Tesla enters the S&P 500 with a weight of 1.69%, the fifth largest share of the index (sixth largest company after Alphabet).
Archives of “December 2020” month
rssIron Ore flying in China market (Dalian) – Friday landslide at Vale mine
There was another accident at a Vale mine on Friday, leaving one person dead.
Iron ore has been on an uptrend and that is continuing in China today, and on other exchanges also.
Iron ore is a key Australian export to China and so far been it has remained unattacked by Chinese authorities trade war on Australia.
UK Lloyds Business Barometer for December -4 (prior -21)
That is the biggest one-month gain in 4 years.
Lloyds:
- “The news of the vaccine progress has bolstered this month’s confidence figures, more than offsetting uncertainties around the UK’s new trading relationship with the EU”
- 32% of firms it surveyed expected to cut staff next year
- 22% planned to increase numbers
—
Survey of 1,200 firms conducted between November 25 and December 10.
Yellen being told to endorse a strong US dollar
Previous Chair of the Federal Reserve System Janet Yellen is to be incoming President Biden’s Treasury Secretary.
Some dudes are lining up already to give her advice.
Larry Summers, who was Treasury secretary under Bill Clinton and national economic adviser under Barack Obama, said:
- “It would be unwise to appear actively devaluationist or indifferent to the dollar,”
Hank Paulson, who served as Treasury secretary under George W. Bush, made the same point.
Via a Bloomberg piece, more here if you are interested.
Janet Yellen does not need advice on how to do her job from these chaps.
Japanese Prime Minister Sugua has painted a target on USD/JPY – don’t let it fall under 100
PM Suga has told officials at Japan’s Ministry of Finance not to let USD/ yen drop under 100
Japanese media, Nikkei with the info:
- “Make sure the yen-dollar exchange rate does not cross the 100 yen mark”
- confirmed by multiple sources
- came with an unspoken message: Be prepared to sell yen for dollars in case the Japanese currency breaches the key threshold.
- Suga’s willingness to consider an intervention — an option often seen as a last resort — took many by surprise.
Suga’s order came just after US election day.
Economic calendar due from Asia today – PBOC interest rate setting
0130 GMT – China’s 1- and 5-year Loan Prime Rate (LPR) is today.
The LPR is set in reference to the rate on the PBOC’s medium-term lending facility (MLF), its a lending reference rate set monthly by 18 banks with a spread above the MLF.
At the previous monthly setting :
- 1 year loan prime rate was set at 3.85%
- 5-year LPR at 4.65%
There are no expectations of any change today.
Also coming up during the session:
0001 GMT UK Lloyds Business Barometer for December, November was -21. Its not generally much of an FX rate mover upon release but nevertheless offers a glimpse into business confidence in the UK, where coronavirus and Brexit are twin challenges.
0110 GMT Bank of Japan Japanese Government Bond purchase operation.
0200 GMT New Zealand Credit Card Spending for November
- priors +1.5% m/m and -6.3% y/y
Thought For A Day
US coronavirus economic relief package – Schumer says vote could come on Sunday
More from the Wall Street Journal reporting on apparent progress on the COVID-19 stimulus package in Congress.
This from earlier for background:
- WSJ report there is likely to be a US stimulus package vote on Sunday
Senate Minority Leader Schumer told media he thought both houses of Congress, the House and Senate, would be able to vote on the relief bill on Sunday.
- “It looks like we’ll be able to …
- If things continue on this path and nothing gets in the way, we’ll be able to vote”
The Journal added:
- a final agreement on the full coronavirus relief package was significantly closer, a senior Democratic aide said late Saturday
Singapore bank DBS starts currency and crypto exchange
A digital exchange, which is being touted as the first for trading fiat money and cryptocurrencies with backing from a traditional bank in Singapore, was launched on Friday.
The full-service platform uses blockchain, or distributed ledger technology, to allow traders to exchange four currencies — Singapore, U.S. and Hong Kong dollars, and the Japanese yen — for four cryptocurrencies: Bitcoin, Ether, Bitcoin Cash and XRP.
Hosted by Southeast Asia’s largest lender, DBS Group Holdings, the DBS Digital Exchange will also function as a regulated platform for the issuance and trading of digital tokens backed by financial assets, such as shares in unlisted companies, bonds and private equity funds.
DBS has received approval in principle from the Monetary Authority of Singapore to operate organized markets for assets such as shares, bonds and private equity funds. It is also allowed to operate the platform for the exchange, according to the bank.
The Singapore Exchange has taken a 10% stake in the DBS Digital Exchange, and the two will explore opportunities to deepen the liquidity, scale and growth of the city-state’s capital markets for digital assets and currencies. (more…)
Copper and silver prices spike as governments decarbonize
Money is flowing into the markets for such materials as copper, silver and aluminum on growing demand thanks to a shift to renewable energy and electric cars.
The trend was triggered by solid demand in China, which brought the COVID-19 pandemic under control ahead of other countries. Now investors around the world are trying to get ahead of the curve on the so-called green cycle poised to lift the commodity markets over the long term.
Three-month copper futures on the London Metal Exchange, the global benchmark, hit a seven-year high earlier this month. With the price at $7,984.50 per ton as of Friday, copper futures have risen about 80% from a low in March when the coronavirus was wreaking havoc in China.
Ever since the spread of infections settled down there, the Chinese government has been propping up the economy through public works investment and other steps. “In China, there is a shortage of many industrial products, and this is spreading to materials,” said Naohiro Niimura, a partner at Japanese commodities consultancy Market Risk Advisory.
China’s monthly imports of copper ingots and related products are well above year-earlier levels in volume terms. Meanwhile, many mines in South America and elsewhere have been forced to cut output due to COVID-19 infections. (more…)