Category: TRENDS ON THE GLOBAL ECONOMIC FRONT

Just days before the current crypto meltdown, through 2026, some hedge funds said they will increase their holdings in cryptocurrencies to 7.2 percent of assets, a survey of 100 hedge-fund CFOs has found. That percentage would be worth about $312 billion, according to the projected size of the hedge fund industry five years from now,...

On 21 June, Bitcoin’s price fell below $32,000 for the first time since 8 June as Chinese authorities reported shutting down 90 percent of the country’s Bitcoin mines. The prices of cryptocurrencies Ether and XRP also dropped 7 and 8.5 percent, respectively, on the news. On 18 June, the Sichuan Provincial Development and Reform Commission...

China’s government will auction portions of its national stockpiles of aluminum, copper, and zinc, among other industrial metals, “in the near future” to domestic processors and manufacturers, the National Food and Strategic Reserves Administration announced on 16 June, in an attempt to tamp down rising prices for goods leaving the country’s factories. Prices for many...

China’s industrial production grew 8.8 percent year-on-year in May, easing back from 9.8 percent in April, the National Bureau of Statistics reported last week. The slowing pace matched the median expectation of economists the Wall Street Journal had surveyed. May’s factory output still was 13.6 percent greater than it was in May 2019, when China’s...

Emirates airline reported a $6-billion loss in its most recent quarter and Germany’s Lufthansa said it will purge another 10,000 workers, in addition to 26,000 already gone, as long-haul air travel still waits for its economic recovery.  The two carriers are particularly dependent on international travel, especially by businesses. While domestic air travel, mainly leisure...

If the U.S. Federal Reserve begins to raise interest rates, the resulting shock wave could rattle markets for Turkey’s currency, the lira. The lira’s value has been sliding for months as the country’s central bank, pressured by president Recep Erdogan, kept interest rates lower than the rate of inflation.  Naci Agbal, whom Erdogan appointed to...

Brazil, the largest economy to raise interest rates since the economic crisis began, hiked them for a third time last week, adding 0.75 percent to bring the country’s key rate to 4.25 percent from a record-low 2.0 percent barely a year ago. More rate hikes are likely, the Central Bank of Brazil warned, as the...

After setting a record price of $1,711.20 per thousand board feet last month, the price of lumber for July delivery skidded lower in 14 of the 16 trading days ending 15 June, landing 41 percent below the May high at $1,009.90. Spot prices fell $122 to $1,324 for the week ending 18 June, the biggest...

Last week, copper’s price fell to a two-month low on rising expectations that China will rein back rising commodity prices and a growing sense that the breakneck rally had overpriced itself, the Wall Street Journal reported. The price slid 4.2 percent to $4.34 a pound on 15 June. Prices set a record of $10,720 a...

After China announced that it will auction portions of its strategic stockpiles of industrial metals to domestic companies, global commodities prices fell back across a range of raw materials. Futures prices for palladium and platinum dropped 11 and 7 percent, respectively, on 17 June; contracts tied to copper retreated 4.8 percent.  Crude oil prices edged...