December 11 2024

1. U.S. Immigration Surge Biggest in History, Outpacing Ellis Island Era
2. AI Revolutionizes Oil Extraction, to Add Equivalent of New Kuwait
3. Millennial Forced to Rent by Wall Street's Billion-Dollar Bet on Single-Family Rentals
4. China Deploys First Salvos in Trade War 2.0: Bans Some Rare Earth Exports, Opens Antitrust Probe in US AI Chipmaker, Bans Export of Drone Tech
5. China Welcomes Incoming Trump Admin With Massive Military Show of Force, Russian Warships Involved
December 11, 2001: People's Republic of China joins the World Trade Organization.

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1. U.S. Immigration Surge Biggest in History, Outpacing Ellis Island Era

The immigration surge of the past few years has been the largest in U.S. history, surpassing the great immigration boom of the late 1800s and early 1900s, according to a New York Times analysis of government data. Annual net migration — the number of people coming to the country minus the number leaving — averaged 2.4 million people from 2021 to 2023, according to the Congressional Budget Office. Total net migration during the Biden administration is likely to exceed eight million people. That’s a faster pace of arrivals than during any other period on record, including the peak years of Ellis Island traffic, when millions of Europeans came to the United States. Even after taking into account today’s larger U.S. population, the recent surge is the most rapid since at least 1850  

Article Source: NYT

2. AI Revolutionizes Oil Extraction, to Add Equivalent of New Kuwait

AI can feel like an unnecessary gadget in some industries—a chatbot to improve emails or spiff up spreadsheets. Not in energy. One expert thinks it can help companies extract so much more oil that it’s equivalent to adding the output of an entire Middle Eastern nation. “It’s like getting a Kuwait on-line,” said Rakesh Jaggi, who leads the digital business at SLB, the world’s largest oil-services company. Oil companies are on a relentless quest to produce more oil at lower costs, and AI is boosting that effort. Their success has already been remarkable. Over the past decade, the U.S. pumped out 60% more oil a day with 40% fewer workers. The industry’s annual productivity gains in that stretch outpaced even those of online retailers, and are roughly seven times as large as those of the average U.S. business. By extracting more oil while reducing capital expenses and manpower, they’re lowering the costs at which they can drill profitably. In the Permian, the “break-even” price for oil producers has fallen to $40 a barrel from over $90 in 2012, according to S&P Global Commodity Insights. AI should take that number even lower, boosting oil company margins and cash flow.

Article Source: Barrons

3. Millennial Forced to Rent by Wall Street's Billion-Dollar Bet on Single-Family Rentals

Wall Street firms are investing billions in single-family rental homes, targeting millennials and others priced out of the home buying market. Build-to-rent homes offer upscale amenities and desirable locations, appealing to renters who prioritize convenience and affordability over homeownership. From 2021 to 2023, the share of build-to-rent housing starts doubled to 10% of overall single-family housing, according to the National Association of Realtors’ analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data.  Government regulators are monitoring the influx of institutional investors in the single-family rental market, raising concerns about potential negative impacts on tenants and the housing supply.

Article Source: WSJ

4. China Deploys First Salvos in Trade War 2.0: Bans Some Rare Earth Exports, Opens Antitrust Probe in US AI Chipmaker, Bans Export of Drone Tech

China got a head start on a looming trade war with the US by showcasing a new range of tools it’s prepared to use if Donald Trump makes good on his threat to punish the world’s second-biggest economy with tariffs. Restrictions imposed this month by the Biden administration on China’s access to vital components for AI chips provoked Beijing into providing the world a preview of its targets in a second trade war. Days after the curbs, President Xi Jinping opened a probe into Nvidia Corp. and banned the export of several rare materials with military applications. Beijing has also limited sales to the US and Europe of key components used to build drones.

Article Source: Bloomberg

5. China Welcomes Incoming Trump Admin With Massive Military Show of Force, Russian Warships Involved

China massed dozens of navy and coast guard vessels in what appears to be the largest maritime exercises targeting Taiwan and the broader Western Pacific since 1996, a potent warning to the incoming Trump administration of China’s increasingly aggressive stance in the region. China’s military didn’t announce the start of any drills. But Taiwanese authorities said Tuesday they were seeing “major elements of a military drill” over a vast expanse of air and sea near Taiwan. As of Tuesday morning, nearly 100 Chinese warships and vessels—involving several thousand personnel—were spotted across the South China Sea, in the waters surrounding Japan and South Korea, and around Taiwan, according to Taiwanese security officials. This is likely the first time such a large-scale maritime operation has involved multiple Chinese theater commands and its coast guard, one of the officials said. Additionally, Russian ships were spotted near Japan and South Korea, they said.

Article Source: WSJ

December 11, 2001: People's Republic of China joins the World Trade Organization.

Sources

1. https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/11/briefing/us-immigration-surge.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

2. https://www.barrons.com/articles/ai-oil-industry-profit-permian-basin-8adcacdd?st=UwyiVx&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink

3. https://www.wsj.com/real-estate/build-to-rent-single-family-home-investments-d6e57200?st=G87x5E&reflink=article_copyURL_share

4. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-12-11/xi-readies-bargaining-chips-for-us-trade-war-after-biden-curbs

5. https://www.wsj.com/world/asia/china-stages-largest-show-of-force-in-decades-after-u-s-visit-by-taiwans-lai-1830fa8b?st=e31kHt&reflink=article_copyURL_share