#i got some more stuff but these are the two BL marketing related

[scarefox]

I am not immune to BL product placements 🙌

[absolutebl]

Top 10 BLs Out of China 

(best BLs from China in no particular order, and all containing problematic tropes or serious censorship or both - triggers all ‘round) 

Addicted Heroin (2016) Viki - Censored mid series but high heat classic BL prior to that, weird ending, still my favorite. Unfinished due to censorship but still very good, well acted and shot, high school set, rich kid falls madly for the genius poor kid in his class, starts an aggressive pursuit, includes kidnapping for love, obsession, stepbrother trope, plus some cheating. 

Word of Honor (2021) Viki & YouTube - Censored wuxia bromance, amorphous ending. Two murder-gay assassins (pining sunshine/tsundere) who manage to be insanely gay for two boys who will never be allowed to kiss. Tropes include: wuxia, soulmates, paranormal, historical, and fantasy elements.

The Untamed Special Edition BL Cut (2020) YouTube - Censored wuxia bromance, amorphous ending. Probubly the best known BL of its kind out of China and responsible for bring many fans to the BL side. 

Guardian (2018) grey - Censored bromance, episodic urban fantasy police procedural, one of the most epic long term pinings in the history of long term pinings. 

Advance Bravely (2017) grey - Bodyguard romance censored mid series, weird ending. I actually kinda like this but it is very much censored has themes of revenge, salvation, infiltration, and domesticity. Hard to find and the rip is terrible. 

My Esports Genius Brother (2021) GaGa - A strangely cute somewhat incomprehensible censored magical realism BL micro series about fated mates who balance each other out and must find the courage to stay together. More here. 

Like Love: I Love You As a Man 1 & 2 (2014-2105) YouTube grey - Pre-censorship with an HEA, also explicit, yeah China once did that. Classic early yaoi style BL college romance for a rich popular jock type and a super nerd. 

Mr. CEO is Falling in Love with Him (2017) grey - Heavily censored bromance that says what it does on the tin, but they basically end up living together. 

S.C.I. AKA SCI Mysteries (2018) YouTube - Out of Hong Kong but they tend to act similar to Mainland China around censorship, this is a police procedural with a censored bromance main couple of police investigators who live together basically as husbands, it’s just not talked about. This is one of the first BLs I ever saw (I found their relationship very confusing). 

Irresistible Love: Secret of the Valet 1 & 2 AKA Uncontrolled Love (2016) YouTube grey - Censored obsession romance but there’s an alt happy ending for the series on part 2, quite violent, lots of tiggers, whipping boy chassis.  

Vids tagged “grey” may no longer have functioning links. Check MDL comment threads to track down. Or leave a comment I may have an updated link. 

Mainland China & BL in Brief 

China’s History with BL is complicated by serious homophobia and censorship, which I’ve posted about before so I’m not going to go into it again in depth. 

Like Japan, most of China’s early stuff is depressing in that they like to kill their queers either with the seme character becoming so obsessed to the point of kidnapping, rape, and murder (the murder-gay trope). Otherwise they end their stuff with separation by accidental death, noble self sacrifice, or some other misery (kill your gays trope). 

China entered the market in a big way with over a dozen movies 2014-2016 featuring either adult or university aged characters, often explicit relations, always obsessive love, and ultimate unhappiness. 

In 2016 Addicted: Heroin released which looked to be an actual BL romance with a high school setting, high heat, and HEA and the censors lost their shizz and shut it down. (There are lots of rumors about what "playing gay” did to the careers of the respective actors, especially the one playing the uke role.) 

Clearly production had already begun on a few 2017 series like Advance Bravely and Beloved Enemy, which then got killed or censored beyond all recognition, and there’s a drop off in movies with any kind of queer content after that.

This in turn resulted in the suppressed bromance long running series of 2018-2019 (SCI, Guardian). The ultimate result of which was wuxia adaptation, The Untamed in 2019. Word of Honor pushed back on the gay, again, but was still censored and not allowed to end (exactly) HEA (by romance standards). (And the uke actor was punished, again, this time ostensibly for other reasons.) 

As China currently stands, BL is either heavily censored into little to no physical contact and couple references or the gay character(s) must die or end up de-facto apart. Basically China’s messaging is:

Stay in the closet or be unhappy and die.

This is why I tend to not be a big fan of Chinese BL.

I know, call me crazy.

If you want more about profound damage done by suppressing gay physical affection on screen and why it’s cruel and unforgivable I go on a serious rant here. 

A list of bromances, sans my negtive thoughts and feels is here. 

This is part of a series on top 10 BLs from each country coupled with a history of BL.

Japanese BL

Chinese BL

Taiwanese BL

Korean BL

Thai BL

Chinese masculinity and the ban on effeminate men 

Where to watch it? Most Chinese BL eventually shows up on YouTube. 

ALL BLS OUT OF CHINA

That I have watched and rated, by date & then rating out of 10 as of June 2022.

