May 20, 2022

For the week, the DJIA lost 934.76 points, or 2.9%, to close at 31,261.90. The S&P dropped 122.53 points, or 3%, ending at 3,901.36. The Nasdaq fell 450.384 points, or 3.8%, closing at 11,354.617.

U.S. retail sales rose strongly in April as consumers spent more on motor vehicles amid an improvement in supply and increased spending at restaurants, providing a powerful boost to the economy at the start of the second quarter.

Permits for future U.S. home-building tumbled to a five-month low in April, suggesting the housing market was slowing as rising mortgage rates contribute to reduced affordability for entry-level and first-time buyers.

U.S. existing home sales dropped to the lowest level in nearly two years in April as house prices jumped to a record high amid a persistent lack of inventory.

Stress on global supply chains worsened in April as lockdown measures in China and the war in Ukraine lengthened delivery times, and air freight costs between the U.S. and Asia rose, the New York Federal Reserve reported in its latest update to a worldwide index of supply problems.

Target’s quarterly profit halved and it warned on Wednesday of a bigger margin hit this year due to rising fuel and freight costs, in a clear sign there would be no immediate relief for U.S. retailers from surging inflation.

Walmart reported a 25% drop in quarterly earnings and cut its full-year profit outlook on Tuesday as rising costs of fuel and labor hurt its bottom line.

S&P Dow Jones Indices has removed electric carmaker Tesla from its widely-followed S&P 500 ESG Index, citing issues including racial discrimination claims against the company and its handling of a government investigation after crashes linked to its autopilot vehicles.

Janet Yellen on Wednesday confirmed she is advocating within the Biden administration for eliminating some tariffs on Chinese imports that "aren't very strategic" but are hurting U.S. consumers and businesses.

Kohl's Corp cut its full-year earnings forecast on Thursday, joining some of the largest U.S. retailers in warning that red-hot inflation is starting to erode profit margins and consumer spending power.

Spirit Airlines urged shareholders to reject a hostile bid by JetBlue Airlines on Thursday, saying it was "a cynical attempt to disrupt" its merger with Frontier.

Factory output growth in the U.S. Mid-Atlantic region decelerated far more than expected in May, and the business outlook for the next six months is the weakest in more than 13 years, a regional Federal Reserve bank survey showed Thursday.

US jobless claims rose unexpectedly but the labor market continues to tighten as more people in the world's largest economy are finding jobs than losing them, according to analysts.

***

Friday Recap: Stocks Falling, Bear Market Looms

Walmart, Target, and Kohl's were among major retailers that reported earnings this week that missed Wall Street expectations by the widest margin in at least five years, underscoring the impact of four-decade-high inflation on U.S. shoppers' wallets and retailers' bottom lines.

Among 145 retailers that have reported first-quarter earnings so far, 127 mentioned inflation and 138 flagged supply chain issues, according to Refinitiv data.

Deere raised its 2022 profit forecast on Friday as gaps in grain supplies triggered by Russia's invasion of Ukraine drive global crop price higher, but the heavy equipment maker's stock fell after its quarterly revenue missed analysts' forecasts.

The Fed will lift interest rates higher by the end of this year, more than anticipated just a month ago, keeping alive already-significant risks of a recession.

Global investors massively cut their positions in bond and equity funds in the week ended May 18 on concerns of inflation and that rising interest rates will lead to recession.

Gold was basically flat on Friday as the U.S. dollar rebounded from two-week lows, but it still posted its first weekly gain in five weeks on persistent worries over economic growth.

Silver fell to $21.67 per ounce but was up about 3% for the week.     Platinum fell to $946.20, while palladium was down to $1,969.00. Copper was mostly flat in trading today.

U.S. Treasury yields fell for a third straight session on Friday, as investors remained concerned about growing signs of an economic slowdown.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 8.77 points, or 0.03%, to close at 31,261.90; the S&P 500 gained 0.57 points, or 0.01%, ending at 3,901.36; the Nasdaq Composite dropped 33.878 points, or 0.30%, closing at 11,354.617.

For the week, the DJIA lost 934.76 points, or 2.9%, to close at 31,261.90. The S&P dropped 122.53 points, or 3%, ending at 3,901.36. The Nasdaq fell 450.384 points, or 3.8%, closing at 11,354.617.

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Ukraine War Update: Avozal Fighters Fate Unknown; Russian Soldier On Trial Asks Forgiveness

The fate of Mariupol’s Avozal defenders remains in the balance, as nearly 2,000 of those who prevented a Russian takeover for multiple weeks are now in Russian custody as prisoners of war.

