Entries from Asian Chemical Connections tagged with 'oil prices'
Please Be Careful Out There
By John Richardson Quite often, a chart is worth many thousands of words. The above chart, from Bloomberg, shows the divergence between the soaring S&P 500 index and US macro-economic indicators. The theory is that soaring equity values will be...
Oil Prices Fall, As We Warned
Source: Daily Forex By John Richardson WE warned on 4 April that real economics threatened a sharp correction in crude-oil prices and it now appears to be happening. "New York's main contract, West Texas Intermediate for May delivery,...
The Real Economies Set To Dominate Q2
By John Richardson Sometimes a picture is worth many thousands of words. The above chart, supplied by one of the blog's resources analyst contacts in Perth, Western Australia, neatly illustrates the dangerous divergence between real ecoomies and financial markets. As...
China Demand Worse Than Just Before CNY
By John Richardson CHINA'S demand for polyethylene (PE) is lower than immediately ahead of the February Chinese New Year (CNY) break, said a Singapore-based polyolefins trader. "For demand to be less than just before the New Year, when most traders...
"Flabbergasted" By Weak Demand....
....In A Tale Of Three Markets. By John Richardson AS China introduces more measures to clamp down on an overheated property sector and the shadow-banking system, polyethylene (PE) traders regard this latest news cycle as yet another opportunity to go...
"Flabbergasted" By Weak Demand....
....In A Tale Of Three Markets. By John Richardson AS China introduces more measures to clamp down on an overheated property sector and the shadow-banking system, polyethylene (PE) traders regard this latest news cycle as yet another opportunity to go...
Damage Limitation
By John Richardson POLYETHYLENE (PE) prices crept up by $10-50/tonne for the week ending 22 February, according to ICIS pricing. But, as the above chart shows, integrated high-density PE variable cost margins in Southeast and Northeast Asia remained very weak,...
Low Equity Volumes Tell The Real Story
By John Richardson The above chart is the most important indicator about why the current rally in equity markets is at high risk of a sharp correction. Volumes in European markets (the blue line) and US markets (the red...
China: The Politics Behind The "Recovery"
By John Richardson THE overall HSBC flash purchasing managers' index for January, which was released yesterday, was at a two-year high (see the above chart), with the sub-index of production at a 22-month high. This is great news for equity values...
Crude Oil Price Risks Escalate
By John Richardson FINANCIAL speculators began to play an increasing role in crude-oil markets following liberalisation of financial trading rules, signed into law by Bill Clinton in 2000, as we argued in chapter 3 of our e-book, Boom Gloom...
The US Shale Gas Boom Will End
Don't follow the herd... By John Richardson ISN'T it amazing how we keep getting caught out by the unexpected, from the global financial crisis to China is entering a period of much-lower growth? No, not really. As long as we...
Recovery? What Recovery?
By John Richardson CHINA'S apparent demand for polyethylene (PE), which is a measure of local production plus imports, rose by 4% in January-September this year compared with the same periods in 2010 and 2011, according to Global Trade Information Services...
World Heading For L-Shaped Recovery
Mr Bernanke, please take note By John Richardson The recovery is always six months away and so while most people have written-off the first half of next year, the hope is that by H2 everything will be back to normal....
Goldman Sachs Changes Its View On Oil
By John Richardson OUR blogs are awarding themselves a pat on the back today. The reason is that investment bank Goldman Sachs, the largest player in commodity markets, has completely reversed its analysis of oil markets. They now accept our...
Risks To Japan From China Dispute
By John Richardson THE Japanese economy is at great risk from the East China Sea dispute which, if unresolved, could result in a long and bitter trade war with China, said several chemicals industry sources. Japanese electronics and auto companies could even...
No Eurozone Miracle Cure
Source of picture: Wikipedia By John Richardson THE eurozone hasn't been rescued by the programme of sovereign bond purchases, announced a month ago by Mario Draghi. Wolfgang Munchau, in this excellent article in the Financial Times, explains why....
Rising Labour Costs Threaten US Projects
By John Richardson RISING labour costs will impact the viability of US petrochemicals projects as a result of the surge in overall hydrocarbons construction activity, an industry source told the blog. "Unless companies lock-in their labour costs fairly quickly, before...
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...
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...
Saudi Arabia To Boost Oil Output
By John Richardson SAUDI Arabia has offered its main customers in the US, Europe and Asia extra oil supplies until the end of the year as a result of concerns over the impact that expensive crude could have on the...
Feed Subscription
If you use an RSS reader, you can subscribe to a feed of all future entries tagged 'oil prices'. [What is this?]
