In 2015, China exported over 100 million metric tonnes (MMT) of steel into world markets. This is greater than the annual domestic usage of steel in the US. On the back of this steel prices were driven to a very…
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Gold and gold equity prices have rallied sharply this year spurred on by safe haven buying as doubts over global growth surfaced in January and June. Gold has been one of the top performing commodities this year rising from US$1065…
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This year oil has acted as a real time indicator of investment sentiment. The perception is that oil reflects global growth conditions. January’s oil price collapse was a supply rather than demand induced issue and since then the correlation between…
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The Japanese economy grew faster than expected in Q1 hitting an annualised growth of 1.7%. This growth was a result of higher government spending. This turnaround from Q4 2015 was important to Japan as each of the past four quarters…
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The FTSE 100 index like many other developed stock markets has had a turbulent ride this year. It started January at 6100 and fell to 5536 by mid-February after the fall in oil price and the devaluation of the renminbi…
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After a nasty slide in US stock values in January, US markets have bounced back sharply erasing their losses and regaining record levels. For example, the S&P 500 index fell to 1829 in January to recover to 2098 by early…
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In January, the coming together of an inevitable slowing China and the weakness in oil and commodity prices suggested a recession that spilled out into the rest of the world. However, since the resulting heavy falls in Chinese equity values…
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Financial markets have had a roller coaster of a ride so far in 2016 with deep falls in January being followed by a rebound rally which has left investors back to where they started the year. Global equity markets have…
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The implications to British business over Brexit is that in the short term the uncertainty following the ‘divorce’ negotiations are likely to prompt companies to postpone or cancel investment and additional recruitment. Multinational companies located in the UK in order…
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