2014 Like Love 1: I Love You As A Man: Part 1 - 5 2015 Falling in Love with a Rival: Counterattack - 3 2015 Mr. X and I: Us Against the World - 3 2015 Like Love 2: Nobody Knows But Me - 2 2016 Addicted Heroin - 8 2016 Irresistible Love: Secret of the Valet - 5 2016 Irresistible Love 2: Uncontrolled Love - 6 2016 Fanatic Love - 5 2016 Queer Beauty: Oppressive Love - 3 2016 Ghost Boyfriend 1 - 2 2016 The Male Queen: Han Zi Gao - 1 2016 Lost Love - 1 2016 A Round Trip to Love - 1 2017 Customized Companion - dnf 2017 Glass Heart - dnf 2017 Legend of Long Yang: Rebirth 6 2017 Mr. CEO is Falling in Love with Him - 5 2017 Till Death Tear Us Apart: In This Case A Pleasant Lifetime Alone: Love is in a Blaze - 5 2017 His Cat: His Cat Boyfriend - 5 2017 Advance Bravely - 5 2017 The Fairy Fox - 3 2017 Beloved Enemy - 3 2017 Ghost Boyfriend 2 - 2 2017 Love is Not Easy to Have: Rare Love - 2 2017 Swinging Blossom - 2 2017 Find You In The Crowd compilation - 1 2018 River Knows Fish Heart - 6 2018 Guardian - 6 2018 Past Youth - 2 2018 Ghost Boyfriend 3 - 2 2019 Mermaid's Jade - 4 2019 Broken Youth - 4 2020 The Untamed - 6 2020 Precise Shot - 4 2020 Capture Lover - 4 2020 Youth in the Breeze: People of the Skyy compilation - 3 2021 Word of Honor - 8 2021 My Esports Genius Brother - 7 2021 Every Moment that I Think of You - 5 2022 In Your Heart - 2 

(This post as of mid 2022.)

[watchinglikeafangirl]

Lovely Writer Episode 5

Since it was too late yesterday to write down my thoughts completely and I just ended up writing a small post, I'm going to write it all down right now.

And I have stuff to say, guys. So much happened yesterday in Lovely Writer. But the first question is: Is it "Aey", "Aoey" or "Aeoy" (I'm so confused)? Because they suddenly changed their way of calling him and there's an 'o' out of the blue. Why did they change his name after four episodes?

Nevermind. It was just something I asked myself the whole episode but I guess, no one really knows the answer.

Anyway, here are my first impressions and thoughts in general about Lovely Writer Episode 5:

Gene's negative flaw

Gene is the protagonist here but he is not the kind of protagonist you automatically like and especially not every part of him. He is cute and when he's with Nubsib, we only see that part of him because Nubsib finds him cute and adorable. Nubsib even calls him cute more than once. After episode 3, I said, they are pretending but I would change my statement into something like "they are just not showing every part of themselves" because pretending is something else. Preteneding is covering your true identity and it's different from not telling everything about you. I don't think Nubsib pretends. He just hides some stuff about himself when he's with Gene and vise versa. But at the set, we can see Gene is jealous. He is posessive over someone who isn't even his. It is not necessarily a red flag because he allows Nubsib to live his own life ("Go with him if you want to"). But he doesn't like the idea and the sight of Nubsib with someone else. He even leaves the set because of it. It's pretty clear he gets jealous and this jealousy gets adressed later on when he waits for Nubsib to come home but is too pissed to talk to him. Nubsib has to ask him and only then Gene admits it. Like I said, not necessarily a red flag or big problem because at least they talk about it and Nubsib reasures him but it can become a conflict later on. At least, when they are together.

promotion of BLs

Lovely Writer shows the behind the scenes of a typical low-budget BL and I believe it captures the BL industry quite well, although I'm not an expert. I can only judge from what I see on the outside. But with some shows, I've always had the feeling that things are not running smoothly and Lovely Writer just confirms that feeling. This show is very uncomfortable sometimes.

When I first started watching BLs last year, I was very overwhelmed and surprised by all these ships ot there. I was used to the marketing strategies of Marvel or Hollywood in general and European films. The asian way of marketing and promoting a show is different. It focuses more on the actors and their chemistry, not completely on the story in the show or movie. Or at least, I have the feeling it's different. Of course, different is not bad, just unusual.

I am still surprised of how much the promotion focuses on the actors, especially when it comes to BLs. People ship the actors because their lives and the roles they play get mixed up and fans see chemistry because they've seen the show. I feel like there is a blurry line between actor and character which leads to an immense personality cult. I know, it's because of the contracts and I believe they're the real problem because if you don't portray the actors as such and create a ship, their privacy and personal space gets invaded very quickly and in an inhuman way which easily leads to drama. Things will turn ugly at some point and that's not nice for the actors at all.

