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Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favorite tales on this weekly e-newsletter.
Good morning. We begin at the moment with the explosion of Chinese language gold buying and selling exercise, which has helped supercharge the valuable metallic’s record-breaking rally this month.
Enormous bets by Chinese language speculators on rising gold costs have boosted the rally, in an indication that Asian merchants are starting to eclipse their western counterparts of their affect on the bullion market.
Lengthy gold positions held by futures merchants on the Shanghai Futures Change (SHFE) climbed to 295,233 contracts, equal to 295 tonnes of gold. That marks an increase of virtually 50 per cent since late September earlier than geopolitical tensions flared up within the Center East.
Gold volumes on SHFE surged to greater than 5 occasions final 12 months’s common at 1.3mn heaps on the height day of buying and selling final week. Analysts stated the buying and selling frenzy helped clarify the ferocity of gold’s record-breaking rally to above $2,400 a troy ounce this month.
“Chinese language speculators have actually grabbed gold by the throat,” stated John Reade, chief market strategist on the World Gold Council, an trade physique. Listed below are a number of the corporations making bullish bets.
And right here’s what else I’m protecting tabs on at the moment:
Financial information: Japan and Australia report month-to-month inflation figures, whereas the Financial institution of Korea publishes its Client Sentiment Index.
US-China relations: US secretary of state Antony Blinken travels to China within the two nations’ newest effort to handle tense relations.
Indonesia charge resolution: The potential of a charge improve has risen to arrest the current slide of the rupiah.
Outcomes: Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing, Samsung C&T, Boeing and Canon are amongst these reporting first-quarter earnings.
5 extra prime tales
1. Hong Kong’s greatest preliminary public providing of the 12 months flopped yesterday as shares of Chinese language bubble tea chain ChaPanda dropped as a lot as 38 per cent from its itemizing value in its buying and selling debut. ChaPanda, also referred to as Chabaidao, raised nearly HK$2.6bn (US$331mn), with shares priced at HK$17.50. The poor efficiency comes at a time when town is struggling to revive its inventory market.
2. Elon Musk has pledged to enchantment in opposition to a court docket order in Australia to clean footage of a violent assault in Sydney from his X social media platform, accusing Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s authorities of censorship. At the least 4 individuals had been injured within the assault final week on an Assyrian church, which police have known as a “terrorist incident” of “spiritual motivated extremism”. Right here’s extra on Musk’s dispute with Canberra.
3. Police have arrested a staffer working for a German far-right member of the European parliament on costs of spying for Beijing. The worker was accused by Germany’s federal prosecutor yesterday of being covertly employed by China’s Ministry of State Safety, the most recent alleged Chinese language agent to be unmasked in a development alarming safety authorities throughout the continent.
4. Unique: India is looking for to shore up its entry to essential minerals equivalent to lithium, because it rushes to meet up with rivals together with China within the race to construct next-generation power provide chains. New Delhi is pushing state-owned mining teams to pursue mineral reserves in South America and Africa in addition to inviting bids to develop home mining blocks, a authorities official instructed the FT.
5. JPMorgan Chase chief government Jamie Dimon stated the US financial system is “booming” however warned that he was “on the cautious aspect” of there being a mushy touchdown. In a wide-ranging interview yesterday on the Financial Membership of New York, Dimon additionally praised Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who’s campaigning for an additional five-year time period in energy.
Information in-depth
Jeff Yass’s Susquehanna Worldwide Group first invested $80,000 in ByteDance, the Chinese language proprietor of TikTok, on the again of an thought sketched on a serviette in a Beijing espresso store greater than a decade in the past. His international quantitative buying and selling agency adopted up with one other $2mn months later — a stake that’s now value an estimated $40bn and represents a major a part of Yass’s wealth. However the Republican donor’s fortune is now hostage to the rising political rigidity between the US and China. Beneath strain, he has gone on the offensive.
We’re additionally studying . . .
China-Russia commerce: On paper, industrial ties between the 2 nations look enormous. However their commerce friendship is probably not fairly what you assume, writes Agathe Demarais of the European Council on Overseas Relations.
Secret of sleep: Bamboo pyjamas and sensors in beds — whereas scientists search to elucidate the mechanics of sleep, companies can maintain exploiting our tiredness, writes Leo Lewis.
When to loosen: An ECB rate of interest minimize quickly would make sense however the Fed faces a tougher name within the US, writes Martin Wolf.
Chart of the day
Age discrimination is especially obvious in China’s tech sector, the place older workers are extensively perceived as being much less keen to place up with the notorious 996 schedule — 9am to 9pm, six days per week. Tech executives brazenly state their choice for youth, a development that has turn out to be solely extra entrenched with progressive waves of job cuts within the tech sector, pushed by an financial slowdown and regulatory issues.
Take a break from the information
How will you make work at home fantastic, asks Rhodri Marsden. A strolling pad, Razer’s newest chair, a hi-fi speaker and Apple’s latest MacBook Air is what he recommends, and extra.
Extra contributions from Nora Redmond and Irwin Cruz
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