Markets Live: Iron ore, Iraq sparks sell-off

 

Date
June 13,  2014

Patrick Commins

Miners led the market lower on a slumping iron ore price, while  conflict in Iraq spooked investors but pushed gold, energy stocks and the Aussie  higher.

Sort posts by:

4:57pm: That’s it for Markets Live today.

Thanks for reading and your comments.

You can read a wrap-up of the action on the markets

Seguir leyendo

Vale Proves Too Rich for Barclays on Iron’s 30% Plummet

By Juan Pablo Spinetto and Julia LeiteJun 9, 2014 8:46 PM GMT+0200

The biggest drop in iron-ore prices in five years is a signal to Barclays Plc and Seaport Group thatVale SA (VALE5)’s outperformance in the bond market is about to end.

The $2.25 billion of bonds due 2022 returned 9 percent in the past six months, exceeding the 7.4 percent average gain for notes from emerging-market mining companies with investment-grade ratings. The Vale bonds yield 4.06 percent, the least relative to similar securities from London-based Rio Tinto Group since September, data compiled by Bloomberg show.

Vale, which gets about 95 percent of earningsfrom its ferrous business, posted a bigger-than-forecast drop in first-quarter profit after selling its ore for 25 percent less than the

Seguir leyendo

As Iraq Burns, Kurds Try (and Fail) to Sell More Crude

 

June 13, 2014

Photograph by Emad Matti/AP Photo

Kurdish security forces deploy outside of the oil-rich city of Kirkuk, 180 miles north of Baghdad on June 12

Iraq is coming apart before our eyes, undoing much of the economic progress that a couple of years of stability had afforded it. While it’s premature to call this a civil war, there’s little doubt that’s where things are headed, especially after a powerful Shiite cleric urged his followers to take up arms against Sunni militants during Friday prayers.

So far the action has been in the north, home to some but not much of Iraq’s productive oil reserves. The vast majority of Iraq’s more than 3 million barrels of daily oil production comes from the southern parts of

Seguir leyendo

Iraqi Oil Sailing in Circles

Bloomberg

Brad Hoppmann | June 13, 2014

What does a ship bound for nowhere have to do with the oily, violent mess in Iraq? This particular ship is a key player — and it’s currently idling off the coast of Morocco. Today I’ll tell you why.

The ship’s name is United Leadership. Ironically, “united leadership” is exactly what Iraq is missing this week.

***

The map above is more legible than the one I ran yesterday. Bloomberg helpfully color-coded the territory controlled by Sunni Arab, Shia Arab ad Sunni Kurd forces, along with oil fields and pipelines.

Iraq’s messy political situation is not improving. The competing groups have their own internal tensions. We may well see Iraq break up into three or more rival governments in the next few weeks.

If

Seguir leyendo

Morgan Stanley Turns Aussie Bull to Predict Parity

 

Photographer: Sergio Dionisio/Bloomberg

Bulk carriers are loaded with iron ore at the ship loading facility at Fortescue Metals Group Ltd.'s Herb Elliott Port in Port Hedland in Western Australia. Australia’s largest export, iron ore, fell below $100 per metric ton last month for the first time since 2012. Close

Bulk carriers are loaded with iron ore at the ship loading facility at Fortescue Metals... Read More

Photographer: Sergio Dionisio/Bloomberg

Bulk carriers are loaded with iron ore at the ship loading facility at Fortescue Metals Group Ltd.'s Herb Elliott Port in Port Hedland in Western Australia. Australia’s largest export, iron ore, fell below $100 per metric ton last month for the first time since 2012.

 

Morgan

Seguir leyendo