“Google is a monopolist, and it has acted as one to maintain its monopoly,” said US District Judge Amit Mehta. Google violated Section 2 of the Sherman Act. A judge ruled that Google engaged in illegal practices to preserve its search engine monopoly, delivering a major antitrust victory to the Justice Department in its efforts […] The post Massive Loss: Judge Rules Google Has an Illegal Monopoly appeared first on www.independentsentinel.com.

Three little girls, aged six to nine, were stabbed to death while attending a Taylor Swift-themed dance party in a small seaside town in England on July 29. The suspect, Axel Rudakubana, who is just shy of his 18th birthday, is accused of entering a pregnancy center in Southport, England, and stabbing nearly a dozen children and two adults. Bebe King, 6; Elsie Dot Stancombe, 7; and Alice Dasilva Aguiar, 9, died as a result of their injuries, Sky News reported. Five more children were critically injured, local news outlet Echo reported, along with two adults who had stepped in to protect the children. In the wake of the stabbing, the suspect was falsely accused of being a Muslim asylum seeker, even though he was born in Cardiff, Wales, and moved to Lancashire, England. The belief that an asylum seeker committed the vicious attack led to riots against the influx of immigrants across Britain. The response to the original murders has outweighed coverage of the crime itself, with media and politicians in the U.K. calling the rioters “far right,” “thugs,” and “hooligans.” There are, indeed, extremists amongst the rioters targeting mosques and Muslims. It is also true that a distrust of illegal immigration has been simmering amongst the British people for some time, and has finally erupted. In Rotherham, for example, rioters smashed the windows of a hotel being used to house asylum seekers and attacked police, NBC News reported. There have also been Muslim counter-protests, The Telegraph reported, which have resulted in additional violence. Footage on social media has shown groups of Muslims carrying weapons, and the Telegraph reported groups in Bolton shouted “Allahu Akbar” as they fought anti-immigration rioters. WATCH THE TRAILER FOR ‘AM I RACIST?’ — A MATT WALSH COMEDY ON DEI U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who has been in office for barely a month, has condemned the immigration riots and threatened to “do whatever it takes to bring these thugs to justice,” CBS News reported. “I guarantee you will regret taking part in this disorder, whether directly or those whipping up this action online and then running away themselves,” he added, according to the outlet. “This is not a protest, it is organized, violent thuggery and it has no place on our streets or online.” This is in stark contrast to what Starmer said several years ago, following the death of Minneapolis, Minnesota, resident George Floyd by a police officer, when Starmer said: “Like you I was shocked and angered at the killing of George Floyd and the response of President Trump and the U.S. authorities to the peaceful protest.” Starmer also posted a photo of himself taking a knee in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement, which resulted in billions of dollars of damage and the deaths of numerous people, including retired police Captain David Dorn, who was murdered while protecting his friend’s pawn shop from looters and rioters.

Kansas City Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker signed a 4-year $26 million contract extension on Monday, making him the highest-paid kicker in the NFL on a per-year basis, ESPN NFL insider Adam Schefter reported. The extension for the 29-year-old kicker comes after another season where he ranked among the top kickers in field goal percentage, extra-point percentage, and total points. Last year, Butker also helped his team win its second-straight Super Bowl. Butker’s new deal includes $17.75 million guaranteed. The kicker represented and negotiated the deal himself, per Schefter. Butker becomes the highest-paid NFL kicker just over two months after he enraged many on the Left following his viral commencement speech at Benedictine College. Highest paid kickers in the NFL on a per-year basis: ?Harrison Butker: $6.4M ?Justin Tucker: $6M ?Jake Elliott: $6M ?Matt Gay: $5.62M ?Graham Gano: $5.5M https://t.co/EMMxvwnjgL — Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) August 5, 2024 The three-time Super Bowl-winning kicker sparked outrage after telling the graduating class that his success was all because “a girl I met in band class back in middle school would convert to the faith, become my wife, and embrace one of the most important titles of all: homemaker.” During the address, Butker also slammed Pride Month and President Joe Biden’s pro-abortion policies. Butker’s commencement address sparked outcry and mockery among some celebrities and athletes, including Katy Perry, Chelsea Handler, and Serena Williams. A Change.org petition also called on the Chiefs to drop Butker. The petition, which garnered nearly 240,000 signatures, called Butker’s comments “sexist, homophobic, anti-trans, anti-abortion, and racist,” but the team’s ownership, head coach, and Butker’s teammates stood by their kicker amid the outrage. Days after the backlash, Butker stood by his comments, saying that the “shocking level of hate” would not deter him from being “unapologetic” about his faith. WATCH THE TRAILER FOR ‘AM I RACIST?’ — A MATT WALSH COMEDY ON DEI “If it wasn’t clear that the timeless Catholic values are hated by many, it is now,” Butker said at the Courage Under Fire gala in Nashville on May 24. “Over the past few days, my beliefs, or what people think I believe, have been the focus of countless discussions around the globe.” “In my seven years in the NFL, I’ve become familiar with positive and negative comments. But the majority of them revolve around my performance on the field,” Butker added. “But, as to be expected, the more I’ve talked about what I value most, my Catholic faith, the more polarizing I’ve become. It’s a decision I’ve consciously made, and one I do not regret at all.”

