Trading Ideas

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Top news and what to watch in the markets on Friday, March 6, 2020. …read more […]

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A trade worth billions of dollars, it was championed by the Swiss refinery, Metalor Technologies, as part of a program with Peru’s government to integrate gold prospectors into the economy. In early 2018, Metalor stopped taking the gold. Peruvian prosecutors had come to suspect Metalor’s main supplier was a front used by criminals to filter illegally produced gold into the world market. …read more […]

OPEC holds crunch talks with its allies on Friday after the group told Russia and others it wanted an additional 1.5 million barrels per day (bpd) of oil cuts until the end of 2020, saying a big move was needed to deal with the impact of coronavirus. OPEC’s proposal effectively presents an ultimatum to Moscow, which has so far been reluctant to back extra curbs on supply, even though oil prices have plunged more than 20% since the start of the year, trading below $50 a barrel on Friday. Saudi Arabia had been pushing for a big oil …read more […]

(Bloomberg) — Russia’s oil minister returns to Vienna on Friday for a tense meeting with the country’s OPEC allies, as the cartel engages in a high-stakes diplomatic gamble that risks a price crash if it backfires.OPEC ministers told Russia on Thursday that if it doesn’t join them in cutting oil output by another 1.5 million barrels a day to offset the impact of the coronavirus, then the cartel could abandon its reductions altogether. Hours later, the group raised pressure on Moscow again, emerging from an informal meeting at the Saudi delegation’s hotel with a proposal to extend the curbs for …read more […]

(Bloomberg) — Oil extended its slide from the lowest close in more than two years as investors wait for a Russian response to OPEC’s plan for deeper and longer cuts to offset the demand destruction caused by the coronavirus.Brent closed below $50 for the first time since mid-2017 on Thursday after OPEC ministers tried to force Russia into accepting a proposal for a supply cut of 1.5 million barrels a day through to year-end. Cartel members warned that a failure to join may lead to the coalition abandoning curbs altogether. OPEC Secretary-General Mohammad Barkindo struck a more conciliatory tone and …read more […]

(Bloomberg) — India’s rupee weakened toward a record low and stocks tumbled after the central bank seized control of beleaguered Yes Bank Ltd., intensifying the risk-off mood fueled by the spread of coronavirus cases in India.The S&P BSE Sensex slid 3% to 37,322.59 in Mumbai at 10:35 a.m., entering correction zone. The rupee declined as much as 1.1% and was set for a record low of 74.4825 per dollar seen in 2018.“Investors have turned risk averse and the contagion is likely to hit smaller bank and non-bank finance companies,” said Abhimanyu Sofat, Mumbai-based head of research at IIFL Securities Ltd. …read more […]

(Bloomberg) — Exxon Mobil Corp. dismissed long-term pledges by some of its Big Oil rivals to reduce carbon dioxide emissions as nothing more than a “beauty competition” that would do little to halt climate change.Energy companies need to focus on global, systemic efforts to reduce greenhouse gases, rather than just replacing their own emissions-heavy assets with cleaner ones to make themselves look good, Chief Executive Officer Darren Woods said in New York on Thursday.“Individual companies setting targets and then selling assets to another company so that their portfolio has a different carbon intensity has not solved the problem for the …read more […]

(Bloomberg) — Markets aren’t prepared for how severe the fallout of the global spread of coronavirus could get and the turmoil has only just started, according to the manager of a peer-beating fund.The stark warning comes from Allianz Global Investors’ portfolio manager Mike Riddell, who oversees $4.7 billion for the company. “The speed of the market repricing has obviously been dramatic, however markets have only gone from pricing in no risk of anything to a moderate risk,” Riddell said in a phone interview. “Where we think markets can still move is in volatility.”Riddell’s Strategic Bond Fund, which he manages with …read more […]

(Bloomberg) — Oil exports from the neutral zone between Kuwait and Saudi Arabia will resume from next month, adding more supply just as OPEC tries to cut output to stem a coronavirus-driven price rout.Kuwait Petroleum Corp. told customers that production at the Khafji field in the zone has already restarted, with exports on track from April, according to people who had seen a notice sent by the company. That came after the state-owned producer said in mid-February that output from the Wafra field, also in the zone, would start within three months.The neutral zone can pump a combined 500,000 barrels …read more […]

JPMorgan Chase & Co CEO and Chairman Jamie Dimon is recovering from emergency heart surgery done on Thursday morning, with two deputies taking over as he recuperates, the largest U.S. bank said. Dimon, 63, experienced a tear in his heart’s main artery, which was detected early and treated successfully, JPMorgan said, publicly releasing an internal memo. The bank did not disclose where Dimon is being treated. …read more […]

(Bloomberg) — Gold is heading for the biggest weekly gain since 2016, burnishing its credentials as an effective haven, as fearful investors struggle to assess the impact of the expanding global health crisis.Bullion’s up 5.3% since Monday, near seven-year highs, amid a rush away from risk. An epic collapse in bond yields is spurring gains, with concerns rising over the scale of the coronavirus outbreak and effectiveness of policy.The precious metal is one of the standout winners from the outbreak, with Goldman Sachs Group Inc. saying the commodity “has immunity to the virus.” Separately, money manager Jeffrey Gundlach told CNBC …read more […]

Oil slid nearly 1% on Friday as worries about global oil demand and economic growth slowdown caused by the coronavirus outbreak were heightened by concern over non-OPEC crude producers not yet having agreed to cut output further to support prices. Brent crude fell 48 cents, or 0.96%, to $49.51 per barrel by 0337 GMT, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) was down 38 cents, or 0.83%, at $45.52 per barrel. The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) on Thursday pushed for crude output by OPEC and associated producers – a group known as OPEC+ – to be …read more […]

Asian shares and U.S. stock futures fell on Friday following another Wall Street rout as disruptions to global business from the coronavirus beyond China worsened, stoking fears of a prolonged world economic slowdown. Yields on 10-year U.S. Treasuries fell to a record low and two-year yields fell to the lowest in more than three years as investors increased bets that the Federal Reserve will follow this week’s surprise 50 basis point rate cut with further easing to prevent corporate bond spreads from widening further. The spread of a new coronavirus has accelerated so much in Europe, Britain and …read more […]