Futures of robusta coffee beans have hit their highest price in over 40 years, while cocoa prices have more than doubled this year.
BUSINESS / Markets
May 9, 2024
Cocoa’s dizzying volatility is spilling into the coffee market
Many major traders deal in both commodities, so soaring cocoa prices are squeezing market players for cash and forcing them out of coffee trading.
Workers make pods for e-cigarettes on the production line at Kanger Tech, one of China's leading manufacturers of vaping products, on Sept. 24, 2019 in Shenzhen, China.
BUSINESS / Markets
May 9, 2024
China’s factory glut alarms the world, but there’s no quick fix
European Union leaders, who are threatening tariffs on electric cars, were the latest to scold China about overcapacity, but there are no plans to change.
Masato Kanda, vice minister of finance for international affairs, reiterated the currency authorities' readiness to step into the market for speculative-driven foreign exchange moves.
BUSINESS / Markets
May 7, 2024
Japan warns of action over rapid currency moves
Comments by the government's top currency diplomat, Masato Kanda, reinforced Tokyo's readiness to intervene again to support a fragile yen.
Major banks as well as regional banks have raised their ordinary deposit rates to 0.02% per annum from 0.001%.
BUSINESS / Markets
May 6, 2024
Many banks in Japan raise deposit rates after BOJ action
Banks have also refrained from raising their lending rates, which would affect households and other corporate activities.
One analyst said Japanese policymakers "hid the intervention well," pointing to the ways they may have used to fund currency interventions recently.
BUSINESS / Markets
May 6, 2024
Market hunts for signs of yen intervention in Fed accounts
Recent data suggests that Japanese policymakers may have funded currency interventions using a Fed facility where central banks stash overnight cash.
A Lamborghini Diablo SL automobile displayed at the company's event to mark the automaker’s 60th anniversary in Seoul in September 2023. While the boost in wealth among crypto investors was mostly poured into discretionary spending, a significant portion spilled into local housing markets, the researchers found.
BUSINESS / Markets
May 6, 2024
Lamborghini bros no more: Crypto is creating a new wealth effect
Study suggests that household spending out of crypto gains is more like the patterns from traditional equity investments, such as on home purchases.
Traders edged back from record bets on yen weakness this past week, in a period that included a likely bout of intervention by Japan to prop up the currency.
BUSINESS / Markets
May 4, 2024
Traders spooked by intervention risk trim record yen shorts
Traders edged back from record bets on yen weakness this past week, in a period that included a likely bout of intervention by Japan.

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