Commodities Update What do China’s prospects mean for commodity prices? The growth rate of China’s economy has already halved since 2007, from over 14% to around 7%. What’s more, this slowdown has been the main reason why the prices of many commodities have performed so... 16th March 2015 · 1 min read
Commodities Update Strong dollar to put further pressure on price of soybeans The large fall in weekly soybean export sales suggests that the strong dollar is starting to reduce the competitiveness of US exporters. And with a large Brazilian harvest underway, we think the price... 16th March 2015 · 1 min read
Industrial Metals Update Western investors turning positive on copper Investor sentiment towards copper has been negative since late 2014. While some of copper’s recent price resilience probably has to do with short-covering, there are tentative signs that sentiment is... 16th March 2015 · 1 min read
Precious Metals Update Quantifying the downside – and upside – for gold With other analysts reportedly revising down their forecasts and the media coverage almost entirely downbeat, we thought it worth dusting off some of our favourite gold charts. These suggest that the... 13th March 2015 · 1 min read
Precious Metals Update Quantifying the downside – and upside – for gold With other analysts reportedly revising down their forecasts and the media coverage almost entirely downbeat, we thought it worth dusting off some of our favourite gold charts. These suggest that the... 13th March 2015 · 1 min read
Commodities Update How do oil prices, diets and climate change affect food prices? Agricultural commodities are less sensitive to the economic cycle than other commodities such as oil and copper, mainly because, in the short term, income and price elasticities for essential... 12th March 2015 · 1 min read
Commodities Update Corn stocks revised down, but still huge Although the price of corn has been boosted by a downward revision to estimated global year-end stock levels, this isn’t enough to alter the underlying market situation. We continue to expect the... 11th March 2015 · 1 min read
Industrial Metals Update Copper stocks rise again Factors unrelated to physical demand continue to drive stock movements. However, a lull in activity around Chinese new year was also an issue in February. We expect the rise in copper stocks to be... 11th March 2015 · 1 min read
Commodities Update Investors continue to reduce long bets on agriculturals Investor enthusiasm for agricultural commodities waned further over the lastmonth. Indeed, for eight of the commodities we cover and have Commitment ofTraders data, five saw a fall in net-long non... 11th March 2015 · 1 min read
Energy Update How do lower rig counts affect oil production? We expect US oil production to peak in the middle of this year as the backlog of drilled but uncompleted wells is used up. This should help support oil prices, especially in the US, in the second half... 10th March 2015 · 1 min read
Commodities Update Can commodity prices resist further dollar strength? The prospect of further gains for the US currency remains a major headwind for commodity prices. However, the dollar has already appreciated a long way and, if it continues to climb, much would still... 10th March 2015 · 1 min read
Commodities Update Chinese stockpiling to support demand We expect additional Chinese stockpiling to increase demand for agricultural commodities over the next few years. This should add a bit of support to prices, but the fundamentals of individual... 9th March 2015 · 1 min read
Commodities Update China’s commodity import data still distorted by holidays China’s commodity import volumes fell in February but this was hardly surprising given the long mid-month holiday. We expect demand to start recovering in March, boosted by low prevailing prices. 9th March 2015 · 1 min read
Industrial Metals Update Little to support US steel prices, for now US steel prices have plummeted since late 2014 but perhaps what is more surprising is the fact that they had not fallen earlier. Market conditions suggest prices will continue to struggle this year... 6th March 2015 · 1 min read
Energy Update China takes another step away from coal power We expect global demand for coal to be subdued and prices to fall further over the next few years as China continues to turn its back on coal. However, the downside should be limited by growing demand... 5th March 2015 · 1 min read
Industrial Metals Update Tin prices to rise even without an Indonesian export ban After recording a small surplus in 2014, we expect the tin market to plunge back into deficit this year and prices to rise. As such, any attempt by Indonesia’s producers to curb exports may be... 5th March 2015 · 1 min read
