By John Richardson US stock markets yesterday demonstrated their worst negative reaction to a US Federal rate rise since 1994. Asian equities also fell this morning in response to the Fed decision. But you would be entirely wrong to conclude that all that needs to happen to return to the bull run is for the […]
Asian Chemical Connections
Stock Market Threats Far Wider Than Just North Korea
By John Richardson LAST WEEK’S steep fall in global stock markets was of course the result of rising US-North Korea geopolitical tensions. Some $1 trillion was wiped off equity values. We obviously all hope that the geopolitical tensions will ease. But that would still leave behind a bull-run in global equities that has mainly been […]
The 99.9 Percent
Credit: Odysseas Gp Creative Commons BY NC SA By John Richardson WHEN the Fed launched its third round of quantitative easing (QE3), a Perth Australia-based investment analyst said: “I get the feeling that people are waking up to the fact that the Fed has lost all ability to improve the real economy. “The balance […]
Managing European Volatility
By John Richardson THE blog was in Amsterdam this week for an ICIS training event involving delegates who were European chemicals and polymer buyers. They had one overriding question for us: “How on earth do we manage the extreme volatility in our raw-material costs?” The answer we gave was to not confuse oil-price driven temporary surges […]
Central Bankers Making Global Economy Worse
By John Richardson A NEW research note from our colleagues at International eChem discusses how central bankers have pledged to do “whatever it takes” to achieve a sustainable economic recovery. Click here for a full copy – Research-Note-24Sept12.pdf. Their well-meaning efforts have failed, and are instead likely to do the exact reverse of what is […]
China Investment Lowest Since 2002
By John Richardson THE chart above indicates the extent to which polyethylene (PE) price rises over the last few weeks have failed to adequately compensate for higher feedstock costs. Last week saw prices edge up by a further $10-40/tonne, according to ICIS pricing. “The majority of buyers have accepted higher September offers, but we know […]
Ethylene Margins Plunge On PE Rate Cuts
By John Richardson THE steep decline in Asian ethylene margins – detailed in the chart below from the ICIS pricing weekly margin report – seems to be largely the result of the worrying state of China’s polyethylene (PE) market, which we discussed yesterday. “The Saudis have reduced their PE operating rates, resulting in an […]
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