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Beer-Can Bearing Trump’s Mug-Shot Hits Major Milestone: CEO

Authored by Jack Phillips via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

A beer brand that was launched earlier this year as an alternative to Bud Light amid a months-long boycott has shattered its own company records by marketing a special edition can that featured former President Donald Trump’s mug shot, according to the company’s head.

Ultra Right Beer CEO Seth Weathers told Fox News last week that the special edition can was launched after President Trump’s mug shot was taken in August after he was indicted in Fulton County, Georgia, on racketeering and other charges stemming from his activity following the 2020 election.

Mr. Weathers told Fox Business that sales of the limited edition offering have amounted to more than five tractor-loads of cans, saying that it’s now the “most sought-after collector beer can in American history.”

“We knew people would go wild over these collector cans, but we had no idea the response would be this crazy,” he said in a recent statement, adding that sales of the beer would top $2 million by 11:59 p.m. on Oct. 1 when it’s taken off the market.

Sales of the can “have poured in from the moment we launched,” Mr. Weathers said. “With over $1 million in beer and merchandise sales, we’ve raised over $50,000 for the legal defense of the Georgia Trump electors and the Georgia Republican Party. Conservative Dad’s Ultra Right Beer puts our money where our mouth is — we’re doing our part to fight back against the unjust persecution of American patriots.”

The company touts its product as “100 percent American beer,” according to its website, and states that 10 percent of the beer’s sales will be donated to the Georgia Republican Party legal defense fund and the David Shafer Legal Defense Fund.

As for President Trump, the 2024 presidential candidate’s campaign released mug-shot-inspired gear in August that included T-shirts, coffee mugs, and beer holders. Hours after the mug shot was taken at the Fulton County Courthouse, the former president posted the image on his X (formerly known as Twitter) account — the first and only time he’s done so since he was allowed back on the platform after his account was suspended in January 2021.

President Trump’s mug shot merchandise was still available on his website on Oct. 1.

Bud Light Update

In April, Bud Light created a backlash with its release of a promotional beer can featuring transgender activist Dylan Mulvaney in connection with the NCAA’s March Madness. As images of the beer can went viral on social media, conservative social media influencers and celebrities suggested a consumer boycott of the brand, causing sales to plummet for months.

Anheuser Busch InBev, the parent company of Bud Light, said in early August that its U.S. revenue fell by about 10 percent in the second quarter as sales of Bud Light slumped. Revenue fell $395 million in North America, too, it said.

Bud Light’s U.S. sales through retail stores have fallen by 25 percent or more since April, but the company said that they have stabilized.

In an investors’ call this summer, CEO Michel Doukeris said that AB InBev’s U.S. team is working hard to win back consumers and that the stabilization comes with signs of improvement. Bud Light’s loss has spelled gains for Coors Light and Miller Lite, brands of main U.S. rival Molson Coors.

Last week, analysts with Bank of America upgraded Anheuser-Busch InBev’s stock to buy from neutral, although they stressed that in the United States, it’s “hard not to be negative” amid the boycott.

The top bank lifted AB InBev’s price target to $68 from $65, according to MarketWatch. Cost of goods sold (COGS) pressures have begun to ease on the brand, while analysts cited how the brand is doing business in Latin America.

“Over the last few years, [Anheuser-Busch InBev] has transformed its business in many of its key markets [particularly in Latin America], with a more effective portfolio strategy, stepped-up innovation, and digitization of its route-to-market with BEES (B2B), a clear competitive advantage,” said analysts led by Andrea Pistacchi.

However, they cautioned that it’s “hard not to be negative” about the brand’s U.S. volume outlook. They predicted that the permanent profit damage to Anheuser-Busch InBev because of the Bud Light backlash may exceed $1 billion, CNBC reported.

Reuters contributed to this report.

Tyler Durden Tue, 10/03/2023 — 10:40

Japanese Yen JOLTed Higher — Is The MoF In The Market?

This morning’s hotter-than-expected JOLTS print initially sparked a hawkish response across markets, pressing the USD higher against its fiat peers.

The JPY slipped back above 150/USD on the move — the weakest since October last year,and is trading in an area where authorities stepped in with purchases to support the yen last year for the first time since 1998.

As a reminder, the first intervention by Japan last year came when the yen weakened to 145.90 in September. The country spent around $65 billion in total to support the yen in three occasions in September to October.

