Sydney Morning Herald (August 10)
“There are 68 trusts in China with about $4.3 trillion of assets – property loans, shares, bonds and commodities – under management, with property accounting for at least $500 billion of the total.” The National Audit Office has been instructed “to inspect the books of the country’s biggest trust firms.” This shows “the increasing concern of the Chinese authorities that the implosion of their property development sector could ignite a wider financial crisis.”
Tags: $4.3 trillion, 68 trusts, Assets, Authorities, Bonds, China, Commodities, Concern, Implosion, Loans, National Audit Office, Property, Shares
Foreign Affairs (July 11)
“Today, globalization has stalled, and the new vogue for stockpiling strategic commodities and “friend-shoring” supplies will be inflationary. Add in the aging of populations and the possibility that young workers will insist on a flexible approach to work, and the Fed may have to run tighter policy than in the past quarter of a century.”
Tags: Aging, Commodities, Flexible, Friend-shoring, Globalization, Inflationary, Populations, Stalled, Stockpiling, Strategic, Supplies, Work, Young workers
Wall Street Journal (June 4)
“Investors have piled into new carbon-credit-trading funds, helping make the upstart market one of the best-performing commodities-related investments of the past year.” In Europe, the trading price for carbon credits “has jumped 135% over the past 12 months and recently hit a series of records as economic activity rebounded from pandemic lockdowns. Only lumber, driven higher by the housing boom, has proved a better commodities investment.”
Tags: Best-performing, Carbon credits, Commodities, Europe, Funds, Housing boom, Investments, Investors, Lockdowns, Lumber, Market, Pandemic, Rebounded, Records, Trading, Upstart
Bloomberg (July 20)
“What’s next for commodities after a recent price collapse? It looks like more bad news, if the chart watchers are right. The Bloomberg Commodity Index has tumbled about 10 percent from a high in May amid mounting concerns that a trade war could derail global growth, curbing demand for everything from aluminum to soybeans.”
Tags: Aluminum, Chart watchers, Commodities, Demand, Growth, Price collapse, Soybeans, Trade war, Tumbled
Bloomberg (March 9)
“China is cracking down on pollution like never before, with new green policies so hard-hitting and extensive they can be felt across the world, transforming everything from electric vehicle demand to commodities markets.” China is now, by far, the largest global carbon emitter, but the “government is trying to change that without damaging the economy—and perhaps even use its green policies to become a leader in technological innovation.”
Tags: China, CO2, Commodities, Demand, Economy, EVs, Green policies, Hard-hitting, Leader, Pollution, Technological innovation
Bloomberg (December 10)
“Investors betting that China’s near-insatiable appetite for industrial raw materials will drive global economic growth may want to skip the shipping news. For the first time in at least a decade, combined seaborne imports of iron ore and coal — commodities that helped fuel a manufacturing boom in the world’s second-largest economy — are down from a year earlier.”
Tags: China, Coal, Commodities, Global economic growth, Imports, Investors, Iron, Manufacturing, Ore, Raw materials, Shipping
Wall Street Journal (November 25)
In the U.S., “the pressure on corporate profits may last longer than expected.” Many have attributed the contraction in corporate profits to temporary trends, namely “the weakness in the commodities sector, which is ravaging profits at energy companies, and the strong dollar, which is putting pressure on multinationals.” Though reassuring, “the problem with those dismissals is that oil may not be done going down, and the dollar may not be done going up.”
Tags: Commodities, Contraction, Corporate profits, Dollar, Energy, Multinationals, Oil, Pressure, Trends, U.S.
The Economist (September 26)
“With China’s “decades-old investment boom fast dwindling, it needs consumption to kick in as a new driver of growth.” Fortunately, rebalancing is progressing with retail sales increasing “by 10.5% in real terms this year, well ahead of economic growth.” Amid industrial downturn, “China’s consumer boom is real. But do not count on it to lift the global economy.” This great consumer rebalancing is even less likely to benefit “commodity-exporting countries whose fortunes have hinged on China.”
Tags: China, Commodities, Consumption, Growth, Industrial downturn, Investment, Rebalancing, Retail sales
The Economist (August 22)
“A resurgent dollar has hammered commodity prices: many have recently fallen below their levels of a decade ago.” There may be worse to come. “The real curse for producers is over-supply in almost all raw materials. Yet they continue to act as if they are blithely unaware of it. Capital is still pouring into holes in the ground, creating a hangover that may last at least a decade.”
Tags: Capital, Commodities, Dollar, Over-supply, Producers, Raw materials, Resurgent
Institutional Investor (July 14)
Brazil hopes that a return of foreign capital might provide “an economic boost.” The country sure needs it. The economy has slumped “from 7.5 percent in 2010 to just 0.1 percent in 2014.” It is now in recession. “The end of the global commodities supercycle and the oil market collapse explain much of the decline, but domestic policy problems—including a growing deficit and accelerating inflation—are also to blame.”
Tags: Brazil, Collapse, Commodities, Deficit, Economy, Foreign capital, Inflation, Oil, Recession, Supercycle
