A federal appeals court has upheld New York City’s contentious gun permit law, which allows officials to reject applications based on their assessment of the applicant’s “good moral character.” The ruling from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit comes after a lower court had previously blocked the law, declaring it an unconstitutional infringement on Second Amendment rights.

The case originated with Joseph Srour, a New York resident whose gun permit application was denied due to prior arrests and traffic violations. Srour, who was never convicted of any crime, argued that the city’s denial violated his constitutional rights. In 2023, a U.S. district judge sided with Srour, ruling that New York officials failed to prove their restrictions were consistent with America’s historical tradition of firearm regulation—a standard set by a 2022 U.S. Supreme Court decision.

New York City lawyers appealed the decision, and the Second Circuit stayed the district court’s order, temporarily allowing the law to stand. Srour then appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, but Justice Sonia Sotomayor declined his request to lift the stay.

The appeals court on Monday upheld the law but cited a twist in the case—Srour had since been granted a gun permit by city officials. “We now hold that because Srour has been granted the very relief he sought, the case before us is moot, and we lack jurisdiction to hear the merits,” wrote Circuit Judge Eunice C. Lee on behalf of the panel.

As a result, the panel vacated the previous ruling that blocked the law and dismissed New York City’s appeal as moot, returning the case to the district court to dismiss the part dealing with the moral character requirement. However, Srour’s claims that the city’s initial rejection of his application violated his Second Amendment rights remain unresolved, according to his attorney, Amy Bellantoni.

“Mr. Srour’s plenary claim for the city’s violation of his Second Amendment rights remains alive and well,” Bellantoni told The Epoch Times.

The New York City Law Department welcomed the ruling. “We are pleased with this court ruling which keeps an essential part of the city’s sensible rifle and handgun permitting law in place,” a spokesperson said.

The case has reignited debate over the balance between public safety and individual rights. New York City officials had originally denied Srour’s permit application on the grounds that he failed to disclose his arrest history—though he was never convicted—and cited his driving record as further evidence of poor moral character.

Critics, however, see the decision as a troubling precedent. Bellantoni pointed out that despite Srour’s current permit status, he remains vulnerable to future “at will” suspensions or denials based on the city’s broad interpretation of what constitutes a change in “status.”

The court’s ruling emphasizes the lack of a “reasonable likelihood” that Srour will face the contested “good moral character” standard again unless he is arrested or breaks the law. This unanimous decision from Judges Eunice C. Lee, Pierre N. Leval, and Raymond J. Lohier Jr. underscores a significant moment in the ongoing battle over gun rights and regulatory powers in one of the nation’s most populous cities.

Authored by Rebecca Friedrichs via RealClearPolitics,

Facebook chief Mark Zuckerburg now admits in writing that he was manipulated by the Biden administration into suppressing free speech on Meta platforms. His actions obstructed vital information on effective COVID protocols, and bolstered the lie that the Hunter Biden laptop was Russian disinformation. This did enormous damage to our health and polity.

But Facebook’s censorship brought harm to innocent children too. I’m a longtime teacher, and for decades I’ve personally witnessed dangerous corruption in America’s schools. I dared to warn families, so I was silenced by Zuckerberg’s “shadow-banning,” thanks to algorithms imposed by censors (“fact checkers”) at Meta.

Meta’s banning (as well as Twitter’s) began the very same night of my 2020 speech at the Republican National Convention. My pages changed from active with hundreds of likes and shares to zero likes and shares. And I went from rapid, daily follower increases to a complete halt in growth. Hundreds of my followers have reached out to me since the banning began to tell me that they no longer see my posts in their newsfeeds. Instagram’s (Meta’s) analytics show that an average of only 25% of my followers are seeing my content. That’s how shadow-banning works. I’m allowed to post, but my message is squelched.

Though I’m a volunteer in this battle for the kids, I had to hire social media experts to help me get my message to the public. They’ve reignited my social media presence – predominantly on Meta’s Instagram – with a reel-heavy strategy. Our ratios are the highest they’ve ever been – with the exception of follower count. That doesn’t add up.

It’s even worse on Facebook and X. We have high hopes that we’ll be freed on X since Elon is now in charge, but we’ve been unable to reach their tech team for support and believe our pre-existing Twitter shadow-banning has yet to be lifted on X.

