Oil and shipping markets on edge after South China Sea ruling
Global oil and shipping markets reacted nervously on Tuesday after an international arbitration court ruled against Beijing’s claims across large swathes of the South China Sea, fuelling geopolitical tensions in the vital waterway. A tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands, found China had breached the sovereign rights of the Philippines and had no legal basis to its historic claims in the South China Sea, a major shipping lane between Europe, the Middle East and Africa. The ruling will be seen as a victory by other regional claimants such the Philippines and Vietnam, but with China rejecting the ruling and saying its military would defend its sovereign rights, nerves were on edge. Although shippers and oil traders said they did not expect an immediate impact on shipping as a result of […]
You may not have heard the term melt-up before. But if you’ve strapped yourself to the bull at more than one market rodeo (or if you’ve tried to keep yourself planted in your bearish spectator’s seat during the same period), then you certainly know what the ride feels and looks like.
The meeting Monday was organized by the Task Force on Climate Related Disclosures, a group established last year by Bank of England Governor Mark Carney. It seeks to bring transparency and consistency to how companies warn investors about dangers they face from climate change. The group, led by Bloomberg LP founder and majority owner Michael Bloomberg, is drafting voluntary guidelines for companies to disclose risks related to coastal flooding, carbon-dioxide emissions and shifting global energy policies.
Former U.S. Congressman Ron Paul explains that “understanding the Petrodollar system and the forces affecting it, is the best way to predict when the U.S. Dollar will collapse.” The origins of the petrodollar system go back to the Bretton Woods system, the 1944 post-war agreement, which made the U.S. Dollar the sole reserve currency. From then on, only the U.S. Dollar would be convertible into gold at a fixed rate of USD35 per ounce. This also meant that only the U.S. was able to change the price of gold and, in turn, it committed to maintaining the value of the Dollar by buying and selling unlimited quantities of gold, at the agreed upon rate of USD35 per ounce. In 1945, the U.S. Treasury had 17’848 metric tons of fine gold, which at the time represented around 63% of the official gold reserves. The gold-backed Dollar offered the world a reliable and stable reserve currency. However, cracks in the Bretton Woods system began to emerge, as the export surpluses of the U.S. began to drop after 1960.
J.P. Morgan profit falls but beats estimates
.J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. posted stronger-than-expected quarterly earnings and a surprise increase in revenue, while its expenses declined.
Shares rose 2.4% premarket.
The largest U.S. bank by assets reported a profit of $6.2 billion, or $1.55 a share. That compares with a profit of $6.29 billion, or $1.54 a share, in the same period of 2015. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters had expected earnings of $1.43 a share.
Revenue rose to $25.21 billion. Analysts had expected $24.16 billion.
Costs fell to $13.64 billion from $14.5 billion.
