Nickel was in surplus between January and October, the surplus achieved 5,600 tonnes, reported International Nickel Study Group. However, between January and September the market experienced deficit of 6,400 tonnes and the surplus appeared only in the last two months. The LME Nickel currently traded at $18,000/tonne, losing 35% over the year.
Bayerische Motoren Werke, the world's biggest producer of luxury cars, will launch a plant in Brazil to support its world-wide sales growth as deliveries in 2011 reached new record. BMW is planning to build a factory that would allow the company to boost sales to from 1.6 million to 2 million vehicles by 2020. BMW predicts a substantial increase of sales in China, Europe and US
In December France's business confidence declined for the sixth consecutive month as European debt turmoil deterred investment and threatening to push the country's economy into stagnation. Factory managers' index dropped from 96 to 94. Investors are reluctant to invest in France as S&P 500 is assessing whether to downgrade nation's AAA rating.
General Motors Co, PSA Peugeot Citroen and Fiat SpA ran the biggest drop in European vehicles sales in 5 months as the Europe's economy tumbled closer a recession. In November registrations lost 3% from 1.10 m vehicles in 2010 to 1.07 m cars this year, the biggest fall in 5 months, said the Association of European Automobile Manufacturers. 11-month sales fell 1.1% to 12.6 m registrations.
Treasury 10-year bonds traded down for a second consecutive day as positive employment and manufacturing data from US relieved investor concern that deepening Europe crisis will harm country's growth. Drop in anxiety boosted demand for riskier assets. Borrowing costs on 10-year notes added 2 b.p. or 0.02 percentage points reaching 1.93% in London trade.
European security markets opened higher on Friday led by financials and miners amid positive US employment and manufacturing data. Stoxx Europe 600 index added 0.3%, reaching 235.49, German DAX 30 index climbed 0.2% at 5,735.25 while UK FTSE 100 index advanced 0.3 trading at 5,417.36. French CAC 40 index traded flat at 2,996.3.
BP, large oil producer, announced a settlement over the oil spill in Gulf of Mexico. The suit was carried between BP and Cameron International, designer of the system, failure of which led to spill. The agreement stipulates settlement of mutual claims and obliges Cameron to pay $250m to BP. The funds will be included into $20bn program of BP aimed at supporting victims of disaster
The global downturn is spreading and no one is invulnerable to risks, said Christine Lagarde, the head of the IMF. All nations have to commence combating crisis, starting with Europe in order to resolve financial difficulties, she added. Largest economies already are on the threshold of recession; France may fall into downturn in the Q1 of 2012, reported INSEE, French official statistics agency.
China is pushing a free trade agreement with South Korea and Japan and is ready to start talks in 2012, reported officials. Three countries are of critical importance in East Asia and closer economic ties will benefit all of them by increasing trade and facilitating flow of investments, said Shen Danyang, from China's Ministry of Commerce.
Indonesian investment status was upgraded to the same level as Indian one by Fitch Ratings. Fitch agency said the decision was made based on the relatively resilient growth, low sovereign debt and tight policies. The country's government debt looks more attractive than that of some European economies, said Jerome Booth from Ashmore Investment Management. The increase is expected to stimulate flow of investments in
White metal fluctuated dramatically this year, approaching $49 an ounce in April and falling below $30 in November. The growing worries over the global economy continue to weight down on silver; however, analysts believe in case silver price remains above its support level of $28 an ounce, it has a potential to jump essentially next year, said James Carrillo from Swiss America Trading Corporation.
China's manufacturing is expected to remain below 50 indicating contraction, according to preliminary HSBC Purchasing Managers' Index. The index is expected to approach 49, being 1.3 points higher as final November's PMI of 47.7. Low PMI forces the government to change its growth-focused policies faster.
Citigroup Inc. was forced to cease its financial product retail sales in Japan for 30 days for not providing adequate disclosure about risks in one of the retail units. The suspension will come in force since January 10, according to FSA. Citigroup Inc. also needs to submit plan of business enhancement till January 31.
China plans to increase its efforts put in developing cotton-planting in four countries in Africa, reported the Ministry of Commerce. Analysts believe closer cooperation with Benin, Mali, Chad and Burkina Faso will help China to increase fairness of the cotton-trade conditions under the WTO requirements. China with supply African countries with seeds, fertilizers and machinery as well as enhance personnel training there.
EU leaders may abandon UK derivative legislation after PM Cameron's attempt to protect country's financial sector almost ruined EU summit, said 4 officials familiar with matter. Analysts suggest that possible crumbling of UK's derivatives could be a notice from EU officials that British veto alone cannot strengthen its financial system.
Fitch Ratings agency reduced credit ratings for 3 major US banks: Goldman Sachs Group Inc, Citigroup Inc. (C) and Bank of America Corp. Lenders' long term credit ratings were cut from A+ to A, reported Fitch yesterday. Fitch Ratings also downgraded several European banks including BNP Paribas SA, Barclays Plc, Credit Suisse Group AG and Deutsche bank AG.
Morgan Stanley, sixth-largest US financial institution, whose stocks experienced 45% drop this year is going to cut around 1,600 jobs worldwide as revenue in investment banking decreases sharply. Job cuts are planned to take place during the 1st quarter of 2012, said Mark Lake, a representative of company. The estimate equals around 2.6% job reduction of 62,648 workers.
The Reserve Bank of India decided to leave its key borrowing rate unchanged, the first time in 8 meetings as both inflation and growth slows down. The central bank of India left benchmark interest rate untouched at 8.5% meeting predictions made earlier by economists. India rupee appreciated 2.7% against US dollar on the RBI announcement.
After 18 years of talks over the membership, Russia finally will become a member of the WTO at the ceremony in Switzerland due on Friday. The Swiss backed up Russia to solve the conflict with Georgia that has blocked Russian membership in the WTO since short war period in 2008. Russia is the largest economy to become a member of the WTO.
Crude oil futures fell for the second consecutive day after the report on the declined industrial production in the US. On the New York Mercantile Exchange, light sweet crude futures for delivery in January traded at USD93.47 a barrel at late U.S. trading hours on Thursday, losing 1.61% during the session.
Blackberry announced delay in the launch of new Blackberry 10, reported Research in Motion. The company is concerned on the fall in sales volume from 14.8 million in pre-Christmas time last year to 11 million expected in the same period this year. Blackberry also saw a decline in profit to $265m from $911m a year before. The share price of the company tumbled by
China will try to increase the level of domestic demand and will work out policies aimed at boosting consumption growth, reported Xinhua News Agency. Global economy will experience difficulties next year and the country has to fine-tune its macroeconomic policies to make them more focused, flexible and visionary, said Li Keqiang, Vice Premier. China will increase its governmental spending into infrastructure projects, he added.
Fitch downgraded six global banks on the growing tensions in the financial markets. The downgraded banks are the Bank of America, Goldman Sachs, Barclays, BNP Paribas, Deutsche Bank and Credit Suisse. The so called �default ratings of the issuer', which imply the ability of the entity to comply with its financial obligations timely, were cut. The banks hold large amount of euro-zone's debt and the concerns
Gold futures increased slightly after sharp losses earlier this week caused by the surge in selling of precious metal by investors and turning to the USD as safer investment option. Gold for delivery in February added $10.90 an ounce to $1,588.00 in electronic trade, edging up 0.7% since opening, reported FactSet.