Government tech is suppressing my speech because I exposed so-called teacher unions for morphing America’s schools into social, sexual, and political warzones, and I shared personal stories of how they pick on loving teachers and little kids. Though I spoke 100% eyewitness truth, I’m still shadow-banned four years later.

I know many people like me who are also banned on social media. We’re denied our free speech rights, while the predators we’re exposing broadcast loudly.

Zuckerberg stated that he believes “the government pressure [to censor content] was wrong.” He also penned, “I feel strongly that we should not compromise our content standards due to pressure from any Administration in either direction – and we’re ready to push back if something like this happens again.”

That sounds nice. But I’m still shadow-banned, and the day after Zuckerberg’s letter released, my personal page was inexplicably suspended. Many of my allies in the cause for truth are banned too.

Because of the censorship, we’re now ruled by tyrants. I have friends whose family members died from untested COVID shots and government-mandated hospital protocols. I know many who are suffering serious shot-related health complications. And the kids I’ve been trying to protect are being sexualized in our schools in record numbers.

That’s why I’m concerned about Zuckerberg’s claims that he’ll “push back if something like this happens again,” because it’s still happening – it never stopped. He never freed us from censorship.

Nothing Zuckerburg can say now will erase the injury he and the other tech titans have done to the country that made them billionaires. But I’ll believe he’s sorry when he ends the silencing of honest Americans like me.

Who knows how many Americans are dead, or severely injured, because tech titans silenced expert opposing views about the government’s handling of COVID? How many of those untested shots would have been rejected? How many patients would have taken commonsense, award-winning medicines like ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine, instead of dying on ventilators?

How many Americans might have voted differently in 2020 had they known the Hunter Biden laptop – loaded with authoritative accounts of government corruption and crime – was legitimate?

A little closer to home, how many additional families have lost their children to sexualized curricula, school violence, and the transgender agenda because Zuckerberg blocked our vital information about corruption in government schools? How many kids lost two years of learning because schools were shuttered thanks to the politicking of teacher unions? 

While those unscrupulous unions enjoy the freedom to propagandize on social media, thousands of commentators, including myself, are still shunted off the main feeds of innumerable apps because we dare stray from the official government tech line.

That my friends, is reflective of communism.

In regard to demoting the Hunter laptop as “Russian disinformation,” Zuckerburg now says, “We’ve changed our policies and processes to make sure this doesn’t happen again – for instance, we no longer temporarily demote things in the U.S. while waiting for fact-checkers.”

Since I’ve been demoted for four years without explanation, this is not reassuring.

And what about the hundreds of millions of dollars in cash Zuckerburg doled out to nearly 2,500 counties in 49 states? All on the up-and-up? Not according to numerous skeptics, including Hans von Spakovsky, a former Federal Election Commission member who in 2021 said it was clearly an effort to aid Democrats.

Spakovsky said “this was a carefully orchestrated attempt to convert official government election offices into get-out-the-vote operations for one political party.”

In a contemporary period where numerous government agencies are weaponized to serve the so-called Democratic Party in its persecution of those they dislike, Zuckerberg’s words here are poignant.

“I know that some people believe this work benefited one party over the other,” Zuckerburg deadpanned, adding meaningfully, “I don’t plan on making a similar contribution this cycle.”

But it’s hard to believe a man who cannot fully admit that his actions did benefit Democrats over the democratic process, and who continues blocking truth-tellers on the very day he released his confession.

Calling your bluff, Zuckerberg. Prove your sincerity by freeing persecuted truth-tellers like me. You can find me @RebeccaForKids.

Rebecca Friedrichs is the founder of For Kids and Country, author of Standing Up to Goliath, and a 28-year public school teacher who was lead plaintiff in Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association.

After yesterday’s lethargic sideways move, where traders sat on the sidelines waiting for the outcome of the triple main event of the past 24 hours, the presidential debate result, the CPI report and NVDA’s presentation, the Wednesday market did not disappoint and there were both emotional lows and more recently highs.

The action over the past 24 hours can be roughly divided into three sections:

• i) the debate and its aftermath;
• ii) the CPI print and its immediate aftermath, and
• iii) comments from NVDA CEO Jensen Huang.

And visually

Starting at the top, the debate – which was really a 1-on-3 with Trump taking on not just Kamala but the ABC moderators as well, was seen as won by her, if only by online betting services such as predictit…

… and polymarket…

… where election odds shifting in her favor.

