Glencore, Commodities Traders, and Systemic Risk
Mega commodities trader Glencore and its big peers are looking wobbly. How worried should you be?
Read more...Category Archives: Commodities
Wolf Richter: Corporate Revenue Recession Spreads past Dollar, Energy
Now that 495 of the S&P 500 companies have reported second quarter earnings, something has become abundantly clear: 2015 is going to be a nasty year for corporate revenues.
Read more...Why Did Oil Prices Just Jump By 27 Percent in 3 Days?
Oil prices have posted their strongest rally in years, jumping an astounding 27 percent in the last three trading days of August.
While much of the recent price movement defies reason and is enormously magnified by speculative movements by traders to take and cover their bets on oil, still, there were a series of rumors, events, and fresh data that helped contribute to the spike.
Read more...Don Quijones: Why Are the Four Richest Men in Mexico Getting Crushed?
By Don Quijones, of Spain and Mexico. Originally published at Wolf Street Tough times for Mexico’s very richest. A couple of weeks ago, I reportedthat Carlos Slim, once the world’s richest man and the undisputed Big Boss of Slimlandia, as Mexico has come to be called, lost $7 billion in the first seven months of 2015. But […]
Read more...Conflict Over Water In Central Asia
Expect water wars to become more common and deadly.
Read more...Wolf Richter: It Starts – Broad Retaliation Against China in Currency War
Struggling economies that compete with China are going to protect their exports against Chinese encroachment via currency depreciation.
Read more...Michael Pettis: Do Markets Determine the Value of the RMB?
A thorough discussion of the background and implications of the so-far modest devaluation of the RMB.
Read more...Does a Strong Dollar Hurt Emerging Markets?
Conventional wisdom has it that strengthening dollar hurts emerging markets via a sudden exodus of host money. A new study argues that real economy forces are a bigger driver, specifically lower commodity prices.
Read more...Saudi Oil Strategy: Brilliant Or Suicide?
Does it make sense to look at the Saudi strategy within the oil industry alone, or do analysts need to start factoring in deflationary economic policies around the world?
Read more...Frack Now, Pay Later: A New Era In U.S. Oil?
Oilfield services providers like Halliburton and Schlumberger are so desperate to keep the fracking party going that they are extending credit to already-levered frackers.
Read more...Wolf Richter: China’s Hard Landing Suddenly Gets a Lot Rougher
Despite the 7% GDP growth published and hotly defended by the Chinese government, it is increasingly clear that the country is beset with a host of immense problems, after a debt-fueled binge of overbuilding and over-stimulating.
Read more...Winning in Maui: TPP Ministerial Negotiations Fail, with No Date Set for the Next Round
Winning a battle in the long campaign against TPP: It was “domestic politics” that preserved our national sovereignty
Read more...China’s Stock Market Falling Off a Cliff: Why, and Why Care?
What explains the turmoil in Chinese stock markets, and what does it mean for the rest of the world?
Read more...Chinese Stock Market Rout Continues; Trading Halted in Over Half of Listed Stocks
The Chinese stock market meltdown is accelerating despite government intervention and is blowing back to commodities markets, including copper and oil, which are trading down based on concern that the stock market plunge is a harbinger of even more economic weakness. And the decline may represent the beginning of the end of the faith in China’s command and control economy.
Read more...Oil Markets Could Be In For A Shock From China Soon
China’s oil consumption is a bigger part of global demand than most analysts acknowledge. A slowdown in buying after China stopped stockpiling diesel for the summer Olympics was a proximate cause of the 2008 oil bust. China is again in a stockpiling phase, which could precede another not-well-anticipated demand drop.
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