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Guaido invites Ocasio-Cortez to Venezuela to witness socialism in action

Venezuelan President Juan Guaido is fighting for what’s left of his country as citizens rummage through the garbage for scraps to eat and collect sewer water for their children.

Humanitarian aid is waiting at the border, but anyone who attempts to retrieve it is attacked by the military. Those who haven’t already fled the country are now rioting in the streets against Nicolas Maduro, an illegitimate dictator using all available resources to cling to power despite overwhelming opposition.

It’s what’s become the daily life in the once flourishing country, and it should serve as a loud and clear warning to folks in the United States pursuing similar government controls through the Green New Deal.

Guaido spoke with Fox Business Network’s Trish Regan on Monday, when he issued an invitation to self-professed socialist Democrats to visit Venezuela to get a closer look at their policies in action.

[email protected] invites far-left dems like #IlhanOmar and #AOC to come to Venezuela to see for themselves what #Socialism does to a country,” Regan posted to Twitter with a video of the interview.

“Surely, it’s about knowledge. It’s about a lack of information. So if you want to talk about the economy, we’re seeing 53 percent rates, thousands of percents in inflation, lack of basic products, medications and food,” Guaido said.

“If we look at the day to day suffering of the Venezuelan people, that’s not about numbers it’s about human beings. It’s about lives, people who are suffering right now who see their lives in danger and who cannot provide for themselves as human beings to sustain a society and the world,” he continued.


A compilation by Grabien reveals the intellectual capacity of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez perfectly. Owen discusses the shallow beliefs of the Democrats.

“And so regarding the crisis going on in Venezuela, I invite everyone to see what’s going on in Venezuela and macro economically the amount of displaced persons in our country and the drama it’s become, the day to day living of seeking out food and water or simply having power in our country,” Guaido said.

Guaido is among millions of Venezuelans who blame the country’s demise on socialist policies implemented by former president Hugo Chavez and continued by Maduro, who allegedly won another term in office last year in what many viewed as a rigged election.

In February Guaido invoked provisions in the Constitution of Venezuela to take a public oath as the acting president to formally contest Maduro’s leadership, a move that’s since gained the support of 50 countries including the United States.

Yet despite overwhelming support in the U.S. and the dire conditions in Venezuela, some self-described socialists in Congress have refused to denounce Maduro. Even after the dictator ordered the country’s military to burn humanitarian aid trucks attempting to bring in supplies, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders and others remain committed to the failed political ideology.

Ocasio-Cortez earlier this month described the situation in Venezuela as “absolutely a complex issue” and chided President Trump for recognizing Guaido as the country’s interim leader, The Daily Caller reports.

“I am very concerned about U.S. interventionism in Venezuela and I oppose it,” she said.

Sanders, meanwhile, recognizes that Maduro “clearly … has been very, very abusive” but has also refused to condemn the dictator.

“I am very concerned about U.S. interventionism in Venezuela and I oppose it,” she said.

Sanders, meanwhile, recognizes that Maduro “clearly … has been very, very abusive” but has also refused to condemn the dictator.

“Well, he — I think it’s fair to say that the last election was undemocratic,” Sanders told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer in a recent town hall. “But there are still democratic operations taking place in their country. The point is, what I am calling for right now is internationally supervised free elections.”

Source: InfoWars

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Several Ole Miss athletes kneel during anthem over a nearby Confederacy rally: report

Several college athletes in Mississippi took a knee on Saturday as “The Star-Spangled Banner” played ahead of their basketball game.

The symbolic action by members of the men’s Ole Miss team came in response to a Confederacy rally unfolding near their arena, according to The Associated Press.

NIKE LAUNCHES ‘ICON’ KAEPERNICK JERSEY DAYS AFTER NFL COLLUSION CASE SETTLEMENT

The team was facing off against Georgia, and as the squad lined up near the foul line for the national anthem, six players knelt down, as documented by a photo of the action. Two more players reportedly joined them as the song neared its close.

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Not far away, a pair of pro-Confederate groups had staged a march in favor of a Confederate statue in the area, according to WLBT.