Lovely Writer criticizes this. Gene goes on Twittee an there is a hashtag full of weird fanservice and it leads to personal drama because he gets jealous. I don't think it's a rare problem. Because kissing someone as your work, because you are an actor, is fine, if you've talked about it honestly but fanservice is something different because it's happening in your real life and there is no line between your work and life. I think you know what I mean. So, Nubsib has to reasure Gene of his feelings and sees it as work but I get why Gene has a problem and I think it's sad that BL actors have to sacrifice their privacy so much because the industry builds this cult around them. This scene hurt me a bit, I have to say. And it will surely remain a problem between these two.

Also, invasive fans... Some fans tend to see you as a sort of object they can look at and touch all the time. Here, these two girls take pictures of Gene and he is aware of it but just doesn't know what to do to stop them without confronting them which is the only thing he can and should do. He thinks it will be over quickly but it won't. If you've once allowed your fans to do this, they won't stop, And we know, Gene slowly gets a fanbase. But he has to make sure they get that he is a human being and not an artifact in a museum. Luckily, Nubsib steps up saves him.

Criticism of NC scenes

This episode starts with the filming of the first kiss in Bad Engineer and I want to say something about it. This scene is very intense but just so uncomfortable and disgusting. What happens on screen is uncomfortable. What happens behind the screen is digusting. And Gene's reaction is really intense. I love Nubsib saying that it's nearly rape. I was like 'thank you'. Really guys, who thinks this is romantic? A first kiss when one of them is unable to move and fights the other one physically and verbally. It's not dominant in a sexy way. It's just creepy and taking advantage. There is no consent. And Nubsib being the king of consent thankfully says something but sadly he acts it out eventually because the director tells him to.

This kissing scene is the worst kissing scene I have ever seen. The setting isn't good and their kiss is weird. I know, it's supposed to be bad but their kiss looks so unpassionate lmao.

But the director is the worst part of it. His answer to Nubsib saying it feels like rape is the question "Don't you understand soap opera vibes?"

...

Of course, it's supposed to be disgusting but that sentence hit me because I got scared how many directors like that are out there. And I also feel sorry for Gene. He wrote that novel and put effort into it. Even though the story is not very exciting or different, he put his writing skills and creativity in this project. And now they ruin that art and smash it on the ground. I myself draw and write, so I kind of relate to him and it hurts watching. Gene only wants to write but it gets turned into something unadmirable and fussy. Now it's more like a rapey fanfiction someone wrote while sitting alone in the dark and reminiced about their weirdest sex dream. Let me tell you, some fantasies should stay as such because this is passionless and disgusting.

Aey and Gene

(I'm gonna stick to writing his name as "Aey" because I'm confused which spelling is the right one.) I think Aey knows Gene likes Nubsib because he always talks to him about that matter. And maybe he likes his novel but still, Aey is very manipulative. He asks for Gene's help. He aks Nubsib out in front of Gene and says "Gene is busy anyways" when Nubsib is not sure. He then reminds Nubsib of their "date" when Gene is there again. Clearly, he wants to show off. Or he's just weird. But in this show, no one is just weird. It will get clearer when the story goes on.

Aey

Talking about Aey, I have to say, I cried last night. Even though I don't like him, I feel sympathy for him. His family is so broken which affects him a lot. I feel sorry for him because he pulled himself together and faced his family again just to storm out crying. It's a nightmare. All those accusations thrown at him, but also the ones he threw, hit deep. There is a big tension escalating and he has very much pain inside. He clearly has a trauma and I hope we'll get to know more about him because his ex was mentioned and something very bad must've happened. Yeah, Aey is a very troubled kid. He is lonely, sad and lost and reminds me of Fiat in TharnType because he too runs after a guy who only showed slight interest in him. The feeling of being unloved and unloveable leads him fantisizing about the one who seems to be perfect in his eyes. And it will all crash down for him.

But who is Mhok? Were they best friends? Were they lovers? Is that their first kiss? It doesn't feel like a first kiss to me but I could be wrong...

What Lovely Writer does right

This show's promotion is exactly like I wanted it to be. No personality cult. That's a very important point for me because they are humans too and I believe it's disgusting to shed flashligh on actors so much. They are not a big ship, I guess. At least, none that I've heard of. They do some Q&A videos or behind the scenes stuff but not openly toxic behavior and discussions about private matters. They don't pretend to be in love for the fanservice and are pretty much looking like they are just doing their job.

This show is definetlely different and I love that part very much about it. So, I will defineltely keep watching and keep my hopes up.

[melindarowens]

U.S Data Continues To Disappoint!