On Friday, Ukraine’s Lieutenant Colonel Denys Prokopenko reported through Telegram that all civilians and heavily wounded soldiers had been evacuated from the Avozal Steelworks factory located in Mariupol. The commander of the Azov regiment said rescue efforts had prioritized transporting “civilians, wounded, and dead through the system of tunnels.”

He added, “I hope that in the near future, relatives and Ukraine will be able to bury their soldiers…(READ MORE)

Existing Home Sales Decrease as Housing Prices Stand at Record Highs

The housing market is showing signs that it may soon stabilize as the most recent numbers show a decrease in home sales, though housing prices continue to sit at an all-time high.

For the month of April, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) reports that existing home sales fell 2.4% to an annual rate of 5.61 million from 5.75 million the month before. This represents the third straight month of falling home sales.

Lawrence Yun, NAR’s chief economist, said the decrease in sales are likely due to “higher home prices and sharply higher mortgage rates.”

“It looks like more declines are imminent in the upcoming months…(READ MORE)

Disinformation Board ‘Paused’ after 3 Weeks, Jankowicz Resigns

On Wednesday, the Department of Homeland Security announced it was pausing its ill-received Disinformation Governance Board after weeks of the group and its leader being lampooned by conservatives and classic liberals.

Homeland Security announced the freezing of the board in a statement shared on Twitter. The board, which was announced just three weeks ago, had never formally met.

According to the DHS statement, the pause will last a minimum of 75 days, after which a program review will be offered by a council headed by George W. Bush-era Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff and former U.S. Deputy Attorney General Jamie Gorelick, who served during the Clinton…(READ MORE)

New Internal Polling Points to Midterm Peril for House Dems

Recent polling data shows that Democrats’ control of the House may be in more jeopardy than the party has previously let on. 

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee’s own polling shows that, in the generic ballot, Republicans are beating Democrats 47-39 in battleground districts, Punchbowl News reported. The most recent Monmouth poll gives the GOP a seven-point advantage overall, not just in battleground states, while Real Clear Politics’ generic-ballot aggregate average shows Democrats are down 3.5 points. 

Punchbowl News said the polling exposes a "stunning margin" by electoral standards that suggests Democrats are "in worse political peril than they’ve let on publicly," lending credence to growing concerns.…(READ MORE)

Less Than 12% of Americans Agree with Democrats on Abortion

Many Democrats and pro-abortion activists, who argue abortion should be available on demand up to the point of birth, assert that overturning Roe V. Wade would be out of step with the will of the American people, but according to a new Trafalgar Group / COSA poll the vast majority of Americans don’t agree with the far-left’s position on the issue. 

The survey, conducted in early May, found that 57.6% of Americans believe abortion should either be illegal after conception or once a heartbeat can be detected. In fact, only 11.6% agree with the likes of Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer that abortions should remain legal at any point in a pregnancy, a position he attempted to codify into law in a Senate vote last week. Roughly 30% are somewhere in between saying that abortion should be…(READ MORE)

SEE ALSO: Federal agencies prepping for violence if Roe overturned

NBC News Investigation Finds Hunter Biden Gained $5.8 Million From Chinese Businessmen

A recent analysis of Hunter Biden’s laptop drive, which was infamously left unclaimed in a computer repair shop during 2020, shows that President Joe Biden’s son had massive dealings with China. The probe revealed that the younger Biden received $5.8 million in payments from business associates, including one whom he called the “chief spy,” stoking fears of foreign influence in the White House and compromised national security.

This new information further shows how the mainstream media is attempting to climb out of the hole they dug during the initial reporting of the laptop controversy, after repeatedly denying its existence and lambasting those who did not fall in line as conspiracy theorists. It also suggests that the president lied on national television to Americans.

NBC News acquired a copy of the laptop hard drive contents from “a representative of Rudy Giuliani” to examine, leading to their report…(READ MORE)

Gas Prices Above $4 Per Gallon in All 50 States for the First Time

The increase in gas prices continues to break records nationwide, and that trend continues as now all 50 states have an average of $4 per gallon of gas for the first time in history.

The American Automobile Association (AAA) reports that as of Wednesday morning the national average of gasoline sits at $4.567 per gallon, a record high. In addition, each state’s average for gasoline prices ranges from anywhere between $4.026 to $6.050, which are the lowest and highest recorded gas prices among all 50 states.

