| Dubai wants to launch world's first tea futures contract
Dubai: Dubai wants to launch the world's first tea futures contract if it finds favourable response among major tea producers and other key industry participants, officials said on Tuesday.
They argued that international tea trade will benefit from a "well-functioning futures market" as it would provide a good pricing guidance for the commodity. "If there is a possibility of a successful tea futures contract, then Dubai might be the place for it since we are ideally positioned between the tea producing and major consuming countries," Dubai Multi Commodities Centre chief executive officer David Rutledge told Gulf News. However, experts said it would not be easy to create a benchmark for a tea futures contract because of the wide variety grown in various countries.
Australian stock market closes down on global credit concerns
DESPITE a strong lead from Wall Street and higher commodity prices, the share market closed in negative territory, reversing earlier intraday gains, on cautiousness about global investments markets. At the 4.15pm AEDT close, the benchmark S&P/ASX200 index was down 20 points, or 0.33 per cent, to 5960, and the All Ordinaries had shed 21.1 points, or 0.35 per cent, to 6019.8. On the Sydney Futures Exchange, the March share price index was down 15 points to 5951 on a volume of 27,555 contracts. ABN Amro Morgans Ipswich manager Tony Russell said nervousness ruled the local market today. "The market is very jittery, we've been swinging from positive to negative.'' Mr Russell said Australian investors were cautious about the earnings results coming from the United States. "We'll see some of the major financial institutions reporting in the US tonight, so the market might be waiting to see what happens there.'' Mr Russell said trading conditions were thin, with many investors still on holiday.
Big miners drag stocks down
On the Sydney Futures Exchange, the December share price index contract was down 72 points to 6528, on a volume of 19,549 contracts. CMC Markets dealer Matt Wacher said lower base metal prices overnight are weighing on the local bourse. "Most of the sectors seem to be pretty flat. Energy and materials sectors are off," Mr Wacher said. "I guess the materials and energy sectors are off on the back of the commodity prices overnight. Oil prices and all the base metals took a bit of a beating and similarly with the gold price which was off quite substantially." Mr Wacher said positive retail sales data in the United States helped to buoy stocks on Wall Street."The US retail sales result was pretty strong so that's probably given a bit of impetus to the market as a whole over there. "It started much lower on the day and ended up around 40 points on the close...
MCX to support Microsoft's rural technology training programme
MUMBAI: Multi Commodity Exchange of India on Thursday announced its support to an ongoing computer literacy programme of Microsoft and Indian Society of Agribusiness Professionals in rural Maharashtra.
This marks the launch of MCX's Corporate Social Responsibility initiative aimed at empowering the youth and women of rural areas of the state with technology skills.
Till now over 15,500 people have been trained and more than 24,000 people are using this service across 16 districts by the means of understanding the futures markets prices of the area specific commodities.
MCX's support will help in increasing deployment of laptop and desktop computers and thereby strengthen the ongoing technology training and adoption efforts through the project.
NYMEX and Other Major Market Participants to Form the Green Exchange ...
NEW YORK, Dec. 12 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- NYMEX Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: NMX), the parent company of the New York Mercantile Exchange, Inc. (NYMEX), the world's largest physical commodity futures and options exchange, today announced the formation of The Green Exchange(TM) venture, with Evolution Markets Inc., Morgan Stanley Capital Group Inc., Credit Suisse, JPMorgan, Merrill Lynch, Tudor Investment Corp., ICAP and Constellation Energy. The new exchange will offer a comprehensive range of environmental futures, options, and swap contracts for markets focused on solutions to climate change, renewable energy, and other environmental challenges. The Green Exchange products are expected to begin trading during the first quarter of 2008 and will be cleared by NYMEX. The Green Exchange venture is expected to launch as a U.S.
Soft miners, banks keep lid on stocks
THE Australian stock market was little changed at noon amid subdued trading, although the big miners were weaker after base metals prices came under pressure again. The benchmark S&P/ASX200 index was 0.4 points higher at 6334.7, while the All Ordinaries had gained 1.1 points to 6396.2. On the Sydney Futures Exchange, the December share price index contract was seven points lower at 6364 on a volume of 5,580 contracts. Austock Securities senior client adviser Michael Heffernan said the market lacked firm direction. "It's been a bit choppy, which is not surprising given the fact that is no lead from our normal leader, which is the US," Mr Heffernan said. "Commodity prices were a bit on the soft side.' "It is interesting that the major drivers of our market, the banks and financial sectors, are in negative territory." Following a round of profit-taking in the past couple of sessions, it could be time for investors to buy again, Mr Heffernan said.
NSE sees futures in NCDEX, may take up anchor investor's role
MUMBAI: A strategic play is underway in the world of commodity futures. The country's largest bourse, National Stock Exchange (NSE), has signalled its interest in raising its shareholding and assume a bigger role in the commex National Commodity & Derivatives Exchange (NCDEX).
Besides the strong synergies between the two institutions, the rapid growth in futures trade and an urgency among corporates to cover commodity price risks may have shaped NSE's plans to play the anchor investor for the new exchange — a concept that has gained currency in recent times.
NSE has held informal meetings to broach the possibility with other NCDEX stakeholders and has sounded out the Forward Markets Commission (FMC), the regulator for commodity markets. Sources familiar with the development said NSE, which owns 15% in NCDEX, is willing to step up its holding by either infusing fresh money or buying out one of the shareholders.
The Ex Ante Factor: Bizarro World
The week of January 21-25, 2008 will go down in the history books of financial markets and potentially society at large. We witnessed the largest financial debacle in history where SocGen lost $7b in index futures pushing stock markets to the brink of collapse (are we trying to one-up each other's debacles?), we received an historic 75bps inter-meeting ease from the Federal Reserve (to fix a bad trade in Europe?), the US government agreed to pass a stimulus package to head off a recession (borrowing $150 billion to save a multi-trillion $ credit bubble?) and to top it off 10YR treasury yields traded down to 3.30% just 30bps from the 2003 lows while the inflation sensitive gold contract traded at an all time high above $920/oz (is this bizarro world?). With all the debate regarding whether or not the US will enter a recession we took a look at the conflicting messages coming from the commodity and bond markets to see if we could come up with a conclusion and trading strategy.
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