Highlights
United Airlines announced yesterday it launched a $100-million investment to support start-up companies developing and exploring the production of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) to accelerate the research, production, and technologies associated with SAF. For more details, go to:
The U.S. Purchasing Managers Index (PMI), which tracks the manufacturing and service sectors, came in at 50.2 yesterday, way up from a 46.8 in January. A PMI of 50 means the businesses expect to buy the same amount of whatever they need to make their production next month. The U.S. PMI has been below 50 for 7 consecutive months, so not only has the “losing” streak ended, an improvement of 3.4 points from January is a huge improvement in the economic outlook. Good economic news is bad news in the short run for commodity prices. The energies and wheat took the big hit yesterday.
The New START treaty was signed by U.S. President Barack Obama and his Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev in 2010. The treaty limits the number of strategic nuclear warheads that the countries can deploy. President Vladimir Putin suspended the New Start treaty and put Russia’s nukes on combat duty and he said Russia would resume nuclear tests if the U.S. did.