As the devastating war in Ukraine rages on causing untold suffering, its impact is being felt far beyond its borders, battering a world emerging from a pandemic that has hit developing countries hardest. Among the most critical is the food price crisis, calling into question the affordability and availability of wheat and other essential staples. There […]
The oil shock that the world is experiencing thanks to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine could have a long-term impact on the global economy, just as the 1973 crisis did and changed the way the world looked at its energy needs. Oil prices hit a high of $140/barrel earlier this month before falling to around $100/barrel […]
The world’s historic pivot toward curbing carbon emissions is likely to spur unprecedented demand for some of the most crucial metals used to generate and store renewable energy in a net-zero emissions by 2050 scenario. A resulting surge in prices for materials such as cobalt and nickel would bring boom times to some economies that […]
CARSTEN MENKE, Head of Next Generation Research, Julius Baer Even though the central bankers’ famous symposium in Jackson Hole lifted gold and silver prices on Friday last week, there should be no major fundamental impact on the markets. The key question remains whether the economy continues to recover or whether it slips back into recession. […]
Most of the world is vaccinating itself and reopening, boosting expectations that growing economies would help trigger a bump in oil demand that was viscerally hit last year, but India – one of the world’s biggest importers – remains a cause of concern. The Organization of Oil Producing Countries (OPEC) said earlier this week that […]
China’s huge appetite for steel, as its economy begins to grow again after a Covid-19-triggered slowdown last year, is making its efforts to reduce its carbon footprint difficult. As the world marches towards a net-zero carbon emissions, China is getting stuck between its desire for a greener future and an economic turnaround that has sent […]
Forecasts tell you a lot about the forecaster, but they don’t tell you anything about the future or in the case of commodities the grammatically weird plural futures. When they do come true, it is usually a mixture of deep intelligence meeting immense luck. The July 1995 released film The Net, starring Sandra Bullock as […]
Plant-based diets have been recommended for better planetary health also as it would be more sustainable with lower environmental impacts and improving food and nutritional security of the generations. There is an urgent need to transform current diets for improving health of the population and to achieve equity in benefits at social, economic and environmental […]
The principal mode for transport for dry, non-bulk cargoes is containers, transported by dedicated Container-ships. Containers carry around 90 percent of the world’s non-bulk cargo. They are usually of a standard size, either 20-foot or 40-foot containers. This helps not only in standardizing shipping requirements and optimizing freight costs but also in unloading to various […]
After gold’s weakest quarterly performance in around five years at the end of March, there are encouraging signs that it may have reached close to bottom. By the end of the first quarter, gold was down 10% year-to-date and 18% below its record level of $2,067/ounce reached in early August. The catalyst for the slide was […]
