China is buying/importing gold like there is no tomorrow
Source: Willem Middelkoop
what a journey...
Source chart: Bloomberg
BHP Billiton approached Anglo American to create the world's largest copper producer.
Yesterday, mining giant BHP Billiton has offered to buy rival Anglo American (ex-its South African iron ore and platinum assets) for USD 39 bn. According to Bloomberg, if the deal proves successful, “BHP-Anglo could control 11% of the mined copper supply”. This deal highlights copper’s dominance as the primary metal in the energy transition and underscores the significant consequences of the recent disruptive events affecting global supply. Copper’s upward trajectory is accelerating.
Copper jumps to highest price since April 2022 👀
Source: Barchart
In case you missed it... U.S. 10-year government bonds yield 4.70%, about two percent more than Vietnam's 2.92%.
Source: Jeff Weniger
While $IBIT's daily inflow streak is over at 71 days, it is not done setting records.
Here's a look at ETFs all time by assets after first 72 days on market. Source: Eric Balchunas, Bloomberg
BlackRock's Bitcoin $BTC ETF just saw its 71-day inflow streak come to an end.
Source: Barchart, Bloomberg
Bloomberg on the outcome of the BoJ Bank of Japan’s monetary policy meeting.
The Bank of Japan kept its policy rate unchanged Friday after its monetary policy meeting, holding its benchmark policy rate at 0%-0.1%. This is in line with expectations from economists polled by Reuters. While the move was expected, this comes after Tokyo’s April inflation came in lower than expected, with the core inflation rate at 1.6% compared to expectations of 2.2% from Reuters. The BOJ also said it will continue to conduct bond purchases. However, they dropped a reference to buying roughly the same amount of bonds as previously. No comment was made by the BOJ on the yen, which has steadily weakened since the BOJ ended its negative interest rate policy last month and abolished its yield curve control policy. The currency broke through the 156 mark against the U.S. dollar Friday after the decision, most recently trading at 156.11. Separately, the central bank also released its second-quarter outlook for Japan’s economy, raising its outlook for inflation in fiscal 2024. The BOJ now expects inflation between 2.5% and 3% for fiscal 2024, up from 2.2% to 2.5% in its January forecast. Inflation is then predicted to decelerate to “around 2%” in fiscal 2025 and 2026, the bank added. The BOJ also downgraded gross domestic product growth forecasts for fiscal 2024 to a range of 0.7% to 1%, down from January’s prediction of 1%-1.2% growth. Think of this as another small step in what the BoJ sees as a relatively long policy normalization journey. As mentioned by Mohamed El Erian, the length of this journey, both on a standalone basis and relative to the US, helps explain the weak Yen. Source: Bloomberg, CNBC
