Markets were thrown into turmoil this week following Sergio Mattarella’s - the president of Italy - decision to block the appointment of a eurosceptic finance minister, Paulo Savona, nominated by the populist Five Star Movement (M5S) and right-wing League parties, which are attempting to form a coalition government after elections in March. Instead, Mattarella appointed [...]
The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) economy is driven by agriculture, mineral resources, manufacturing and services. Over the past decade, the agricultural sector has been declining as the country’s major contributor to its GDP while commodities-related industries have been rising. The mining sector accounts for one-quarter of the country’s GDP which makes the country extremely [...]
The largest producers of mined lead are China, Australia, and the USA, whereas the largest producers of recycled lead are the USA, China, and Germany. China alone accounts for about 60 percent of all lead production. As well as producing 60% of the lead, China also uses over 40% of the annual global supply of [...]
Metals are tied in, like every other sector, to the global economy via a variety of exchange rate mechanisms, and metal prices change as stock markets fluctuate. Exchange rate fluctuations affect metal prices profoundly. The prices of individual metals, like prices for any commodity, are essentially determined by supply and demand. Current prices do not [...]
A commodity currency is a name given to some currencies that co-move with the world prices of primary commodity products, due to these countries' heavy dependency on the export of certain raw materials for income. Commodity currencies are most popular in developing countries such as Burundi, Tanzania and Papua New Guinea. However developed countries like [...]
In 2017, anything related to Blockchain and cryptocurrency was hot property; in 2018, anything linked with blockchain is having a difficult time. Last year, about 170 hedge funds began trading; while in 2018 only 20 new funds have started so far. Additionally, chances are 10 percent of the existing funds will close operations this year, [...]
"Since the election, we have created 2.4 million new jobs, including 200,000 new jobs in manufacturing alone," said Trump. The unemployment rate has fallen under Trump, from 4.7 per cent in December 2016 to 4.1 per cent in December 2017, a very low rate by historical standards. But this is a continuation of the downward [...]
The dollar was the second worst performer in 2017 among major currencies after the New Zealand dollar, and its drop was the steepest in more than a decade despite three interest rate hikes and the passage of Trump's tax reform, which could logically be expected to drive the dollar's value upward. This significant drop has [...]
Worries that Trump is entangling America in a global trade war intensified greatly this week after China imposed retaliation tariffs on the US and stock markets plunged. The Dow Jones industrial average crashed and then rallied after markets fell in Europe and Asia on concerns of an escalating trade conflict amongst the world’s two leading [...]
Trump has been a Twitter user since 2009, amassing more than 20 million followers and issuing more than 30,000 tweets. Trump’s frequent use of Twitter in the addressing of individual companies, countries and future U.S. policy towards commerce have made his Twitter feed an influential market moving force. A strong advocate for Twitter, Trump cites [...]