But then, out of nowhere, someone bought JPY with both hands and feet and smashed USDJPY 3 handles stronger…

Did we just see the Ministry of Finance intervene?

As Bloomberg reports, Masato Kanda, the top currency official at the Ministry of Finance, has said he’s keeping in close contact with his US counterparts, with both sides in agreement that excessive currency moves are unwelcome.

Finance Minister Shunichi Suzuki warned about the currency fluctuations for six days in a row through Tuesday. He said on Tuesday he won’t judge the possibility of FX intervention on currency levels but through volatility.

Is the old Gold-Yen trade back?

… something it did for much of the previous decade.

We suspect this ‘volatility’ is Suzuki’s signature now.

Tyler Durden Tue, 10/03/2023 — 10:22

Market Pukes After Biden’s Dept Of Labor Shocks With 5-Sigma Beat In Job Openings Which Soar The Most Since July 2021

Just when the Fed thought that the White House had instructed Biden’s Department of Labor to go easy on the fabricated data, and after several months of declining job openings and easing payrolls in line with an economy that is gradually slowing if not outright falling into a recession, moments ago the BLS absolutely shocked and stunned markets, strategists and economists when the DOL decided to come up with the biggest data fabrication in years, and reported that in August job openings exploded from 8.827MM to a mindblowing 9.61 million.The increase, a staggering 690K (from the upward revised July print of 8.920MM), was the biggest monthly increase since July 2021 (!)…

… which not only came above the highest forecast but was a 5-sigma beat to the median expectation of 8.815MM...

… the biggest such “beat” since Sept 2022.

According to the BLS, job openings increased in professional and business services (+509,000), finance and insurance (+96,000), state and local government education (+76,000), nondurable goods manufacturing (+59,000), and federal government (+31,000). Again: it is the BLS’ position that there was a 35% increase in professional and business services job openings, an absolutely hilarious goalseeking of data.

The surge in the number of job openings meant that in August the number of job openings was 3.255 million more than the number of unemployed workers, back to the highest since May and reversing the last three months of normalization in the labor maret.

Curiously, despite the surge in job openings, the recent spike in unemployed workers (recall the surge in the unemployment rate), meant that the number of job openings for every unemployed worker was unchanged to 1.51.

And while the number of job openings was farcical and clearly politically mandated, one certainly could not see a similar euphoria in the other data points tracked by the JOLTS reported, starting with the number of quits, which barely increased in July, rising by just 19K to 3.638 million, effectively remaining at the lowest level since May 2021.

Furthermore, while the DOL goalseeked job openings sharply higher, it forgot to do the same to not only quits but also hires; in fact, hires rose a tiny 35K to 5.5857 million, also just barely above the lowest level since March 2021.

And while we have previously discussedthe chronic fabrication of job openings data by the BLS, which goes against all private surveys, we are confident that when the Biden admin finally falls and some enterprising forensic accountant digs to find out just where all these bullshit numbers came from, what they will find is some political hack at the BLS/DOL claiming that it’s not their fault, but rather that it’s the response rate. And indeed, as the BLS itself indicates, the response rate to most of its various labor (and other) surveys has collapsed in recent years, nothing is as bad as the JOLTS report where the actual response rate has tumbled to a record low 31%

In other words, more than two thirds, or 70% of the final number of job openings, is estimated!

And at a time when it is critical for Biden to still maintain the illusion that at leastthe labor market remains strong when everything else in Biden’s economy is crashing and burning (or soaring and burning as may be the case of inflation) we’ll let readers decide if the admin’s Labor Department is plugging the estimate gap with numbers that are stronger or weaker.

As for the market, for now it is going with the increasingly laughable fiction that the US has completely decoupled from every other country in the world, and amid fears that a November hike may be in the books, yields and the dollar spiked…

… sending stocks sharply lower.

Tyler Durden Tue, 10/03/2023 — 10:20

Russia’s President Vladimir Putin Hails Ties with Africa in Summit at St. Petersburg Summit

Nuff Said!

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Russia’s President Vladimir Putin Hails Ties with Africa in Summit at St. Petersburg Summit

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The feel­ing is strong and it over­pow­ers my thoughts, I am not aware of the real­ity that my blood knows only to well!

My mind is hos­tile for the wrong rea­sons, I am only sun and man, but the need to be brother is tremendous!

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Russia’s President Vladimir Putin Hails Ties with Africa in Summit at St. Petersburg Summit

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