South Korea produces almost half of the world’s batteries for electric vehicles, but as demand for EVs is rising, the country’s battery makers are facing shortages of a range of materials, as the global commodities supercycle gains momentum (“Commodities Supercycle Underway?” 11 May, 2021). The country has relied on imports of rare earth minerals and...
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CANADA’S STRONG JOB NUMBERS. WILL INTEREST RATES RISE?
Canada gained 157,100 jobs in September, far exceeding analysts’ expectations and regaining all three million jobs lost to the COVID War, Reuters reported. The jobs report makes it much more likely the Bank of Canada (BoC) will now boost interest rates to lasso inflation, now running at 4 percent, twice the bank’s target rate. However,...
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HOTEL INDUSTRY SUFFERING FROM COVID WARS
About a billion room-nights will be booked in U.S. hotels this year, data service STR reported, a respectable gain from 2020’s 829 million but still well below 2019’s record 1.3 billion. Hidden in those larger numbers is a bit of bad news: business travel continues to decline, a trend we noted early in “Travel Succumbs...
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U.S. HOMES: PRICES SPIKE, FEWER CAN AFFORD THEM
In America, once the Land of Opportunity, renowned for its strong middle class, continues its economic divergence as the rich are getting richer and the rest keep getting poorer. It’s in the numbers. With U.S. home prices spiking, they are less affordable to Americans than at any time since the Panic of ’08. Now, the...
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IS THE DOLLAR TOO STRONG?
As the U.S. dollar grows stronger, precious metals prices go lower, since they are dollar based, it costs more to buy them. Thus, prices are slumping as The Wall Street Journal’s Dollar Index reached its highest reading in 13 months last week, having risen steadily since June and 2 percent in September alone, the WSJ...
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U.S. INVESTORS: THE BEST IS YET TO COME?
U.S. investors are paring back investments in hedges—instruments that pay a return when equity markets fall—according to the Financial Times, and taking profits in derivatives that would have protected them from a market slump. This signals investors’ belief that the worst of the markets’ recent tumble is over, the FT said. Cboe’s Skew Index, which...
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CRYPTO CAN BE PART OF A TAX PLAN, ADVISORS SAY
A growing number of financial advisors are not only allowing clients to trade cryptocurrencies inside their fund or retirement accounts but also are advising clients to use cryptos’ price gyrations as a tax gimmick. The scheme: investors can buy crypto through their brokerage accounts. If the coins’ value falls below a preset amount, the coins...
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SINGAPORE ANGLES TO BECOME ASIA’S CRYPTO HUB
China has outlawed cryptocurrencies (“CHINA SEES CRYPTOS AS EXISTENTIAL THREAT,” 28 Sep 2021); U.S. regulators dither; and Hong Kong and South Korea have become hostile to them and have banned or restricted crypto dealings. In contrast, Singapore has laid the legal and regulatory groundwork to become crypto’s new home in Asia. In January 2020, the...
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BOND MARKETS TURN THUMBS DOWN ON CRYPTO
Bond markets gave cryptocurrencies a vote of no confidence recently. In mid-September, El Salvador became the first nation to accept Bitcoin as legal tender (see “El Salvador Recognizes Bitcoin as Cash,” 15 June, 2021). Shortly after, the country’s bond values crashed. Later that month, Coinbase, a major crypto trading platform, issued $2 billion in high-yield,...
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SEC CHIEF OVERREACHED HIS AUTHORITY ON CRYPTO, LAWMAKER SAYS
Gary Gensler, chair of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), has overstepped his authority in his attempts to regulate cryptocurrencies, according to Tom Emmer, a Republican member of the House of Representatives from Minnesota. Emmer is a member of a group of legislators interested in crypto, known informally as the blockchain caucus. His charge...