Month: June 2023

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime updated its estimates on the street price of illicit drugs in Western Europe this week.

As Statista’s Katharina Buchholz reports, the retail street price of one gram of heroin varies significantly between countries.

You will find more infographics at Statista

In Finland, heroin was the most expensive out of the 17 countries analyzed, at $297 per gram.

Ireland was fetching the second highest prices at $237 a gram, but in general, other Scandinavian countries also ranked high for price. This included Denmark ($142), Norway ($102) and Sweden ($105).

There are also countries where prices are much lower – among them Portugal ($25), Belgium ($27), the Netherlands ($31) and Greece ($22) – all countries where drugs arrive via sea lanes.

But in continental Europe, prices were also estimated to be shockingly low. One gram cost $55 in Germany in 2021, $36 in France and $49 in Italy.

By Michael Msika, Bloomberg Markets Live reporter and strategist

Europe’s equities have lost a third of their annual gains in just about a week, and so far dip buyers are proving hard to find.

Hit by a slew of hawkish central-bank comments, the Stoxx 600 fell for six straight sessions before halting the losing streak on Tuesday. While far from a correction, the benchmark’s longest stretch of declines since October highlights the near absence of investors who were ready to buy the dip sooner during previous pullbacks.

“Optimistic market participants are currently having a hard time resisting the tendency to take profits,” says Andreas Lipkow, strategist at Comdirect Bank. “The interest in buying is not sufficient and there is still a lack of positive impetus, which is due to the current summer doldrums in international financial markets. This situation will not change for the time being.”

With trading volume already down ahead of the seasonal summer lull, the moves to the downside may be exacerbated. On the technical side, breadth is deteriorating, but hasn’t yet reached levels that signal a bounce ahead.

The next big support level for the Stoxx 600, after it breached 50- and 100-day moving averages this month, is the 200-day level — roughly 2% below where the gauge is currently trading. On a more granular level, the proportion of stocks below their 10-day moving average has the potential to go lower before buyers step in.

Looking at the composition of this year’s rally, 39% of Europe’s gains have come from the biggest 15 companies. The median stock has gained a modest 4%, versus the broader gauge’s 6.6%. Some large caps are now showing weakness, which bodes ill for the Stoxx 600.

“While the broader European index isn’t at a technically relevant level, beneath the surface, the biggest three stocks in the region are,” says Carl Dooley, head of EMEA trading at TD Cowen, pointing out that LVMH, Novo Nordisk and Nestle are all pinned around their 100-day moving averages. The next move in that group will likely drive the rest of the market from here on, he adds.

Momentum based on MACD is weakening across the board, and has turned outright negative for most of the main indexes in Europe — a sharp contrast with the all-green readings of last month.

On Monday, we flagged the cracks appearing in the bull case for stocks, with mounting macroeconomic concerns clearly not reflected in the price. While a collapse in volatility has supported equity markets, credit spreads are still elevated, pricing in more economic trouble ahead.

For BofA derivative strategists including Riddhi Prasad, equity volatility is unlikely to sustain the extreme lows seen recently through the fall, “given a still hawkish ECB and fundamental risks to growth after a record tightening cycle,” they wrote last week.

Goldman Sachs strategist Peter Oppenheimer expects most equity markets to remain in a “fat and flat” range over the next 12 months. Poor earnings growth at the index level coupled with high valuations will cap the upside, according to him.

Authored by Steve Watson via Summit News,

Some 250 woke Hollywood celebrities from movies, TV and music have signed their names to an open letter urging big tech companies to crack down on anyone who doesn’t fall into line with the trans agenda, including advocating life changing gender surgeries on children.

The letter was sent to the CEOs of Meta, YouTube, TikTok and Twitter by GLAAD (Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation) and the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), and was signed by hundreds of famous names including Amy Schumer, Ariana Grande, Demi Lovato, Jamie Lee Curtis, Judd Apatow, Patrick Stewart and many more.