As a commodities trader, I rarely dabble in equities other than the ole 401k and IRA. But it behooves traders in any market to pay attention to activity in the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA), S&P 500 Index (SPX) and NASDAQ Composite Index (Nasdaq) as they can be a harbinger of demand for energy and raw materials down the road. As of this writing, the DJIA is down roughly 750 points today, the SPX down 134, both just under a 2% decline. For the DJIA, this represents an almost 6% decline from last month’s all-time high and 8% for the SPX.  The tech-heavy Nasdaq is down a shade at more than 2% today, compounding a 12% retracement from its all-time high, which is more interesting and concerning. So what’s happening? Several factors seem to be at play here. Some fundamental, some international, some even psychological. First the fundamentals. The Nasdaq has been propelled to record highs recently on big bets in AI stocks. But after the disappointing earnings from tech goliaths Amazon, Microsoft, Tesla, Alphabet and Apple, the luster seems to have faded, at least in the short term. Meta seems to be the bright exception, although it’s not helping its share price.  And Intel, once a tech giant now playing catch-up in the AI game, had its worst day in 50 years last Friday and is down another 5% today — it is down an astounding 41% on the year. The broad sell-off was more or less triggered on Friday when the monthly jobs report was weaker than expected, adding only 114,000 new jobs when 175,000 was the expectation. Unemployment also grew, climbing from 4.1% to 4.3%, igniting fears that the economy may be slowing down. This, of course, is bearish in any environment let alone one already teetering under the weight of disappointing earnings when markets are at lifetime highs. This turns traders’ attention to The Fed, which many now say has been too slow to lower rates (which it steadily raised in response to 40-year-high inflation levels). High rates for too long stifle an economy’s ability to expand as the cost of money remains high. In response, traders did what they always do — they dumped their stocks and moved their money into the safe haven of bonds, just as I explain in my latest book. They anticipate The Fed will have to be more aggressive in its future rate cuts to play catch-up with a cooling economy. One more factor to consider. The Nikkei Stock Average Volatility Index (Nikkei 225 VI) has rocketed to the highest levels since first being tracked in 2001. This is a direct result of dumping Japanese stocks due to the rising yen against the dollar. Why does this matter? Many trades in the market (too detailed for this format) are made with the assumption of cheap yen borrowing. This has been upended in recent days as the Bank of Japan raised rates last week. This, combined with belief that the U.S. central bank must move to cut rates quickly, has sent the dollar-to-yen spread surging. Japan, the fourth largest economy in the world, is in a bind. Raise rates to curb inflation and the cost of money (in this case the yen) rises, causing the markets to tumble. Lower rates to stimulate the economy and the currency is devalued and thus triggers inflation. Rinse and repeat. Oh, to be a central banker in Tokyo today. No thanks! To recap: earnings bad, economic data bad, Fed action too late, Japan bad. And here we are. There is also a psychological factor in all this as markets are, in the end, human constructs. All this uncertainty as to Fed action and slowing economic growth has led to increased volatility in the equities markets as reflected in the CBOE Market Volatility Index (VIX). As of this writing, this number has spiked up just under a whopping 39% — levels not seen since May 2020. By way of comparison, though, its current level of 32.5 is still half what the VIX was in March 2020. But when you consider it is still almost double what it was just three trading sessions ago, this is worth watching. Investors — not to be confused with traders — loathe uncertainty. And when they feel their spidey senses tingling, as volatility is just a measure of uncertainty they tend to initiate what is known as a “flight to quality.” Dumping stocks and buying bond futures in anticipation of The Fed trying to salvage a cooling economy by making dollars, thus investment capital, cheaper through interest rate cuts. A bond future’s value is inverse to interest rates. As such, rates go down, bond futures go up and yields go down. WATCH THE TRAILER FOR ‘AM I RACIST?’ — A MATT WALSH COMEDY ON DEI As you can see, emotion is often a driver of these sell-offs. One which has put the Nasdaq in official “correction” territory. Having been in the markets for over three decades, one can see this same pattern repeating itself again and again. Investors move like a shoal of fish, and once the mass of dealers changes course, they tend to run in that direction for a while.  The most important question an investor must ask is this: Is this the beginning of a prolonged and painful sell-off in equities (and concurrent rally in bonds)? Or is this a buying opportunity? And if I knew the answer to either of those questions, I’d be writing this from my destroyer-sized yacht in Monte Carlo rather than a little trading office in New Jersey. But I do know that, in markets especially, history repeats itself. Because people are the same, even if the manner in which they transact has changed due to technology. So, we shall see what today, which is really a continuation of the rumblings The Street began to experience in its gut last week, portends. For what it’s worth, the crash of 1987, one of the greatest buying opportunities in a generation, saw the DJIA plummet 22% in one day, as opposed to 2% today. It just feels more dramatic because, obviously, 2% of 40,000 is nominally bigger than 22% of 2,300. Therefore, much of the strum und drang could be emotions taking place of analysis. Whether this is a hiccup or the big one remains to be seen. Only time will tell. * * * Brad Schaeffer is a commodities trader, columnist, and author of two acclaimed novels. Along with Daily Wire, his articles have appeared in the Wall Street Journal, New York Daily News, New York Post, National Review, The Federalist, The Hill and other media outlets. His newest book, LIFE IN THE PITS: My Time as a Trader on the Rough-and-Tumble Exchange Floors, is a fun and informative memoir of his time as a floor trader in Chicago and New York. You can also find more of Brad’s articles on Substack. The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

'The employment of these individuals will be terminated in the interests of the Agency'

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