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Optimism prevails, for now

It has been an eventful week in commodity markets but, for the most part, prices have risen. The US 25bp rate hike on Wednesday was widely anticipated so markets chose to focus on the fact that the Fed left its economic and interest rate expectations unchanged. Meanwhile, China published data showing strong growth in industrial activity and investment in the first two months of the year. The People’s Bank of China also raised interest rates by 10bp on Thursday. This appeared to be a response to the US move, but we think it had more to do with ongoing efforts to rein in credit growth.

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