Artificial Intelligence, Robotics Top List of Technologies in Need of Better Governance
November 12, 2016--While technology holds great promise of improving quality of life and addressing global challenges, action is needed to put in place governance that enables them to achieve their full potential
A new survey by the World Economic Forum feeding into its Global Risks research finds artificial intelligence and robotics to be the emerging technology most in need of better governance, followed by biotechnologies and energy capture, storage and transmission.
Source: WEF (World Economic Forum)
OPEC-Monthly Oil Market Report November 2016
November 11, 2016--Oil market highlights
Crude Oil Price Movements-The OPEC Reference Basket rose by $4.98 in October, to average $47.87/b. ICE Brent
and NYMEX WTI also surged, up by $4.15 and $4.71, to average $51.39/b and $49.94/b, respectively.
Prices were lifted by declining US oil inventory levels and discussions to bring forward market rebalancing.
However, prices came under pressure from a rise in US oil rig counts, a stronger US dollar, and profit taking.
Source: OPEC
BlackRock ETP Landscape October 2016
November 11, 2016--OCTOBER FLOWS FUELED BY U.S. AND BROAD EMERGING
MARKETS EQUITIES FOLLOWING RECORD Q3
Global ETPs slowed to $18.6bn in October after record quarterly flows in Q3, driven by U.S., broad emerging markets (EM) and EAFE equities along with solid gains in U.S. TIPS
Positive Q3 corporate earnings and economic growth boosted flows to U.S. large cap equities which generated $7.5bn but prospects for higher rates weighed on flows to real estate equity sector funds
Better economic data from China propelled broad EM equity flows to $3.4bn in October, bolstering the category's record year-to-date pace
Fixed income remains on record year-to-date pace, led this month by U.S. TIPS amid stronger economic growth while conventional government bonds and high yield were dampened by rising rates and oil price volatility
Source: BlackRock
UK-China 8th Economic and Financial Dialogue: financial services
November 10, 2016--The London-Shanghai Stock Connect-the first of its kind outside China-will proceed to the next stage, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Philip Hammond, announced today (10 November 2016).
The initiative will create a diverse range of new investment opportunities for both UK and Chinese investors, and open the doors to a pool of new investors for UK and Chinese firms.
Source: HM Treasury
The global climate 2011-2015: hot and wild
Extreme weather increasingly linked to global warming
November 8, 2016--The World Meteorological Organization has published a detailed analysis of the global climate 2011-2015-the hottest five-year period on record-and the increasingly visible human footprint on extreme weather and climate events with dangerous and costly impacts.
The record temperatures were accompanied by rising sea levels and declines in Arctic sea-ice extent, continental glaciers and northern hemisphere snow cover.
All these climate change indicators confirmed the long-term warming trend caused by greenhouse gases. Carbon dioxide reached the significant milestone of 400 parts per million in the atmosphere for the first time in 2015, according to the WMO report which was submitted to U.N. climate change conference.
view the The Global Climate 2011-2015
Source: World Meteorological Organization (WMO)
IMF Working paper-Spillovers from the Maturing of China's Economy
November 8, 2016-- Summary: China's transition to a new growth model continues and the impact has been felt across the globe. Several trends contribute to the ‘'maturing' of China's economy: i) structural slowing on the convergence path; ii) on-shoring deepening; and iii) demand rebalancing from investment towards consumption.
In the short term, financial stress may lead to a cyclical slowdown. This paper discusses and quantifies spillovers to the global economy from these different developments. The analysis is undertaken using the APDMOD and G20MOD, both modules of the IMF’s Flexible System of Global Models. For plausible values of these developments, the overall impact on the global economy is not large. However, the impact on China's closest trading partners and commodity exporters can be notable.
Source: IMF
IMF Working Paper-Oil Prices and the Global Economy: Is It Different This Time Around?
November 8, 2016--Summary: The recent plunge in oil prices has brought into question the generally accepted view that lower oil prices are good for the United States and the global economy. In this paper, using a quarterly multi-country econometric model, we first show that a fall in oil prices tends relatively quickly to lower interest rates and inflation in most countries, and increase global real equity prices.
The effects on real output are positive. although they take longer to materialize (around four quarters after the shock). We then re-examine the effects of low oil prices on the U.S. economy over different sub-periods using monthly observations on real oil prices, real equity prices and real dividends. We confirm the perverse positive relationship between oil and equity prices over the period since the 2008 financial crisis highlighted in the recent literature, but show that this relationship has been unstable when considered over the longer time period of 1946-2016. In contrast, we find a stable negative relationship between oil prices and real dividends which we argue is a better proxy for economic activity (as compared to equity prices). On the supply side, the effects of lower oil prices differ widely across the different oil producers, and could be perverse initially, as some of the major oil producers try to compensate their loss of revenues by raising production. Taking demand and supply adjustments to oil price changes as a whole, we conclude that oil markets equilibrate but rather slowly, with large episodic swings between low and high oil prices.
Source: IMF
World Bank-State and Trends of Carbon Pricing 2016
November 7, 2016--This report provides an up-to-date overview of existing and emerging carbon pricing instruments around the world, including national and subnational initiatives
Furthermore, it gives an overview of current corporate carbon pricing initiatives. Another key focus of the report is on the importance of aligning carbon pricing with the broader policy landscape.
Source: World Bank
WGC-Gold Demand Trends Q3 2016
November 7, 2016--Global gold demand amounted to 993t in Q3 2016 (-10%), as high gold prices discouraged consumers.
ETPs were the only bright spot during the quarter, with 146t of inflows helping to counterbalance weak demand elsewhere, notably in jewellery (-21%), bars and coins (-36%) and purchases by central banks (-51%).
Source: World Gold Council
IOSCO consults on Other CRA Products and their use by market participants
November 7, 2016--The Board of the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) today published a consultation report titled Other CRA Products, which seeks further insight into how market participants use non-traditional, products or services offered by credit rating agencies (CRAs).
Source: IOSCO