It states that “There has been a massive systemic failure to prohibit hate, harassment, and malicious anti-LGBTQ disinformation on your platforms and it must be addressed,” pointing to “dangerous posts (both content and ads)… targeting transgender, nonbinary, and gender non-conforming people.”

“This disinformation and hate, inadequately moderated on your platforms, plays an outsized role in the sharp increase in real-world anti-transgender targeting and violence,” it continues.

The letter further decrees “Your policies and corresponding enforcement are inadequate when it comes to mitigating harmful and dangerous anti-LGBTQ content. You must urgently take action to protect trans and LGBTQ users on your platforms (including protecting us from over-enforcement and censorship).”

The celebrities specifically cite tech companies allowing people to engage in ‘deadnaming’ and ‘misgendering’ as a “widespread mode of hate speech across all platforms, utilized to bully and harass prominent public figures while simultaneously expressing hatred and contempt.”

The letter then demands to know what the tech companies are going to do to address “Content that spreads malicious lies and disinformation about medically necessary healthcare for transgender youth.“

The letter states that “Specific mitigations on such disinformation must be developed (for instance akin to election and COVID-19 mitigations and rules).”

So, essentially, censoring anyone who doesn’t completely advocate removing the genitals of children and sterilising them.

Recall that the “mitigations” employed by big tech against people who expressed opinions on the 2020 election and COVID-19 that were in any way divergent to the establishment narrative were to censor and altogether remove them from the platforms.

This included merely suggesting that the COVID lab leak theory, which is now the accepted probable reality of what happened by several government agencies and scientists, warranted an investigation.

Related:

Meanwhile, in the real world, a new poll from Summit Ministries and McLaughlin & Associates has found that 61 percent of U.S. voters believe that introducing children to transgenderism, drag shows, and LGBTQ+ themes stunts their emotional and psychological development.

The polls also found that 63 percent of respondents believe that those advocating for children to be exposed to these issues are motivated purely by a desire to push a specific cultural agenda.

A further poll found that almost three quarters (73%) want businesses to stay neutral on political and cultural issues, including LGBTQ+, with just over half saying they support boycotting companies that aggressively market that agenda.

Those figures dovetail with another poll conducted by The Trafalgar Group in partnership with Convention of States Action that found 62 percent want companies to remain neutral during Pride month, and that 41 percent say they have taken part in boycotting a company for taking woke public stances.

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A section of Europe’s most important inland waterway for transporting fuel and other industrial goods has fallen to levels not seen in three decades for this time of the year and might be an ominous sign of incoming supply chain disruptions on the inflation-battered continent if hot weather and dryness persist through summer.

The Rhine Waterways and Shipping Authority (WSA) has yet to issue any alerts for the Rhine River, but data from the closely watched Kaub chokepoint shows the water level around 1.26 meters on Wednesday.

On a seasonal basis, Kaub water levels haven’t been this low in three decades, indicating that barge disruption could be ahead for the second year. 

We followed the chaos last summer as German shippers halted barge operations due to low water levels at Kaub. 

• Germany’s Energy Crisis About To Get Even Worse As Rhine Water Levels Plummet
• Germany’s Uniper Warns Of Possible “Irregular Operation” At Major Power Plant As Rhine River Runs Dry
• Shipping Halted On Rhine Near Kaub Chokepoint Due To Distressed Barge Blocking Waterway

Already, barges hauling heating oil fuel from the Rotterdam area beyond Kaub have seen cargo loads nearly halved from 2,000 tons of fuel to 1,200 tons in a week, according to Riverlake Barging data. 

Declining Kaub water levels have begun to push up barge prices. 

If Rhine supply chain woes materialize later this summer, then this will be bad news for the European Central Bank’s fight against inflation. At the same time, the continent entered a recession earlier this year. 

Authored by John Cody via Remix News,

A new poll conducted for top French newspaper Le Figaro shows that nearly three out of four French people believe there are too many migrants in the country, with the poll results coming after the country accepted a record number of foreigners in 2022 under President Emmanuel Macron.

The Odoxa-Backbone Consulting poll shows that at nearly every level, the French want stricter immigration controls, more deportations, and even a referendum on immigration into France.