And yet, outside this easily manipulated echo chamber which can be rigged by a handful of wealthy accounts, who then use their money to set the media narrative and discussion in social networks, the reality is that a Kamala victory was far from a given, especially after reading the following poll from Reuters:

Kamala Harris was widely seen as dominating Tuesday’s presidential debate against Republican former president Donald Trump, but a group of undecided voters remained unconvinced that the Democratic vice president was the better candidate.

Reuters interviewed 10 people who were still unsure how they were going to vote in the Nov. 5 election before they watched the debate. Six said afterward they would now either vote for Trump or were leaning toward backing him. Three said they would now back Harris and one was still unsure how he would vote.

Alas, this was too nuanced, and certainly did not get any airplay from the liberal mainstream media, and the market moved accordingly, with Goldman’s Democratic Policy Pair (GSP24DEM) surged +270bps to a new 2024 high, while the Republican Policy Pair (GSP24REP) tumbled -145bps (In HC specific, consistent with higher Kamala odds, seeing outperformance Medicaid, Exchanges, Hospital vs. Underperformance in Medicare).

Other assets which were hammered as the market (and its 3 second attention span) saw a looming Kamala victory, were the dollar, yields and crypto, at least initially: by the end of the day, most of the moves would be unwound.

Which brings us to point 2: today’s CPI report, which as discussed earlier, came in just hotter than expected on the MoM Core CPI print, which printed 0.3% vs exp. of 0.2%…

… where the biggest surprise was the unexpected heating up in shelter inflation, which ended its nearly 2-year stretch of declines…

… rising for the first time since March 2023.

This begs the question: if housing inflation is already reversing higher with Fed rates at the highest they have been since the Volcker Fed, what happens when Powell cuts more than 4 times this year (or more than 100bps), as the market expects, and another 6 times one year from today (bringing total cuts to 250bps).

Of course, it wouldn’t be the first time the market has expected huge rate cuts at the end of the calendar year… or the second time. In fact, this will be the third year in a row when stocks – having gone through a recession scare late in the year – price in multiple rate cuts. Only this time, the Fed appears willing to oblige. Still, as the following chart from DB shows, at the start of the year, market expectations were that the Fed would have already cut 100 bps by now.

One thing is clear: if we do get an inflation spike after the Fed cuts, the “stag” and the “flation” that Powell has been looking for so ardently will come looking for him, because if the Fed is indeed cutting rates just as inflation takes off again, well… everyone has seen this chart by now…

… and so have the algos, which is why stocks dumped immediately after opening, with the S&P sliding as low as 5400, and just shy of the key 100DMA support level, which is at 5391, below which CTAs would be active sellers of $6bn S&P futs, and supply would double below the key 5343 level which is medium term momentum threshold.

That’s why a some Hail Mary was urgenly needed, and it emerged shortly after Jensen Huang start speaking at 10:20am ET at the Goldman tech conference in San Fran, when the Nvidia CEO said that “the demand [for chips] is so great, and everyone wants to be first and everyone wants to be most.” that “we probably have more emotional customers today. Deservedly so. It’s tense. We’re trying to do the best we can.”

That was all the market needed to hear, to unleash a buying spree first in NVDA, whose stock soared by $10 to $117 or about $250billion in market cap, making a mockery of other pennystocks (speaking of which Gamestop plunged 13% after Roaring Kitty failed to spark another short squeeze after yet another dismal earnings report), while the S&P soared alongside it, not only erasing all losses but actually closing more than 1% higher…

So powerful was today faceripper of a rally sparked by Huang that not even several attempts by the 0DTE crew to spark a delta flow selloff had any chance.

So powerful was today’s risk rally that even bonds, which are now convinced a recession is imminent and ignored one of the strongest 10Y auctions on record, finally sold off…

… and even oil, where sentiment is most negative on record, managed to find a bid.

Of course, with cross-asset confusion raging, with bonds and oil certain a hard-landing is inevitable, while stocks – and AI in particular – confident there will be no landing, it means that there is no local equilibrium and tomorrow we will go through this rollercoaster all over again.

The 14-year-old boy accused of carrying out a deadly mass shooting at a Georgia high school earlier this month had a troubling history that raised red flags last year—but law enforcement didn’t act. Newly released bodycam footage shows Colt Gray, then 13, being questioned by Jackson County deputies in 2023 after they traced online threats of a school shooting to his family’s former address.

