InvestMacro

By JustForex

The US stock indices rose ahead of key inflation data, which is expected to show a further cooling in consumer prices. At the close of the stock market yesterday, the Dow Jones Index (US30) increased by 0.72%, and the S&P 500 Index (US500) added 1.07%. Technology Index NASDAQ (US100) gained 1.34% on Monday.

The US will publish an important inflation report today. Analysts forecast that the consumer price index will show a decline for the second month in a row. The expectation of lower inflation has already put pressure on the US dollar in recent days.

According to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s monthly survey of consumer expectations released Monday, expectations for US inflation for the three years ahead fell to 2.8% in August from 3.2% the previous month and 3.6% in June. The one-year-ahead inflation forecast fell to 5.7% from 6.2%. Consumers now expect 2% inflation versus 2.3% on the five-year horizon. The US inflation expectations for gas price increases have also declined, and households now expect them to be flat one year from now. The US central banks, aiming for 2% inflation, are rapidly raising interest rates to curb the highest inflation in nearly 40 years. They are expected to hold their third consecutive 75 basis point hike when they meet next week.

Equity markets in Europe mostly rose yesterday. Germany’s DAX (DE30) gained 2.40%, France’s CAC 40 (FR40) gained 1.95%, Spain’s IBEX 35 Index (ES35) jumped by 2.01%, and Britain’s FTSE 100 (UK100) closed up 1.66%.

According to ECB Vice President Luis de Guindos, the European Central Bank’s massive interest rate hike last week was designed to keep inflation expectations anchored. The ECB followed the Federal Reserve in choosing a massive move, with some officials signaling that they are open to a repeat of this step when they next meet in October. ECB policymakers see growing risks that the central bank will have to raise its key interest rate to 2% or more to curb record Eurozone inflation.

In the oil market, the Iran nuclear deal has again stalled, pushing oil prices higher. Also, it should be noted that OPEC+ countries decided to cut oil production starting in October in order to keep oil prices from falling significantly. And all this is because from October, the “low season” begins for oil when oil prices tend to go down. Analysts at ANZ believe that the outlook for oil still looks challenging as Chinese authorities are likely to tighten restrictions ahead of the Communist Party meeting in October.

Gold and silver prices continue to rise as the dollar index, and government bond yields fall. But it should be noted that the current growth is temporary because, at the moment, there are no fundamental factors for gold and silver price growth, as the US Federal Reserve is in the cycle of tightening monetary policy.

Asian markets traded higher last week. Japan’s Nikkei 225 (JP225) gained 1.16% yesterday, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng (HK50) gained 2.69% for the day, and Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 (AU200) was up 1.02% on Monday.

Wholesale inflation in Japan reached 9% in August. Wholesale prices increased by 0.2% in August compared to the previous month.

In Australia, business confidence rose to 10 index points. The report indicates employment growth and improved trading conditions in most sectors. Only the construction sector remains problematic.

S&P 500 (F) (US500)  4,110.69  +43.33  (+1.07%)

Dow Jones (US30) 32,383.18  +231.47 (+0.72%)

DAX (DE40) 13,402.27  +314.06 (+2.40%)

FTSE 100 (UK100)  7,473.03 +121.96 (+1.66%)

USD Index 108.34  −0.67 (−0.61%)

• – Australia NAB Business Confidence (m/m) at 04:30 (GMT+3);
• – UK Average Earnings Index (m/m) at 09:00 (GMT+3);
• – UK Claimant Count Change (m/m) at 09:00 (GMT+3);
• – UK Unemployment Rate (m/m) at 09:00 (GMT+3);
• – Eurozone German Consumer Price Index (m/m) at 09:00 (GMT+3);
• – Eurozone Spanish Consumer Price Index (m/m) at 10:00 (GMT+3);
• – Eurozone German ZEW Economic Sentiment (m/m) at 12:00 (GMT+3);
• – Eurozone ZEW Economic Sentiment (m/m) at 12:00 (GMT+3);
• – US Consumer Price Index (m/m) at 15:30 (GMT+3).

By JustForex

This article reflects a personal opinion and should not be interpreted as an investment advice, and/or offer, and/or a persistent request for carrying out financial transactions, and/or a guarantee, and/or a forecast of future events.