It further shows that French people are becoming increasingly opposed to mass immigration, with 74 percent saying there are too many immigrants in France. This represents an 11-point increase from when the poll was conducted five years ago.

This holds true for supporters of National Rally (97 percent), Republicans (91 percent), Renaissance (68 percent) and even Socialists (52 percent) and Greens (51 percent). Only supporters of Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s left-wing La France Insoumise are in the minority (44 percent) when asked if there are too many migrants in France.

The poll additionally shows that 79 percent of French want asylum seekers to have their requests decided on before they are allowed to enter French territory. Seventy-four percent also believe that immigration quotas should be set each year by the French parliament, and 72 percent believe that migration policy should be decided by a referendum.

The French also want to make the country less socially attractive for migrants (68 percent), to include the principle of assimilation in the Constitution (66 percent) and even to derogate from the European treaties (62 percent).

Interestingly, not only did a majority of Les Republicans, National Rally and Reconquête voters all take a hardline view on immigration, but also supporters from Macron’s party Renaissance did as well. All of the respondents were highly critical of Macron’s handling of the issue of immigration, with the exception of voters who approve of Macron.

On the issue of refugees fleeing persecution in their country, 55 percent say France should accept them, but this is a 10-point drop from five years ago.

The French, however, welcome proposals to better integrate migrants in the country, including supporting the creation of a residence permit for undocumented workers with jobs that employers need filled (58 percent) and allowing asylum seekers to access jobs (58 percent).

“On immigration, French people’s thinking is finally ‘complex’, a sort of ‘at the same time’ reduce the number of arrivals but also show ourselves more inclusive for immigrants already on our territory,” concludes Céline Bracq, Odoxa’s managing director.

During an appearance on the Europe 1 television station this month, the mayor of the French city of Cannes, David Lisnard, warned that immigration has become a major problem in France after it accepted a record 500,000 migrants last year. He says the government must bring immigration under control or risk societal consequences.

“It is communication itself that creates the problem. Immigration has become a major problem in France, we received more or less 600,000 people last year — 600,000. This is a (new) record. Hence, we must close the taps on immigration today, in the interest of the balance of French society,” said Lisnard.

Switzerland is seeking to defend its neutrality, blocking German tanks from reaching the war zone in Ukraine. Ruag AG, which is headquartered in Bern, Switzerland – sought government permission to sell nearly 100 tanks to Kiev for its war against Russia. 

But the major Swiss arms maker and aerospace engineering company has been denied the requestion, with the government saying it would be “inconsistent with applicable law” concerning arms deliveries to an active conflict zone. 

Swiss officials in the context of the announcement cited the small central European country’s historic neutrality. 

“The rejection applies to 96 non-operational Leopard 1 tanks currently stored in Italy, which are property of Ruag,” Bloomberg reported Wednesday. “The proposal was for the vehicles to be refurbished in Germany and then sent to Ukraine.”

And according to more details: 

The announcement on Wednesday is unconnected to a separate sale of 25 Leopard 2 tanks of the Swiss army, which are supposed to go to German company Rheinmetall AG.

The latter deal recently won the support of the Swiss government and is expected to go through by next year. In this case, Germany has promised not to send the tanks to Ukraine, but to keep them at home to fill gaps in its own military.

But Switzerland certainly has a clear stance on the Russia-Ukraine war, given it has joined and expanded European sanctions against Russian entities. 

Reuters confirmed Wednesday, “Switzerland has expanded financial and travel sanctions against Russian entities and persons in step with the most recent sanctions imposed by the European Union on Moscow after the invasion of Ukraine.”

A number of recent reports have meanwhile described Switzerland as a hotspot of both Russian and Chinese spying. Switzerland’s main intelligence agency, the Federal Intelligence Service (FIS), issued a statement this week saying, “In Europe, Switzerland is one of the states with the highest numbers of Russian intelligence officers operating under diplomatic cover, in part due to its role as a host to international organizations.”

But this actually remains a common practice especially for large powers, including the US, UK and other Western nations.