Good day… And a Tom Terrific Tuesday to you! Boy, am I about to throw the towel in on my beloved Cardinals’ season! They can’t hit, can’t catch, can’t throw, can’t run, and when it gets to the 7th inning they can’t pitch! Maybe the GM will stir things up with a major trade, like he did in 2013, that propelled the team to the World Series… And maybe he’ll sit on his hands like he did last year, not wanting to admit that “his team” needed help… Oh well, as my wife tells me all the time, “it’s just a game”… Derek and the Dominoes greet me this morning with their Rock Classic song: Layla… Eric Clapton was the lead force of this band, and this song is his ballad, telling of the unrequited love for Pattie Boyd, the wife of his friend, George Harrison…

OK, not wanting to turn this letter into another Peyton Place, I’ll get on with what you came here for… Well, the currencies didn’t really move much yesterday, and Gold only ended up with an 80-cent gain on the day… And today’s movements aren’t much to talk about, except in Japanese yen… Yes, proving that even a dead body bounces, yen is on the rally tracks VS the dollar this morning, having moved through its 200-day moving avg. I’m sitting here trying to figure out what got yen so lathered up last night, and the only thing I see is that this is simply a risk-aversion trade… And could go further, given the things we have going on this week…

And Thursday is the triple-witching day for the markets, as we will see the results of the U.K. election, the European Central Bank (ECB) meets, and here in the U.S. former FBI chief, Comey, will testify… That’s a lot on the markets’ collective plates for one day, and I think we’ll see a lot of this kind of trading between now and then… The dollar has, for now, stabilized, after getting sold like funnel cakes at a State Fair on Friday and through to yesterday morning…

Last night, the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA), met, and left their rates and neutral bias unchanged, and then held a very balanced meeting with a statement afterward. The Aussie dollar (A$ ) saw some initial positive reaction to the RBA statement, but then the anti-risk sentiment in the markets wiped those gains out…

Across the Tasman, the New Zealand dollar / kiwi, got a boost last night from a report that showed commodity prices improved in May by 3.2%, and that offset the other piece of N.Z. data that wasn’t so good, and that was a building data report that printed negative… In fact, the bad data was ignored for the most part, and kiwi was allowed to gain, even with the A$ not faring so well. This doesn’t happen very often, so make note of the fact that kiwi gained while the A$ didn’t…

The Indian rupee has been quiet as a church mouse lately, not wanting to ruffle the feathers of the analysts that went all Chicken Little because the rupee was rallying… The move in the rupee this time has been quite stealth-like, and will most likely be supported when the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) meets tomorrow, and leaves rates unchanged. At least that’s what I’m thinking will happen at the RBI meeting tomorrow, I could be wrong about that… The rupee is our current “Currency of the Month” and it would be nice to see the rupee continue this stealth-like move, to put the stamp of approval on its current title of “Currency of the Month”…

In China tonight, the latest report on their reserves will print… Their reserves have really been the focus of a lot of analysts, who predict gloom and doom on China, because their reserves have fallen from $ 4 Trillion to $ 3 Trillion… I look at it differently… You build up reserves to use when things get tight, and things were very tight in China, and the outflow of funds were really beginning to become a real problem because it put a lot of negative pressure on the currency. So, the Chinese used their reserves to defend their currency’s value… And it now appears that the outflows problem has subsided, and the reserves are being added to again… So, look for a gain in the reserves, and that would be good thing for the global growth sentiment…

I don’t know if you’ve noticed or not, but the Chinese renminbi has really been on a run in recent weeks… What the heck has gotten into the Chinese and the Peoples Bank of China (PBOC)? Last month the renminbi was closing in on 6.90, and now it’s closing in on a sub 6.80 figure… (renminbi is a European priced currency so as the number goes down the greater the value is returned in dollars, as it takes less of the currency to sell to equal a dollar)

I think China saw an opportunity to attract investment into China, as the dollar was weakening, and looking like it could be near the end of the strong dollar trend, and that gave the Chinese the opportunity to allow the renminbi to appreciate… Just my thoughts on that… I know nothing more than the next guy about what’s going on in the PBOC’s head…

And the Singapore dollar (sing) or (S$ ) has really been moving in the right direction for the last couple of months. Their economy has seen waves of good and then waves of bad data, so it’s been quite uneven, but their financial status remains solid, and in today’s investing, that goes a long way toward, currency appreciation. I was reading Ed Steer’s letter this morning (www.edsteergoldandsilver.com ), and he featured a story about how Singapore’s plan to develop itself as a Gold Hub, has proven successful, as its imports and exports almost doubled in the years after the goods and services tax (GST) was removed for investment grade metals in 2012… I love reading stuff like this where success has been generated because someone had the intestinal fortitude to say, “Hey, if we become a Gold Hub, and remove the GST on investment grade metals, we’ll double our imports and exports”…

And we’re one day closer to the U.K. elections, which will take place on our Tub Thumpin’ Thursday… I think in the end PM May’s party will retain their seats, and all the drama that built up around the election will be forgotten… But then the polls have been wrong before, and that’s what I base my thought on, the polls.. But not this time, at least, that’s what I think, and if that’s correct, then the pound should be able to regain some of the lost ground it has seen taken from it, because of the election drama…

So, yesterday, I was going on and on about the jobs data from May, and how the BLS had basically saved the month with their 230,000 jobs added after the surveys… But one thing I forgot to talk about was the downward revisions to the previous two months… This is from the BLS site: The change in total nonfarm payroll employment for March was revised down from +79,000 to +50,000, and the change for April was revised down from +211,000 to +174,000. With these revisions, employment gains in March and April combined were 66,000 less than previously reported. Monthly revisions result from additional reports received from businesses and government agencies since the last published estimates and from the recalculation of seasonal factors. Over the past 3 months, job gains have averaged 121,000 per month.

