bigjoe1

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In the essay, titled “Let the Bond Market Speak,” Druckenmiller urged Bessent to abandon the buyback scheme announced Aug. 19 and allow the market the opportunity, free of the government’s hand, to set the proper price for government debt.

“Every basis point of artificial yield suppression is a subsidy to procrastination,” he wrote. “Once markets believe Treasury is defending a price, every rise in yields becomes a test of official resolve, and the operations must grow to survive the tests.”

“Governments defending prices against fundamentals always lose. The only variable is how much they spend before conceding,” he added.

The Treasury Department didn’t immediately respond to a CNBC request for comment on Druckenmiller’s column.

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, but if it is real people are now mad they’re trying something to lower the debt?

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An experimental personalized cancer vaccine from Merck
and Moderna
showed positive initial results in its first-ever late-stage trial, the companies announced Wednesday, bringing them one step closer to filing for approval of the treatment option.

The mRNA-based shot in combination with Merck’s immunotherapy Keytruda met key goals in the Phase 3 trial in more than 1,100 patients with higher-risk or advanced melanoma whose detectable cancer had been completely removed through surgery.

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The initial data suggests that the combo could serve as a new treatment option for melanoma, which accounts for only about 1% of skin cancers but causes the large majority of deaths among them. Most recurrences of melanoma develop in the first two to three years after initial treatment and removal.

Melanoma patients are “stuck having to deal with the new gravity of that diagnosis and then undergo uncomfortable treatments like surgery, and after that, they’re worried about their cancer coming back,” Dr. Jane Healy, Merck’s head of oncology early development, said in an interview.

She called it “very exciting” that the therapy led to a “clinically meaningful improvement” over Keytruda – the standard of care for melanoma – and was well tolerated by patients. Side effects were similar to other vaccines that people typically get for other diseases, Healy noted.

The results also validate a personalized treatment approach that Merck and Moderna have been developing for decades, she added.

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She has the best time with herself,

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Russia’s diesel and gasoil exports crashed in the first seven days of August to just 80,000 barrels per day (bpd), the lowest in many years, as Moscow extended restrictions on diesel exports amid a fuel crisis triggered by incessant Ukrainian attacks on Russian refineries.

The multi-year low diesel exports between August 1 and 7, as estimated by data compiled by Bloomberg, are further squeezing the global market of middle distillates, which is much tighter than crude supply.

To compare, Russia last year shipped as many as 1 million bpd of diesel and gasoil.


This year, Ukraine has pursued a relentless drone campaign targeting Russian oil refining infrastructure and oil supply routes to force Putin into negotiating peace.

Amid peak demand season, Russia has been suffering from gasoline and diesel shortages for over three months, as Ukraine’s drone campaign to strike Russian refineries forced many large processing sites offline in the spring and summer.

The slump in Russian fuel supply combined with fuel not making it out of the Persian Gulf to tighten refined petroleum markets much more than the crude market.

Global refinery crude throughputs increased in July but remained nearly 5 million bpd below year-ago levels, at 80.9 million bpd, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said in its closely-watched monthly Oil Market Report this week.

Global throughputs are now forecast to drop by 2.5 million bpd on average in 2026 and rebound by 3.5 million bpd in 2027.

“Tighter light and middle distillate markets boosted cracks and margins in the Atlantic Basin to record highs,” the agency said.

Even as U.S. fuel exports rose by about 700,000 bpd in July from a year earlier, global seaborne trade in petroleum products crashed by 3.8 million bpd, amid plunging diesel and jet fuel exports from Russia and the Middle East, the IEA reckons.

By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com

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Did President Zelensky and the Ukrainian armed forces not listen to US Vice President JD Vance's warnings and request after all?

On Wednesday a "massive" Ukrainian drone and missile strike was unleashed on Russia's port city of Novorossiysk, which badly damaged grain export terminals at what also constitutes the last major Russian naval base on the Black Sea.

Three were killed, including an eight-year-old child, and also 24 people were injured in the Wednesday nighttime attack.


