LME Copper and the Eurozone

How can what happens in the Euro "zone" affect what happens to the copper price? Well, on Friday 29 June  2012, it did just that - with the biggest daily rise posted since April - up 2.2% on the 3 month contract at around half seven AM (GMT) . The traded price was $7,545 per tonne.

Copper trades on the Shanghai (SHFE), LME and COMEX exchanges. (COMEX also offers trading on e-Mini copper futures). In India, copper trades on the NMCE and the MCX.

GM, Enjoying the Escalade?

From total disaster in 2008, GM climbed to number 5 in the Fortune 500 in 2011. In the words of Fortune Magazine: "Detroit has staged a comeback". Profits were up 49% from 2010. Around March 2012, GM had around $40bn of market cap.

General Motors owns the classic American brands like Chevrolet, Buick, Cadillac as well as the European brand Vauxhall. Vauxhall is a British brand that was acquired by GM as early as 1925 and originally started as a marine engine manufacturer. It is headquartered in Luton, Bedfordshire, 30 miles North of London.

GM have a new luxury SUV for 2012, the Cadillac Escalade.

UK Property Owner Crowned with New Profits

Super-prime properties performed really well for the owner of Regent Street (and promote of Regent's Quadrant 3 Scheme in which £300m was invested) as the value of the Crown Estate's property portfolio surged to £8bn for the first time. Net profit was up 4% from the previous year and the Treasury (by which, of course, one refers to Her Majesty's Treasury) gave a sign of glee. The Crown's Marine Estate that owns most of the UK coastline also profited from investment in wind farms (generating 1.5% of the UK's electricity!!!).

TI-Brent Spreads Stable Despite Destruction in Brent

The Eurozone crisis had its part to play in the fall in energy prices in May 2012 (over 4% drop) which are, to some extent, reflective of the global macro-economy.

Nevertheless, the spread of TI-Brent, around 12.55 has not changed as visibly, although it was wide at 20.8 on April 4, 2012, but this extremity was short-lived, and the spread narrowed fairly rapidly after that. The previous major widening was Oct 2011, when the spread was 26.