U.S. index futures and various commodities prices are down on Monday amid a general decline in investors’ risk appetite amid information about the ongoing protests in China against anti-covid restrictions.
“We knew we were going to be nervous this morning about the COVID-19 situation in China, but the protests took the market by surprise,” said SPI Asset Management managing partner Stephen Innes, quoted by MarketWatch.
December futures for the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index were down 0.6% by 9:17 a.m. Ksk, the Dow Jones was down 0.4% and the Nasdaq 100 was down 0.7%.
January Brent crude futures on London’s ICE Futures exchange fell 3.1% to $81 a barrel by 9:17 a.m. Ksk. January WTI futures fell 3% to $73.98 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX), which was the lowest level since late last year.
Oil fell 5.4% on the Shanghai exchange.
Base metals in London and Shanghai also fell on Monday. Iron ore prices on the Dalian Commodity Exchange fell 2%.
Protests were held in cities across the country, including the capital Beijing, as well as Shanghai, Xinjiang and Wuhan, which was originally the epicenter of the COVID-19 spread, Bloomberg reported.
That contributes to a stronger U.S. dollar, which reduces the attractiveness of investments in raw materials, and also raises the possibility of even more significant tightening of restrictions by Chinese authorities, the agency said. It may have a negative impact on economic activity in China, which is the world’s largest consumer of many raw materials.
China’s oil demand could fall to an average of 15.11 million bpd in the fourth quarter, down from 15.82 million bpd for the same period in 2021, Kpler oil analyst Gregory Leckner predicted.
Commodity turnover in the main retail segments returned to the pre-crisis level according to the results of May 2020, almost reaching the February figures, according to the analysis of the number and volume of payments by credit cards in the network of POS terminals of PrivatBank (Kyiv) in January-May 2020, published by the bank’s press service on Monday.
“Food retail is currently getting out the lockdown without losses. According to the analysis of the volume of payments made by cards in the bank’s retail network of terminals, in March and April 2020, non-cash turnover in food chain stores increased by 25% compared to February. In May, non-cash turnover in the food networks was 23% higher than in February,” the bank said.
Non-cash turnover in the network of pharmacies and medical goods stores increased most of all in the first months of lockdown, in particular, in March compared with February it increased by 30%. At the same time, in May non-cash turnover in the pharmacy chains fell by 18% compared to February.
According to the analysis, the most significant during the lockdown was the reduction of cashless turnover in the electronics and home appliances market, which in March amounted to 10% compared to February, and in April reached 43%. In May, the turnover in this sector returned to the pre-crisis level.
According to PrivatBank, by the end of May, the turnover in filling station chains also returned to the pre-lockdown level after sales fell by 20% in April compared to February.
Belarus and Ukraine may increase mutual commodity turnover to $5 billion in 2018, Belarusian Deputy Prime Minister Igor Lyashenko said. “Positive dynamics of trade and economic relations between our countries was observed in the past few years. We have managed to stop the fall that was in 2013 and resume growth,” Lyashenko said at a plenary session of the first forum of Belarusian and Ukrainian regions in Gomel on Friday.
The amount of bilateral trade reached $4.6 billion in 2017 and went up 20% against 2016, he said.
“We project commodity turnover at $5 billion this year [an 8.7% increase from 2017],” Lyashenko said.
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko and Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko have decided to bring mutual commodity turnover to at least $8 billion in 2019.
Not only the governments of the two countries, but also the regions need to contribute to achieving this goal, Lyashenko said.
BELARUS, COMMODITY, GENERAL ELECTRIC, INFRASTRUCTURE, PROJECTS, TRANSPORTATION, TURNOVER, US
