Grain prices have surged higher over recent weeks, awakening from a multi-month period of subdued trading. Wheat has grabbed the headlines with gains of almost 40% since early June. However, my colleagues at Business Monitor have been modestly bullish grains for some time and the aggressive rally in prices has not altered their key views… [Read more]
Europe’s longest serving leader stepped down on July 19, when President Murtaza Rakhimov of the republic of Bashkortostan in the Urals region of Russia was replaced after 20 years in office. Rakhimov, 76, had long been rumoured to be on his way out, and when the moment finally came, it appears that he had to… [Read more]
June’s US trade statistics have shed doubt on the efficacy of President Barack Obama’s National Export Initiative (NEI) which, launched in February, aims to double US exports by 2015. A series of marketing plans, aimed specifically at major emerging markets including India, China and Vietnam in Asia as well as Brazil and South Africa, are… [Read more]
Data from the second quarter has reinforced our long-held core outlook for a downturn in US growth in H210 and 2011. On this week’s Business Monitor Podcast, BMI’s Head of Country Risk and Financial Markets Justin Patrie and Global Economic Strategist Tim Cooper, revisit their views on the shape of the US recovery and the… [Read more]
The last few weeks have certainly been good to the Spanish on the football pitch and the tennis court. But as the sporting hangover begins to wear off, all eyes will return to the ailing economy. Unlike Greece, Spain has not come to the forefront of investor concerns in recent months because of its sovereign… [Read more]
China’s Dagong Global Credit Rating Co earlier this week released what it described as the first ever assessment of sovereign credit risks by a non-Western ratings agency. Dagong’s report covers 50 countries (20 in Europe, 17 in Asia, 2 in North America, 6 in South America, 3 in Africa, and 2 in Oceania) comprising 90%… [Read more]
Commodity markets have been edging higher in recent days as risk appetite has tentatively re-emerged. With several key markets now testing resistance, how much further can commodities bounce? With this question in mind, I would highlight the following: In the event of a continued improvement in risk appetite over the coming days, Brent Crude and… [Read more]
