Tag Archives: Revelation

Chinese Stock Market Plunge Roils Markets

The Chinese government is preparing to buy shares of stock to stabilize their markets after a plunge of more than 8 percent on Monday that impacted markets across the world.

The government also threatened to “deal severely” with anyone who is found to be engaging in “malicious shorting of stocks” in the government’s opinion.

The two Chinese markets, the CSI300 and the SSEC lost 8.6% and 8.5% respectively.  Only 13 of the 1,114 stocks on the Shanghai Composite were up after Monday.

“Because of the high, still high leverage exposure of the Chinese markets, anything that triggers a decline in such a short time will see some negative spiral effects in such highly leveraged markets,” Raymond Yeung, senior economist of Greater China at the Australia and New Zealand Banking Group, told VOA.

The Chinese market collapse caused the Dow Industrial Average to fall 150 points at the opening Monday.

“The fear factor of China is very much alive in the market. That’s nearing us to some technical support levels,” said Peter Cardillo, chief market economist at Rockwell Global Capital told CNBC. “Slow growth out of China just complicates the oil picture.”

The Chinese market caused oil to fall below $48 a barrel.

One Chinese market expert says the government should allow the market to correct as Chinese stocks are overpriced.

“The valuation of Chinese [stock] markets remains over-priced, which creates rooms for further downward revisions. The government’s rescue measures could curb the slides in a short term, but are powerless in reversing the long-term trend,” Lu Suiqi, associate professor of economics at Peking University says.

Massive Bug Swarm Appears on Weather Radar

A swarm of bugs in northern Texas and southwest Oklahoma was so intense Wednesday that it appeared as a rainstorm on weather radar in the region.

Rangers at Copper Breaks State Park in Quanah, Texas confirmed the bug storm was made up of grasshoppers and beetles to the National Weather Service.

The swarm filled the air up to 2,500 feet and covered 50 miles.

Forrest Mitchell, Observations Program Leader at the National Weather Service of Norman, Oklahoma, told Popular Science that the fact they can pick up major insect swarms is a nod to the sensitivity of current weather forecasting equipment.

“It doesn’t take a whole lot of bugs to cause that on radar,” Kurtz said. “It’s not like biblical proportions. There was just enough out there that the radar picked it up.”

The Texas swarm was not the only major swarming of insects in the last week.

In Sabula, Iowa highway crews had to use winter snow plowing equipment to remove a swarm of mayflies from a bridge connecting Iowa and Illinois.

The crews not only used the plows to clear the bridge but laid down sand in an attempt to combat the slick conditions caused by cars crushing the bug swarm.

Officials say they will keep the lights on the bridge off during the next few weeks in an attempt to keep the bugs from swarming.

El Nino Could Be Strongest In 50 Years

Meteorologists say that El Nino could be one of the strongest in the last half century and could bring significant amounts of rainfall to California.

The forecasters say the storms might not break the drought that has gripped the Golden State.

“Current rain deficits are way too large,” stated AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Bernie Rayno to Fox News. “Even if California receives the rain that fell in 1997-98, it will not come close to ending the long-term drought.”

California currently has 71 percent of the state in “extreme to exceptional drought” according to the U.S. Drought Monitor.

The forecasters at AccuWeather say that the heavy rains could be problems for California.

“A strong El Niño could be good news for the extreme drought in California,” AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Brett Anderson said. “Unfortunately, a sudden turn to a stormy winter could also result in dangerous mudslides and flash flooding for the state.”

However, it’s not just California officials and forecasters that are concerned about El Nino.  Texas officials say the change to El Nino could bring significant flooding to the Lone Star State.

“The latest global model shows that in August, we’re dry in the lower Mississippi Valley and the Southeast, but wet in the Four Corners with the monsoon kicking,” Paul Pastelok, chief long-range forecaster for AccuWeather said to the Dallas Morning News. “Then you look at September, and the upper high breaks down. The Four Corners region is still wet, but some of that moisture starts to leak out. And when we get to October, the model has northern Texas with moderately above-normal rainfall.”

“After that, we’ll see a bull’s-eye for precipitation just east of Dallas into Louisiana.”

Marines Killed After Shootings At Two Chattanooga Naval Reserve Facilities

A gunman opened fire on two military recruitment centers in Chattanooga, Tennessee on Thursday, leaving soldiers dead and wounded.

Officials in the Chattanooga area say the gunman has been shot and killed and that they believe he is the only one involved in the attacks.

Fox News reported that four Marines were killed at one of the two centers.  FBI officials confirmed others were injured and are being treated at local hospitals but there was no information on their condition.

The U.S. Prosecutor for the region said at a press conference the investigation is being conducted “as a case of domestic terrorism.”  He added there is a joint federal, state and local investigation which is why much of the information about the shooting is being withheld from the media and public.

The FBI, ATF and the Department of Homeland Security were on the scene within hours and leading the investigation.

Ed Reinhold, special agent in charge of the FBI at the same news conference praised the local police department for the response and for “neutralizing the threat to the community.”

The FBI confirmed the suspect carried “multiple weapons” but would not describe the weapons.  They believe that the gunman was residing in the area before the attack.  Reinhold also said that while it’s being investigated as domestic terrorism, it’s possible the attack was not related to terrorism and just an act of violence.