Disruptions to Food Supply to ‘Ratchet Up Prices,’ Olam’s Verghese Says

Global food costs will remain elevated because a potential slowdown in economic growth is unlikely to hurt demand and weather-related disruptions to supply could “ratchet up prices,” Olam International Ltd. (OLAM) said. Combined global inventories of wheat,

Tokyo Grain Exchange scraps plan to merge with Tokyo Commodity Exchange+

Tokyo Grain Exchange Inc. said Tuesday it has scrapped its proposal to merge with Tokyo Commodity Exchange Inc. ahead of the Aug. 8 launch of rice futures trading. TGE President Yoshiaki Watanabe told reporters that the company has withdrawn the planned transfer of

Wheat Jumps to One-Month High as Feed Use of Grain Fueled by Rally in Corn

Wheat futures climbed to a one-month high on speculation that U.S. livestock producers will use more of the grain as an alternative feed ingredient, after the price of corn surged. Corn futures rose to a five-week high today after the government said U.S. crop conditions deteriorated last week while hot weather this week threatens to […]

Chinese economy to be fired by coal-to-chemicals

China is obsessed with setting the pace for the world to follow. Except that its stock market failed to pack a punch. The Shanghai Composite fell 15 per cent in 2010 and remained inside the shadow of its far more spectacular cousins, the vibrant commodities markets. Will China retain its prominence inside the global commodity […]

Things That Are More Expensive In China Than America: Fruit, Eggs, Milk & Meat

China used to be cheap.  According to figures the World Bank uses to calculate Purchasing Power Parity (PPP), in 2003, a dollar’s worth of currency bought nearly five times as much in China as it did the U.S.  A bag of groceries, or a hairdo, or a hotel

$2 trillion municipal bond debt crisis could bring down 100 US cities, analyst warns

Raw Story A new disaster is looming, according to a prominent market research analyst. Meredith Whitney, a financial analyst who runs her own consulting firm and correctly predicted the major debt fallout of Citigroup, warned in a little-reported on interview Sunday that as many as 100 US cities face default on their municipal bonds. Cities […]

Asia Stocks Rise on Commodities as Korea, Europe Concerns Abate

Asian stocks rose by the most in two weeks as commodity prices climbed amid easing tensions on the Korean peninsula even after a military drill by the South yesterday, and as China reported “concrete action” to help stabilize Europe’s economy. Sony Corp., the Japanese electronics maker that gets about 22 percent of sales from the […]