By JustForex

Federal Reserve officials expect another major interest rate hike this month as they rush to curb demand. Fed spokesman Chris Waller said Friday that he supports another significant 75 basis point hike. Earlier, St. Louis Fed President James Bullard said he is also leaning toward another massive move when officials meet September 20-21.

A growing number of major banks changed their forecasts this month by 75 from 50 basis points, including economists at Goldman Sachs Group Inc, Deutsche Bank AG, Barclays Plc, and Bank of America Corp.

At the close of the stock market on Friday, the Dow Jones Index (US30) increased by 1.19% (+1.09% for the week), and the S&P 500 Index (US500) added 1.53% (+1.82% for the week). Technology Index NASDAQ (US100) gained 0.27% (+4.72% for the week).

Equity markets in Europe were mostly up on Friday. German DAX (DE30) gained 1.43% (+2.03% for the week), French CAC 40 (FR40) gained 1.41% (+2.71% for the week), Spanish IBEX 35 (ES35) jumped by 1.47% (+2.95% for the week), British FTSE 100 (UK100) added 1.23% (+0.96% for the week).

Thousands of Russian troops retreated in the face of a lightning-fast Ukrainian offensive in the Kharkiv region that thwarted the Kremlin’s attempts to consolidate control over eastern Ukraine. The Institute for the Study of War, a US-based think tank, now estimates about 2,500 square kilometers liberated. In response, Russia hit critical infrastructure with missiles and temporarily left several areas without power and water. Thus, Russia once again demonstrated that it is a terrorist state.

The EU countries failed to agree on a price limit for gas from Russia. The maximum price would be expected to be $520 per thousand cubic meters. However, the EU countries failed to reach an agreement. The gas price cap is the main emergency measure called for by the European Commission’s Energy Agency to help households and businesses with rising energy bills.

On Sunday, Britain rejected as false Russian President Vladimir Putin’s claim that only a small portion of the grain exported from Ukraine in an international deal was going to poor countries. Without citing a source, Putin said Wednesday that only two of the 87 ships carrying 60,000 tons of produce went to poor countries. Citing UN data, the UK Defense Department said that about 30% of the grain exported in the deal went to low and middle-income countries in Africa, the Middle East, and Asia. Thus, Putin has once again confirmed that he is a liar. According to a daily British intelligence bulletin, Russia is employing a deliberate strategy of disinformation to deflect blame for food security problems, discredit Ukraine, and minimize opposition to its invasion.

Gold prices rose slightly on Monday, maintaining last week’s slight gains, as the dollar retreated from a 20-year high ahead of this week’s release of key US inflation data. With fuel costs now declining, inflation could see new signs of cooling. This could give gold a temporary boost.

Asian markets traded higher last week. Japan’s Nikkei 225 (JP225) gained 2.35% over the week, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng (HK50) gained 0.33% over the week, and Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 (AU200) was up by 0.96% over the week.

At the commodities market, futures on wheat (+7.52%), palladium (+7.3%), lumber (+7.05%), platinum (+6.68%), silver (+5.06%), copper (+4.15%), and corn (+2.89%) showed the biggest gains last week. Natural gas futures (-8.51%) and cocoa futures (-2.11%) showed the biggest drop.

S&P 500 (F) (US500)  4,067.36 +61.18 (+1.53%)

Dow Jones (US30) 32,151.71  +377.19 (+1.19%)

DAX (DE40) 13,088.21  +183.89 (+1.43%)

FTSE 100 (UK100)  7,351.07 +89.01 (+1.23%)

USD Index 108.97  −0.73 (−0.67%)

• – UK GDP (q/q) at 09:00 (GMT+3);
• – UK Industrial Production (m/m) at 09:00 (GMT+3);
• – UK Manufacturing Production (m/m) at 09:00 (GMT+3).

By JustForex

This article reflects a personal opinion and should not be interpreted as an investment advice, and/or offer, and/or a persistent request for carrying out financial transactions, and/or a guarantee, and/or a forecast of future events.

By Ayonga Hereid, The Ohio State University 

With recent advances in artificial intelligence and robotics technology, there is growing interest in developing and marketing household robots capable of handling a variety of domestic chores.

