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Glencore vs Panorama and John Sweeney
It’s hard being listed, huh?
In his first television interview, Glasenberg said that Glencore took corporate responsibility seriously, saying: “We care about the environment. We care about the local communities.”
A “light sheen,” a stock spanked
Something of a scramble in the Gulf of Mexico late on Wednesday as Shell dispatched aerial monitors and an oil-spill response vessel to investigate a “light sheen” about 130 miles southeast of New Orleans.
Unseasonal seasonally-adjusted data: energy edition
When is seasonally-adjusted not seasonal?
The first three months of the year were the warmest on record for the contiguous US, says NOAA (via Menzie Chinn).
Which might have some interesting implications for unemployment data.
The return of the US manufacturer
The US manufacturing PMI released by the Institute of Supply Management (ISM) on Monday beat expectations, coming in at 53.4. But that’s not what we really want to talk about here. Instead, we want to ask the question that the team at Bank of America Merrill Lynch asked themselves in an impressive 73-chart,
Why you shouldn’t get *too* excited about that China PMI
That 53.1 number from the official March manufacturing PMIs isn’t all that, when you consider the official numbers have a big seasonal skew.
To illustrate how big that skew is, here’s a chart that Markit Economics’ Alex Hamilton sent to us a few months ago [we just got a newer one] when we were asking him about divergences between the official and the HSBC/Markit Economics PMIs.
India’s economic monsoon
Here’s an eye-opening chart if ever there was one (H/T Sean Corrigan at Diapason):
If you were guessing it’s the Indian current account deficit… you’d be dead right.
Indeed, if ever there was an excuse to turn your attention away from China and over to the troubles of another BRIC economy,
Saudi Arabia resorts to Jedi mindtricks
Saudi Arabia’s oil minister Ali Naimi penned a sharply worded piece in the Financial Times on Thursday declaring that high prices are unjustified because “there is no lack of supply.”
But what does resorting to an op-ed in the Financial Times actually tell us about the kingdom’s position?
Could it be that the Saudis have taken a leaf out of the Fed’s book,
Gunfight at the T.V.I.X. Corral
There’s been a lot of talk about the carnage in the TVIX on Thursday. The VelocityShares 2x short-term ETN, whose new issues were suspended by Credit Suisse on February 21 due to “internal limits”, fell 29 per cent.
The relentless spread of goldbuggism…
Save the date, etc
London, UK, March 19th 2012 – Hizb ut-Tahrir Britain, will hold a report launch [11am Thursday, 22nd March] of Gold Standard – The Future For a Stable Global Currency – a significantly relevant report in the current economic crisis.
Re-securitising commodities financing
French banks are stepping back into funding commodities trades, after pulling back on lending last year due to a dollar liquidity shortage.
But this time, it’s securitised. As the FT reports:
Commodities bankers and industry executives said the securitisation would allow the industry to access fresh credit.
Steel demand is endless
A BHP executive’s comments about Chinese steel demand growth flattening have gone viral, with lots of market reports pointing to Ian Ashby’s words to explain European markets closing lower yesterday and falling Asian stocks today.
The supercycle is so over, iron ore edition
From Bloomberg:
BHP Billiton, the world’s biggest mining company, said China’s steel production is slowing as the world’s fastest-growing major economy starts to shift to focus more on consumers than large building projects.
A call for central bank action on commodity prices
Andrew Sentance, senior economic adviser at PwC and former member of the Bank of England Monetary Policy Committee, has just penned this strongly worded think-piece in the FT about the current lack of action stemming from central banks with respect to rising commodity prices.
The Saudi oil sales enigma
Something of a strange one this. Every analyst and his dog has for the longest while been preaching that demand for crude post-crisis has really been all about emerging market demand… that the US, by and large,
Gartman ponders the ’1st whistleblower of many’
FT Alphaville drew attention on Thursday to an alleged whistleblower letter that arrived in the CFTC’s mailbox this week.
The author of said note claimed to be a JP Morgan employee with inside information about the bank’s (supposedly less than honest) activities in the precious metals market.
Glencore warns Xstrata shareholders
Glencore has warned resisting shareholders of Xstrata that it has walked away from deals before rather than fail to agree terms, days into its fight to convince them of its $36bn bid, Reuters reports. The trader warned institutional investors that they face “asymmetric”
China offers other Brics renminbi loans
China intends to extend renminbi loans to other Brics nations, in another step towards the internationalisation of its currency, the FT reports. The China Development Bank will sign a memorandum of understanding in New Delhi with its Brazilian,
Coffee hits 16-month low on sell-off
Coffee fell to a 16-month low as Brazilian producers sold to lock in prices amid a decline in their currency against the dollar, the FT reports. The sharp correction in arabica coffee – the high-quality bean appreciated by connoisseurs – came as the Brazilian real fell on expectations of an interest-rate cut.
Shares lifted by Greece hopes
Hopes that the next few days will bring a “successful” conclusion to the Greece debt restructuring saga, and official confirmation that job generation in the US economy is gathering steam, encouraged investors to pick up growth-focused assets,
Dennis Gartman and the goldbugs
Last week, Dennis Gartman, author of the eponymous Gartman Letter, caused a bit of a stir in the goldbug community when he suggested that gold’s sell-off on February 29 may have been connected to central bank intervention.
US takes India’s ban on poultry imports to WTO
The US has launched a case against India at the World Trade Organisation, charging that the Asian nation’s ban on poultry imports – imposed to prevent avian flu – violated global trade rules, the FT reports. The move comes as the Obama administration has become more aggressive on trade enforcement,
Further reading
Elsewhere on Wednesday,
- If you thought Target2 was bad, look at the Fed’s interdistrict claims.
- Meanwhile, Target2 balance in the eurozone could require major adjustments.
- An interview with Yanis Varoufakis.
Oil in time
A chart from a presentation last week by Maria van der Hoeven, executive director of the International Energy Agency (IEA):
The hat tip goes to John Kemp, Reuters analyst and FT Alphaville’s energy guru of choice,
Six-power talks agreed with Iran
Major world powers including China and the US are ready to reopen talks with Iran on its nuclear programme a year after they were broken off, the FT reports. Brent crude prices fell two per cent after the announcement.
Cotton prices jump as India bans exports
Cotton prices have spiked after India banned exports of the fibre for the second time in two years, continuing a volatile run that has roiled the savviest commodity traders, the FT reports. The world’s second-largest producer of cotton instituted the ban with immediate effect on Monday.
Growth concerns weigh on risk assets
A patch of global growth angst was weighing on sentiment and encouraging traders to pare positions in riskier assets after their recent good run, the FT reports. The FTSE All-World equity index, which last week hit a near seven-month high on easing eurozone debt tensions,
Regulators consider Libor overhaul
UK regulators and global banks are discussing a potentially far-reaching overhaul of the calculation and regulation of interbank lending rates, amid claims that the benchmark for $350tn contracts worldwide may have been subject to manipulation,
Ban on Indian cotton exports
India, the world’s second-largest cotton producer, has banned exports of the commodity with immediate effect, boosting global prices, Reuters reports. The government cited an excess of exports beyond their quota for the move,
World’s changed, man! World’s changed! (China edition)
Not quite 24 hours since China took the tarpaulin off the lowest growth targets since 2004, with an emphasis on consumption etc and woah, Credit Suisse’s Dong Tao has come over all epochal:
We believe the golden age of infrastructure investment is behind us now.