Colt’s father, Colin Gray, acknowledged that his son was an avid gamer who used the popular platform Discord, where the threats were posted. “He plays video games all the time,” Colin told deputies, adding that his son had access to guns in their home, though he insisted the firearms were unloaded. “We do a lot of shooting. We do a lot of deer hunting,” he said, showing a picture of Colt with blood on his face after his first deer kill, the Epoch Times reports.

Despite being informed of the threats, deputies left after Colt denied making them. “I have no choice but to take you at your word,” one deputy said, warning, “if I find out otherwise, it’s a different story.”

That “different story” unfolded in a horrifying way on September 4th, when Colt entered Apalachee High School and opened fire, killing four people—including two students—and wounding more than a dozen others, according to court documents. Authorities say Colt surrendered to school resource officers shortly after the shooting began, thanks to a new panic button system worn by teachers that alerted law enforcement.

Colt now faces four counts of felony murder, with more charges expected. His father, Colin, has also been charged for allegedly providing Colt with the gun used in the attack—the first time a parent in Georgia has faced such charges in connection with a school shooting.

At initial court appearances, both father and son were ordered to remain in custody. No pleas have been entered yet.

The FBI has since confirmed it received anonymous tips about a possible school shooting in Georgia but could not substantiate the claims at the time. Jackson County Sheriff Janis Mangum stated that local deputies interviewed the Grays but found no basis for an arrest. They did, however, notify local schools to keep an eye on Colt—a warning that some schools claim they never received.

As the cases move forward, questions loom over whether the system failed to prevent this tragedy and how a young boy with known access to firearms slipped through the cracks to become a mass shooter.

President Joe Biden’s latest words to reporters related to the Ukraine war strongly suggest the US could be close to greenlighting Ukraine’s ability to use US-supplied long-range missiles to strike deep inside Russian territory.

The pattern of recent history is also that if Zelensky lobbies hard enough in western capitals, there’s eventual capitulation, even should there be great risk of NATO escalation with Russia. This is how the F-16 program happened, and it was rushed through with negative results thus far.

Amid the latest pleas from Zelensky for the West to take off all restrictions on use of offensive weaponry, Biden when asked by reporters Tuesday if the US will allow Ukraine forces to use longer-range missiles to target sites inside Russia, said: “We’re working that out right now.”

Last week while visiting Germany, Zelensky urged, “We need to have this long-range capability, not only on the divided territory of Ukraine but also on the Russian territory, so that Russia is motivated to seek peace.”

“We need to make Russian cities and even Russian soldiers think about what they need: peace or Putin,” he said.

Biden’s latest remark about working out whether to lift all range restrictions come the same week the US has accused Iran of supplying Moscow with short-range ballistic missiles. The White House quickly hit Iran with new sanctions, and there’s the potential that another strong ‘answer’ of the US will be to give Kiev what it wants in terms of lifting arms restrictions.

Secretary of State Blinken while in London this week, just ahead of another trip to Kiev, had this to say:

“It’s not just the system itself that counts,” said Blinken. “You have to ask: Can the Ukrainians effectively use it, and sometimes that requires significant training, which we’ve done. Do they have the ability to maintain it?”

So there continues to be mixed signals. The Pentagon has lately said that Ukraine has long-range capabilities with its drone program. Still, pieces and key aspects of a potential new policy are in motion:

Britain and France build and supply Storm Shadow and Scalp-EG cruise missiles to Ukraine, but it is has become apparent that US technology is also involved and Washington has held back from approving that technology’s use for strikes inside Russian territory. Keir Starmer, the UK prime minister, is due to meet with Biden in Washington on Friday.

Pressure is building in Congress too…

Given the escalating Russian attacks on civilian targets across Ukraine, Chair @SenatorCardin is urging the easing of restrictions on Ukrainian’s use of U.S.-provided weapons, adding that America “must act swiftly to grant these permissions.”

Statement ⤵️https://t.co/N73L0fBq41

— Senate Foreign Relations Committee (@SFRCdems) September 11, 2024

Just on Tuesday several oblasts in Russia were rocked by wave after wave of Ukrainian drones, described as one of the single biggest drone attacks of the war.

One Moscow woman died as a result of a drone slamming into her apartment building. If these attacks are done by missiles and not just UAVs, the casualties and devastation will be much worse. Such would certainly cross Putin’s red lines and he would likely escalate the war with major attacks on the Ukrainian capital and perhaps even government buildings like the parliament.