Tesla is building a humanoid robot, which, according to CEO Elon Musk, could be used for cooking meals and helping elderly people. Amazon recently acquired iRobot, a prominent robotic vacuum manufacturer, and has been investing heavily in the technology through the Amazon Robotics program to expand robotics technology to the consumer market. In May 2022, Dyson, a company renowned for its power vacuum cleaners, announced that it plans to build the U.K.’s largest robotics center devoted to developing household robots that carry out daily domestic tasks in residential spaces.

Despite the growing interest, would-be customers may have to wait awhile for those robots to come on the market. While devices such as smart thermostats and security systems are widely used in homes today, the commercial use of household robots is still in its infancy.

As a robotics researcher, I know firsthand how household robots are considerably more difficult to build than smart digital devices or industrial robots.

Handling objects

One major difference between digital and robotic devices is that household robots need to manipulate objects through physical contact to carry out their tasks. They have to carry the plates, move the chairs and pick up dirty laundry and place it in the washer. These operations require the robot to be able to handle fragile, soft and sometimes heavy objects with irregular shapes.

The state-of-the-art AI and machine learning algorithms perform well in simulated environments. But contact with objects in the real world often trips them up. This happens because physical contact is often difficult to model and even harder to control. While a human can easily perform these tasks, there exist significant technical hurdles for household robots to reach human-level ability to handle objects.

Robots have difficulty in two aspects of manipulating objects: control and sensing. Many pick-and-place robot manipulators like those on assembly lines are equipped with a simple gripper or specialized tools dedicated only to certain tasks like grasping and carrying a particular part. They often struggle to manipulate objects with irregular shapes or elastic materials, especially because they lack the efficient force, or haptic, feedback humans are naturally endowed with. Building a general-purpose robot hand with flexible fingers is still technically challenging and expensive.

It is also worth mentioning that traditional robot manipulators require a stable platform to operate accurately, but the accuracy drops considerably when using them with platforms that move around, particularly on a variety of surfaces. Coordinating locomotion and manipulation in a mobile robot is an open problem in the robotics community that needs to be addressed before broadly capable household robots can make it onto the market.

They like structure

In an assembly line or a warehouse, the environment and sequence of tasks are strictly organized. This allows engineers to preprogram the robot’s movements or use simple methods like QR codes to locate objects or target locations. However, household items are often disorganized and placed randomly.

Home robots must deal with many uncertainties in their workspaces. The robot must first locate and identify the target item among many others. Quite often it also requires clearing or avoiding other obstacles in the workspace to be able to reach the item and perform given tasks. This requires the robot to have an excellent perception system, efficient navigation skills, and powerful and accurate manipulation capability.

For example, users of robot vacuums know they must remove all small furniture and other obstacles such as cables from the floor, because even the best robot vacuum cannot clear them by itself. Even more challenging, the robot has to operate in the presence of moving obstacles when people and pets walk within close range.

Keeping it simple

While they appear straightforward for humans, many household tasks are too complex for robots. Industrial robots are excellent for repetitive operations in which the robot motion can be preprogrammed. But household tasks are often unique to the situation and could be full of surprises that require the robot to constantly make decisions and change its route in order to perform the tasks.

Think about cooking or cleaning dishes. In the course of a few minutes of cooking, you might grasp a sauté pan, a spatula, a stove knob, a refrigerator door handle, an egg and a bottle of cooking oil. To wash a pan, you typically hold and move it with one hand while scrubbing with the other, and ensure that all cooked-on food residue is removed and then all soap is rinsed off.

There has been significant development in recent years using machine learning to train robots to make intelligent decisions when picking and placing different objects, meaning grasping and moving objects from one spot to another. However, to be able to train robots to master all different types of kitchen tools and household appliances would be another level of difficulty even for the best learning algorithms.

Not to mention that people’s homes often have stairs, narrow passageways and high shelves. Those hard-to-reach spaces limit the use of today’s mobile robots, which tend to use wheels or four legs. Humanoid robots, which would more closely match the environments humans build and organize for themselves, have yet to be reliably used outside of lab settings.

A solution to task complexity is to build special-purpose robots, such as robot vacuum cleaners or kitchen robots. Many different types of such devices are likely to be developed in the near future. However, I believe that general-purpose home robots are still a long way off.

About the Author:

Ayonga Hereid, Assistant Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, The Ohio State University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.