The lowest gas price average ($4.026) belongs to Kansas while the highest ($6.050) belongs…(READ MORE)

SEE ALSO: Gas prices expected to surpass $6 this summer, GOP lawmakers call on Biden admin to address existing oil and gas lease delays

World Swimming Coaches Association on Transgender Swimmers: ‘Fairness Cannot Exist in the Current Model’

The World Swimming Coaches Association (WSCA) released a report detailing its position on transgender swimming by saying that allowing biological males to compete against biological females creates an unfair competitive environment for women.

A key line of that report reads, “For the sport of swimming, the inclusion of transgender people on the grounds of fairness cannot co-exist in the current competitive model. Swimming should choose to offer competition in which the female category is protected for reasons of competitive fairness.”

According to the report, the group of coaches spent considerable time crafting their position on transgender swimming and initially came up with three potential options to discuss. For each option, the term “female” refers to people who were declared female at birth…(READ MORE)

SEE ALSO: Majority of Americans Think Transgenderism is Unhealthy

Biden Condemns Media, Political Foes for Spreading ‘Poison’ of White Supremacy

President Joe Biden’s visit to Buffalo Tuesday was marked by pointed words for the people he says have brought about a rise of white supremacy in the United States.

In a speech given moments after meeting with the families of victims of a deadly mass shooting, Biden blamed the media and politics for sharing messages that have “radicalized angry, alienated, lost, and isolated individuals into falsely believing that they will be replaced — that’s the word, ‘replaced’ — by the ‘other’ — by people who don’t look like them and who are therefore, in a perverse ideology that they possess and [which is] being fed, lesser beings.”

He later added, “White supremacy is a poison. It’s a poison running through — it really is — running through our body politics. And it’s been allowed to fester and grow…(READ HERE)

SEE ALSO: Dems push gun reform in wake of Buffalo shooting

Biden Prepares to Hand America’s Sovereignty to the WHO

The ultimate control over America’s health care and its national sovereignty will be put up for a vote next week at a meeting of the World Health Organization’s (WHO) governing legislative body, the World Health Assembly (WHA).

On May 22-28, 2022, the 75th World Health Assembly will convene at the United Nations (U.N.) headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, with delegates from 194 nations, to vote on the Biden administration’s amendments that will hand over national sovereignty and authority to the WHO.

On March 31, 2020, the U.S. contribution to the WHO was $115.8 million, followed by China at approximately one-half that amount, followed by Japan, Germany, the United Kingdom, France, Italy, and Brazil. Then in July 2020, President Donald Trump notified Congress and the U.N. that the United States was formally withdrawing…(READ MORE)

Schumer, Liberals Use Buffalo Attack to Paint Conservatives as Racist

The deadly attack at a supermarket in Buffalo, NY which left ten dead and three injured quickly regressed into political posturing. Within hours after information about the horrific incident was released, Democratic lawmakers, liberal pundits, and mainstream media outlets began pointing fingers at Republicans, whom they accuse of of fomenting white supremacy and racial hatred.

The Saturday shooting has been regarded as the deadliest in the United States this year, with evidence showing that the attack was motivated by race. The suspect in the shooting, Payton Gendron, who is white, wrote a lengthy, racist manifesto ahead of the shooting, according to several reports. The 18-year-old is also purportedly a staunch proponent of the so-called “great replacement theory,” a belief that the government is trying to replace white people…(READ MORE)

Researchers Have Found an Enzyme That May Correlate to SIDS

Australian researchers have identified an enzyme called butyrylcholinesterase (BChE) that they found to be “significantly lower” in infants who died of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS). Researchers are hopeful that these findings can be applied to create new interventions and clinical applications to prevent infant deaths in the future.

BChE is an enzyme associated with the cholinergic system, which is part of the autonomic system and controls body functions such as breathing and blood pressure. Finding low levels of BChE and its correlation to SIDS could be a potential factor for identifying vulnerable infants under the “triple risk model.” This hypothesis identifies three factors leading to SIDS as a vulnerable infant, a critical developmental period, and an external stressor.

Research has previously indicated that autonomic dysfunction may be a factor, though it has remained unclear why seemingly healthy children…(READ MORE)

 

SEE ALSO: More children diagnosed with mysterious cases of hepatitis

Investigators to Probe Whether Law Enforcement Missed Red Flags Leading up to Deadly Buffalo Shooting Spree

Investigators are seeking to determine whether authorities missed red flags left by the teenage gunman whom police say opened fire on several shoppers at a Buffalo, New York supermarket Saturday, killing 10 people and wounding three others. 