Various student groups held counterprotests on campus on Thursday and Friday. On Saturday, one began on the city square and ended at the Confederate monument in the heart of the Ole Miss campus.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Source: Fox News National

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Horse racing: Frost to miss Grand National with broken collarbone

Cheltenham Festival
FILE PHOTO: Horse Racing - Cheltenham Festival - Cheltenham Racecourse, Cheltenham, Britain - March 14, 2019 Bryony Frost celebrates on Frodon after winning the 2.50 Ryanair Chase as trainer Paul Nicholls (R) looks on REUTERS/Eddie Keogh

March 21, 2019

(Reuters) – Jockey Bryony Frost will miss next month’s Grand National meeting after breaking her collarbone in a fall four days after her victory at the Cheltenham Festival, the 23-year-old said on Thursday.

Frost, who last week became the first woman to ride a top-level Grade One Cheltenham Festival winner aboard Frodon in the Ryanair Chase, was injured after falling from Midnight Bliss at Southwell on Monday.

“Yesterday I went to see an extremely good specialist in Cardiff where my X-ray results have shown that I’ve fractured my clavicle,” Frost said in a blog for betting company Matchbook.

“I suffered a fracture previously which healed well under pressure. My body’s response from that fracture makes me positive for when I go back for my assessment in a fortnight’s time and a swift return.”

The Grand National meeting will be held at Aintree from April 4-6. Devon-born Frost had finished fifth on Milansbar in last year’s National.

(Reporting by Shrivathsa Sridhar in Bengaluru; Editing by Toby Davis)

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May has a ‘good shot’ of getting Brexit deal approved next week, UK junior minister

Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May prepares to make a statement about Brexit in Downing Street in London
Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May prepares to make a statement about Brexit in Downing Street in London, Britain March 20, 2019. Jonathan Brady/Pool via REUTERS

March 21, 2019

LONDON (Reuters) – Prime Minister Theresa May has a good chance of getting her twice-defeated Brexit deal approved by parliament next week, a junior Brexit minister in her government said on Thursday.

“We have a good shot at actually landing the deal next week,” Kwasi Kwarteng told Sky. “People are coming over already because people’s minds are focusing on the deal and the ability to leave the EU in a timely and orderly way.”

When asked what happened if May’s deal was rejected for a third time, Kwarteng did not answer the question directly.

(Reporting by Andrew MacAskill; editing by Guy Faulconbridge)

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Prosecutors: Texas couple filmed sex abuse of dozens of kids

A Texas couple have been sentenced to 60 years in prison each for child sex abuse and pornography in a case that prosecutors say involves more than two dozen children, including babies.

Federal prosecutors say Christopher Almaguer and Sarah Rashelle Almaguer took videos of themselves sexually abusing children. Prosecutors say they identified at least 25 children in videos and photos taken by the couple. The victims ranged in age from 8 months old to 14 years old.

The Almaguers were sentenced Wednesday after pleading guilty in October to one count each of sexual exploitation of children and production of child pornography.

Court records say the 27-year-olds from Killeen were the legal guardians of at least one of the children.

Source: Fox News National

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EU leaders agree to short-term Brexit delay, granting PM Theresa May a lifeline

European Union leaders on Thursday night agreed to a short-term Brexit extension in order to allow British Prime Minister Theresa May more time to get her withdrawal agreement through Parliament -- just a week before Britain was scheduled to leave the bloc.

Britain was due to leave the E.U. on March 29 without a deal after the withdrawal agreement May negotiated with E.U. leaders in 2018 was shot down for the second time by lawmakers last week -- hurling Britain into a full-blown political crisis and leaving May scrambling for a solution to implement the result of the 2016 referendum.

TRUMP BACKS BREXIT BY PROMISING A 'LARGE SCALE TRADE DEAL' WITH UK

May’s government, as well as business leaders and pro-Remain politicians, have warned that leaving without a deal would cause chaos at ports, and lead to food and medicine shortages across the country. More pro-Brexit MPs have insisted that those alleged perils are overblown.

May is expected to put her deal again to Parliament next week, hoping that concessions that she has made to her Northern Irish coalition partner the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) will persuade them to back her deal and in turn convince the hardline Brexiteers in her own party to back her deal as a result.

To get more time to get lawmakers on her side, and to allow for the technical details of the deal through Parliament, she traveled to Brussels with a request of a delay until June 30.

