Together with partners Barry Stimpson and Jessica Kenworthy, Squire Patton Boggs has officially launched a Commodities and Shipping Group that will operate globally. The other two partners will be stationed in the new company’s Singapore branch. “This is an area in which we already have strong capabilities in London, Australia, and the US, and with the addition of this team and future hires in the pipeline, we expect to very quickly a...

Persian Gulf officials said that Saudi Arabia would be vouching for augmentation of oil supply cuts through to the end of June 2020 in a stakeholder meeting set to be held this Thursday and Friday. As we approach this week’s OPEC+ meeting, the oil market has been stalling as players remain anxious about the outcome of the gathering. There have been international talks to boost compliance to agreed cuts. But talks about maintaining and possi...

With the growing unrest over the details of OPEC+’s 5th & 6th December meeting in Vienna, the oil market stalled for the better part of last week. For the bullish investors, the noise surrounding the possible outcome of the meeting is not the most effective. Russian oil companies are pushing to have the current agreement in OPEC+ held or any proposed changes pushed until March next year. This will however not address the large surplus e...

According to two sources, British-based commodities tycoon Sanjeev Gupta is ready to buy British Steel if an offer by a Chinese firm Jingye Group, fails to sail through.At the start of last month, Jingye Group announced intentions to acquire the British steel company, but a regulator will need to approve the deal first. Gupta, who has made several offers to acquire British Steel, is heavily invested in the steel industry all around the world and...

Panic occasioned by scarcity of diesel and other middle distillates arising from recently introduced marine pollution rules has faded, even as distillate premiums recorded new lows in two years.  Beginning January next year under new pollution control rules approved by the International Maritime Organization (IMO), all ships operating in oceans will be required to run using fuel with minimal amounts of Sulphur. Alternatively, the ships will...

Citadel’s commodities business value is up at least $1 billion this year, this is according to three sources who spoke to Reuters. The gain is expected to boost the hedge fund’s performance even as it looks to maintain its already-great industry reputation. According to its website, Citadel works relentlessly to discover and capture new opportunities. As we speak, the company is said to be managing about $30 billion worth of portfolio...

A recent industry report showed that the US Crude Oil inventories had been boosted by a pending US-China trade deal that may bring to end months of standoffs between the two states. Following reports of growing inventories, the oil price stabilized above $64 on Wednesday. At the same time, gasoline stocks jumped as production reached a record high. The U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude shed 30% to reach $58.11 a barrel while Brent crude futures...

The price of gold had been dipping for the better part of Tuesday, and at the time of writing this report, it had sunk -0.32% to settle at $1,454.12 down from $1,462.19. The drop comes in the wake of a pending trade deal and a weakening euro, challenging cloud tops on the Dollar Index Chart (DXY). The past few weeks have seen the precious metals take hits from both sides; the risk-on sentiment has boosted stocks and the US yields are higher. As t...

According to several forecasts, there’s likely going to be an oil surplus in 2020. But most of the outlooks are only based on the shale growth of the US next year, an assumption that may be unrealistic.The dominoes keep falling but financial restraints are well-known. In its recent report, Bloomberg stated that a couple of drillers are struggling to attract new capital because financial institutions are reducing their credit lines. Banks re...

All exporters of scrap commodities to Indonesia will now be subjected to new regulations set by the government. A report released by the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries (ISRI), in Washington, stated that the regulation is still crafted in the Indonesian language. Nonetheless, ISRI’s contacts have been issued with the regulation’s initial analysis that outlines “a policy that is so restrictive as to potentially halt trade...

Every year millions of small commodities are delivered from China’s central province Yiwu, to about 200 countries and regions. Yiwu is China’s famous commodities market and is said to be the origin of more than 2.1 million types of commodities. A common small commodity that originates from the city of Yiwu is the drinking straw which fetches a profit of about $0.00011 for each unit. But don’t let the unit profit fool you; a comm...

SSE, one of UK’s top six energy suppliers entered into a deal with Ovo Energy to offload to them its entire domestic energy line of business for £500 million. Close handlers of the deal said that Ovo will be taking over SSE’s household energy business in the United Kingdom, an undertaking that will see SSE surrender the new and existing customers, operations and employees for energy, telecoms, and home services. The price for th...

Crude oil dropped 0.10% on Thursday, bringing its cumulative dip this week to about 4.7%. The markets are likely to experience further movements in the US after the Federal Reserve Bank published the FOMC minutes.But even with a series of slides, Crude has been on a recovery path (somewhat) after managing to sustain very sharp dips on Tuesday. On Wednesday during North American session, West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures traded at a lower...

