Close: London Session | Forex, Metals, Oil, Agriculture August 17, 2020

The plant would no longer produce fuels from crude oil, but instead would make fuels from used cooking oil, fats, greases and soybean oils. Corn ethanol production capacity currently sells for $1/gallon or less, yet ethanol producers have struggled to achieve positive margins in recent years. But Trump also continues to express that desire to do business, as he did on Saturday, when he cited recent Chinese purchases of corn, cattle and soybeans. We view this as an additional reason to avoid iQIYI, as previous investigations on Chinese companies have not ended well, similarly to the recent delisting of Luckin Coffee.
Amidst weak availability, plant deliveries of soybean were quoted higher at ₹3,900 a quintal. Today it looks a little softer, perhaps coming down off the sugar high of a 20% bump in one-day gas prices.

After bouncing a third of a percentage point against the Canadian dollar before the weekend, the US dollar is yielding to start the new week. Last week, the rupee (INR) ended largely flat at 74.9 versus preceding week’s close of 74.93 against the dollar (USD). The Australian dollar is firm and has poked through last week’s highs, though so far it has been unable to push through the $0.7200 area. Since markets won’t expect a new supply of cheap dollar soon, China-US trade talks will be the flashpoint as the two review their phase one deal.
The US dollar finished last week below the MXN22.00 support area and is holding mostly below there today. Once the ten stocks are determined, an investor invests an equal dollar amount in each of the ten stocks and holds them for the entire next year. The dollar held above last week’s low near CNY6.9310). In order to effectively drive down the value of the Kiwi dollar, the RBNZ may need to purchase a good share of Aussie dollars.
In fact, on a year-to-date perspective, gross dollar volume was down by only 1%, despite three fully adversely affected months and a still beaten down cross-border volume by 24%. Meanwhile, the dollar index, which gauges the greenback’s strength against a basket of six currencies, was trading at 93.08, lower by 0.01 per cent.

First, investors ought not to confuse gold mining companies with gold bullion. Barrick Gold has gold and copper mining operations in 13 countries around the world. Gold and silver mining shares tend to outperform the precious metals on the way up and underperform during price corrections. If gold and silver are heading for higher highs, the junior mining shares could be the perfect way to buy the dip in the precious metals. There has been much interest in Berkshire Hathaway’s (NYSE:BRK.A) (NYSE:BRK.B) purchase of Barrick Gold (NYSE:GOLD).
We should expect silver to continue to provide a wild ride on the up and the downside during the bull markets in gold and silver. If the almost 15% selloff in gold was a reminder of the potential for volatility in bull markets, the price action in silver was brutal. Gold was back around the $1950 level, and silver was just over $26 per ounce at the end of last week. Mining shares tend to outperform gold and silver futures prices during rallies and underperform during corrections.
The company generates steady free cash flow, which is about to get even higher with gold price now above $1,900 per ounce in Q3.

Oil prices are mixed after reports last week that China is booking a lot of U.S. crude and stories that the U.S. seized a lot of Iranian oil. While the demand for heating oil peaks during the winter months, the heating oil crack spread is a proxy for diesel and jet fuels, which are year-round products. Co-produced with Trapping Value In our last update on oil, we noted that the bullish developments continued but we saw a near-term cap for oil prices. The supply side of the fundamental equation for crude oil is bullish for the energy commodity, but the demand will drive the price over the coming weeks and months.
Higher crack spreads often translate to increased demand for crude oil and higher prices.
The crack spreads have experienced pressure, but the overall picture in the crude oil market remained bullish at the end of last week. The Oklahoma shale driller filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Sunday, the latest U.S. energy sector casualty in recent months as COVID-19 crushes oil demand. During periods of increased volatility in the crude oil market, crack spreads can become highly volatile, as we witnessed earlier this year.
Meanwhile, crack spreads determine the profitability of companies that refine crude oil into gasoline and distillate products. Crude oil imports into the Mediterranean (MED) rose last week, totalling 35.2 mmbbl compared to 30.95 mmbbl a week earlier.

In terms of the US market, the groups BetMGM JV with MGM resorts (MGM) can provide the necessary foothold to gaining market share in the US sport betting market. In fact, thanks to its record net loss, it might even be the world’s most valuable company thanks to the Fed which has flipped every market fundamental upside down. We have seen many periods of time where these markets have diverged from the US equity market. Maybe the correct phrase could be “don’t fight the Fed after the market has a major pullback” because that would be a better investing strategy.
– Warren Buffett The bond and equity markets have benefited from the excess liquidity pumped in by the Fed this year during the pandemic economic response. Investment analyst working within one of the Big 4 Wall Street banks covering a wide range of stocks from consumer and retail to healthcare sectors. This took the broader market to within a whisker of new all-time highs whilst the technology heavy Nasdaq index has already accomplished this feat.
Also, the US water and wastewater industry is a large part of the global industry, but using global indicators to estimate a US-only company is questionable. Last week, it announced that it may seek legal action against President Trump’s executive order but it is unclear if management intends to follow through. Put it this way: Democratic voters are almost all going to vote for Biden, and Republican voters are almost all going to vote for President Donald Trump.

Chinese President Xi Jinping urged citizens last week to put an end to the country’s “shocking and distressing” food-waste problem, including through legislation.

Boris Johnson’s government is preparing to alter England’s exam grading system after parents and students reacted with fury to results announced last week. Boris Johnson has broken off from his holiday in a bid to try to stem the growing crisis over this year’s exam results. Another round of talks on a trade deal between the European Union and the U.K. is scheduled to start tomorrow in Brussels, with fisheries among the main sticking points. Source: NY Times Under such conditions, it’s hard to imagine that the EU, Canada, China, the Bahamas and many other countries will lift their current ban on American travelers.
Boris Johnson said councils in England would have the enhanced powers from Saturday, after he set out new details for “a significant return to normality” by Christmas. The deal achieved China approval during this quarter, but the EU has yet to sign off, accounting for the 7% spread. His feature articles have been published on: FXstreet.com, Thestreet.com, Action forex, Forex TV, Istockanalyst, ForexFactory, Fxtraders.eu, Insidefutures.com, etc.
, which opens a potential can of worms similar to Ukraine on the EU’s border again.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel meets with President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday in France, as they seek to calm territorial tensions between Turkey and Greece in the Eastern Mediterranean.