Commodities
Two weeks earlier (July 4), Britain’s Royal Marines seized an Iranian oil tanker carrying more than 2 million barrels of Iranian crude oil in Gibraltar, a British overseas territory. Britain accused the ship of transporting oil to Syria, hence had violated European Union sanctions. Officials initially said the seizure happened on orders from the United […]
... written on Jul 21 2019In March 2018, India raised the import tax on crude palm oil to 44% from 30% and hiked the tax on refined palm oil to 54% from 40%. The fourth increase in import tax in less than 6 months – the highest level in more than a decade – was to protect the country’s local […]
... written on Jul 19 2019For the 12-month period from April 2018 to March 2019, U.S. home purchases by foreign buyers dropped 36%. According to the National Association of Realtors (NAR), foreigners bought only 183,100 properties worth about US$77.9 billion, down from 266,800 valued at US$121 billion in the previous period. That’s a loss of US$43 billion worth of home […]
... written on Jul 18 2019If the United States’ economy is in bad shape due to its trade war with China, how come its stock market has been so bullish lately? The S&P 500 is about to pull off its best first half of a year in at least 10 years and the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) is enjoying its best June […]
... written on Jun 27 2019Donald Trump still talks as if his latest tariff hike – from 10% to 25% on US$200 billion worth of Chinese goods – is like money dropping from the sky. The U.S. president continues hoodwinking his supporters that the Americans are winning because as a result of the trade tariffs, China pays US$100 billion to […]
... written on Jun 21 2019China just revealed that its overall trade surplus registered US$41.65 billion last month (May 2019) – despite ongoing trade war with the U.S. That’s a mind-boggling number as economists polled by Reuters had expected the country to post an overall trade surplus of only US$20.5 billion. Instead of forecast that both exports and imports would […]
... written on Jun 11 2019Pork prices in China have been hitting the roof thanks to highly contagious African swine fever. Because there is no vaccine or treatment for this disease, the only option is to exterminate the infected pigs. More than 1-million pigs have been slaughtered so far. Between February and April, prices of pork skyrocketed almost 50% within […]
... written on Jun 08 2019Oil prices’ free fall has temporarily stopped – after Saudi Arabia hinted that the OPEC cartel would let its production cut stays for a while. Nevertheless, there has been chaos and panic among oil producing countries in recent days. In just 3 days (Thursday to Monday), the crude oil plunged from above US$70 to below […]
... written on Jun 04 2019The NFCorp began in 2006 when AISB (Agro-based Industry contracted Agroscience Industries Sdn Bhd) was contracted by the Ministry of Agriculture to develop an integrated livestock farming and beef production facility. The objective was to boost and achieve nation’s beef self-sufficiency. AISB then set up NFCorp (National Feedlot Corporation), which was awarded the project on […]
... written on Jun 04 2019Donald Trump believes strongly that “tariff” is his most powerful weapon against China, and other countries for that matter, for refusing to kowtow to the supremacy of America. The weaponization of tariffs was used to the extreme on Chinese goods. When Beijing refused to surrender, the U.S. blacklisted Huawei in an attempt to kill the […]
... written on Jun 02 2019
