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.

Facebook - America's Biggest (but not Best) Tech IPO

Facebook has become the biggest technology IPO in US history. The flotation was done on Nasdaq - with 80 million shares being traded in 30 seconds. It's opening price at $38 a share resulted in a valuation of $100bn. On Monday, it's first day of trading, the stock closed almost $4 below the IPO price, and fell again Tuesday.

Pre-IPO Facebook paid over $1bn for photo-sharing program Instagram.

Facebook was a loss-making business until 2009, when revenues reached $229m mainly from advertising.

Project "GX" - The Glencore-Xstrata Mega-Merger

Glencore and Xstrata, commodities giants extra-ordinaire, desire to merge in a $90bn merger. Glencore would own 55% of the new entity which would be headed by Xstrata CEO, Mick Davis. Xstrata is 1.5% owned by Fidelity Investments, who believe (amongst others in the market e.g. Standard Life, Schroders) that Glencore should offer more than it has for its share in the new concern. Glencore already own 34% of Xstrata.

One of Xstrata's goals is cost-reduction initiatives in an inflationary environment.

Chancellor lets Branson buy NorthernRock - Good or Bad for Taxpayers?

Branson attempts to make a "silk purse out of a sow's ear", by paying £747m cash for the bank, a third of which will be funded by the state. Branson's Virgin Money is investing together with Stanhope Investments, a unit of the Abu Dhabi national fund. The deal comes 5 months after UK finance minister George Osborne (aka Chancellor of the Exchequer), who studied Modern History at Oxford, put N-rock up for sale.

A word on the role of the Chancellor..it is one of the FOUR Great offices of State, which comprise, the Prime Minister, the COTE, the Foreign Secretary and the Home Secretary.

James Callaghan (PM: 1976-1979) is the only person to have served in all four offices. Prior to PM he was Chancellor (1964-1967) wrestling with BoP deficit and speculative attacks on GBP. He was ousted by Maggie Thatcher's Conservatives in 1979 following the "winter of discontent".

UKFI (UK Financial Investments) manages government stakes in bailed-out banks, established shortly after the collapse of Lehman Brothers. Sir David Cooksey (creator of Advent) joined as Chairman the following year, his background is both engineering and financial entrepreneurship.