Perception might be that lovers everywhere have always enjoyed the confection of affection, chocolate. However, it has taken some time for many Asian countries to adopt the taste, but it seems now they have fallen in love. The Singapore-based Cocoa Association of Asia said that in the fourth quarter of 2013 demand rose 10% from Asia including Malaysia, Singapore Read more […]
There are too many funny coffee jokes to single one out but this one I found seriously relevant: Though I take my coffee black, I also take it seriously since it is one of the commodities in the S&P GSCI and DJ-UBS. Coffee has been the best performing commodity this year, up 23.9%. As I Read more […]
In honor of the Chinese New Year, 2014 – Green Wood Horse (馬 午), CCTV interviewed me on lumber. As for other commodities, The Year of The Horse should be prosperous for lumber, especially for China’s sawmill industry, enabling them to support their construction boom by importing whole logs and sawing them into lumber at a Read more […]
In honor of the upcoming 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, I thought it would be a good time to discuss gold, silver and bronze that are the metals in the Olympic medals. Since copper is the main metal in the bronze alloy, we’ll use copper as the index metal. Let’s start with gold. Recently, I Read more […]
Happy Chinese New Year for all celebrating! As a special tribute, this post will focus on the fact that all 5 commodities that start with the letter “c” (the same letter China starts with) in the S&P GSCI Agriculture and Livestock have had positive returns in 2014. I picked the agriculture and livestock to symbolize the importance Read more […]
Industrial Metals are historically the most economically sensitive sector besides energy. While Chinese oil demand growth is set at 3.6% in 2014 and HSBC’s Chinese Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) edged down to 50.8 in November, barely above the key 50-threshold delineating expansion from contraction, according to IEA’s OMR Report, nickel is the only commodity in petroleum and industrial Read more […]
In my post about globalizing futures, technology and logistics were highlighted as key factors to expand local commodities into a global commodities. What I failed to mention is that these same keys may unlock potential futures markets growth beyond Earth. That may seem extraordinary but the potential is real since according to this article on Read more […]
I am sure you have probably heard of, or even tried the Cantonese delicacies dim sum. While many people have a good knowledge of Barbecue Pork Bun or Siu Mai Dumplings, not many can tell exactly what is in the dim sum bond market. Dim sum bonds are the debts that issued in the offshore Read more […]
If you are back to school shopping and notice clothing prices are higher this year, don’t just blame it on designer brands. Cotton has been on a roll as measured by the S&P GSCI Cotton, which is up 21.5% YTD through Aug. 19, 2013. The last time the S&P GSCI Cotton was up over 20% YTD through Read more […]
http://www.pensionsage.com/pa/a-safer-bet.php Read the article in PensionsAge by Peter Carvill, looking at the shifting commodities landscape. In recent decades, investment by pension funds into commodities has been seen as something approaching what may be described as a way to counter-balance the risks from traditional stocks and bonds. As The Role of Commodities in an Institutional Portfolio states: Read more […]