Rig Count Weekly – December 27, 2010
Number of crude oil drilling rigs fell for 15; Number of natural gas drilling rigs fell for 10.
Archive for December 27th, 2010
Morning Reading – December 27, 2010
*** FT BeyondBRICS: China: the long-awaited Xmas gift ***
*** FT BeyondBRICS: Asia markets wrap: Shanghai at 2-month low after rate rise ***
*** The Big Picture: The Only Constant Is Change (1881-2010) ***
*** The Big Picture: Job Offers Rising ***
*** The Big Picture: Going Bankrupt: 100 Bailed Out Banks ***
*** The Big Picture: Lessons from the Muni Bond Market in 2010 ***
*** Reuters: New claims may add to Nakheel’s legal woes: sources ***
*** The Slope of Hope: Some Musings ***
*** The Slope of Hope: My Morning’s Inbox ***
Dry Bulk Weekly – December 27, 2010
Baltic dry index fell 11.3% last week; Capesize Index was down 13.8%; Panamax Index fell 9.4%; Supramax Index was down 7.4%; Handysize Index fell 1.2%.
I’m getting a little bit worried but to repeat last week’s comment: Iron stockpiles & steel inventory mostly unchanged; Iron ore and steel prices stable. No indication of any major disruptions in Chinese economy. Low rates are probably byproduct of excess supply of ships and seasonal factors (weaker construction steel demand in China during winter months).
Chinese Central Bank Raised Benchmark Interest Rate
POBC raised key one-year lending rate for 0.25% to 5.81%. This was widely expected; I have wrote on this earlier and almost certain there is more of this to come.
Raising interest rates and stalling real-estate prices are a bad cocktail. I will cover China even more extensively next year, as big things could come from here.
Tanker Weekly – December 27, 2010
Baltic Dirty Tanker Index fell 0.5%; Baltic Clean Tanker Index fell 3.3%.
Cargoes for first half of January well covered; Markets activity weak because of holidays.
New Week Intro – December 27, 2010
Weekly economic calendar.
U.S. Freight Carloads Weekly – December 27, 2010
U.S. railroads originated 271,709 carloads, unchanged compared with the same week in 2009 and down 10.0% compared with 5-year average. Week over week change was -5.1%.