Commodities

- A + A KUALA LUMPUR (Sept 30): Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) said on Friday (Sept 30) that the moderation in global economic growth and lower commodity prices are expected to weigh on Malaysia’s export growth. “Malaysia’s diversified exports across products and markets should help cushion this impact,” BNM said in its August monthly highlights report. The central bank, citing data from the Department of Statistics and the Malaysia External Trade Development Corporation (Matrade), reiterated that the country’s exports had registered a robust growth of 48.2% year-on-year (y-o-y) in August 2022, to a value of RM141.3 billion. In comparison, exports grew 38% in y-o-y in July 2022 (RM134.1 billion) and 38.7% in June 2022 (RM146 billion). “Manufactured export growth was driven by the electrical and electronics (E&E) and petroleum products. Meanwhile, exports of commodities continued to be supported mainly by crude palm oil (CPO), liquefied natural gas (LNG) and crude … [Read more...] about BNM: Global economic growth moderation, lower commodity prices to weigh on Malaysia’s export growth

- A + A (Sept 30): Micron Technology Inc and Kioxia Holdings Corp, two of the world’s top memory chipmakers, are slashing production to cope with a steep plunge in demand. Micron, the largest US maker of memory chips, reported downbeat earnings on Thursday and forecast quarterly sales that were nearly US$2 billion below Wall Street estimates. Japan’s Kioxia, which supplies much of the world’s NAND storage for smartphones and servers, followed that on Friday by announcing that it’s reducing new production and will have its overall output 30% lower by December. Global chipmakers had been riding high during the pandemic, when the work-from-home trend fuelled demand for computers and other consumer technology. But inflation and recession fears — plus a return to the office — have put a damper on purchases. That’s left memory customers sitting on stockpiles of unused chips. “Hard times are ahead for the industry, except for a few,” said Kazunori Ito, an analyst with … [Read more...] about ‘Hard times’ as big memory makers cut output on supply glut

- A + A (Sept 30): Palm oil headed for its biggest quarterly plunge since 2008, as rising inventories in the world’s top growers and mounting concerns of a global economic recession outweighed recent robust exports. Benchmark futures in Malaysia, which set the tone for global palm oil prices, have plummeted 31% in the July-September quarter, amid forecasts for surging supplies in Indonesia and Malaysia. That could provide some relief to consumers across the globe from high food inflation, as the tropical oil is found in many grocery items from chocolates to pastries and ice creams. Growing worries about an economic slowdown slashing edible oil demand have further hammered palm, the world’s most-consumed cooking oil. Although exports from Malaysia surged almost 19% in the first 25 days of September from a month earlier, demand from top importer India could taper off in the coming weeks, as the festival season will end in late October with Diwali, the Hindu festival of … [Read more...] about Palm oil set for worst quarter in 14 years on bulging reserves

An aerial view shows containers and cargo vessels at the Qingdao port in Shandong province, China. Picture taken with a drone. China Daily via REUTERS/File photo BEIJING  – China’s exports growth weakened in August, as surging inflation crippled overseas demand and fresh COVID curbs and heatwaves disrupted production, reviving downside risks for the economy. Exports rose 7.1 percent in August from a year earlier, slowing from an 18 percent gain in July, official customs data showed on Wednesday. The reading missed analysts’ expectations for a 12.8 percent increase. Outbound shipments outperformed other economic drivers in 2022 but now face growing challenges as external demand wanes. China’s slower growth is in part due to unflattering comparisons to strong exports last year, but also worsened by more COVID restrictions as infections spiked and heatwaves disrupted factory output in southwestern areas. Eastern export hub Yiwu imposed a three-day lockdown in early August to … [Read more...] about China’s trade growth in August loses steam on softer demand

