“There is a distinct difference between “suspense” and “surprise.” Alfred Hitchcock It is now 2 years since the start of the Great Unwinding of policymaker stimulus. On 15 August 2014, Brent was at $105/bbl, and the US$ Index was at 81. Since then, as the chart shows, Brent oil prices have fallen 53%, whilst the […]
Chemicals and the Economy
US pensioners pay the price for Fed’s monetary policy failure
There was one bit of good news this week. For the first time since the financial crisis began, a Governor of the US Federal Reserve acknowledged that today’s demographic changes are having a major impact on the US economy. John Williams, of the San Francisco Fed, argued that: “Shifting demographics….(mean that) interest rates are going […]
Boom/Gloom Index suggests volatile August may lie ahead
It may be an idea to keep your smartphone charged and within reach, if you are planning a trip to the beach this month. Certainly market behaviour since June has been more and more skittish. The experts, after all, were telling us that central banks were certain to do more major stimulus efforts to boost […]
Europe’s oil product glut halves gasoline margins in 2 weeks
We are approaching the 2nd anniversary of the Great Unwinding of policymaker stimulus, which began in August 2014: The initial movement was very sharp, with Brent falling 53% by January and the US$ rising 23% by March Oil then saw an initial correction – with Brent recovering to being 37% down by May during the “oil […]
Brexit a disaster for the UK, Europe and the world
First, the good news. It has long been recognised that the UK economy is over-dependent on financial services, and that its housing market – particularly in London – is wildly over-priced in relation to earnings. The Brexit vote should ensure that both these problems are solved: Many banks and financial institutions are already planning to […]
Investors fear Fed’s outdated theories have hit sell-by date
These are difficult times for companies and investors. It is becoming more and more apparent that central bank stimulus policies have failed to counter today’s demand deficit, caused by ageing populations. It is also clear that central bankers themselves have little idea of what is happening in the real economy. They have based their programmes […]
Restocking boosts Q1 margins for chemical companies
Thank goodness for Janet Yellen, and China’s provincial governments. That was clearly investors’ thoughts, when they bid up chemical company share prices during Q1. For as the chart above shows, there was nothing in the fundamentals of supply and demand to suggest economic recovery was finally underway. Instead, the latest American Chemistry Council data shows […]
China’s G20 Summit shutdown highlights risks to commodities buying “frenzy”
China’s polyester industry, like many others, is already preparing to shut down ahead of September’s G20 Summit in Hangzhou, to reduce pollution levels. The phenomenon even has its own Wikipedia page, APEC Blue, to describe the moment in November 2014 when Beijing suddenly saw blue sky for the whole of the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation (APEC) summit meeting. It […]
Chemicals, the “flea on the tail of the currency/interest rate dog”
Markets are becoming increasingly chaotic, as the world’s major central banks each try to devalue their currencies. They have created a traders’ paradise, with oil on a particularly wild ride. But this has not been based on supply/demand fundamentals. Instead, it has been due to hedge funds jumping back into the commodities market. They don’t […]
US Federal Reserve aims to devalue the dollar, again
What we “assume” can make an “ass of u and me“, as the proverb says. And that is certainly true of the way central banks have manipulated the major currencies since the financial crisis began in 2008, as the chart shows of the US$’s movements versus the Japanese yen and the euro: It shows the change […]
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