Why does China want the RMB to be a reserve currency? What is a Reserve Currency?It is a currency that is held in significant quantities by governments and institutions as part of their foreign exchange reserves. As Maurice Obstfeld, currently Director of Research at the IMF, has written: “International reserve… Read More »
The term “currency war” may sound like sensationalism. But the series of competitive devaluations in global currency markets over the past several years have essentially created a series of global currency battles. The Fed Fired First It was the US who fired the first shot back in 2008 when the… Read More »
Warm winter fears, growing supply and full storage concerns have driven a steep fall in US natural gas prices that are now within 8c of the April 2012 low With prices unlikely to sharply recover during 2016, we outline the companies most exposed to US gas. US gas prices fell steeply… Read More »
The need to reduce costs and improve efficiency within the Oil & Gas industry was clear during the 3Q results with oil prices languishing below $50/bl and sector earnings down 54% y/y Although cash flow was supported by the combination of a strong downstream environment and working capital release, that… Read More »
An endless number of factors can influence commodity prices. The headlines this year are focused on the global weather pattern known as El Niño and its potential to impact all areas of the commodity complex. Based on their data, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the organization responsible for… Read More »
Broadly in line with Barclays’ expectations, the Riksbank kept its repo rate unchanged at -0.35% and decided to expand its QE programme. Citing considerable global uncertainty and rising expectations that central banks abroad would likely pursue even more expansionary monetary policy, the Riksbank decided to expand its QE programme by… Read More »
The build in Atlantic distillate inventories this year has been large, following near-record refinery utilization in both the US and Europe, only modest demand growth, especially relative to gasoline, and increased imports from the East on refinery expansion and rising Chinese exports. Atlantic basin distillate storage utilization is alarmingly highDistillate… Read More »
With the swift and severe fall in oil prices over the past year or so, the energy sector as a whole has been trying to adjust Arguably, given the relatively higher breakeven oil price of offshore developments, subsea E&C players have been in the eye of the storm, with aggregate… Read More »
Following a disappointing September US employment report (released October 2), oil prices began to rally, and have subsequently climbed over 10% Commodity prices have rallied over the last two weeksOctober has seen both oil and metals prices rally sharply, on the back of weaker US macro data, announced supply cuts… Read More »
The debate over the outlook for rates and central bank stimulus (alongside uncertainty over the Chinese economic growth path) continues to be the dominant driver of G10 currency pairs As a result, volatility remains a key fear for investors across asset markets and currencies have not been overlooked.Nonetheless, currency volatility… Read More »