Update (1502ET):

West Texas Intermediate futures jumped as much as 3%, the biggest gain in two weeks. This temporarily halted a nearly 19% decline since mid-August as short covering kicked in after Gulf of Mexico oil production was partially shuttered ahead of Hurricane Francine, which is set to make landfall near the southeastern Louisiana coast as a high-end Category 1 storm later today. 

Short covering in WTI futures was primarily due to oil companies shutting down about 40% of Gulf crude output ahead of the storm.  In recent days, Exxon Mobil, Shell, and other offshore drillers have evacuated crews and suspended operations. 

39% of Gulf of Mexico oil production shut due to Hurricane Francinehttps://t.co/bIf53HcmIi

— ForexLive (@ForexLive) September 11, 2024

“While global demand has weakened, current US supplies could tighten further if Hurricane Francine causes multiple days of well shut-ins,” Dennis Kissler, senior vice president for trading at BOK Financial Securities, told Bloomberg. 

Francine has mostly outweighed an earlier bearish EIA report showing an 833,000-barrel build in domestic crude stockpiles. Bloomberg users were expecting a 700,000-barrel draw.

The latest Bloomberg data shows that the storm’s trajectory is expected to slice through dozens of offshore oil rigs, and as many as eight onshore refineries are in the cone of uncertainty.

In addition to oil production shut-ins, Criterion Research said NatGas production in the Gulf of Mexico has plunged. 

The Gulf of Mexico has rapidly shut in gas volumes as Francine moves towards Louisiana. We currently see around 0.85 Bcf/d offline as output slid to this morning’s 1.18 Bcf/d. The Gulf was not impacted by any major storms in 2023, so it’s been a while since we had a sudden drop… pic.twitter.com/00HIHrueHI

— Criterion Research (@PipelineFlows) September 11, 2024

Commodity analyst Giovanni Staunovo wrote on X, “Based on data from offshore operator reports submitted as of 11:30 a.m. CDT today, personnel have been evacuated from a total of 171 production platforms, 46% of the 371 manned platforms in the Gulf of Mexico.” 

Based on data from offshore operator reports submitted as of 11:30 a.m. CDT today, personnel have been evacuated from a total of 171 production platforms, 46% of the 371 manned platforms in the Gulf of Mexico.

From operator reports, BSEE estimates that approximately 38.56% of… pic.twitter.com/bzyrJ85tZJ

— Giovanni Staunovo🛢 (@staunovo) September 11, 2024

Separately, Goldman’s Robert Quinn pointed out that bears have been piling shorts on Brent crude recently “due to underwhelming macroeconomic data and the likely return of Libyan barrels.” 

CTAs are bearish on Brent. 

A significant portion of oil and gas production in the Gulf of Mexico is temporarily shut down, and if the disruption extends, it could catch bears off-guard in a continued short rally. However, the souring macroeconomic backdrop with sliding energy demand in China and US economies is not a great setup for bulls.  

*   *   * 

If ever in doubt whether the Biden admin will rig and manipulate “data” to suit its goals and policies, don’t be: moments ago the Biden Dept of Energy published its weekly EIA oil storage report, which was a shocking mirror image of everything the private API reported yesterday.

As a reminder, this is what API said happened to various energy stocks over the past week:

• Crude -2.8MM (9th weekly draw in the past 10 weeks), and well below estimates of a +1.0MM build
• Gasoline -0.5MM
• Distillates +0.2MM
• Cushing -2.6MM (also 9th weekly draw in the past 10 weeks)

The last one was especially notable as it represented the biggest weekly drain in Cushing stocks since August 18, 2023 and sent the oil inventory in Cushing storage low enough to reach the dreaded “tank bottoms.”

That’s when Kamala’s/Biden’s department of goalseeking data stepped in, and moments ago reported what can only be described as a laughable mirror image of everything the API indicated yesterday. Here are the details:

• Crude +833K, Exp. +1.05MM
• Gasoline +2.31MM
• Distillates +2.308MM
• Cushing -1.704MM
• Production 13.3MMb/d, unch

That’s right: instead of 3 sets of draws, the EIA somehow found builds pretty much across the board, with Crude rising 833K, barely missing the estimate of 1.05MM (and a far cry from the 2.6MM draw per API) except for Cushing, which has emerged as the great source of all the liquidation magic we have observed in the past three months, and as shown below, Cushing has now drawn 9 out of the past 10 weeks!