The European Council, which consists of the leaders of the E.U.’s member states, had appeared skeptical of giving any delay without a firm plan, but on Thursday night announced they had agreed to a pause until May 22 -- although that is conditional on British lawmakers approving the deal next week.

UK LAWMAKERS REJECT 'NO DEAL' BREXIT, TAKE STEP CLOSER TO DELAYING DEPARTURE

If May is unsuccessful in getting her deal through Parliament, then that delay will only be until April 12, where lawmakers will then face the choice of either leaving without a deal, approving some sort of new or alternative deal, or revoking Article 50 -- the mechanism that triggers Britain’s departure from the bloc.

"What this means in practice is that until that date all options will remain open and the cliff-edge date will be delayed," European Council President Donald Tusk said in a press conference.

May used her remarks at a second press conference to focus on rallying MPs back home to her deal, urging them to pass the legislation.

“I know MPs on all sides of the debate have passionate views and I respect those different positions,” she said. “I hope we can all agree we are now at the moment of decision and I will make every effort to ensure we are able to leave with a deal and move our country forward.”

May has ruled out revoking Article 50, and has said that doing so -- in order to go back to the public with a second referendum -- would risk undermining the British public’s trust in democracy.

"I don’t believe that’s what you want and it is not what I want," May said in a televised speech from 10 Downing Street Wednesday night. "We asked you the question already and you gave us your answer. Now, you want us to get on with it."

If there had been a longer delay, it would have required Britain taking part in the European Parliament elections in May, something that it appears neither the British government nor E.U. leaders want to happen. May has also faced pressure to either resign or hold a general election as a way to break the deadlock in Parliament.

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It is far from clear that May’s deal will muster enough votes to pass, having been rejected 391-242 just this month. That vote came just two months after it was shot down 432-202 in January -- the largest defeat for a prime minister in the history of the House of Commons.

While many on the left in Parliament oppose leaving the E.U. altogether and want a second referendum instead, much of the opposition to the deal from the right and the DUP comes from concern over the “backstop” -- a safety net by which the U.K. temporarily remains in a customs union until a trade deal in secured, so as to avoid a hard border between Ireland and Northern Ireland.

Critics have pointed to the lack of a unilateral exit mechanism in the backstop as evidence that it could lead to Britain never leaving the bloc, or being forced to accept unfavorable trading terms.

May announced earlier this month that she had secured "legally binding" changes to the agreement to prevent a permanent backstop, but it was not enough to get the deal through. The government is hoping that the new assurances to the DUP bring its lawmakers on board and that the risk of no Brexit at all begins to move more pro-Brexit MPs to reluctantly back the deal.

Even if the government whips up enough votes, the deal may not even be put before Parliament. Speaker John Bercow warned on Monday that he would not allow legislation that was “substantially the same” as that that had been rejected by Parliament twice already.

Source: Fox News World

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Five planets revealed after 20 years of observation

Over 4000 exoplanets have been discovered since the first one in 1995, but the vast majority of them orbit their stars with relatively short periods of revolution.

Indeed, to confirm the presence of a planet, it is necessary to wait until it has made one or more revolutions around its star.

This can take from a few days for the closest to the star to decades for the furthest away: Jupiter for example takes 11 years to go around the sun.

Only a telescope dedicated to the search for exoplanets can carry out such measurements over such long periods of time, which is the case of the EULER telescope of the Geneva University (UNIGE), Switzerland, located at the Silla Observatory in Chile.

These planets with long periods of revolution are of particular interest to astronomers because they are part of a poorly known but unavoidable population to explain the formation and evolution of planets. An article published by the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics.

“It took 20 years and many more observers,” says Emily Rickman, first author of the study and a researcher in the Astronomy Department of the UNIGE Faculty of Science. “This result would have been impossible without the availability and reliability of the CORALIE spectrograph installed on the EULER telescope, a unique instrument in the world.”

Since 1995, when the first  was discovered, about 4000  have been found.

The vast majority of them are massive planets close to their stars which are the easiest to detect relying on the current technology. However, planets with long periods of  are of great interest to astronomers.

Being farther away from their , they can be observed using direct imaging techniques.

Indeed, to date, almost all planets have been discovered using the two main indirect methods: radial velocities, which measure the gravitational influence of a planet on its star, and transits, which detect the mini eclipse caused by a planet passing in front of its star.

