The Russian Ruble Is Getting Crushed

TOMAS HIRST

 OCT. 24, 2014

The Russian ruble has fallen further against the dollar and the euro hitting record new lows against the currencies.

Bloomberg

Ruble vs the dollar

Bloomberg

Ruble vs the euro.

Russia’s currency has been put under pressure by a combination of falling oil prices and fears over a possible sovereign debt downgrade by  Standard & Poor’s Friday.

The ratings agency currently has a BBB- on Russia, only one grade above junk. A further downgrade would push it into junk territory, likely increasing the country’s borrowing costs at a time when it is already struggling to meet budget targets due to plunging commodity revenues. If the oil price continues to slide analysts see the country falling into a recession.

The Russian central bank has spent over $15 billion in October to prop up the currency, burning through Russia’s foreign exchange reserves, but so far has been unable to halt the slide.

Corn Has Been Getting Crushed

AKIN OYEDELE

SEP. 24, 2014

Corn has been getting crushed.

On Tuesday, corn futures fell to a four-year low, according to Bloomberg’s Megan Durisin.

Durisin reported that futures contracts for December delivery touched $3.2475 a bushel on the Chicago Board of Trade, the lowest since June 2010. 

In a September 11 report, the US Department of Agriculture raised its expectations for year-end corn supplies to a record of more than 15 million bushels. 

Seven percent of corn in the US was harvested last week, lagging behind the five-year average of 15 percent, according to a research report from Morgan Stanley. Yet, hotter-than-normal weather for this time of year will help corn crops mature even faster, the firm said. More supply means lower prices.

Here’s what the price chart looks like: 

FINVIZ

The Department of Agriculture also expects a record harvest for soybeans. On Monday, soybean prices also sank to the lowest level since 2010.

Here’s the ugly chart for soybeans.

FINVIZ

Oil Has Been Getting Crushed

JOE WEISENTHAL

SEP. 15, 2014

FinViz

Oil is down another 1% in early going this week.

But the big story is that for the last three months, oil has been getting clobbered (and crucially at a time of heightened geopolitical stress).

One worry is that the decline in crude represents a flagging global economy, a possibility given the stagnation in Europe, and weakness in China.

Oil crushed by oversupply; WTI ends at 2 month low under $100

Getty Images

Pump jacks and wells are seen in an oil field on the Monterey Shale formation where gas and oil extraction using hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, is on the verge of a boom on March 23, 2014 near McKittrick, Calif.

Oil prices slumped by more than $2 per barrel on Tuesday, deepening their biggest slide this year as rising Libyan supplies and downbeat economic data sharpened concerns that the global market was heading into a near-term glut.

World oil prices have rapidly erased a geopolitical risk premium that had been pushing prices up since April, and selling has accelerated in recent days as traders shift their focus from violence in Iraq and Libya to weak global fundamentals.

Despite ongoing fighting between militias in Tripoli, Libya's oil output has risen to 588,000 barrels per day (bpd), an increase of around 25 percent since the weekend, the acting oil minister told Reuters.

Brent crude dropped more than $2 to under $105 a barrel, the lowest since April 3. Prices have declined almost 7 percent since the beginning of July, an abrupt sell-off that has caught many analysts off guard. The front-month August contract expires on Wednesday, putting further pressure on prices as investors liquidate positions, analysts said.

U.S. crude fell 95 cents to settle at $99.96 a barrel, its lowest since May 9. The contract briefly broke its 200-day moving average of $99.92, a key technical indicator closely watched by traders.