Authored by Nick Cunningham via OilPrice.com,
About half of the shuttered refining capacity along the Gulf Coast could be back up and running by Thursday, assuaging concerns about the possibility of acute gasoline shortages in much of the U.S.
If you count yourself among the unlucky residents of Southern Florida where Hurricane Irma looks likely to make her continental U.S. landfall, you may want to take notice of a new study just published by Kelly Edmiston of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City which details the devastating toll that hurricanes can take on your hard-earned credit score.
In yet another attempt at de-escalation by the US, moments ago as president Trump was leaving the White House, he responded to a reporter question on whether there will be military action in North Korea, saying that "it's not his first choice", but adding that "we'll see what happens."
In a front page article, the WSJ takes aim at the "biggest market puzzle" of our times: the bizarre disconnect between growth and inflation, where on one hand government reports of strong, coordinated, global economic growth and tumbling unemployment (at least in the US and Japan) are offset by the complete lack of concurrent reflation. Some examples:
The US trade deficit widened in July, growing by 0.3% from a downward revised $43.5 billion to $43.7 billion, and beating expectations of $44.7 billion, as exports decreased more than imports. The goods deficit decreased less than $0.1 billion in July to $65.3 billion. The services surplus decreased $0.2 billion in July to $21.6 billion.
Breaking down the components, first exports: