1. Nasdaq 100 Hit New Highs.
2. Commodities Correction
Jim Reid-Deutsche Bank –Commodities are down notably from their peaks just a few weeks ago, which has been a part of the reason for the bond rally and reduced concerns over inflation.
Today’s chart looks at this as well as how much they’ve risen over a 2-year period so as to eliminate the covid base effect distortion. So for example, although lumber has nearly halved since early May, it still costs 129% more than it did this time two years ago. Indeed most other commodities are still well above where they were two years ago so we have to put the recent sell-off in some perspective. Prices remain a lot higher than they were pre-pandemic.
3. Fed Balance Sheet and High Valuation Buckets.
Zero Hedge
4. Crypto Correction -20-40% in 7 Trading Days.
CoinMarketCap–Today’s Cryptocurrency Prices by Market Cap
5. Two-Year Treasury Spike….62% Rise
6. Domino’s Pizza New Highs…Compounding 10 year rate 36%
DPZ 10-Year Price Chart:
Below is a graph showing closing prices of Dominos Pizza Inc (DPZ) for the past 10 years. The below chart uses adjusted close instead of market close prices. (Adjusted close factors in corporate or institutional level actions outside the market.)
Average Annual Return:
Assume you had invested in DPZ stock on 2011-06-14. Assume you had remained invested for 10 years through 2021-06-11. Then the average annual return can be calculated using the formula shown below.
R = 100 x [(EP/SP)^1/10 – 1]where,
EP – DPZ price at 2021-06-11 = 452.96
SP – DPZ price at 2011-06-14 = 20.3438
and R stands for the annual return.
If we substitute the values, we will be able to find the R-value as follows.
R = 100 x [(452.96/20.3438)1/10 – 1]
= 36.38 %
The (above) calculated return corresponds to the past 10-year history of Dominos Pizza Inc (DPZ). If you want to know the returns for the ongoing year (2021) visit the, 2021 performance report of DPZ stock.
https://www.netcials.com/stock-10-year-history-nyse/DPZ-Dominos-Pizza-Inc/
7. Lowest Inventory to Sales Ratio Since Measure Created in 1992
Wolf Street
https://wolfstreet.com/2021/06/21/where-the-shortages-show-up-the-wtf-plunge-in-retail-inventories/
8. Four Cancer-Treatment Developments Worth Celebrating
Findings shared at this year’s American Society of Clinical Oncology meeting bring hope of tackling cancer at earlier stages, with better treatments and at lower cost.
By Sam Fazeli
Cancer remains a big threat. But every day brings progress in treating it.
Sam Fazeli is senior pharmaceuticals analyst for Bloomberg Intelligence and director of research for EMEA.
Read more opinionFollow @SamFazeli8 on Twitter
When it comes to health breakthroughs, Covid-19 vaccines have received the lion’s share of recent attention – and rightly so, as they are key to ending a global pandemic that has killed millions and disrupted the lives of almost everyone on the planet. But there have also been big advancements in the field of cancer treatments. The American Society of Clinical Oncology held its annual meeting earlier this month, giving drugmakers and researchers the chance to share their findings on the latest developments in cancer research and drug research. There was much to celebrate. Here are four particularly promising takeaways:
Earlier-stage treatments. Immuno-oncology (IO) drugs, which awaken patient immune cells to hunt down tumors, have proved capable of fighting multiple types of cancers and are among the industry’s biggest blockbusters. They’ve been mostly used in late-stage cancers, limiting their potential. Earlier use as so-called adjuvant therapy after surgery to catch stray tumor cells and prevent cancer from coming back has been seen as a huge opportunity because the body-spanning immune system is the perfect tool. Until now, it had only worked in melanoma, a relatively low bar because skin cancer has proved especially vulnerable to IO drugs. New data presented at ASCO finally confirmed the theory in other types of cancer. A year’s adjuvant treatment of lung cancer patients with Roche Holding AG’s IO flagship Tecentriq cut the risk of death by 21% relative to a placebo and left a higher proportion of patients disease-free after three years compared with the regular standard of care. There are many other adjuvant trials in progress, which will hopefully generate similar results.
Expanding immuno-oncology drugs. The revolution in treating cancer with IO drugs has faced one big obstacle: tumor cells use multiple mechanisms to evade the immune system. The most successful IO drugs, such as Merck & Co.’s Keytruda and Bristol Myers Squibb Co.’s Opdivo interfere with the action of PD-1, an “off switch” on immune T-cells. This is the part of the mechanism that the body uses to stop the immune system from attacking normal cells. But many cancers don’t respond, so the holy grail of IO has been to deactivate these other immune-evading defenses to help more patients. Bristol’s Yervoy is partnered with Opdivo to treat melanoma and some lung cancers, but it has high toxicity. At ASCO we saw data for Opdivo plus relatlimab, an antibody that blocks Lag-3, another T-cell off switch. The trial showed very similar efficacy to Opdivo and Yervoy, but with far fewer side effects, which should help more patients use the combo.
Better “me-too” drugs. In the 1980s and 1990s, the pharmaceutical industry spent a lot of effort and money developing “me-too” knockoffs of rivals’ successful treatments with little differentiation on efficacy or tolerability. What we are seeing now is a more sophisticated approach to developing better versions of exciting drugs. The best example of this is AstraZeneca’s Calquence for a form of leukemia called CLL. Competing with AbbVie Inc. and Johnson & Johnson’s $9.4 billion-a-year blockbuster Imbruvica, Calquence was just as effective, but with a much better side-effect profile, data at the ASCO conference showed.
Tackling costs, with Chinese help. While the above advances are excellent news, there is of course the problem of cost. Just treating lung-cancer patients with IO drugs after surgery could cost $8 billion a year for the medicines alone. This is where biotechnology startup EQRx comes in. Launched in January, the company aims to address the high cost of drugs by leveraging innovation in China, which has experienced a surge in its biotech sector. EQRx has licensed cancer drugs from Chinese companies that have developed and conducted cheaper clinical trials at home. An example is the drug aumolertinib, with data at ASCO that suggested it may be as good as Astra’s blockbuster lung-cancer drug Tagrisso. EQRx’s ultimate aim is to bring the drug to the U.S. and European markets at a substantial discount to Astra’s treatment.
The cancer-treatment revolution rolls on. The key to getting the most out of breakthroughs is getting costs low enough that people can actually afford to benefit from them without damaging the incentive for drugmakers to spend heavily to develop even more effective treatments. It’s a tricky balance that we haven’t yet achieved with our current imperfect system. But there is still progress, and that’s worth cheering.
9. Are We There Yet? TSA Checkpoints Approach Pre-Covid
As covid-19 continues to decline, travel continues to increase. There were over 1.9 million airline travelers per day over the last week in the US, highest since March 11, 2020. A year ago we were averaging 500k/day and at the pandemic low last April below 100k/day.
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https://twitter.com/charliebilello
10. A psychologist says parents of ‘exceptionally resilient and successful’ kids always do these 7 things: ‘Yes, some are a little intense’
Published Tue, May 11 202112:37 PM EDTUpdated Tue, May 11 20211:25 PM EDT
Kumar Mehta, Contributor@MEHTAKUMAR
Humans are not all equal in every way. There are a few individuals who have achieved an unparalleled mastery in their field — and they are what I call the exceptionals. Put another way, they are the 1% of the 1% of the world’s most successful people.
Some examples include innovators like Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos, athletes like Michael Jordan and Serena Williams, and musicians like Mozart and Beethoven. Or they may be people you’ve never heard of who invented life-saving drugs or won Nobel Prizes by making fundamental advances in knowledge.
In my five-plus years of studying how to raise exceptional adults, I’ve found that almost all of them, at a young age, developed the skills to maximize the physical, mental and social potential available to them. In most cases, their parents had an enormous impact in creating an environment that allowed them to thrive.
Based on research and studies, here are seven things (yes, some are a little intense) that parents of exceptionally resilient and successful kids always do:
1. They push their kids to play to their strengths
Norwegian chess prodigy Magnus Carlsen showed a unique ability to patiently solve puzzles and advanced Lego structures at a very young age. Carlsen’s father thought these skills would lend themselves well to chess, and consequently introduced him to the game.
Eventually, Carlsen showed so much promise that his parents started bringing him to chess tournaments. They spotted a clear set of related skills in their son and then encouraged him to pick up an activity that played to his strengths.
Every child is born with more advanced skills in some areas over others. Your kid may have spatial strengths, like the ability to think abstractly and in multiple dimensions. Or maybe they’re gifted in math and can analyze problems logically or investigate issues scientifically.