Authorities say, Payton Gendron, 18, who is white, specifically targeted blacks in a racially-motivated attack the suspect live-streamed on the Twitch social media platform owned by Amazon. The company says it removed the post two minutes later.

The Tops Friendly Market in Buffalo, where the deadly massacre took place, is in a predominantly black…(READ MORE) 

SEE ALSO Authorities say attack on Taiwanese church was ‘politically-motivated’

Study Shows Battleground States Oppose Transgender Policies

The approach of the November midterm elections poses a threat to Democrats who, despite having control of most of the legislative branch, are facing a slew of at-home issues like inflation.

Congressional Democrats are hoping to save their seats by pushing agendas that the more extreme forms of their base want, such as unlimited abortion and LGBTQ+ policies in schools. But this push may backfire, as a new poll shows that battleground states are currently favoring the Republican picks over their Democrat competitors.

Conducted by OnMessage Inc. and presented by the American Principles Project (APP), the survey used answers from 1,200 respondents in the battleground states of...(READ MORE)

SEE ALSO: Middle schoolers charged with sexual harassment for using wrong gender pronouns

Ariz. Gov. Ducey Borrows from Texas’ Playbook, Starts Busing Migrants to D.C.

Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott has sent 32 busloads of illegal immigrants to Washington D.C. since announcing last month that he was bringing the southern border crisis directly to President Biden’s doorstep. Now Arizona’s governor has quietly followed suit. 

As first reported in the Arizona Daily Star, Republican Gov. Doug Ducey last week authorized the transportation of 20 migrants by bus into the nation’s capital. The migrants came from Angola, Columbia, Haiti, Peru, Uzbekistan, and Venezuela, according to officials that spoke with the news outlet who said their final destinations were Pennsylvania, Florida, New York, New Jersey, Virginia, and Maine.

Officials in Arizona say the state could end up sending two or three buses per week, each…(READ MORE)

Saudi Oil Giant Aramco Sees 80% Surge in Profits While Gas Prices in America Reach Another All-Time High

Aramco, Saudi Arabia’s largest oil company, reported an 82% jump in net profit Sunday, going from $21.7 billion in the first three months of 2021 to $39.5 billion this year.

In relation, gas prices in America seem to set new record highs almost daily. According to AAA, gas prices have reached another average high today, as it is selling at $4.483 per gallon up from yesterday’s record breaking $4.47. To put those gas prices in context:

• One month ago, gas was selling at $4.08 per gallon.
• California’s average gas price today is $5.983 per gallon.
• May gas prices over the past 3 years have been $1.79 in 2020, $2.89 in 2021, and $4.83 today.

These increased costs at the pump in America are causing…(READ MORE)

 

SEE ALSO: House Democrats pass bill targeting alleged oil and gas price gouging

Pro-Abortion Witnesses Espouse Extreme Views During House Judiciary Hearing

The House Judiciary Committee held a hearing on abortion rights on Wednesday, where pro-abortion witnesses dodged questions on the procedure’s morality, refused to denounce partial-birth abortion, and even suggested that men can become pregnant and receive abortions. 

During the hearing, Rep. Mike Johnson (R-La.) asked Democrat witness Aimee Arrambide, the executive director of a pro-abortion nonprofit, if she believed abortion should be allowed “for any reason, for any purpose, and at any stage.”

“I trust people to make decisions about their body and then when relevant I think that they need to consult…(READ MORE)

SEE ALSO: Women’s March promotes ‘Summer of Rage’

Johns Hopkins Hires Criminal Justice Professor Following Recent Resignation over Use of Term ‘Minor-Attracted Persons’

Johns Hopkins University has hired Allyn Walker, a non-binary identifying person born as a woman, to serve as a professor in their criminal justice department. This comes just months after she resigned from a position at Old Dominion University for pushing the use of the term “minor-attracted person” as opposed to “pedophile” and authorship of a book titled, “A Long Dark Shadow: Minor-Attracted People and Their Pursuit of Dignity.”

The Moore Center for Prevention of Sexual Abuse at Johns Hopkins confirmed the news in a statement to Fox News Digital, saying “Allyn Walker, PhD, joins the Moore Center for the Prevention of Child Sexual Abuse as a postdoctoral fellow on May 25, 2022.”

“Walker is a leader in the field of perpetration prevention research, which is essential for developing a comprehensive…(READ MORE)

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