Commodities Update China’s trade not all bad news for commodities China’s imports and exports dropped sharply in February. Admittedly, some of the plunge can be explained by the shift in timing of the Lunar New Year holiday, but we expect trade to remain weak in the... 8th March 2019 · 1 min read
Energy Watch The relationship between oil prices, rigs and output Theoretically, there should be a relationship between the price of oil, the number of oil rigs actively drilling and oil production. However, the relationship appears to have broken down in the past... 7th March 2019 · 1 min read
Industrial Metals Update Trade deal will not prevent prices falling Industrial metals prices have risen robustly this year, but we think that the rally is running out of steam. Even if a US - China trade agreement is reached, a slowdown in global growth and an... 7th March 2019 · 1 min read
Asia Economics Update Inflation to remain low, rates cuts coming Inflation across Emerging Asia has fallen back sharply in recent months and is likely to remain low over the coming quarters. With growth also set to slow, we expect some central banks to start... 7th March 2019 · 1 min read
Energy Data Response US Weekly Petroleum Status Report US crude stocks jumped, largely owing to an increase in net imports. In contrast, product stocks fell, which is partly a seasonal phenomenon but does suggest that US consumer demand is holding up well... 6th March 2019 · 1 min read
Energy Chart Pack Boost to oil from lower supply unlikely to last The price of oil continued to climb in February as the US and China inched towards a trade deal, and Saudi Arabia announced that it would cut output further. However, we still think that prices will... 6th March 2019 · 1 min read
Global Economics Chart Pack Early hard data bode ill for Q1 World GDP growth was little changed at 3.1% annualised in Q4 as the euro-zone posted another modest expansion, US growth slowed from a strong pace and a pick-up in Japanese GDP offset part of Q3’s... 6th March 2019 · 1 min read
Metals Chart Pack Risk appetite likely to fade Increasing signs of a US-China trade deal prompted a return of risk appetite and led to the prices of many industrial metals hitting multi-month highs and a sell-off in gold and silver. However, even... 6th March 2019 · 1 min read
Commodities Update China’s unrealistic pledges to import US commodities There has been a surprisingly muted reaction in commodity markets to the latest reports that China and the US are close to a trade deal. We think this reflects a combination of the fact that much of... 5th March 2019 · 1 min read
Canada Economics Update Oil rebound won’t prevent drop in energy investment The negative outlook for oil prices, together with Canadian oil firms’ high debt levels, regulatory uncertainty and capacity constraints, suggest that energy investment will fall this year. 5th March 2019 · 1 min read
Commodities Weekly China stimulus likely to drive prices Next week, commodity markets will be closely watching the annual meeting of China’s parliament, the National People’s Congress, hoping for additional fiscal stimulus. The government’s Work Report and... 1st March 2019 · 1 min read
Precious Metals Update Gold still set to shine Despite having risen by over a tenth in the past six months, we believe that the upswing in the gold price has further to run. Our forecast of falling equity prices this year suggests strong demand... 1st March 2019 · 1 min read
Commodities Update Improvement in China’s PMI unlikely to last The latest pick-up in the unofficial PMI data does not change our expectation of a slowdown in China’s economy, which underpins our forecast of mostly weaker commodity prices, especially industrial... 1st March 2019 · 1 min read
Commodities Chart Pack Boost from trade talks to prove temporary Oil and industrial commodity prices rose in February on hopes of a US-China trade deal. However, even if there is a deal, we forecast that prices will fall back owing to lower demand as global... 28th February 2019 · 1 min read
Middle East & North Africa Economics Weekly Saudi to extend output cuts, more protests in Algeria Fresh hints from Saudi Arabia that it will extend its oil production cuts into the second half of this year support our view that economic growth in the Kingdom will be weaker than most anticipate... 28th February 2019 · 1 min read
Energy Update LNG price slump is not all about the weather The plunge in the spot LNG price is in large part the result of a mild northern hemisphere winter. As such, prices may rebound if the weather normalises, but rapid growth in supply will prevent... 28th February 2019 · 1 min read
