Because China is rushing to tie up global supplies of cobalt, an essential mineral in making electric car batteries, the auto industry must develop its own sources or risk being hobbled if China chooses to hoard the metal, Ivan Glasenberg, CEO of mining and commodity trading giant Glencore, told the Financial Times Future of the...
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TAIWAN STOCK INDEX TANKS ON FEARS OF INFLATION & INFECTION
Taiwan’s tech-heavy TAIEX stock index fell 8.55 percent on 12 May, its worst one-day drop since 1969, according to Bloomberg, before recovering somewhat to close down 4.1 percent on the day, the Financial Times reported. Investors bailed due to global anxieties about surging inflation, coupled with fears that the island nation would report higher COVID...
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OIL PRODUCTION PREDICTED TO REMAIN WEAK THIS YEAR
Despite the world’s gradual economic recovery and oil production rising elsewhere, U.S. oil production will likely decline again this year, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) said in its 11 May monthly market report. Producing countries outside OPEC will raise output by only 200,000 barrels a day this year, rising to 700,00, with Brazil,...
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THE LATEST SHORTAGE: TIN
Blocks and bottlenecks in shipping systems have combined with consumers’ craving for electronics during the global shutdown to create a shortage of tin, traditionally the most costly of base metals. The price of tin in three-month contracts on the London Metals Exchange has gone up 46 percent to $29,785 a ton, outstripping price hikes for...
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INDIA’S ECONOMY IN SHAMBLES
After beginning a brisk economic rebound following last year’s draconian lockdown, India’s economy has crumbled back into a second drastic shutdown after the COVID virus resurged, creating what is now the worst outbreak on the planet. “The impact of the second wave is that recovery is going to take a big setback,” CEO Mahesh Vyas...
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JUNK BONDS JUNKIES ON A HIGH
Financially troubled companies are selling junk bonds at a record clip, the Wall Street Journal reported, with money pouring into the market and finding its way to the riskiest corners in search of high returns. In Europe, investment-grade bonds are largely being bought by the European Central Bank (ECB) in its bond-buying spree to prop...
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MEXICAN RETAILER BUYS U.S. WAREHOUSE GROCERY CHAIN
Bodega Latina Corp., a subsidiary of Mexican retailer Grupo Comercial Chedraui, is buying 250-store Smart & Final, a California-based warehouse grocery store chain from private equity firm Apollo Global Management. The sale’s price was not publicized. Chedraui already owns the California-based El Super chain and the string of 60 Fiesta Mart stores in Texas. The...
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THE “BIGS” KEEPS GOBBLING UP
BlackRock, the world’s richest asset management company, is paying more than $1 billion to buy 66 multifamily affordable housing blocks with 5,800 apartments in San Diego from the Conrad Prebys Foundation. BlackRock will invest more than $100 million to improve the properties, the company said. Blackrock, one of the nation’s largest landlords with about 100,000...
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JOB SLASHING: GOING DIGITAL AND GOING ROBOTICS
U.S. banks will cast off about 10 percent of the industry’s workforce, or about 200,000 jobs, through 2030, Wells Fargo banking analyst Michael Mayo has predicted, according to the Financial Times. “This will be the biggest reduction in U.S. bank headcount in history” as banks automate more and more tasks, Mayo told the FT. The...