OK.. so let’s look under the hood so that I can prove something once and for all… In March, the BLS added just 32,000 jobs, but March’s total was just 79,000 (at the time) and the BLS had to go back and revise the number downward by 29,000, Hmmm, isn’t that very close to the jobs they added out of thin air? Why, yes Chuck it is!

And April’s addition was 255,000 jobs out of thin air by the BLS, when the total at that time was 211,000… It was revised downward by 37,000, to 174,000… So, we didn’t quite reverse all the jobs added but those can still be revised downward next month!

But remember in May, when the 211,000 jobs were reported and everyone was doing their happy dance, and the Fed were slapping themselves on the back? This is why I get so upset with these hedonic adjustments! The dollar rallied, on this news, but should it have? NO! And by the time the downward revisions come along, everyone has forgotten that they were doing their happy dance and slapping themselves on the back! The next executive order I would like to see, is that there be no more hedonic adjustments on economic data!

As I said above, Gold only gained 80-cents yesterday, after being up over $ 5 in the early morning trading… Ted Butler, no relation that I know of, the Silver guru, pointed out yesterday that the press release regarding the Deutsche Bank trader that pleaded guilty of spoofing with Gold, Silver, Platinum and Palladium, left out something… And that is that all this illegal trading was going on during the CFTC’s (commodity regulator) 5 year investigation into Silver manipulation… Remember that, I totally recall Bart Chilton, former Commissioner at the CFTC, on TV telling people that the CFTC saw no signs of manipulation… Uh Oh…

The U.S. Data Cupboard yesterday, like I told you yesterday, was full of a bunch of economic data, but the one that I pointed out as the only one I cared about, showed up in the red… Factory Orders for April were negative -0.2%… Since April is the first month of the second quarter, and there were high hopes, yes we’ve got high hopes, we’ve got those high apple pie in the sky hopes, that the 2nd QTR was going to take off to higher ground so that the Fed could point to how proactive they were in hiking rates… And there is still 2 more months of data to round out the 2nd QTR, but quite frankly, I just don’t see the high hopes coming to fruition! And, when it all comes down the pike, the Fed is going to have to reverse their rate hikes because the rate hikes put the economy into a recession! And Factory Orders is a “real economics” piece of data folks… And with it printing negative for April, it sure isn’t getting out of the batter’s box with any speed is it? No, instead, it’s stumbling, fumbling, rumbling its way down the first base line, only to fall flat on its face before it reaches 1st base! (reminds me of my beloved Cardinals base running!)

Today’s Data Cupboard is pretty much empty, and already the markets are writing off tomorrow’s data, as they focus on the triple-witching Thursday.. But I think tomorrow’s data is important, as it will be the April print of Consumer Credit, which should read, Debt… But we all know what it is, and it will be interesting to see if March’s $ 16 Billion number is overcome by April’s or not… Remember, Easter was in April this year… I’m just saying…

To recap… The dollar has stabilized, against the currencies and metals for the most part, except the Japanese yen, which overnight rallied VS the dollar through its 200-day moving avg. Chuck thinks it’s simply an anti-risk trade with the triple-witching day on Thursday, with the U.K. election, an ECB meeting, and the Comey testimony… Gold only gained 80-cents yesterday, and is down a buck or two in the early morning trading today. The Indian rupee and Singapore dollar are both moving stronger in a stealth-like manor, as to not ruffle the feathers of analysts that go all Chicken Little when these two begin to make noise with their rallies. The Chinese renminbi has also been on the move, positively, reversing the trend that was in place for daily weakening fixings last month. Chuck uses the BLS’s own web site to prove how wrong they were to add jobs each month…

For What it’s Worth… I had a choice this morning between an article on why Consumers aren’t spending, or an interview with San Francisco Fed President Williams… And I chose the Consumers article, because I’m just not buying what Williams had to say, and I’m afraid I would get into trouble with that one! So, here’s the link to the article on why Consumers aren’t spending by Gary Shilling ( a well-respected economist/ analyst): http://ow.ly/DDBk30cmate

Or, here’s your snippet: “Consumer confidence and retail sales have not moved in tandem of late. Since the U.S. economic expansion started in mid-2009, a gauge of confidence has risen sharply from a low of 25.3 in December 2008 to 120 in April, and has accelerated recently. After an initial recovery, however, retail sales growth has trended down.

Consumer confidence is ineffective for predicting retail sales. The correlation between the two is weak, and the best fit is between year-over-year retail sales growth in the current month and consumer confidence three months later.”

Chuck again… Gary Shilling makes a list of things he believes are keeping Consumers from Spending, and while I won’t go through all of the reasons I will point out one that I think is a real problem…

“Weak income growth. Inflation-adjusted incomes for most Americans have been declining for more than a decade, with total real wages and incomes holding about flat because of the polarization of incomes that benefits top-end households. Average private-sector weekly earnings, inflation-adjusted, rose just 0.3 percent in April from a year earlier.”

