Source of picture: Time.com Yesterday I talked about lack of willingness by western banks to lend money because their focus was on rebuilding reserves. But Steven Major, Global Head of HSBC’s Fixed Income Strategy Team, puts a different spin on the problem. In the Fragile Recovery video from the Financial Times’ View […]
Asian Chemical Connections
“It’s the level, stupid – it’s not the growth rates….”
…..said Mervyn King, governor of the Bank of England Source of picture: northbriton45blogspot.com ANY excitement over US house-price figures for July – which showed the biggest monthly gain for years when they were released yesterday – has to be put into the kind of context that undermines a lot of recent positive economic numbers. The […]
We are heading for $45 a barrel crude this year
SWIMMING IN OIL? Source of Picture: fashionfunky.com The threat posed by Iran test-firing its Shahab-3 missiles and a rally in US equities on increased M& activity in the drug and technology industries pushed crude slightly higher yesterday after last week’s steep declines. This is yet further evidence that the oil market is […]
All At Stake And At Sea For October
A bit like the fund managers who are anxious to keep the equities rallies going until the end of the year in order to protect bonuses, there must be a lot of petrochemicals people hoping pricing in our sector will stay equally firm. Perhaps, though, these hopes will be more inspired by job preservation rather […]
Correction On China Economy Piece
I thought I would publish Michael Pettis’s reply to my piece yesterday here rather than approve as a comment: Good piece but one correction. I don’t think 8-9% growth this year and next is impossible. On the contrary, I think that if the government keeps up its stimulus they can force high levels of growth […]
The Threat from Dark Pools
Source of picture: zerohedge.blogspot.com It might seem a little melodramatic (and it’s a wonderfully melodramatic name), but what kind of threat do dark pools – and other off-exchange trading mechanisms – present to all our livelihoods? You can see that the World Federation of Exchanges might have a financial motive in making their complaint to […]
China’s consumption growth challenge
“China, please please do what we did and spend what you might not be able to afford…” Source of picture: The Daily Maily Whether or not China’s pace of economic recovery will be maintained would have become an intensely boring topic of discussion if it wasn’t so important for all our livelihoods. More data specific […]
Falling China license plates a lead indicator?
Source of picture: Chinaenvironmentallaw.com Talk around the water-cooler in Shanghai offices at the moment is the fall in the cost of a car-license plate in September to a lowest bid of Yuan 27,000 ($3,953) from around Yuan 36,000 in August. “It surprised everyone because the forecast had been for the price to actually go up […]
Western Polymers: Get Out Or Get Cleverer?
MOVING IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION (SORRY, OUCH….!) Source of Picture: www.autospies.com The automobile industry in the West has been bought more time by economic stimulus, as this article in The Economist points out. But some of the discussions at the Frankfurt International Motor Show, which takes place on 15-27 September, will be about the future […]
Equities, Futures, Sentiment = Recovery?
Forget supply and demand, just record the index cards…. Source of picture: Heatusa.com This amateur pundit is beginning to think he got it very wrong. “I’ve been thinking the same thing – I was as gloomy as you a few months ago,” said an oil-and-gas consultant friend of mine this morning. “The Singapore property market […]
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