Zelensky acknowledged the rocket and underwater drone attack in what he hailed as a "unique operation" to strike the Russian naval base at Novorossiysk.

It seems Zelensky is distinguishing this instance as a hit on a purely 'military target' given he did not mention the grain export terminal aspect of the destruction.

"The occupying fleet and all the infrastructure that supports it will not be safe as long as Russian aggression continues," Zelensky said.

Many Russian assets previously docked at the longtime Russian fleet's home base of Sevastopol were forced to vacate during earlier phases of the war, given the frequent prior targeting of the historic Crimean naval hub. Some ships have even been relocated as far away as the Caspian Sea in order to protect them.

The attack could seriously impact global food supplies, particularly in the African continent.

Reuters has said shutdowns resulted: "Two of Russia's biggest grain terminals at the southern port of Novorossiysk have suspended operations as a result of overnight Ukrainian drone strikes, four industry sources told Reuters on Wednesday."

"Russia is the world's largest wheat exporter and most of those exports are shipped via its Black Sea ports like Novorossiysk. Russia's main grain lobby group warned last month that Ukrainian drone attacks could shut down grain exports via the Black Sea in the near future, pushing up prices and causing hunger in Africa and the Middle East," the report added.

Novorossiysk is also home to vital oil export infrastructure. Kiev has essentially declared open season on Russian oil exports, arguing that proceeds fuel Russia's military machine.

A state of emergency has been declared in Novorossiysk after a Ukrainian drone attack

Due to the rupture of two water mains, the city’s water supply system has been damaged, and water delivery to residents has been restricted.

We reported earlier that at the urging of Vice President Vance, Ukraine indicated that it has suspended attacks on oil tankers using Novorossiysk. The request was made in late July, but first reported today by the Financial Times, citing Ukrainian officials.

Vance's plea sprang from the Trump administration's worries that Ukraine's attacks were creating dangerous instability in global fuel markets. There were also concerns that strikes on vessels transporting Kazakhstan crude oil to the Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC) terminal at Novorossiysk were detrimental to American companies.


So it will be interesting to see if in the wake of this latest Wednesday attack, Washington ramps up the pressure on its Ukrainian ally - or whether such attacks will continue and be met with US silence.

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The Ukrainian forces have reportedly suspended drone attacks on oil tankers at the port of Novorossiysk following a request by U.S. Vice-President JD Vance, the Financial Times wrote today, citing unnamed Ukrainian officials.

The request was prompted by concern that the drone attacks that shut down the Caspian Pipeline Consortium twice over the last two months were additionally destabilizing an already destabilized global oil market. The Ukraine has also targeted tankers docked at the port of Novorossiysk with drones.

CPC operates the pipeline from the Caspian coast in northwest Kazakhstan to the Novorossiysk port, which handles most of Kazakhstan’s crude exports from giant oilfields in the country operated by international oil firms, including U.S. supermajor Chevron. CPC transports crude oil from three major fields in Kazakhstan: Tengiz, Kashagan, and Karachaganak, in which major western companies have stakes, including Chevron, ExxonMobil, Shell, and Eni.

The drone attacks on the pipeline and the port caused a sharp drop in Kazakh oil production, with the daily total falling to just about 1 million barrels at the end of July, down from over 2 million barrels daily in June.

“The administration views the CPC as a vital conduit of Kazakhstan-origin energy for European markets that serves as an alternative to Russian energy supplies,” an unnamed U.S. government official told the Financial Times. Washington also told the Zelensky government to stop attacking non-Russian tankers in the Black Sea, according to the report.

Kazakhstan sends some 80% of its oil exports via the CPC to Novorossiysk. Following the drone attacks, the country said this month it was considering alternative routes for its oil. “Transportation through the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan system, shipments across the Caspian Sea through the territory of Azerbaijan, as well as the Baku-Supsa route are being considered,” the Kazakh Ministry of Energy said on Monday.

By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com

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LINK

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They've literally done none of this. Why lie?

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