Yeah, that’s one that will continue to bite us.. But there are other reasons, and I think Gary Shilling nails all of them…

Currencies today 6/6/17… American Style: A$ .7486, kiwi .7175, C$ .7434, euro 1.1250, sterling 1.2916, Swiss $ .9641, … European Style: rand 12.7841, krone 8.45, SEK 8.6640, forint 273.31, zloty 3.7278, koruna 23.40, RUB 56.59, yen 109.69, sing 1.3807, HKD 7.7940, INR 64.40, China 6.8068,peso 18.37, BRL 3.2654, Dollar Index 96.74, Oil $ 47.39, 10yr 2.15%, Silver $ 17.60, Platinum $ 959.60, Palladium $ 846.00, Gold $ 1,280.73, and SGE Gold $ 1,285.51

That’s if for today… I’ve taken up working crossword puzzles… As I start out, I need a lot of help from Google, but I’m starting to get the gist of the questions… I figured that I needed to keep my mind sharp, in something other than markets and economies! The moon sure was bright last night… The next full moon will come this Friday, and is called the Strawberry Moon.. I was sitting outside for a bit yesterday, and noticed just how beautiful our roses have come in this spring… They are full of color, and tons of blooms… Some years they disappoint, but not this year! Well, the nearly 3 weeks of Kathy being gone is coming to an end, as she will return home on Thursday, which is an infusion day for me, so I’ll be in a fog.. Welcome home! Note to Jen and Christine… I survived 3 weeks without my wife! (they always razz me that I can’t survive without my wife! ) The Moody Blues takes us to the finish line today with their song: Lost in a Lost World, which is exactly how I feel the day after an infusion! So, it’s time to go… I hope you have a Tom Terrific Tuesday, and Be Good To Yourself!

Chuck Butler Managing Director EverBank Global Markets Creator / Editor of: A Pfennig For Your Thoughts 1-800-926-4922

http://www.everbank.com

The post U.S Data Continues To Disappoint! appeared first on Daily Pfennig.

Daily Pfennig

source http://capitalisthq.com/u-s-data-continues-to-disappoint/ from CapitalistHQ http://capitalisthq.blogspot.com/2017/06/us-data-continues-to-disappoint.html

[everettwilkinson]

U.S Data Continues To Disappoint!

Good day… And a Tom Terrific Tuesday to you! Boy, am I about to throw the towel in on my beloved Cardinals’ season! They can’t hit, can’t catch, can’t throw, can’t run, and when it gets to the 7th inning they can’t pitch! Maybe the GM will stir things up with a major trade, like he did in 2013, that propelled the team to the World Series… And maybe he’ll sit on his hands like he did last year, not wanting to admit that “his team” needed help… Oh well, as my wife tells me all the time, “it’s just a game”… Derek and the Dominoes greet me this morning with their Rock Classic song: Layla… Eric Clapton was the lead force of this band, and this song is his ballad, telling of the unrequited love for Pattie Boyd, the wife of his friend, George Harrison…

OK, not wanting to turn this letter into another Peyton Place, I’ll get on with what you came here for… Well, the currencies didn’t really move much yesterday, and Gold only ended up with an 80-cent gain on the day… And today’s movements aren’t much to talk about, except in Japanese yen… Yes, proving that even a dead body bounces, yen is on the rally tracks VS the dollar this morning, having moved through its 200-day moving avg. I’m sitting here trying to figure out what got yen so lathered up last night, and the only thing I see is that this is simply a risk-aversion trade… And could go further, given the things we have going on this week…

And Thursday is the triple-witching day for the markets, as we will see the results of the U.K. election, the European Central Bank (ECB) meets, and here in the U.S. former FBI chief, Comey, will testify… That’s a lot on the markets’ collective plates for one day, and I think we’ll see a lot of this kind of trading between now and then… The dollar has, for now, stabilized, after getting sold like funnel cakes at a State Fair on Friday and through to yesterday morning…

Last night, the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA), met, and left their rates and neutral bias unchanged, and then held a very balanced meeting with a statement afterward. The Aussie dollar (A$ ) saw some initial positive reaction to the RBA statement, but then the anti-risk sentiment in the markets wiped those gains out…

Across the Tasman, the New Zealand dollar / kiwi, got a boost last night from a report that showed commodity prices improved in May by 3.2%, and that offset the other piece of N.Z. data that wasn’t so good, and that was a building data report that printed negative… In fact, the bad data was ignored for the most part, and kiwi was allowed to gain, even with the A$ not faring so well. This doesn’t happen very often, so make note of the fact that kiwi gained while the A$ didn’t…

The Indian rupee has been quiet as a church mouse lately, not wanting to ruffle the feathers of the analysts that went all Chicken Little because the rupee was rallying… The move in the rupee this time has been quite stealth-like, and will most likely be supported when the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) meets tomorrow, and leaves rates unchanged. At least that’s what I’m thinking will happen at the RBI meeting tomorrow, I could be wrong about that… The rupee is our current “Currency of the Month” and it would be nice to see the rupee continue this stealth-like move, to put the stamp of approval on its current title of “Currency of the Month”…

