Press

John Bolton was fired, and the price of oil instantly fell

Oil rally fades, with U.S. prices erasing nearly all of their earlier gains

A rally in oil futures faded by the end of Thursday’s trading session, prompting U.S. prices to erase nearly all of their earlier gains as plans for U.S.-China trade talks next month failed to fully calm nervousness over the outlook for the global economy.

Ken Smithmier Talks About Corn Seeing a Price Decay

ClipperData Director of Agricultural Commodity Research, Ken Smithmier, sat down with Ben Lichtenstein of TD Ameritrade this morning to discuss Chinese soybean imports, US production and Russian wheat exports.

The Bab el-Mandeb Strait is a strategic route for oil and natural gas shipments

The Bab el-Mandeb Strait is a sea route chokepoint between the Horn of Africa and the Middle East, connecting the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden and Arabian Sea. Most exports of petroleum and natural gas from the Persian Gulf that transit the Suez Canal or the SUMED Pipeline pass through both the Bab el-Mandeb and the Strait of Hormuz.

ClipperData: More U.S. Soybean Shipments En Route to China

Much of the trade war with China for agriculture has centered around soybeans. For more than a year, President Trump said China promised to buy large amounts of U.S. agricultural commodities, including soybeans. However, many of those promises seemed empty, with the president even taking to Twitter to address the issue.

Texas Crude Exports Might Have To Go Elsewhere In Light Of China’s New 5% Tariff

The US-China  trade war is also affecting the energy market. West Texas Intermediate Crude futures fell last week after China retaliated, slapping its own tariffs on American goods. Matt Smith, director of commodity research at ClipperData, says this tit-for-tat dynamic puts U.S. oil exports in a precarious position.

Mainland ID card as a “meat ticket”

Due to the impact of African Swine Fever, the number of live pigs in mainland China has dropped sharply, and pork prices have skyrocketed. Due to the severe shortage of pork, some regions have begun to issue documents, restrict purchases of pork, and even rely on ID cards. Buy meat. The outside world said that it seems that China has returned to the era of "food stamps" and "meat tickets" in the planned economy. Even basic household items must be purchased by ticket.

Oil drops, sending U.S. prices down by more than 1% for the week

Oil dropped on Friday, prompting a weekly loss of more than 1% for the U.S. benchmark, after China announced it would impose retaliatory tariffs on $75 billion worth of imports from the U.S., including a levy on crude, amplifying concerns about the global economy and demand prospects.

China to hit $75bn of US goods with additional tariffs

China has announced it will apply additional tariffs of between 5 and 10 per cent on $75bn of US imports from September, marking the latest escalation in an increasingly bitter trade war between the world’s two largest economies.  

West African oil hits sweet spot as shipping upgrades to cleaner fuel

African states like Chad and Cameroon are shaping up to be big winners from new rules to cut sulfur emissions from ships, providing just the right type of oil to produce cleaner fuels.