4 May 2022 – Hedge funds and investment firms like to bet on falling prices on the commodity exchanges and at the same time invest in large media companies. With the right news, they can quickly reap rich profits for their investors. Positive market data despite global crises reported from the United States and the euro zone. And crude steel is becoming increasingly scarce, as current statistical data show.
Positive market data despite global crises
Even though we have all been in permanent crisis mode for more than two years, the resilience to crises and the high demand of western industrial nations continues to show.
Euro area increases industrial capacity utilisation
As the European Central Bank announced yesterday, industrial capacity utilisation continued to rise in April 2022 despite the Ukraine-Russia crisis. At the same time, Eurostat was able to announce a further decline in unemployment figures in the Euro area. Compared to the previous year, the unemployment rate decreased by 1.2%.
US: Highest increase in factory orders in over a year
In the United States, factory orders rose by 2.2%, twice as much as had been forecast. This indicates a significant upturn in March and is the highest level in more than a year. At the same time, 500,000 more new job openings were reported than forecast.
China: Lockdowns shorten steel production
Chinese lockdowns have weighed on steel production in the Asian country in recent months. But not only there, but also worldwide, a decline in crude steel production could be observed. Overall, estimated crude steel production from January to March 2022 fell by 6.8% compared to the same period last year, according to the worldsteel Association.
Media manipulation: Hedge funds put pressure on commodity prices
Every month, statistics are compiled worldwide that can be interpreted in one direction or the other. Depending on the use to which they are put. On Tuesday, hedge funds and investment firms apparently tried once again to push commodity markets down a little.
JPMorgan Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index™
IHS Markit, now part of S&P Global, yesterday released the JPMorgan Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index™ (PMI™), compiled by S&P Global. And found a marginal decline from 52.9 in March to 52.2 in April.
Global development as bad as possible?
Overall, there seems to have been an effort by hedge funds and investment firms to create as drastic an outlook as possible for a possible future with lockdowns in China, war in Ukraine, sanctions against Russia and the German challenges of dependence on Russia.
And commodities again
As a trader you start to wonder when names like S&P Global, JPMorgan and IHS Markit are mentioned in the same breath. After all, the whole world still remembers the nickel debacle on the LME, which is partly owned by JPMorgan via detours such as the HKEX and where an important JPMorgan client, namely the Chinese nickel and stainless steel group Tsingshan, recently gambled away an estimated 8 billion dollars.
Who actually owns S&P Global Inc.
If you look at the investor structure of S&P Global Inc. you will quickly notice two major shareholders. The Vanguard Group, Inc. and Blackrock Inc. are the largest shareholders of S&P Global, each with more than 5%. If one goes a step further, the Vanguard Group is the largest shareholder of JP Morgan Chase with 8.4% and the largest shareholder of BlackRock Inc. with 7.66%.
Who has an interest in bad data? Hedge funds!
And now one has to ask once more who could have an interest in writing the market down with bad news in order to make bigger profits by betting on falling prices? Hedge funds. And when media companies, 95% of whose owners are hedge fund financial service providers, spread more bad news in order to trigger falling prices, one is no longer surprised.
Tip: Look twice
As an inclined reader, one should therefore always look twice before making decisions that may be to the advantage of others.
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Disclaimer: Many things here represent our opinion. Others are information from the Internet. We can therefore never claim to be correct or complete. And never base a business decision solely on the news you receive from us.