One possible reason for the build is that in the past week, the Biden admin added just 279K to the SPR, the lowest weekly addition this year, and a huge swing from last week’s 1.8mm increase to the SPR,, which was the largest increase since June 2020.

The increase in stocks meant that after hitting a one  year low, total crude inventory (ex SPR) posted a small gain.

And even though the drop in Cushing was lower according to the EIA vs the API’s huge 2.8MM draw, 1-2 more weeks of this drain means that Cushing is still facing tank bottoms.

But there is still some time before we hit the bottom of Cushing: until then the CTAs and shorts are in control, and after staging a modest rebound, oil was slammed by over a buck to session lows, and just shy of the lowest level since 2021 (which in turn preceded a doubling in the price of oil in the next 3 months).

After yesterday’s stellar 3Y auction, moments ago the Treasury sold $39BN in a 10Y reopening of 9Y-11M cusipg LF6, which for the second day in a row, saw remarkable demand.

The auction stopped at a high yield of 3.648%, which was 31.2bps below last month’s 3.96% and was the lowest since May 2023; it also stopped through the When Issued 3.662 by 1.4bps, the 3rd through in the past 4 auctions, and a clear reversal to last month’s ugly 3.1bps tail.

The bid to cover was 2.637, a big jump from the 2.317 in August, and the highest since June’s 2.67%.

The internals were even more impressive, with Indirects awarded 76.1%, the biggest award going to foreign buyers since February 2023. And with Directs taking down 13.7%, Dealers were left holding just 10.2%, the lowest since August 2023.

Yet despite the stellar 10Y auction, with yields already trading at 2023 lows earlier in the day only to spike higher after the hotter CPI print, before reversing, and the reversing again after the NVDA stick save sent money chasing risk assets once more, yields actually moved higher on the auction results, and were rapidly approaching session highs of 3.68%.

Israel’s top official who is overseeing the (so far) failed truce talks with Hamas has said Israel is ready to offer Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar safe passage if all the hostages are returned. Upon that condition, the war in Gaza war can come to an end, the senior official said.

This came direct from Israeli hostage envoy Gal Hirsch during an interview with Bloomberg published Tuesday. “I’m ready to provide safe passage to Sinwar, his family, whoever wants to join him,” Hirsch said.

“We want the hostages back. We want demilitarization, de-radicalization of course — a new system that will manage Gaza,” the top Israeli negotiator added. In essence he has stipulated that Hamas must agree to exit Gaza, and relinquish power there.

Hirsch described that this unprecedented safe passage offer was put on the table less than 48 hours ago, but did not reveal whether a response was received or the nature of any Hamas reaction to it.

Yet he also admitted in the interview that the prospect of achieving a deal looks more and more unlikely. So the safe passage offer looks like a desperate last-ditch effort to get talks back on track.

Sinwar has long been seen as the mastermind behind the Oct.7 terror attacks on southern Israel. But even if the Hamas chief took up the offer, he would still remain on the run even abroad. This is because, as Bloomberg explains, Israeli intelligence has a proven history of tracking the movements of Hamas officials abroad and assassinating them:

It’s unclear whether Hamas would accept the proposal for Sinwar to leave Gaza, especially given Israel’s history of operations targeting operatives abroad.

Israel hasn’t taken responsibility for the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh on July 31 in Tehran. But Iran has said the killing — Haniyeh was slain in a bomb blast at a Tehran guest house — was Israel’s handiwork.

Hirsch continued by saying there are still other options even if Hamas doesn’t agree to this big offer of safe passage for Sinwar. “In parallel, I must work on plan B, C and D because I must bring the hostages back home,” he explained, adding that “The clock is ticking, the hostages do not have time.”

Indeed the last six hostages to be recovered from the tunnels had been slain shortly before Israel’s military (IDF) could reach them. This has outraged the hostage victims’ families, who have also accused Prime Minister Netanyahu of being lukewarm in seeking the return of the captives. They say he’s recklessly prioritized the military operation to defeat Hamas so much so that it’s put the remaining some 100 hostages in danger.