In China tonight, the latest report on their reserves will print… Their reserves have really been the focus of a lot of analysts, who predict gloom and doom on China, because their reserves have fallen from $ 4 Trillion to $ 3 Trillion… I look at it differently… You build up reserves to use when things get tight, and things were very tight in China, and the outflow of funds were really beginning to become a real problem because it put a lot of negative pressure on the currency. So, the Chinese used their reserves to defend their currency’s value… And it now appears that the outflows problem has subsided, and the reserves are being added to again… So, look for a gain in the reserves, and that would be good thing for the global growth sentiment…

I don’t know if you’ve noticed or not, but the Chinese renminbi has really been on a run in recent weeks… What the heck has gotten into the Chinese and the Peoples Bank of China (PBOC)? Last month the renminbi was closing in on 6.90, and now it’s closing in on a sub 6.80 figure… (renminbi is a European priced currency so as the number goes down the greater the value is returned in dollars, as it takes less of the currency to sell to equal a dollar)

I think China saw an opportunity to attract investment into China, as the dollar was weakening, and looking like it could be near the end of the strong dollar trend, and that gave the Chinese the opportunity to allow the renminbi to appreciate… Just my thoughts on that… I know nothing more than the next guy about what’s going on in the PBOC’s head…

And the Singapore dollar (sing) or (S$ ) has really been moving in the right direction for the last couple of months. Their economy has seen waves of good and then waves of bad data, so it’s been quite uneven, but their financial status remains solid, and in today’s investing, that goes a long way toward, currency appreciation. I was reading Ed Steer’s letter this morning (www.edsteergoldandsilver.com ), and he featured a story about how Singapore’s plan to develop itself as a Gold Hub, has proven successful, as its imports and exports almost doubled in the years after the goods and services tax (GST) was removed for investment grade metals in 2012… I love reading stuff like this where success has been generated because someone had the intestinal fortitude to say, “Hey, if we become a Gold Hub, and remove the GST on investment grade metals, we’ll double our imports and exports”…

And we’re one day closer to the U.K. elections, which will take place on our Tub Thumpin’ Thursday… I think in the end PM May’s party will retain their seats, and all the drama that built up around the election will be forgotten… But then the polls have been wrong before, and that’s what I base my thought on, the polls.. But not this time, at least, that’s what I think, and if that’s correct, then the pound should be able to regain some of the lost ground it has seen taken from it, because of the election drama…

So, yesterday, I was going on and on about the jobs data from May, and how the BLS had basically saved the month with their 230,000 jobs added after the surveys… But one thing I forgot to talk about was the downward revisions to the previous two months… This is from the BLS site: The change in total nonfarm payroll employment for March was revised down from +79,000 to +50,000, and the change for April was revised down from +211,000 to +174,000. With these revisions, employment gains in March and April combined were 66,000 less than previously reported. Monthly revisions result from additional reports received from businesses and government agencies since the last published estimates and from the recalculation of seasonal factors. Over the past 3 months, job gains have averaged 121,000 per month.

OK.. so let’s look under the hood so that I can prove something once and for all… In March, the BLS added just 32,000 jobs, but March’s total was just 79,000 (at the time) and the BLS had to go back and revise the number downward by 29,000, Hmmm, isn’t that very close to the jobs they added out of thin air? Why, yes Chuck it is!

And April’s addition was 255,000 jobs out of thin air by the BLS, when the total at that time was 211,000… It was revised downward by 37,000, to 174,000… So, we didn’t quite reverse all the jobs added but those can still be revised downward next month!

But remember in May, when the 211,000 jobs were reported and everyone was doing their happy dance, and the Fed were slapping themselves on the back? This is why I get so upset with these hedonic adjustments! The dollar rallied, on this news, but should it have? NO! And by the time the downward revisions come along, everyone has forgotten that they were doing their happy dance and slapping themselves on the back! The next executive order I would like to see, is that there be no more hedonic adjustments on economic data!

As I said above, Gold only gained 80-cents yesterday, after being up over $ 5 in the early morning trading… Ted Butler, no relation that I know of, the Silver guru, pointed out yesterday that the press release regarding the Deutsche Bank trader that pleaded guilty of spoofing with Gold, Silver, Platinum and Palladium, left out something… And that is that all this illegal trading was going on during the CFTC’s (commodity regulator) 5 year investigation into Silver manipulation… Remember that, I totally recall Bart Chilton, former Commissioner at the CFTC, on TV telling people that the CFTC saw no signs of manipulation… Uh Oh…

The U.S. Data Cupboard yesterday, like I told you yesterday, was full of a bunch of economic data, but the one that I pointed out as the only one I cared about, showed up in the red… Factory Orders for April were negative -0.2%… Since April is the first month of the second quarter, and there were high hopes, yes we’ve got high hopes, we’ve got those high apple pie in the sky hopes, that the 2nd QTR was going to take off to higher ground so that the Fed could point to how proactive they were in hiking rates… And there is still 2 more months of data to round out the 2nd QTR, but quite frankly, I just don’t see the high hopes coming to fruition! And, when it all comes down the pike, the Fed is going to have to reverse their rate hikes because the rate hikes put the economy into a recession! And Factory Orders is a “real economics” piece of data folks… And with it printing negative for April, it sure isn’t getting out of the batter’s box with any speed is it? No, instead, it’s stumbling, fumbling, rumbling its way down the first base line, only to fall flat on its face before it reaches 1st base! (reminds me of my beloved Cardinals base running!)

