The oil price is holding up quite well despite weaker demand and higher stockpiles. The reason for that are tightness in the brent market (which reflects in other markets via. arbitrage) and geopolitical risks (mostly related to Iran nuclear program).
Challenger’s count of layoff announcements was reported at 40,559 in April vs. 37,880 in March.
HSBC/Markit PMI rose from 48.3 to 49.1.
Large discrepancy between HSBC/Markit and “official” PMI. Looks like a slight overreaction by the markets (if we view this in isolation).
Baltic Dirty Tanker Index fell 5.4%; Baltic Clean Tanker Index fell 0.6%.
Same as with dry bulk…nothing changed.
Baltic dry index rose 9.8% last week; Capesize Index was down 2.5%; Panamax Index rose 28.4%; Supramax Index was up 9.0%; Handysize Index rose 4.1%.
Iron ore inventory at Chinese ports fell in the recent weeks; price pretty much unchanged. Steel stock…
Baltic Dirty Tanker Index rose 3.5%; Baltic Clean Tanker Index fell 3.1%.
Baltic dry index rose 6.9% last week; Capesize Index was down 1.4%; Panamax Index rose 5.3%; Supramax Index was up 16.0%; Handysize Index rose 7.3%.
Iron ore inventory at Chinese ports close to all-time high; price pretty much unchanged. Steel stockpi…
Nonfarm payrolls rose 227.000 in February; Consensus was at 210.000; January reading was an increase of 284.000 (revised up 41.000). Unemployment was reported at 8.3% vs. prior reading and consensus of also 8.3%.
Private payrolls were up 233.000 vs. 2…
Baltic dry index fell 10.9% last week and has reaching all-time low; Capesize Index was down 2.0%; Panamax Index fell 15.0%; Supramax Index was down 12.5%; Handysize Index fell 10.3%.
ECRI Weekly Leading Index for week ending January 20, 2012 was reported down 6.5% y-o-y. Prior reading was at -7.6%.