Close: London Session | Forex, Metals, Oil, Agriculture July 28, 2020

Sugar prices at the Vashi wholesale market declined by ₹10-20 a quintal on eased local demand amid limited activities. Hoosier Ag Today reported the recent rains brought needed relief to corn and soybeans, with increasing topsoil and subsoil moisture significantly from last week. The Bombay Sugar Merchants Association spot rates (₹/quintal): S-grade 3,302-3,382 and M-grade 3,410-3,580. Over two decades ago Jay got his start at the Kansas City Board of Trade in the Wheat Futures pit. On the Corn front, the USDA Crop Production gave corn a boost of 3% to 72% good to excellent from last weeks 69%. Producers from the pork and beef industries, to cotton, wheat, asparagus, cilantro, and rhubarb have received help but the ethanol producers have been left out. That’s because these are coffee can stocks.

As gold and silver prices charge higher, the US dollar index dropped to a two-year low on Monday, slipping beneath 94.00. Another example came up today in the as the Wall Street Journal discusses the “traditional relationship” between gold and the dollar in Gold Prices Hit Record as Dollar Drops. This benchmark, which measures the dollar’s value via a basket of major currencies, ended the week at its lowest level since October 2018. Nominal value of US dollar against major currencies, in logs (black, left scale 1/2/2020=0), dxy dollar index, in logs (teal, left scale), Economic Policy Uncertainty index (tan, right scale). Investing.com Follow As gold and silver prices charge higher, the US dollar index dropped to a two-year low on Monday, slipping beneath 94.00. September WTI is little changed around $41.50 a barrel.The main development in the capital markets today is the firmer dollar against nearly all the major and emerging market currencies.

The horizontal dashed line is the US dollar index at 93.7, When the solid blue line touches the dashed blue line the dollar index at that time is 93.7.

Similarly, people confuse demand for new gold jewelry as the demand for gold. Nonsensical analysis of gold demand happens because people do not understand the the supply of gold nor the driver for the demand. Last week alone, 55 tonnes of gold and over 1,200 tonnes of silver flowed-in as gold rates soared by over five per cent. One can further illustrate gold’s unique nature as money with a study of gold prices vs. jewelry demand. That comment shows huge ignorance about the true demand for gold as well as the price driver for gold. Also, look for nonsensical articles on the alleged price difference between paper gold and physical gold. According to the World Gold Council, demand for Gold jewelry in 2019 fell 6 percent overall to 2,107 tons.

OPEC prepares for an age of dwindling demand The coronavirus crisis may have triggered the long-anticipated tipping point in oil demand and it is focusing minds in OPEC. Expectations that electric cars and a carbon-neutral world will cause peak demand for oil is flawed, as alternatives to oil still have significant drawbacks. An oil price environment of $40s a barrel is still not high enough to encourage shale oil producers to meaningfully increase spending and drilling activity. While the demand growth for oil may not be what it might have been, the reality is that oil demand growth will continue to grow. If you remember in the crude oil market in March, the price came down to -$37 a barrel before the expiration of the contract. In this backdrop, the global oil and gas drilling activity will likely remain low as oil and gas producers will reduce spending. Brent crude futures, the global oil benchmark, rose 0.23 per cent to $43.51 per barrel.

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. I am not criticizing the Fed, as they have a government to protect, and the government has the coronavirus to contend with and an economic crisis to combat. In this case, Marqeta chief revenue officer Omri Dahan said it would have taken years for the Wall Street giant to build a similar product in-house. Today, Asian stocks showed uneven results following yesterday’s Wall Street rebound after a two day selloff at the end of last week. After this week’s FOMC meeting and the first look at Q2 GDP, the US July employment report is due at the end of next week. But the outlook remains uncertain, particularly around Fed posturing in the current environment, and thus, I wouldn’t put too much stock into a resumption of the buyback anytime soon. That fact is likely to keep the US money supply growing at a faster rate than Eurozone money supply, even with the recent Eurozone stimulus announcement.

Five Things Follow Us Get the newsletter High stakes stimulus talks continue, virus back in Beijing, and another monster day for earnings. This week, a group of unions and nongovernmental organizations called on major brands like to stop sourcing goods from Xinjiang. Beijing on Tuesday reported one new coronavirus case, its first in 21 days. He also criticized the German carmaker for “denying any knowledge of the oppression of the Uighur people in Xinjiang.” “Beijing actively promotes the reprehensible practice of and analysis schemes to repress its citizens,” said Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross in a statement. -Politico “Volkswagen … is a company without a conscience, Bütikofer told Politico, adding that “companies like that are complicit in upholding a totalitarian hell in Xinjiang.” The new case was confirmed just days after Beijing started reopening more public transit and lifting other restrictions inspired by the outbreak.

It’s best seen as a temporary, though significant, expansion in the EU’s multi-annual budget-which already allocates funds between net contributors and net beneficiaries. The recovery fund, combined with European Central Bank (ECB) bond purchases, should help peripheral countries plug substantial funding gaps over the next year or so. The ECB, which supervises the largest banks in the eurozone, extended its previous recommendation for a moratorium on dividends and buybacks until January from October. The European Recovery Fund, nearly €900 billion in stature, will bring forth jointly-issued debt under the EU’s name for the first time ever. Getty Images The ECB asked lenders to delay paying dividends until next year to conserve their financial strength. The European Union request “is suspended until the order terminating the present proceedings for interim relief is made,” the Luxembourg-based court said in a judgment dated July 24. The money rate floor, the ECB’s deposit rate, was reduced but only by 10 bps, making NIRP only a little more NIRP-y at -30 bps.