Planets directly observed

The EULER telescope is mainly dedicated to the study of exoplanets.

Since its commissioning in 1998, it has been equipped with the CORALIE spectrograph, which allows astronomers to measure  with an accuracy of a few meters per second for the detection of planets with a mass as small as Neptune’s.

“As early as 1998, a planetary monitoring programme was set up and carried out scrupulously by the many UNIGE observers who took turn every two weeks in La Silla for 20 years,” says Emily Rickman.

The result is remarkable: Five new planets have been discovered, and the orbits of four others have been precisely defined.

All these planets have periods of revolution between 15.6 and 40.4 years, with masses ranging approximately from 3 to 27 times that of Jupiter.

This study contributes to increasing the list of 26 planets with a rotation period greater than 15 years, “but above all, it provides us with new targets for direct imaging,” concludes the Geneva researcher.



What can we learn from the ancient Greeks that we can apply today?

Source: InfoWars

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FILE PHOTO: Supporters of the Spain's far-right party VOX wave Spanish flags as they attend an electoral rally ahead of general elections in the Andalusian capital of Seville
FILE PHOTO: Supporters of the Spain’s far-right party VOX wave Spanish flags as they attend an electoral rally ahead of general elections in the Andalusian capital of Seville, Spain April 24, 2019. REUTERS/Marcelo del Pozo/File Photo

April 26, 2019

By John Stonestreet and Belén Carreño

MADRID (Reuters) – Spain’s Vox party, aligned to a broader far-right movement emerging across Europe, has become the focus of speculation about last minute shifts in voting intentions since official polling for Sunday’s national election ended four days ago.

No single party is anywhere near securing a majority, and chances of a deadlocked parliament and a second election are high.

Leaders of the five parties vying for a role in government get final chances to pitch for power at rallies on Friday evening, before a campaign characterized by appeals to voters’ hearts rather than wallets ends at midnight.

By tradition, the final day before a Spanish election is politics-free.

Two main prizes are still up for grabs in the home straight. One concerns which of the two rival left and right multi-party blocs gets more votes.

The other is whether Vox could challenge the mainstream conservative PP for leadership of the latter bloc, which media outlets with access to unofficial soundings taken since Monday suggest could be starting to happen.

The right’s loose three-party alliance is led by the PP, the traditional conservative party that has alternated in office with outgoing Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s Socialists since Spain’s return to democracy in the 1970s.

The PP stands at around 20 percent, with center-right Ciudadanos near 14 percent and Vox around 11 percent, according to a final poll of polls in daily El Pais published on Monday.

Since then, however, interest in Vox – which will become the first far-right party to sit in parliament since 1982 – has snowballed.

It was founded in 2013, part of a broader anti-establishment, far-right movement that has also spread across – among others – Italy, France and Germany.

While it is careful to distance itself from the ideology of late dictator Francisco Franco, Vox’s signature policies include repealing laws banning Franco-era symbols and on gender-based violence, and shifting power away from Spain’s regional governments.

TRENDING

According to a Google trends graphic, Vox has generated more than three times more search inquiries than any other Spanish political party in the past week.

Reasons could include a groundswell of vocal activist support at Vox rallies in Madrid and Valencia, and its exclusion from two televised debates between the main party leaders, on the grounds of it having no deputies yet in parliament.

Conservative daily La Vanguardia called its enforced absence from Monday’s and Tuesday’s debates “a gift from heaven”, while left-wing Eldiario.es suggested the PP was haemorrhaging votes to Vox in rural areas.

Ignacio Jurado, politics lecturer at the University of York, agreed the main source of additional Vox votes would be disaffected PP supporters, and called the debate ban – whose impact he said was unclear – wrong.

“This is a party polling over 10 percent and there are people interested in what it says. So we lose more than we win in not having them (in the debates),” he said

For Jose Fernandez-Albertos, political scientist at Spanish National Research Council CSIC, Vox is enjoying the novelty effect that propelled then new, left-wing arrival Podemos to 20 percent of the vote in 2015.

“While it’s unclear how to interpret the (Google) data, what we do know is that it’s better to be popular and to be a newcomer, and that Vox will benefit in some form,” he said.

For now, the chances of Vox taking a major role in government remain slim, however.

The El Pais survey put the Socialists on around 30 percent, making them the frontrunners and likely to form a leftist bloc with Podemos, back down at around 14 percent.