Recent days have witnessed more record-breaking protests in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem:

500,000 People Demand Hostage-release deal in massive Tel Aviv protest – https://t.co/ypF43BAXpO

An estimated half a million people took to the streets of Tel Aviv, Israel on Saturday night, demanding that the Israeli government agree to a ceasefire deal with Hamas that w… pic.twitter.com/j5K8z9MkaR

— WorthyNews (@worthynews) September 9, 2024

Hamas has since warned that it will continue executing hostages if the IDF forces its way close to their locations. So the prospect of future daring military rescue raids returning hostages alive is looking more bleak.

For the second day in a row, the market needed a sticksave, and got it thanks to – guess who – Nvidia.

Earlier this morning we reminded readers that NVDA was set to present at the Goldman Tech conference in San Fran…

NVDA presentation begins at GS tech confhttps://t.co/dkJQaKajvf

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) September 11, 2024

… an event we said would have greater significance than the CPI print, and sure enough that’s what happened, because as stocks were slumping and were threatening to take out Friday’s lows…

… a soundbite from NVDA CEO Jensen Huang saved the day yet again.

As quoted by Bloomberg, Huang said that “the demand on [chips] is so great, and everyone wants to be first and everyone wants to be most.” He added that “we probably have more emotional customers today. Deservedly so. It’s tense. We’re trying to do the best we can.”

Huang also said that Nvidia leans heavily on Taiwan Semiconductor for production of its most important chips and does so because that company is the best in its field by a large margin. But geopolitical tension has raised risks. China sees TSMC’s home island as a rogue province, stoking concerns that it might try to reclaim the territory. That could potentially cut off Nvidia from the key supplier.

Huang also said he develops much of the company’s technology in-house and that should allow Nvidia to switch orders to alternative suppliers. Still, such a change would likely result in a reduction in quality of his chips.

TSMC’s “agility and their capability to respond to our needs is just incredible,” he said. “And so we use them because they’re great, but if necessary, of course, we can always bring up others.”

In any case all the market heard is “demand is great”, which sent NVDA stock soaring from a session low of $107 to a session high of $113…

… which has also pushed the broader market to session highs:

• *NASDAQ 100 ERASES DECLINES, GAINING 0.1%

And just like that stocks have been sticksaved once again.

Western electric vehicle demand downgrades in the last 1.5 years have been one of the driving forces behind lithium prices collapsing from a peak in late 2022 into a nasty bear market. Oversupply of the critical battery metal has since become a significant concern in recent quarters as EV demand flounders in a period of high interest rates and elevated automobile prices. However, there is good news: China’s monthly lithium carbonate production is set to fall, and this production downshift has already started pushing prices upward.

On Tuesday, UBS analyst Sky Han revealed that Chinese battery giant Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. halted production at a major mine in Jiangxi province, easing oversupply fears for the silvery-white metal.

“According to our channel checks with several contacts, CATL finally decides to suspend its lithium lepidolite operation in Jiangxi after a meeting on 10 September,” Han said. 

She estimated the mine’s closure could slash about 8%, or 5k to 6k metric tons of China’s monthly carbonate production:

“CATL’s suspension of lithium operation in Jiangxi will lead to 8% or 5-6kt LCE production cut of China monthly Li2CO3 production, and help rebalance the supply with demand.” 

“After making a loss for two months in lithium business and continuous downside risk on lithium price, we finally see normal supply response from a marginal-cost producer,” she said. 

The analyst expects an 11%- 23% upside in the Chinese lithium price for the rest of the year. Prices jumped 5.6% to about 75,500 yuan per ton on Wednesday. Prices have slid 88% during the EV downturn that began in late 2022. 

Han cautioned that past rumors about suspended mine operations were inaccurate:

“It’s not the first time for us to hear CATL to cut/suspend lithium production in Jiangxi. Although the previous news turned out to be speculation, we get higher conviction this time.” 

Meanwhile, lithium stocks from Australia to China surged (courtesy of Bloomberg):

• Australia: MinRes up 16%, Liontown +13%, IGO +11%, Pilbara +4.9%, Arcadium Lithium +11%
• China: Ganfeng Lithium, Tianqi up by maximum 10% in China, Chengxin Lithium gains as much as 7.2%

Tribeca portfolio manager Ben Cleary told Financial Review, “The rally we’re seeing today is almost 100 percent short covering,”  adding, “Supply coming out of the market is exactly what the lithium market needs, so there is plenty of room for this rebound to run given how hard the stocks have been hit.”