Member Info for nomlungu

I find the webinars from Knowable magazine interesting [even if I only watch a recording of them on YouTube]. This one should be interesting for those that plan to live long enough to spend all their winnings from the AIM Casino:

https://knowablemagazine.org/article/health-disease/2021/keys-successful-aging-event

"Corn, wheat, soybeans, vegetable oils: A small handful of commodities form the backbone of much of the world’s diet and they’re dramatically more expensive, flashing alarm signals for global shopping budgets.

This week, the Bloomberg Agriculture Spot Index — which tracks key farm products — surged the most in almost nine years, driven by a rally in crop futures. With global food prices already at the highest since mid-2014, this latest jump is being closely watched because staple crops are a ubiquitous influence on grocery shelves — from bread and pizza dough to meat and even soda."

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-04-24/the-grocery-food-price-bill-is-going-to-get-more-expensive?srnd=premium-europe

We do not pay that much for actual food in our shopping - more is spent on the costs of the staff, shops, transport etc in the food chain - but this is inflationary news.

"Turkey’s cryptocurrency investors were dealt another blow at the end of a dismal week after a second big exchange collapsed in as many days and its chief executive was reportedly detained."

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-04-24/turkey-s-cryptocurrency-pain-grows-with-second-exchange-collapse?srnd=premium-europe

You have to wonder if there is any danger of contagion? And, even if there is not, will there be irrational action by some market players who decide it is better to cash out now which then starts a run on the price of Coins and then threatens other exchanges with a snowball effect?

"Europe’s Most Indebted Countries Aren’t Ready for Market Reality - The ECB will have to decide on the future of its crisis support"

"Citigroup Inc. is bracing for a taper of bond buying as early as June, and M&G Investments says it’s time to start shorting peripheral debt."

“The problem is when you come out of emergency, you’re back to market forces in your bond market and some of these numbers look really, really bad. Europe is ironically vulnerable to recovery.”

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-04-24/europe-s-most-indebted-countries-aren-t-ready-for-market-reality?srnd=premium-europe

Recovery from Covid means economic hardship - oops! And then economic hardship will mean people work when sick which spreads Covid and the cycle starts again?

How is Farmer Joe going to travel to his potato field? No potatoes = no chips?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-56841946

'Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) is shutting its two main car factories temporarily due to a shortage of computer chips.

The difficulties at Britain's biggest carmaker echo similar problems at other manufacturers, including Ford, who have been hit by a global shortage of chips.

JLR said there would be a "limited period" of closure at its Halewood and Castle Bromwich sites from Monday.

A mixture of strong demand and Covid shutdowns at chipmakers has also hit phone, TV and video games companies.'

Cameron has previously rejected suggestions that he was motivated by the prospect of a huge payout, stating: “My remuneration was partly in the form of a grant of shares. Their value was nowhere near the amount speculated in the press [around £60m].”

Nowhere near - it was just a fraction!

[Previous reports have suggested that Cameron was granted a stake of about 1% in Greensill for his advisory role, which implies the former prime minister could have been anticipating a windfall of around £200m at that time – assuming the Credit Suisse valuation was achieved.]

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2021/apr/23/greensill-expected-22bn-flotation-that-could-have-meant-cameron-windfall

[Starve the poor; save the NHS]

24 hour trading now?

I hope your birthday is good enough - it has been a pleasant sunny day in London.

This might educate / amuse as a grandad / grandchild project?

https://github.com/tobetz/LegoMicroscope

The Private Eye has been going on about this story for years; finally the Postmasters convicted of theft have been cleared.

Maybe Paula Vennells CBE will be withdrawn? It was given to her whilst innocent people were jailed under her watch as far as I am aware; she certainly could have done more and sooner to overturn the injustice. But helping the GOV squash Unions might have been more important to this GOV.

As Jaque said about Posties... GOV does not care about the little man.

What about Canada, Croatia, Portugal, Cyprus, Greece, Georgia, Serbia, Bulgaria, Romania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the Republic of Macedonia? England is not the only country to celebrate St George's Day.

Kropz slowly creeping up under the radar - someone is accumulating? Not for me though; the future for nitrogen fertilisers may be coming to an end of green credentials so anyone trying to sell you are a share in a mine with a 30-year life is taking the proverbial.

And - there has been no news on the water permits they need to actually mine for the foreseeable future.

If you are expecting a re-rate when "Turkey news breaks" you better hope it is not a discounted placing to pay for drilling as the share price may re-rate downwards if the placing news is before other news to boost the share price.

Troajan,

You posted the Yahoo article about "corn supply shortage". PHC's seed treatments help with drought and pest resilience. They have trial fields of the new biological product they have received approval to release into the Brazilian market this year with at least 20 Brazilian farmers. Initial in-season inspections are showing outstanding results, so demand in the next growing season should be strong and only limited by their ability to make the product.

But they cannot make that much of the product as they are still negotiating a contract with an outsourced manufacturer. Good and bad - you cannot sell what you do not have but if demand far exceeds supply you are in a good position to reward loyal customers and protect profit margins across the supply chain.

And that article was mainly about the drought in Brazil - the US is also in trouble. The squeeze on feedstock will get worse.

https://www.agricensus.com/Article/US-corn-outlook-very-concerning-as-drought-adds-to-planting-woe-16215.html

I had a quick read through the PHC accounts - this stood out:

"Improved visibility of in-market sales led us to reduce in-market inventory of Harpin aß by more than $1 million. As a result, reported sales of Harpin aß ($3.9 million) substantially under-state progress in developing grower demand for this outstanding product."

It looks as though they have been booking sales when they ship the product to distributors, not when distributors sell the product. It may be a judgement allowed by financial standards [my accounting training was in the eighties so I have no idea] but it seems wrong and books sales before they have been made?

The accounts were both better and worse than I expected - they include this statement:

"Improved visibility of in-market sales led us to reduce in-market inventory of Harpin a by more than $1 million. As a result, reported sales of Harpin a ($3.9 million) substantially under-state progress in developing grower demand for this outstanding product."

That sounds to me as though they were booking sales when product sent to distributors, not when sold? If that it correct then earlier accounts had sales figures I would consider inflated, which decreased sales reported in this period. A slight whiff of jiggery-pokery?

Any thoughts?

The WRES RNS reminded me of this Front 242 song:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vTua4TzNeDs

Best served with a large sound system.

all sounds a bit fishy

https://www.wildtypefoods.com/oursalmon

The threat of CGT has taken the wind out of Bitcoin etc - good.

I first came across the mcbroken website a few years ago [it reports broken McDonald's milkshake machines across the US]. But I did not know this backstory - they are designed so that even a small problem requires an expensive call out from a technician. It seems to be just another way to extract profit from franchisees and McDonald's are so upset that someone made a diagnostic machine they are trying to close that business down.

https://www.wired.com/story/they-hacked-mcdonalds-ice-cream-makers-started-cold-war/

https://mcbroken.com/

"America is running out of people willing to get a COVID-19 shot, and some vaccination sites are even shutting down because of a lack of demand"

https://www.businessinsider.com/covid-vaccine-us-vaccination-sites-joe-biden-2021-4?r=US&IR=T

If the rollout stalls it will be bad news for the US economy.