The Philippines’ trade deficit hit its widest at $5.93 billion in July amid rising prices of imported petroleum products and food items and slowing exports, adding pressure to the depreciation of the peso that accelerated over the past week. The trade deficit continued to surge albeit slower in July at 69 percent year-on-year from 76 in June. Still, this was faster than the deficit growth of 64 percent in July 2021. “The annual growth in the value of imported goods in July 2022 was mainly due to the increases in the values of nine of the top 10 major commodity groups with mineral fuels, lubricants and related materials having the fastest annual growth rate of 86.5 percent,” National Statistician Dennis Mapa said in a statement. “This was followed by cereals and cereal preparations, which rose by 64.7 percent annually; and transport equipment by 46.6 percent,” Mapa said. The Philippine Statistics Authority on Friday reported that last July, two-way traffic was valued at $18.35 … [Read more...] about PH July trade deficit widens to record $5.93B

The flurry of private market investments over the last two years that led to a mismatch in valuations of high-growth technology companies compelled Nandan Nilekani's Fundamentum Partnership to stay away from any new investment in 2021 as the firm couldn't find companies where it thought it would be able to generate returns, according to top officials at the venture capital (VC) firm. In 2021, the deal velocity was significantly higher and the time taken for due diligence was ‘far shorter,’ which led to the VC going slow on its investments, said Ashish Kumar and Sanjeev Aggarwal, co-founders and general partners at Fundamentum Partnership, in an interview with Moneycontrol. Fundamentum recently raised its second fund of $227 million to invest in growth-stage and early-stage startups in India and according to Aggarwal and Kumar, the company plans to deploy the entire fund in about 36-40 months or three-and-a-half years as compared to its first fund of $100 million which was … [Read more...] about Tiger Global coming at early-stage investing is good for us: Fundamentum’s Sanjeev Aggarwal and Ashish Kumar

When you’re buying gifts for the holiday season or another special occasion, you have no shortage of options. For one thing, ecommerce makes it easier than ever to have presents delivered from around the world. However, except for some collectibles, not many gifts have a chance of growing in value. If you’re looking for a gift with longer-term financial benefits, you might choose to give someone an investment asset like an exchange-traded fund (ETF) . Rather than representing a stake in a particular company like a stock or a specific debt instrument like a bond , an ETF is a pooled security, comprising a basket of different investments. When you give an ETF as a gift, this means that your recipient becomes an investor in a slice of the financial markets. With funds available that track almost any area of the market or type of asset you can think of—from broad stock indexes to niche segments, from commodities to bonds—there are many ETFs that you could consider giving as a … [Read more...] about How to Give an Exchange-Traded Fund (ETF) as a Gift

- A + A A weekly round-up of tanker and dry bulk market (Sept 30, 2022) This report is produced by the Baltic Exchange. The Baltic Exchange, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Singapore Exchange, is the world's only independent source of maritime market information for the trading and settlement of physical and derivative contracts. Its international community of over 650 members encompasses the majority of world shipping interests and commits to a code of business conduct overseen by the Baltic. For daily freight market reports and assessments, please visit www.balticexchange.com . Capesize The Capesize market failed to push through to higher values this week, as lower activity in the Pacific hampered efforts. The Capesize 5TC closed the week at US$16,214. The Atlantic basin has been looking well supported with fixture values continuing to climb. However, a question mark remains as to whether the overall activity is enough to pull the wider … [Read more...] about Baltic Exchange shipping updates: Sept 30

Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin In his wonderful book American Happiness and Its Discontents , George Will wrote that Founding Father John Adams began each day with a tankard of beer. The anecdote read as incongruous. How could Adams have been so productive in light of how his days commenced? In a subsequent conversation with the author, he underscored that the U.S. was formerly a “drinking nation,” which we both marveled at for it not mirroring the present. This came to mind while reading Alex Epstein’s essential and excellent new book, Fossil Future: Why Global Human Flourishing Requires More Oil, Coal, and Natural Gas – Not Less . Epstein seemed to unearth the why behind Adams’s prodigious early morning drinking: unhealthy water. As Epstein writes about a third of the way through what will now be referred to as Fossil , “Drinking water for most people at most times, has been naturally dirty and or distant.” While the idealistic among us … [Read more...] about Book Review: Alex Epstein’s Excellent and Essential ‘Fossil Future’