The Daily Fix – looking past the UK election
European and US traders largely overlooked an increasingly ugly picture in HK, where the Hang Seng closed -2.6% and the CSI 300 -1.8%, and we saw the DAX closing -0.2% and the S&P 500 following with similar form. Asia should, therefore, welcome the lack of any real drawdown in US trade and we should see…
China’s Jingye forges rescue deal for British Steel
Chinese industrial giant Jingye Group has agreed to buy bankrupt British Steel for an undisclosed amount, the official receiver said Monday in a rescue deal that saves thousands of jobs. Jingye added separately that it would invest £1.2 billion ($1.5 billion, 1.4 billion euros) over the next decade to place the business, which collapsed in…
SpaceX sends up 60 mini-satellites with plans for thousands more
The private SpaceX company on Monday launched a second set of mini-satellites as it builds a huge constellation of the small orbiting devices aimed at greatly expanding internet access around the globe. A Falcon-9 rocket launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida, placed 60 mini-satellites in orbit, joining 60 others launched in May. The American company’s Starlink…
A Brexit threat in Labour’s heartlands?
In places like eurosceptic Hartlepool in northeast England, long-held party allegiances being reshaped by Brexit could trigger a political earthquake at next month’s election. The former shipbuilding and steel hub on Teesside, which voted by almost 70 percent to leave the European Union in the 2016 referendum, has been a traditional stronghold of the Labour…
Trundling into trouble: Singapore targets e-scooters after accidents
Tiny Singapore had embraced electric scooters in a big way, but deaths and fires linked to the two-wheelers have prompted authorities to introduce tough rules that could put a brake on their runaway success. The contraptions have popped up in cities worldwide but pedestrians in many places have come to see the silent machines as…
China’s Jingye Group in talks to buy British Steel
China’s Jingye Group is in talks over a potential deal to buy British Steel, a company spokeswoman confirmed Monday, as the struggling industrial group seeks new owners. The Chinese industrial giant is believed to be poised to agree a rescue of the British steel group, which collapsed into liquidation in May. Jingye’s spokeswoman confirmed to…
Record fall in petrol prices Chinese tourists at record highs
What does it all mean? • Somewhat remarkably, petrol prices in all the capital cities with discounting cycles are at, or near, their cyclical low points. Average pump prices in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Adelaide are all currently below 140 cents a litre. At the same time wholesale prices are around 132 cents a litre….
Chinese consumers spend billions in Single’s Day extravaganza
E-commerce giant Alibaba filled billions of dollars in orders on Monday during China’s annual “Singles Day” shopping frenzy, the world’s biggest 24-hour shopping event. Total gross merchandise volume settled through the company’s payments platform Alipay hit 100 billion yuan ($14.3 billion) within 63 minutes and 59 seconds, according to Alibaba — 43 minutes ahead of…
Australian houses shrink: Smallest in 17 years
CommSec Home Size Trends Report • The average size of an Australian free-standing house has fallen to 17-year lows. Data commissioned by CommSec from the Australian Bureau of Statistics, shows the average new house built in 2018/19 was 228.8 square metres, down 1.3 per cent on a year ago to the smallest house size since…
The Daily Fix – Trader thoughts from the floor
There has been spluttering of news of note over the weekend, although the G10 FX open has been fairly sanguine, as should the futures open at 10am AEDT. A worsening of China’s producer inflation (-1.7% YoY), and Iran detailing they have come across oil fields with some 53 billion barrels shouldn’t cause too much angst….