Exxon Mobil is set to sell $25 billion worth of its oil and gas fields located in Africa, Asia, and Europe. The move entitled the greatest asset sales by Exxon Mobil in the past few decades is aimed at collecting sufficient investment to focus entirely on a few mega-projects. The experts have construed the announcement as the next phase of Exxon’s divestment plans. Chief Executive Darren Woods seems determined to keep Exxon’s reputati...

The latest commodities market outlook from World Bank shows that energy stocks took a hit in November dropping 3.7%. Other commodities, however, jumped 0.9%, with precious metals recording the highest growth margin of 19.4%.To put all that into perspective, here’s an overview of how major commodities are performing during this period of trade wars and short-term interest rates:Crude OilIn a recent World Oil Outlook, OPEC noted with concern...

Hedge-fund managers unwound bets that crude oil would fall at the fastest pace in 16 months. Prospects for a trade war deal and a slowdown in Shale drilling helped futures rebound. According to the Friday data, oil short-sellers cut their bearish positions on West Texas Intermediate crude by 41% in the week that ended Nov.12. They will be contributing to oil’s 10% rebound since early October as they come into the market as buyers to close p...

Sources familiar with the US-China trade deal revealed that the two countries are close to signing a “Phase 1” agreement that is expected to calm down the months-long trade war. Comments by the handlers of the deal boosted investors’ risk appetite last week, but a lack of update this week is starting to pressure energy stocks even as safe-haven assets are trying hard to bounce back.GoldUp until August when talks between China an...

Nasdaq confirmed on Tuesday last week that it was indeed finalizing plans to sell off its commodities futures line of business to a German entity, Energy exchange EEX Group. Sources familiar with the matter confirmed that a sale agreement was reached between the two exchanges to offload Nasdaq’s core assets relating to futures and options, which include the portfolio of open interest in NFX contracts to EEX Group. Details of the agreement i...

Last month Corteva hinted at a possible hit in demand for grains and oilseeds due to delays in planting soybean in China, Brazil, and other emerging producers, causing an 8% drop in its stocks.  Dry weather has been persistent in most growing regions of Brazil pushing out planting of soybeans as well as the usage of crop protection products. Brazil is the world’s top producer and exporter of the oilseed, relying on China as its biggest...

The World Gold Council (WGC) recently published a new Investment Update titled ‘It may be time to replace bonds with gold.’ But is it? The WGC report said that investors are now operating in the market with flat to inverted curves, values of stocks are at extreme levels that historically preceded meaningful stock sell-offs, coupled with rising geopolitical concerns, such as the Middle East turmoil, trade wars, and Brexit. And this is...

Commodities hedge fund titan Blenheim Capital Management is being wound down after 30 years of service. Blenheim, once the largest commodities fund worldwide, is closing shop after its founder Willem Kooyker decided to retire from a business that earned him a name in the oil, agriculture, and metals industries. Most of the firm’s investors are transitioning to a newly formed outfit called Valence Asset Management, headed by Willem Kooyker&r...

Gold investors finally received some good news on Wednesday when the price of the metal jumped after Tuesday’s sharp loss. International markets reflected a 0.2% rise per ounce to $1486.53 after a 1.7% slump in the previous session, the single biggest drop in a month. Analysts attribute today’s jump to the market excitement over a possible China-US trade deal and some solid US economic data which hyped the risk sentiment, dipping the...

During the week ending 25 October, the Energy Information Administration registered a crude oil inventory build of 5.7 million barrels pressuring the prices of oil even further. A day before, the American Petroleum Institute had reported an inventory build of 592,000 barrels for the fourth consecutive time. Industry experts had predicted a build of 729,000 barrels for the previous week after a barrel draw of 1.7 million disrupted inventory builds...

The world-renowned Dutch-British oil and gas company, Royal Dutch Shell, announced its earnings report for the third quarter on Thursday. Having reported a sharp decline of 15% in net profit, Shell’s stock was seen trading 1% lower (year-over-year) as of Thursday. The Chief Executive, Ben van Beurden of Royal Dutch Shell cited chemicals’ margins and dropping prices in the energy sector as the reasons for lower-than-expected net profit...

British Indian commodities tycoon Sanjeev Gupta told Reuters on Tuesday that he intends to merge his family’s steel operations and trade under a single name, the Liberty Steel Group. Gupta also hinted at potentially listing the new outfit in the near future. The business mogul told Reuters that he further plans to organize other private companies in his family’s portfolio and get them listed as well. “Whether it’s the stee...