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battle royale game Is the NORAD Santa tracker safe from a government shutdown?Struggling Syracuse looks to climb back above .500 when it hosts Albany on Tuesday night. The Orange (4-4) are coming off a conference loss to Notre Dame where they failed to make a 3-pointer in a game for the first time in more than 10 years, going 0-for-9 from behind the arc. They will be without leading scorer J.J. Starling, who broke his hand in practice last Monday. Orange coach Adrian Autry said there was "no timetable" for Starling's return after the loss to the Fighting Irish and lamented his team's struggles with turnovers and free-throw shooting in the defeat. "Too many blown opportunities," Autry said. "We're not shooting the ball well. We have to adjust and go game by game now. Our front court has been pretty secure, but we have to keep working and getting better." Starling was averaging a team-high 19.8 points before his injury. The Orange may need to lean more on freshman Donnie Freeman, who has been a standout for Syracuse this season. He's averaging 12.8 points and 8.8 rebounds and already has four double-doubles. He was co-ACC Rookie of the Week last week. Defensively, the Orange have struggled. They rank No. 329 in scoring defense, giving up 79.4 points per game. Albany is scoring 77.2 ppg so far this season. The Great Danes (6-4) were downed by Boston University 80-74 in overtime on Saturday. They started the season 5-1 but have lost three of their last four. Senior guard Byron Joshua, a transfer from Alcorn State, is the Great Danes' leading scorer at 13.6 ppg. Amar'e Marshall was an All-America East Conference pick last season after averaging 16.7 points, but his field goal shooting has dropped from 43.4 percent last season to 34.5 percent this season. He is scoring 11.7 ppg. "I think we're learning how to compete at the right level," Albany coach Dwyane Killings said after a loss to Georgetown on Nov. 30. "I think the one thing that troubles us a lot is that our identity and our energy comes when the ball goes in the basket. When it doesn't, I don't think we have the grit that we need right now." Albany has been one of the best teams in the country in terms of steals. The Great Danes average 10.2 steals per game, which is tied for No. 12 in the nation. Syracuse is 8-0 against Albany all-time with the teams last meeting in 2011. Syracuse is 4-0 at home and 4-0 against non-power-conference opponents. --Field Level MediaOne of the many curiosities of 2024 has been how global stocks have surged so strongly even as central banks have drained liquidity from the system. The question for markets is, if draining liquidity wasn’t much of a headwind this year, will its likely reversal next year turn into a tailwind? Global growth is forecast to moderate, partly due to the heightened uncertainty surrounding U.S. trade policy, and key economies like China, Europe and Canada are expected to loosen monetary policy significantly. Meanwhile, the Federal Reserve is trimming interest rates and could wind down its quantitative tightening (QT) program which has shrunk its balance sheet by $2 trillion since mid-2022. In short, the liquidity drain is likely to end. But if tracking the level of liquidity coursing through financial markets and the global banking system is hard, accurately assessing its impact on asset prices is a near-impossible endeavor. Liquidity has often been measured, albeit crudely, by the size of central bank balance sheets, with the assumption being that bigger balance sheets – and especially higher levels of bank reserves – mean stronger equity markets. For example, analysts at Citi run a model which suggests every $100 billion change in bank reserves held at the Fed equates to a roughly 1% move in the S&P 500. That would mean Wall Street should have taken a 2% hit this year, all else equal, as reserves fell by around $200 billion. On a global level, the 12-month change in bank reserves is around $600 billion, implying a much bigger fall in world stocks. Of course, the S&P 500 is up nearly 30% this year and the MSCI World index is up 20%. Or consider that the combined size of the ‘G4’ central bank balance sheets fell by $2.2 trillion in both 2022 and 2023, yet world stocks fell 20% in one year, then rose 20% the next. All this suggests liquidity is only one of many factors impacting markets. Economic growth, geopolitics, technology, earnings, regulation, investor psychology and a host of other factors can sway markets from day to day. Does this mean investors can mostly disregard changes in liquidity? Not necessarily. When trying to assess the status of market liquidity implied by central bank balance sheets, it’s useful to zoom in on bank reserves. If they get too low, as appeared to happen in the U.S. in 2019, money market rates can spike, credit crunch fears can flare up and investors may begin dumping risk assets. New York Fed models and recent commentary from Fed officials have both indicated that current U.S. bank reserves of around $3.2 trillion are “abundant”. However, they would like them to be merely “ample”, which is what the Fed’s ongoing balance sheet reduction is seeking to achieve. Policymakers will be pleased that – at least thus far – this reduction has not seriously impacted financial markets. It has been “like watching paint dry,” as U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen once quipped. But early 2025 could be choppy for markets, prompting the Fed to call a halt to QT. President-elect Donald Trump returns to the