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’The curious case of un-cancelled warrants
FT Alphaville noted a couple of weeks ago how backlogs at London Metal Exchange (LME) warehouses in Detroit were seeing some market participants have to wait up to 10 months to receive their aluminium.
Some more standard deviations in commodities
Sean Corrigan at Diapason Commodities sends us this chart on Friday:
It shows the value of London Metal Exchange Lead inventories over two decades.
As Corrigan notes, the more visible inventory there is,
Copper, the re-export factor
We’ve already referred to the latest Reuters Metals Insider report on Thursday, but somehow we feel that the following is worth a special mention of its own.
That is, what happens when the government attempts to rein in innovative Chinese financing schemes like those using copper as collateral?
In one (hyphenated) word:
On the scale of hidden copper stocks
An interesting report comes our way from Frank Veneroso of RCM, who has been looking more closely at the scale of the global copper inventory overhang.
He cites the work of Simon Hunt, an independent copper market expert,
Sucden Financial turns its attention to Delta One
An interesting press release via Mondo Visione on Wednesday (our emphasis):
Sucden Financial has announced that it will be launching a new service geared towards institutions to capture brokerage opportunities in the Delta One and Equity derivatives and finance arena with effect from January 2011.
Guest post: Prof Craig Pirrong on the pricing-clearing link in the derivatives market
Prof Pirrong of the University of Houston tackles the complexities of clearing by central counterparties…
Since the late-90s, I’ve emphasized in my academic writing the importance of accurate price information in making clearing efficient-or even possible. It is therefore encouraging to see this article in the FT make the same point. It is important to note,
Forget Treasuries, is copper the future for China?
China’s Q1 GDP growth figures came in on Thursday at a quarterly 6.1 per cent – less than the widely forecast 6.3 per cent, reports Reuters, reflecting a further slowdown in the country’s hitherto stellar growth.
Rush to safeguard commodities contracts
Commodities traders are rushing their private bilateral contracts into exchanges and clearing houses as they race to reduce their counterparty risk amid a deepening financial crisis. The transfer of the opaque over-the-counter deals comes as observers warn that commodities,
Lehman in default
Credit rating agency Fitch has just downgraded Lehman to D, the lowest mark on its scale.
Fitch Ratings-Chicago-15 September 2008: Fitch Ratings has downgraded the long- and short-term Issuer Default Ratings (IDRs) and outstanding debt ratings of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc,
LME steel derivatives contract gains traction
The shadowy world of steel price negotiations among the biggest producers and consumers is facing a shake-up as plans by the London Metal Exchange to launch a steel derivative contract gain increasing support among traders and banks.
Lead not leaden: metals rise
Base metals moved higher Wednesday, bolstered by positive sentiment emanating from London Metal Exchange week, the main annual event for the industry. Mining executives and base metals traders are, in general,
Iceland’s LME eyes Stork, takes on Candover
The marathon battle for Stork took another twist Monday when LME, an Icelandic investment group, said it was interested in buying the 180-year-old Dutch industrial concern as it sought to block a €1.5bn ($2.04bn) offer from Candover,
Marel raises its stake in Stork
Resistance to a €1.5bn buy-out of Stork increased on Wednesday when Marel, the Icelandic food systems company, again raised its stake in the Dutch industrial conglomerate in an attempt to frustrate the offer.
Diamond derivatives may be forever…
Bankers and diamond experts are to launch two initiatives in coming days to create the world’s first derivatives contracts linked to diamond prices. The move could inject new price clarity into the diamond market,
LME acts on suspected nickel collusion
The London Metal Exchange has intervened in the nickel market amid suspected collusion at a time of soaring prices and critically low stock levels. The nickel market is small and relatively illiquid and traders describe the metal’s physical supplies as “very stressed”.
LME to release new ‘B’ shares
The London Metal Exchange plans to issue another 200,000 B shares to satisfy the demand for membership from brokers, banks and metal merchants that want to trade on the world’s largest non-ferrous metals exchange,
Problems at Red Kite spark sharp metals sell off
Red Kite Management, a $1bn metals-trading hedge fund, has suffered losses of up to 15 per cent so far this year – and is now trying to stall investors who might want their cash back, MarketWatch reports,