Always be observant of your kid’s natural aptitude, and then help them build upon their innate talents.
2. They demonstrate the link between hard work and extraordinary outcomes
Parents of exceptional kids model this by devoting years of their lives to getting better at their craft — and they make sure that their kids are paying attention.
In a 2020 blog post describing his father’s work ethics, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates wrote: “He was one of the hardest-working and most respected lawyers in Seattle, as well as a major civic leader in our region. […]. He was judicious and serious about learning.”
Gates’ father taught his kids that they had to work for accolades. So show your kids that hard work does pay off, that nothing is simply “given,” and that shortcuts won’t help them attain their goals.
3. They create a culture of striving and excellence
In 2017, a team of British researchers studied the differences between “elite” and “ultra elite” athletes. (Of course, all NBA players are elite — but then there’s Michael Jordan or LeBron James or Kobe Bryant, whose accomplishments stand out immensely compared to the others.)
The researchers found that the majority of ultra elite athletes came from environments that advocated a culture of striving. They grew up in homes where pursuing excellence and pushing the boundaries were always expected, not merely desired.
Venus and Serena Williams’ unparalleled success on the tennis court, for example, was influenced by a shared environment that was created for them to excel: Their rise to the top started with their father, Richard, who wrote a detailed 78-page plan for his daughters’ ascension to the top of the tennis world.
He set his expectations early; the sisters were not even five years old when he wrote down his process. But it eventually shaped two of the most prolific champions in tennis history.
4. They encourage self-confidence
Helping your kids build confidence makes a huge difference later on in their lives. It encourages them to dream big and prevents them from ever wanting to give up after setbacks.
Even as kids, the most exceptional individuals always believed that outstanding achievements were within their reach, and not reserved solely for the people they saw on TV or read about in the news.
When parents encourage self-confidence (instead of criticizing their kids and putting them down each time they fail at something), their kids are more likely to perform at the highest level and adopt the mindset that they will eventually rise to the top.
This kind of self-assuredness — or unwavering belief that they can be the best — is key to achieving greatness.
5. They are patient when their kids ask questions
Parents of the most accomplished people always make learning new things a priority. And because they teach their kids to embrace curiosity, one thing they take very seriously is answering questions.
I’ve interviewed several Nobel Laureates, and almost all of them recalled that, even much later in life, their parents always patiently tried to answer questions they asked. And when the parents did not have immediate answers, they taught their kids how to look for the answers and often searched for them together.
Their parents were also diligent about finding the best mentors, coaches and teachers who could support their children’s mental growth and skill development.
6. They promote ‘early specialization’
Parents often face the question of whether they should take the “specialist” approach and encourage their children to specialize in an activity that they show high potential in, or take the “generalist” approach and expose them to many different things (e.g., baseball, soccer, piano, math club) to help them become well-rounded.
Most parents choose the latter, but parents of exceptional kids choose the specialist approach.
Early specialization doesn’t mean that your kid gives up doing other things, perhaps for fun or even for developing additional skills. It just means that they’ve picked the activity where they are committed to putting in the effort required to become as good as possible at it.
The parent mindset is that the earlier they encourage their kids to learn the basics of a field their kid shows promise in, the sooner they’ll progress to more advanced skills. And the sooner they develop those advanced skills, the quicker they’ll develop best-in-class skills. And the quicker they gain best-in-class skills, the more likely they are to attain a rare and elite level of proficiency.
7. They encourage competition and improvement
Many of the exceptionals I studied and interviewed grew up in a continually competitive environment.
Being competitive from an early age, even in small activities like board games or who can clean their room the fastest, exposed them to the stress and pressure that was required for them to win later in life.
But their parents also taught them that they should not place value on just competition and results, that being exceptional is more than just keeping score. If you solely fixate on results, and not improvement, then you’re less likely to master your field.
Dr. Kumar Mehta, Ph.D., is the author of “The Innovation Biome” and “The Exceptionals” and founder of Bridges Insight, a think tank focused on researching sustained excellence and innovation. Dr. Mehta is also a Senior Research Fellow at the Center for the Digital Future, and a board member for the Committee for Children, a nonprofit dedicated to fostering the well-being of children through social-emotional learning and development. Follow him on Twitter @mehtakumar.
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