1.The Federal Reserve has said that it will continue to support the economy

Dec 16, 2020

The Federal Reserve has said that it will continue to support the economy through massive monetary stimulus measures, until it sees “substantial further progress” in employment and inflation. At their final meeting of a tumultuous year, policy makers led by Chairman, Jerome Powell, voted to maintain monthly bond purchases of at least $120 billion. Policy makers made no changes to the composition of purchases, declining to shift them toward longer-term maturities.

Source: Reuters

2.US may reapply Rusal Sanctions

Dec 17, 2020

Aluminium surged to the highest level in more than two years, on the back of speculation that the U.S. could reapply sanctions on one of the world’s largest producers. Russia’s primary aluminium output accounts for about 6% of the global supply, with Rusal being the top supplier in Europe, and among the top five in the U.S.

Source: Bloomberg

3.Global banks are increasing bets on copper

Dec 18, 2020

Goldman Sachs Group and BlackRock are pointing towards the start of a new long-term bull market in Copper, as supply lags an expected demand boom. Some banks and investors are now drawing comparisons to the spike, which was seen in early 2000. Goldman pointed towards the start of a positive feedback loop between commodities, the dollar and emerging-market growth, which have driven structural bull markets in the past. BlackRock expects copper to hit new all-time highs in the upswing of the cycle.

Source: Bloomberg

4.Bank of England keeps rate and asset-buying unchanged

Dec 17, 2020

The Bank of England decided to leave its key rate unchanged at 0.1%, and keep the ceiling of its government bond-buying program at £875 billion ($1.1 trillion), as it noted that the U.K. economy is currently developing in line with its expectations. Both the decision on the rate and on Quantitative Easing (QE) were taken unanimously by the nine-member ruling body,

Source: MarketWatch

5.The Bank of Japan is planning to achieve a 2% inflation target

Dec 18, 2020

The Bank of Japan,, on Friday unveiled a plan to examine more effective ways to achieve its 2% inflation target, following in the footsteps of its U.S. and European peers, as a renewed spike in infections, have threatened to derail a fragile recovery. As widely expected, the central bank kept monetary policy steady, and extended by six months, a range of measures aimed at easing funding strains of companies hit by COVID-19.

Source: Bloomberg

6.US stimulus talks to continue over weekend

Dec 18, 2020

White House officials and Congressional leaders are trying to address a number of lingering policy disagreements, as they race to finalize an approximately $900 billion coronavirus relief package, with growing signs that the talks will drag into the weekend.

Source: Reuters

7.Global waiting game begins for covid vaccine

Dec 15, 2020

Some countries around the world are not waiting for international help. In a global free-for-all, they are brokering deals with companies to secure their products, and are authorizing them for use, even before final efficacy results are in. Among them are COVID-19 vaccines, which could be cheaper, and more abundant than the first successes.

Excitement about COVID-19 vaccines spread last month, when trials of the Moderna candidate, and another from Pfizer and BioNTech, each revealed about 95% efficacy. But those vaccines, based on messenger RNA (mRNA) coding for a viral surface protein called spike, are tricky to make and transport. The United States has purchased 100 million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech product, which received an emergency use authorization last week, but will only receive enough to start vaccination of 10 million Americans this year. 

Source: Sciencemag.org

8. China’s refined copper and lead production rose to monthly record highs in November

Dec 17, 2020

China’s refined copper production grew 0.7%, year-on-year, to 945,000 tonnes last month, while lead production increased 8.3%, to 628,000 tonnes. The figures surpassed previous monthly highs for refined copper and lead production, which were reached in December 2019, and October 2020, respectively.

Alumina production rose 11.3%, year-on-year, to 6.3 million tonnes. The rise was the lowest monthly total since July, as producers of the aluminium feedstock are subject to production restrictions in winter.

Source: Reuters and NBS