Today’s Data Cupboard is pretty much empty, and already the markets are writing off tomorrow’s data, as they focus on the triple-witching Thursday.. But I think tomorrow’s data is important, as it will be the April print of Consumer Credit, which should read, Debt… But we all know what it is, and it will be interesting to see if March’s $ 16 Billion number is overcome by April’s or not… Remember, Easter was in April this year… I’m just saying…

To recap… The dollar has stabilized, against the currencies and metals for the most part, except the Japanese yen, which overnight rallied VS the dollar through its 200-day moving avg. Chuck thinks it’s simply an anti-risk trade with the triple-witching day on Thursday, with the U.K. election, an ECB meeting, and the Comey testimony… Gold only gained 80-cents yesterday, and is down a buck or two in the early morning trading today. The Indian rupee and Singapore dollar are both moving stronger in a stealth-like manor, as to not ruffle the feathers of analysts that go all Chicken Little when these two begin to make noise with their rallies. The Chinese renminbi has also been on the move, positively, reversing the trend that was in place for daily weakening fixings last month. Chuck uses the BLS’s own web site to prove how wrong they were to add jobs each month…

For What it’s Worth… I had a choice this morning between an article on why Consumers aren’t spending, or an interview with San Francisco Fed President Williams… And I chose the Consumers article, because I’m just not buying what Williams had to say, and I’m afraid I would get into trouble with that one! So, here’s the link to the article on why Consumers aren’t spending by Gary Shilling ( a well-respected economist/ analyst): http://ow.ly/DDBk30cmate

Or, here’s your snippet: “Consumer confidence and retail sales have not moved in tandem of late. Since the U.S. economic expansion started in mid-2009, a gauge of confidence has risen sharply from a low of 25.3 in December 2008 to 120 in April, and has accelerated recently. After an initial recovery, however, retail sales growth has trended down.

Consumer confidence is ineffective for predicting retail sales. The correlation between the two is weak, and the best fit is between year-over-year retail sales growth in the current month and consumer confidence three months later.”

Chuck again… Gary Shilling makes a list of things he believes are keeping Consumers from Spending, and while I won’t go through all of the reasons I will point out one that I think is a real problem…

“Weak income growth. Inflation-adjusted incomes for most Americans have been declining for more than a decade, with total real wages and incomes holding about flat because of the polarization of incomes that benefits top-end households. Average private-sector weekly earnings, inflation-adjusted, rose just 0.3 percent in April from a year earlier.”

Yeah, that’s one that will continue to bite us.. But there are other reasons, and I think Gary Shilling nails all of them…

Currencies today 6/6/17… American Style: A$ .7486, kiwi .7175, C$ .7434, euro 1.1250, sterling 1.2916, Swiss $ .9641, … European Style: rand 12.7841, krone 8.45, SEK 8.6640, forint 273.31, zloty 3.7278, koruna 23.40, RUB 56.59, yen 109.69, sing 1.3807, HKD 7.7940, INR 64.40, China 6.8068,peso 18.37, BRL 3.2654, Dollar Index 96.74, Oil $ 47.39, 10yr 2.15%, Silver $ 17.60, Platinum $ 959.60, Palladium $ 846.00, Gold $ 1,280.73, and SGE Gold $ 1,285.51

That’s if for today… I’ve taken up working crossword puzzles… As I start out, I need a lot of help from Google, but I’m starting to get the gist of the questions… I figured that I needed to keep my mind sharp, in something other than markets and economies! The moon sure was bright last night… The next full moon will come this Friday, and is called the Strawberry Moon.. I was sitting outside for a bit yesterday, and noticed just how beautiful our roses have come in this spring… They are full of color, and tons of blooms… Some years they disappoint, but not this year! Well, the nearly 3 weeks of Kathy being gone is coming to an end, as she will return home on Thursday, which is an infusion day for me, so I’ll be in a fog.. Welcome home! Note to Jen and Christine… I survived 3 weeks without my wife! (they always razz me that I can’t survive without my wife! ) The Moody Blues takes us to the finish line today with their song: Lost in a Lost World, which is exactly how I feel the day after an infusion! So, it’s time to go… I hope you have a Tom Terrific Tuesday, and Be Good To Yourself!

Chuck Butler Managing Director EverBank Global Markets Creator / Editor of: A Pfennig For Your Thoughts 1-800-926-4922

http://www.everbank.com

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