Highlights The US Climate Prediction Center gives ~ 70% odds another La Niña will form in the August – October interval and will continue through winter 2021-22. This will be a second-year La Niña if it forms, and…
Highlights The US government issued its first-ever water-shortage declaration for the Colorado River basin in August, due to historically low water levels at the major reservoirs fed by the river (Chart of the Week). The drought…
Our fair value model based on TIPS yields and inflation breakeven rates shows that gold prices are back to equilibrium after a 6% undershoot earlier in August. The lack of trend in real yields for the past year, as well as the…
Highlights US crude oil output will continue its sharp recovery before leveling off by mid-2022, in our latest forecast (Chart of the Week). The recovery in US production is led by higher Permian shale-oil production, which is quietly…
Highlights Going into the new crop year, we expect the course of the broad trade-weighted USD to dictate the path taken by grain and bean prices (Chart of the Week). Higher corn stocks in the coming crop year, flat wheat stocks and…
Increasing COVID-19 infection and death rates, particularly in Asia; heightened regulatory crackdowns in China leading to equity sell-offs; and the all-too-familiar policy cacophony from the Fed are contributing to rising global…
Highlights The rapid spread of the COVID-19 delta variant in Asia will re-focus precious metals markets anew on the possibility of another round of lockdowns and the implications for demand, particularly in Greater China and India,…
Highlights The dollar is fighting a tug of war between two diverging forces: an economic slowdown around the world but plunging real interest rates in the US. The litmus test for determining which force will gain the upper hand is if…
Highlights Global oil demand will remain betwixt and between recovery and relapse through 3Q21, as stronger DM consumer spending and increasing mobility wrestles with persistent concerns over COVID-19-induced lockdowns in Latin America…
The Global Investment Strategy service is advocating a positive stance on gold. Firstly, the yellow metal will benefit from a weaker US dollar later this year. The forces which tend to drive the dollar over cyclical horizons…