Dollar’s longs reflecting desperate gains upon Yellen’s move

Dec 14, 2015 12:42 pm UTC| Insights & Views Central Banks

The large majority of price sensitive market participants still seem to be betting on USD longs. However, these only have a reasonable risk reward profile medium term. I doubt that nobody will square their USD-long...

Currency War Series

PBoC strikes a chord again – Is Fed likely to discount FX war?

Dec 14, 2015 10:56 am UTC| Insights & Views Central Banks

The focus for this week would be apart from the Fed meeting the main movers this week will be: US CPI (Tuesday) German ZEW (Tuesday) Euro Flash PMI (Wednesday) German Ifo (Thursday). Focus would remain to...

Zuma's about-turn shows power of the South African media, and the markets

Dec 14, 2015 10:45 am UTC| Insights & Views Politics

South Africa has had three finance ministers in the space of four days. First President Jacob Zuma replaced his trusted and competent finance minister Nhlanhla Nene with David van Rooyen, a malleable backbencher with a...

How the commodities crunch is hitting mines around the globe

Dec 11, 2015 15:58 pm UTC| Insights & Views

Anglo American, one of the largest mining companies in the world, has announced a restructure that will cut 85,000 jobs worldwide, a reduction of its workforce by almost two-thirds. The move follows a huge downturn in...

The solution to London's airport capacity crisis? Do nothing

Dec 11, 2015 14:44 pm UTC| Insights & Views Life

Londons Heathrow airport is currently operating at 98% capacity and the rest of Londons airports are set to be full by 2040. The debate over how to address this problem has been raging for years but a workable solution...

Oil in Global Economy Series

Base metals and oil hit toll on commodity driven currencies – a bird’s eye view of impact of supply cycle shrink in demand on FX market

Dec 11, 2015 09:54 am UTC| Insights & Views

A brief historical snapshot: Commodities are experiencing what has already been the second-deepest and longest bear market of the past 45 years, with a decline from their peak of over 55% over the past 4.5...

Climate and the rise and fall of civilizations: a lesson from the past

Dec 11, 2015 04:09 am UTC| Insights & Views Nature

2015 will likely be the hottest year on record, beating the previous record set only in 2014. It is also likely to be the first year the global average temperature reaches 1℃ above pre-industrial temperatures (measured...