White House, the U.S. debt ceiling issue could rear its head again, and cash at the Fed’s overnight repurchase facility (RRP) could hit zero, signaling the disappearance of what some Fed officials have deemed a rough proxy for “excess” liquidity. Analysts at Goldman Sachs reckon the Fed will end QT in the second quarter, and others say it could come earlier. And why not? The balance sheets of the Fed, European Central Bank and Bank of England are all the smallest they’ve been as a share of their respective GDPs since early 2020, before the pandemic. David Zervos, chief market strategist at Jefferies, at a conference in Miami in February predicted that QT will stop with the Fed’s balance sheet at $7 trillion, right where it is today. “That’s a colossal balance sheet ... a huge stimulus. It lifts earnings, lifts nominal GDP, lifts profits and lifts valuations,” Zervos said. Even if there is no mechanical link between central bank liquidity and markets, a “colossal” Fed balance sheet sends a signal that policymakers want to keep liquidity at stimulative levels and have the market’s back. The perception of liquidity rising – or not falling – could be enough to fuel risk appetite, potentially giving an already hot market an added tailwind next year. Source: Reuters (By Jamie McGeever, Editing by Peter Graff)

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The Utah Hockey Club announced that they’ve summoned veteran blue-liner Kevin Connauton from AHL Tucson. It’s the 34-year-old’s first recall since signing a two-year, two-way deal with the Utahns over the summer and marks his first time appearing on an NHL roster in-season since the 2021-22 campaign with the Flyers. As Belle Fraser of The Salt Lake Tribune points out, his recall indicates that veteran depth piece Robert Bortuzzo , who sustained a lower-body injury in yesterday’s shootout loss to the Wild, will miss at least tomorrow’s game against the Avalanche, if not longer. Connauton has served as an alternate captain with Tucson this season, recording nine points and a -7 rating in 17 appearances. It’s his second go-around in the Utah organization if you choose to lump them together with the Coyotes – he played parts of four seasons in Glendale and Tucson between 2015-16 and 2018-19. Whether the 6’2′′ lefty sees his first NHL action in over two and a half years in the coming days remains to be seen. The Edmonton native has 360 NHL games under his belt in parts of nine years with the Stars, Blue Jackets, Coyotes, Avalanche, Panthers, and Flyers, scoring 28 goals and 52 assists for 80 points with a +5 rating while averaging 15:43 per game. His best season came in Arizona in 2017-18, recording 11 goals and 21 points in a career-high 73 appearances while logging 15:11 per game and laying the body 116 times. Connauton successfully cleared waivers during the preseason. He can remain on Utah’s roster for up to 30 days or play 10 games before he needs them to return to Tucson. The first-year club now has a full 23-man active roster with $7.88MM in current cap space. This article first appeared on Pro Hockey Rumors and was syndicated with permission.

Optex Systems Announces $6.5 Million Order for Laser Protected PeriscopesStruggling Syracuse looks to climb back above .500 when it hosts Albany on Tuesday night. The Orange (4-4) are coming off a conference loss to Notre Dame where they failed to make a 3-pointer in a game for the first time in more than 10 years, going 0-for-9 from behind the arc. They will be without leading scorer J.J. Starling, who broke his hand in practice last Monday. Orange coach Adrian Autry said there was "no timetable" for Starling's return after the loss to the Fighting Irish and lamented his team's struggles with turnovers and free-throw shooting in the defeat. "Too many blown opportunities," Autry said. "We're not shooting the ball well. We have to adjust and go game by game now. Our front court has been pretty secure, but we have to keep working and getting better." Starling was averaging a team-high 19.8 points before his injury. The Orange may need to lean more on freshman Donnie Freeman, who has been a standout for Syracuse this season. He's averaging 12.8 points and 8.8 rebounds and already has four double-doubles. He was co-ACC Rookie of the Week last week. Defensively, the Orange have struggled. They rank No. 329 in scoring defense, giving up 79.4 points per game. Albany is scoring 77.2 ppg so far this season. The Great Danes (6-4) were downed by Boston University 80-74 in overtime on Saturday. They started the season 5-1 but have lost three of their last four. Senior guard Byron Joshua, a transfer from Alcorn State, is the Great Danes' leading scorer at 13.6 ppg. Amar'e Marshall was an All-America East Conference pick last season after averaging 16.7 points, but his field goal shooting has dropped from 43.4 percent last season to 34.5 percent this season. He is scoring 11.7 ppg. "I think we're learning how to compete at the right level," Albany coach Dwyane Killings said after a loss to Georgetown on Nov. 30. "I think the one thing that troubles us a lot is that our identity and our energy comes when the ball goes in the basket. When it doesn't, I don't think we have the grit that we need right now." Albany has been one of the best teams in the country in terms of steals. The Great Danes average 10.2 steals per game, which is tied for No. 12 in the nation. Syracuse is 8-0 against Albany all-time with the teams last meeting in 2011. Syracuse is 4-0 at home and 4-0 against non-power-conference opponents. --Field Level Media