The unofficial soundings suggest little change in the two parties’ combined vote, or the total vote of the rightist bloc.

That makes it unlikely that either bloc will win a majority on Sunday, triggering horse-trading with smaller parties favoring Catalan independence – the single most polarizing issues during campaigning – that could easily collapse into fresh elections.

(Election graphic: https://tmsnrt.rs/2ENugtw)

(Reporting by John Stonestreet and Belen Carreno, Editing by William Maclean)

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FILE PHOTO: The logo of the OPEC is seen at OPEC's headquarters in Vienna
FILE PHOTO: The logo of the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries at OPEC’s headquarters in Vienna, Austria December 5, 2018. REUTERS/Leonhard Foeger/File Photo

April 26, 2019

JOINT BASE ANDREWS, Md. (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump said on Friday he called the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and told the cartel to lower oil prices.

“Gasoline prices are coming down. I called up OPEC, I said you’ve got to bring them down. You’ve got to bring them down,” Trump told reporters.

(Reporting by Roberta Rampton; Writing by Makini Brice; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)

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Sonia Bompastor, director of the Olympique Lyonnais womenÕs Youth Academy, leads a training at the OL Academy near Lyon
Sonia Bompastor, director of the Olympique Lyonnais womenÕs Youth Academy, leads a training at the OL Academy in Meyzieu near Lyon, France, April 16, 2019. REUTERS/Emmanuel Foudrot

April 26, 2019

By Julien Pretot

MEYZIEU, France (Reuters) – Olympique Lyonnais president Jean-Michel Aulas was wringing out his women’s team shirts in the locker room on a rainy London day eight years ago when he decided it was time to take gender equality more seriously.

It was halftime in their Champions League semi-final second leg against Arsenal at Meadow Park with 507 fans watching and Aulas realized that his players did not have a another kit for the second half.

“Next time, there will be a second set just like for the men, that’s how it’s going to work from now on,” he said.

Lyon have since won five Champions League titles to become the most successful women’s team in Europe and recently claimed a 13th consecutive domestic crown.

They visit Chelsea on Sunday in the second leg of their Champions League semi-final, with a fourth straight title in their sights.

At the heart of their achievements is a pervasive ethos that promotes gender equality throughout the club, starting in the youth academy.

In 2013, Aulas appointed former Lyon and France player Sonia Bompastor as head of the Women’s Academy — the female equivalent of one of France’s top youth set-ups that has produced players such as Karim Benzema, Alexandre Lacazette and Hatem Ben Arfa.

At the Youth Academy, girls and boys share the same facilities.

“Pitches, physiotherapy rooms are the same for all,” the 38-year-old Bompastor told Reuters.

As the girls train under the watch of former Lyon and France international Camille Abily, the screams of the boys practicing can be heard nearby.

The boys and girls also benefit from the same psychological support that includes hypnosis sessions and yoga.

“We have a ‘mental ability’ cell and the hypnotist acts on the girls’ subconscious, on their deeply held beliefs after observing them on and off the pitch,” Bompastor added.

SAME TREATMENT

One message the Academy staff are trying to convey is that girls are as good as boys.

“Women’s nature is such that we have low self-esteem. So self-esteem is a big topic for our girls,” said Bompastor.

This is not the case with the boys, she added.

“Some 14, 15-year-old boys still think they would beat our professional players, we tell them this would not be happening. We still need to work on those beliefs,” she said.

Female players also have to face questions that their male counterparts do not, Bompastor explained.

“In France there is a problem with the way women are considered, there are high aesthetic expectations. So we get heavy questions on femininity, intimate questions that men don’t get,” she said.

OL’s Academy has been held up as a shining example for others to follow, even in the U.S., where women’s soccer has a wider audience than in Europe.

“About one third of the (senior women’s) squad comes from the Academy, we have a good balance,” said Bompastor.

“I’m getting tons of requests from American universities and foreign clubs, who want to come and visit our facilities.”

‘ONE CLUB’

The salaries of the senior players is one area where there remains a large discrepancy between Lyon’s men’s and women’s teams.

While the three best-paid women players in the world are at Lyon with Ballon d’Or winner Ada Hegerberg earning 400,000 euros ($445,520) a year, this figure is dwarfed by the around 4 million euros earned annually by men’s player Memphis Depay.

