for now as a new virus strain and European COVID surge are hurting risk sentiment. Any delay of the powerful restart now means more later. News of the contagious new strain triggered a sell-off in risk assets. Jerome Powell was nominated to stay on as Fed chair, heral...

There's one thing markets hate, and that's uncertainty. Sadly, science does not deal in absolutes, just guidance based on the available evidence, of which, right now, there isn't much. The next few weeks could be choppy. For further details see: Variant Volatility

The S&P 500 was down 2.2% last week, which, in normal times, would be barely worth a mention. But in today’s speculative market, that qualifies as a correction. The first two quarters of this year were a big rebound, but last quarter was a bummer with the emergence of the D...

Service sector growth accelerated but is threatened by rising COVID-19 case numbers, notably in Europe, which have hit business confidence for year-ahead prospects. Growth in the 'G4' developed economies of the US, Eurozone, Japan and the UK had surged to an all-time high in May as ec...

After a 3.4% decline in 2020, world real GDP is projected to increase 5.5% in 2021 and 4.2% in 2022. With some critical supply shortages and shipping bottlenecks persisting into 2022 and beyond, inflation pressures will subside only gradually. The US economy is proving its resilie...

The global economy grows, it pauses, perhaps halts, and we all wonder if the other side of the “scare” will remain growth or turn to something worse - usually a downturn, if not full-blown recession. “Growth scare” for Japan, like Germany and also China, do...

After the COVID-19 virus event began, global central banks entered a phase of extended easing. After the November 2020 US Presidential Elections, while the extended COVID variants continued to plague the world, we entered a renewed type of Hyper-Kondratieff market cycle. The ECB r...

The supply chain mess has created a set of perverse incentives leading to a positive feedback loop. In the core PPI, the latest annual rate actually decelerated for the first time this year due to slowing price gains over the past three months. Interest rates are about growth and ...

Across sectors and around the world, inflation was prominent in recent earnings reports. In recent years, US-China trade tensions prompted some multinationals to rethink their supply chains and processes. In industries like energy and commodities, many companies benefit immediatel...