2014 Commodities Halftime Report

Updated on
  • Minister of Finance cut the outlook for Gazprom dividends, a move that has also affected other state-owned Russian companies.

Gazprom Enjoying Premium Differential to European Gasclick to enlarge

  • Softening of European demand, combined with reduced export channels via land, are affecting Turkey’s successful export story. Despite Turkey posting a better than expected current account deficit of $3.4 billion in May, taking the gap to $19.8 billion in the first five months (and down 39 percent from the same period last year), the markets are questioning the sustainability of further improvements. The lira weakened as economists focused on Turkey’s export dependency on Iraq, the second-largest market for Turkish products, which slid 21 percent in June from a year earlier.
  • More than six months after the second-child policy was approved in China, eligible couples have been slow to embrace looser restrictions based on provincial statistics.  Growth prospects of China’s mass consumer sector, such as infant foods and diapers, has significantly diminished due to structural migration to e-commerce and rising competition to name brands.

© US Global Investors

www.usfunds.com

Leave a Comment