There is, however, a level of interaction between the men’s and women’s players that is not present at many other clubs.

“When you talk about OL you talk about women and men, you talk about one club and you feel it when you are here or outside in the city,” Germany defender Carolin Simon told Reuters.

“We see it when we play in the big stadium. It’s not ‘normal’ for women’s football,” the 26-year-old, who joined the club last year, added.

Lyon’s female players also enjoy respect from their male counterparts, Simon said.

“It’s very cool, it’s a big honor to feel that it doesn’t matter if you are a professional man or woman. We talk with the men, there are handshakes, it’s a good atmosphere and it’s also why we are successful,” said Simon.

“The men respect us and it’s not just for the cameras.”

Her team mate, England’s Lucy Bronze, sees the men’s respect as key to improving women’s football.

“We might not be paid the same but they are just normal with us, they see us as footballers the same as they are,” Bronze told Reuters.

“Being at Lyon has really opened my eyes. To improve women’s football, it starts with having the respect of your male counterparts. It’s the biggest thing because they can influence so many people.”

(Reporting by Julien Pretot; Editing by Toby Davis)

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FILE PHOTO: Ethiopian migrants, stranded in war-torn Yemen, sit on the ground of a detention site pending repatriation to their home country, in Aden, Yemen
FILE PHOTO: Ethiopian migrants, stranded in war-torn Yemen, sit on the ground of a detention site pending repatriation to their home country, in Aden, Yemen April 24, 2019. REUTERS/Fawaz Salman/File Photo

April 26, 2019

GENEVA (Reuters) – Yemeni authorities have rounded up about 3,000 irregular migrants, predominantly Ethiopians, in the south of the country, “creating an acute humanitarian situation,” the U.N. migration agency said on Friday.

“IOM is deeply concerned about the conditions in which the migrants are being held and is engaging with the authorities to ensure access to the detained migrants,” the International Organization for Migration said.

The migrants are held in open-air football stadiums and in a military camp, it said in a statement.

The detentions began on Sunday in the city of Aden and the neighboring province of Lahj, which are under the control of the internationally recognized government backed by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Iran-aligned Houthi rebels control Sanaa, the capital, and other major urban centers.

Both sides are under international diplomatic pressure to implement a United Nations-sponsored ceasefire deal agreed last year in Sweden and to prepare for a wider political dialogue that would end the four-year-old war.

Thousands of migrants arrive in Yemen every year, mostly from the Horn of Africa, driven by drought and unemployment at home and lured by the wages available in the Gulf.

(Writing by Maher Chmaytelli, Editing by William Maclean)

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U.S. dollar notes are seen in this picture illustration
U.S. dollar notes are seen in this November 7, 2016 picture illustration. Picture taken November 7. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration

April 26, 2019

(Reuters) – Following are five big themes likely to dominate thinking of investors and traders in the coming week and the Reuters stories related to them.

1/DOLLAR JUGGERNAUT

The dollar has zipped to near two-year highs, leaving many scratching their heads. To many, it’s down to signs the U.S. economy is chugging ahead while the rest of the world loses steam. After all, Wall Street is busily scaling new peaks day after day.

Never mind the cause, the effect is stark. The euro has tumbled to 22-month lows against the dollar and investors are preparing for more, buying options to shield against further downside. Emerging-market currencies are also in pain, with Turkish lira and Argentine peso both sharply weaker.

Now U.S. data need to keep surprising on the upside or even just meet expectations. The International Monetary Fund sees U.S. growth at 2.3 percent this year. For Germany, the forecast is 0.8 percent. The U.S. economy’s rude health has given rise to speculation the Fed might resume raising interest rates. Unlikely. But as other countries — Canada, Sweden and Australia are the latest — hint at more policy easing, there seems to be one way the dollar can go. Up.

(GRAPHIC: Dollar outperforms G10 FX – https://tmsnrt.rs/2Dz17S5)

2/FED: UP OR DOWN?

Wall Street is near record highs and recession worries are receding, so as we mentioned above, investors might wonder if the Federal Reserve will start raising rates again.

Such a pivot is unlikely after the Fed killed off rate-rise expectations at its March meeting. And the latest Reuters poll all but puts to bed any risk of rates will go up this economic cycle, given inflation remains below the Fed’s alarm threshold and unemployment is the lowest in generations.

