Financial Times (March 27)
“The price of cocoa surged past $10,000 a tonne for the first time on Tuesday, as a dizzying rise in prices caused by poor harvests in Africa accelerates. Cocoa futures traded as high as $10,080 in New York, more than double their price only two months ago, as traders warned a global shortage of cocoa beans would herald higher price tags for chocolate bars.”
Tags: Africa, Chocolate bars, Cocoa, Dizzying, Double, Futures, Higher, New York, Poor harvests, Price, Shortage, Surged, Traders
MarketWatch (June 7)
“The Bank of Canada delivered another reminder to U.S. investors Wednesday that pressing ‘pause’ on interest rate hikes doesn’t necessarily mean the monetary tightening cycle is over.” The central bank “surprised traders” by lifting rates a quarter percentage point after a four-month pause. The move came just after the “Reserve Bank of Australia on Tuesday delivered a second straight rate hike after having ended a short pause of its own.”
Tags: Australia, Bank of Canada, Cycle, Hikes, Investors, Monetary tightening, Pause. Interest rates, Reminder, Reserve Bank, Traders, U.S.
Reuters (March 1)
“Strong investor inflows into bond markets this year mean traders and bankers are confident the European Central Bank will have a smooth start to unwinding its huge bond holdings, but the long term impact of its ‘quantitative tightening’ is a big unknown.”
Tags: Bankers, Bond markets, Confident, ECB, Holdings, Impact, Inflows, Investor, Long term, Quantitative tightening, Smooth, Strong, Traders, Unknown, Unwinding
Oilprice.com (December 26)
“Although the EU embargo and the EU-G7 price cap on Russian crude oil at $60 per barrel didn’t immediately roil the oil market – although traders were concerned about a possible demand hit from slowing economies – uncertainty is growing over how the bans on Russian imports will affect supply balances over the next few months.”
Tags: $60, Bans, Barrel, Crude oil, Demand, Economies, Embargo, EU, EU-G7, Imports, Oil market, Price cap, Roil, Russia, Supply, Traders, Uncertainty
Bloomberg (October 26)
“The latest bear-market rally in US stocks has brought investors off the sidelines and provided a welcome reprieve from three quarters of gloom. But traders now need to ask themselves whether the risks continue to justify the potential returns.” Are they “truly nimble enough to chase this latest short-term rally to culmination without toppling off the inevitable cliff at the end of it.”
Tags: Bear-market rally, Gloom, Inevitable cliff, Investors, Nimble, Reprieve, Returns, Risks, Short term, Stocks, Traders, U.S.
Australian Financial Review (July 17)
“Oil has begun to drop back down this week to pre-invasion levels as traders brace for a sharp drop-off in consumption. But food price inflation remains stubbornly high.” Nevertheless, food prices remain largely off the radar. “The dramatic spikes in oil and mineral prices after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine have distracted investors from the long-lasting and more dangerous impact of food inflation.” This has led BlackRock founder Larry Fink to sound the alarm on food inflation which also has profound geopolitical impacts.
Tags: BlackRock, Consumption, Dangerous, Distracted, Drop-off, Food, Impact, Inflation, Invasion, Investors, Larry Fink, Mineral, Oil, Pre-invasion, Russia, Spikes, Traders, Ukraine
Forbes (May 19)
“As bitcoin and crypto traders come to terms with the huge price crash that’s wiped $1 trillion from the combined crypto market since April, fears are mounting that more pain could be on the way if stock market contagion spreads.”
Tags: $1 trillion, Bitcoin, Contagion, Crash, Crypto market, Fears, Pain, Price, Stock market, Traders
Wall Street Journal (October 7)
“Natural gas stocks are alarmingly low around the world, and prices in most places have never been higher after surging to new records…. Demand has jumped as economies have bounced back from pandemic shutdowns, and the squeeze has caught traders, shipowners and energy executives off guard.” Nations that “have wound down coal-fired plants and become more dependent on gas” are particularly vulnerable and, in some cases, restarting mothballed power plants despite higher GHG emissions.
Tags: Coal, Demand, Economies, Energy, GHG emissions, Natural gas, Pandemic, Prices, Records, Shipowners, Shutdowns, Squeeze, Stocks, Surging, Traders, Vulnerable
Institutional Investor (January 11)
“Less than 10 percent of institutional investors currently outsource their trading desks,” but a recent survey suggests they are starting to warm to the once ‘unthinkable’ practice. “Out of the 84 traders polled, 32 percent called outsourced trading desks a ‘good solution’ for managing flow and achieving the best execution, up from 20 percent in last year’s survey.”
Tags: Execution, Flow, Institutional investors, Outsource, Survey, Traders, Trading desks, Unthinkable
Institutional Investor (October 17)
Due to strained resources, the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) is less likely to investigate insider trading that occurs further afield from its field offices. Traders seem to know this. “A 100-kilometer increase in distance between a firm and the nearest SEC office resulted in a 16.5 percent jump in illegal trades at that firm. Meanwhile, firms within 100 kilometers of the SEC were less likely to engage in these types of trades.”
Tags: Distance, Firm, Illegal trades, Insider trading, Investigate, Resources, SEC, Traders