Before the March rate-pause announcement, a preponderance of economists penciled in one or more increases this year. But that has flipped. A majority of those surveyed April 22-24 see no further tightening through December and more are leaning toward a cut by the end of next year.

Indeed, interest rate futures imply Fed Funds will be below the current 2.25-2.50 percent target range by this December.

Recent positive consumer spending and exports data have eased market concerns of a sharp economic slowdown. But inflation probably needs to run hot for a long period to panic policymakers off their wait-and-see course.     

(GRAPHIC: Federal funds and the economy – https://tmsnrt.rs/2DzjTZz)

3/HEISEI TO REIWA

Next week ends three decades of Japan’s Heisei era. Heisei, or Achieving Peace, began in 1989 near the peak of a massive stock market bubble and closes with the country trapped in low growth, no inflation, and negative interest rates.

The new era that dawns on May 1 is called Reiwa, meaning Beautiful Harmony. It begins when Crown Prince Naruhito ascends the Chrysanthemum Throne. But do investors really want harmony? What they want to see is a bit of economic growth and inflation to shake up the status quo.

The Bank of Japan’s stimulus toolkit to revive a long-suffering economy is anything but harmonious and yet it’s set to stay. The central bank confirmed recently rates will stay near zero for a long time. But the coming days may not be harmonious or peaceful for currency markets. A 10-day Golden Week holiday kicks off on April 29 and investors are fretting over the risk of a “flash crash” – a violent currency spasm that can occur in times of thin trading turnover.

The year has already seen two yen spikes and many, including Japan’s housewife-trader brigade – so-called Mrs Watanabes – appear to have bought yen as the holiday approaches. Their short dollar/long yen positions recently reached record highs, stock exchange data showed.

(GRAPHIC: Japan stocks: from Hensei to Reiwa – https://tmsnrt.rs/2W6a7Fe)

4/EARNING TURNING

Quarterly earnings were supposed to be the worst in Europe in almost three years, but with a third of results in, things are looking a little rosier.

Two-thirds of companies’ results have beat expectations, and they point to earnings growth of 4.5 percent year-on-year. Financials have delivered the biggest surprises, according to analysis by Barclays.

That might just show how low expectations were. In fact, analysts are still taking a red pen to their estimates.

The latest I/B/E/S data from Refinitiv shows analysts on average expect first-quarter earnings-per-share for STOXX 600-listed companies to fall 4.2 percent. That would be their worst quarter since 2016 and down sharply from an estimated 3.4 percent just a week earlier.

Those estimates may end up being a little too bearish as earnings season goes on, quelling worries that Europe is heading toward a corporate recession.

GSK and Reckitt Benckiser will give the market a glimpse of the health of the consumer products market and spending on everything from toothpaste, washing powder and paracetamol.

(GRAPHIC: Earnings forecasts – https://tmsnrt.rs/2DuO2ZF)

5/WAITING FOR THE OLD LADY

Sterling has gone into the doldrums amid the Brexit delay and unproductive talks between the UK government and the opposition Labour party on a EU withdrawal deal. The resurgent dollar, meanwhile, has taken 2 percent off the pound in April. It is unlikely the Bank of England will be able to rouse it at its May 2 meeting.

Despite robust retail and jobs data of late, the economic picture is gloomy – 2019 growth is likely to be around 1.2 percent, the weakest since 2009, investment is down and Governor Mark Carney says business uncertainty is “through the roof”.

Indeed, expectations for an interest rate increase have been whittled down; Reuters polls forecast rates will not move until early 2020, a calendar quarter later than was forecast a month ago. The hunt for a new governor to replace Carney in October adds more uncertainty to the mix.

The recent run of UK data has fueled hopes of economic rebound. That’s put net hedge fund positions in the pound into positive territory for the first time in nearly a year. The Old Lady of Threadneedle Street might temper some of that optimism.

(GRAPHIC: Sterling positions – https://tmsnrt.rs/2XJwUXX)

(Reporting by Alden Bentley in New York, Vidya Ranganathan in Singapore; Karin Strohecker, Josephine Mason and Saikat Chatterjee in London; compiled by Sujata Rao; edited by Larry King)

Source: OANN

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