GLOBAL MARKETS-Asian stocks fall, dollar gains on Europe woes
SINGAPORE, Sept 12 (Reuters) - Asian stocks slid and the euro sank to a 10-year low against the yen, after the resignation of a top German European Central Bank board member cast further doubt on the region's ability to tackle its worsening sovereign debt crisis. "People are quite nervous about Greece and other countries in the European area, so that is why investors are escaping to the dollar," said Tetsu Emori, a fund manager at Tokyo-based Astmax Co Ltd. "It's risk aversion."
European Stocks, U.S. Futures Drop; RBS, Barclays, Lloyds Slide (Bloomberg)
European and Asian stocks fell and U.S.-index futures retreated as speculation mounted that Germany is preparing for Greece to default. BNP Paribas SA, Societe Generale (GLE) SA and Credit Agricole SA (ACA) slid more than 9 percent after two people with knowledge of the matter said Moody’s Investors Service may cut the banks’ ratings because of their Greek holdings. Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc (RBS) and Barclays Plc (BARC) fell at least 4 percent as Britain’s banking commission recommended firewalls around retail-bank operations that would cost as much as 7 billion pounds ($11 billion). The Stoxx Europe 600 Index lost 2.4 to 219.11 at 8:24 a.m. in London, plunging to its lowest level since July 2009. Futures contracts on the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index expiring in December retreated 1.7 percent and the MSCI Asia Pacific Index slid 2.3 percent.
FOREX-Euro slumps to 10-yr low vs yen as Greece worries mount
TOKYO, Sept 12 (Reuters) - The euro hit a six-month low against the U.S. dollar and a 10-year trough versus the yen, falling below key technical levels and option barriers on worries that the euro zone's support for Greece is wobbling and the country may be forced to default on its debt.
"The outlook for Greece is almost completely unknown. Support for the country appears to be shaking. The market is starting to think the worst could happen," said Katsunori Kitakura, chief dealer at Chuo Mitsui Trust and Banking.
Indonesia's refined palm oil tax redraws landscape
KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 9 (Reuters) - Lower taxes on refined edible oil exports from top crude palm oil producer Indonesia are set to boost cooking oil supplies in the region, eroding margins for rival Malaysia and making cargoes cheaper for Asian buyers.
For decades, refined, bleached and deodorised (RBD) palm olein used in cooking oil enjoyed premiums of 5-10 percent over crude palm oil futures as No.2 producer Malaysia was the sole supplier with tax free exports and massive processing capacity.
China, India corn demand to lead to record prices
JAKARTA, Sept 9 (Reuters) - Chinese and Indian corn demand will help push benchmark prices to record levels above $8 a bushel before the year-end, a leading U.S. analyst said late on Thursday.
Strong demand from developing Asian countries like China, the world's second largest corn consumer, coupled with the hottest summer in over half a century in top producer the United States, are both bullish for corn prices, John Baize, president at John C. Baize and Associates, told Reuters.
China Aug commodity imports shows economy resilient
SHANGHAI, Sept 10 (Reuters) - China's key commodity imports, including crude oil, copper and iron ore, all climbed in August from the previous month, adding to evidence that demand in world's second-largest economy was still going strong despite the economic turmoil in the West.
The wave of buying of oil and industrial commodities suggests that Chinese companies remain confident about the domestic economy and that they would likely see any price corrections as a rare restocking opportunity -- a move which should offer strong support to commodity prices.
GRAINS-US wheat at 1-mth low, soy rises ahead of report
SINGAPORE, Sept 12 (Reuters) - U.S. wheat futures slid to a one-month low, falling for a fifth straight session amid broad weakness in global markets triggered by concerns over Europe's ability to tackle its worsening sovereign debt crisis.
"A strong report may see prices rebound, particularly given that drought conditions continue across the U.S. Great Plains, negatively impacting hard red winter wheat planting," Commonwealth Bank of Australia strategist Luke Mathews said in a report.
Vietnam may lower import barriers on corn, wheat-paper
HANOI, Sept 12 (Reuters) - Vietnam may lower the import duty on corn to 3 percent from 5 percent now and abolish the 5-percent import tax on wheat as it seeks to lower production costs for the feed industry, a state-run newspaper reported on Monday.
The Agriculture Ministry has proposed the tax measures and the Finance Ministry said it would seek opinions from related agencies in order to issue a directive for implementation within this month, the Vietnam Economic Times newspaper said.
Dryness starting to hurt Argentine wheat -gov't
BUENOS AIRES, Sept 9 (Reuters) - Rains are needed in much of Argentina's wheat belt to safeguard 2011/12 crops, especially in parts of the top growing province Buenos Aires, the Agriculture Ministry said on Friday.
The South American nation, a leading global wheat exporter, has yet to forecast 2011/12 output, but the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) sees production dipping to 13.5 million tonnes from 15 million last season.
Brazil maintains 10/11 soy forecast at 75.3 mln T
SAO PAULO, Sept 9 (Reuters) - Brazil's 2010/2011 soy crop is expected to reach 75.3 million tonnes, government crop agency Conab said on Friday, in line with last month's forecast and on track to beat last season's record harvest.
Brazil, the world's second-largest producer and exporter of soy, brought in 68.7 million tonnes of soy last season.
Ukraine harvests 272,000 T maize Sept.9 - AgMin
KIEV, Sept 9 (Reuters) - Ukraine, which plans to boost its maize harvest to 18-20 million tonnes this year, threshed 272,000 tonnes of the commodity as of September 9, the Agriculture Ministry said on Friday.
The ministry gave no data for the same date in 2010 but said the maize yields rose to 4.76 tonne per hectare this year against 3.81 tonne a year ago.
India fluffs cotton policy, gives buyers an edge
MUMBAI, Sept 9 (Reuters) - India's fickle policy on cotton exports has hurt its role as a steady supplier of the fibre, and saddled its exporters with huge stocks they will have to sell on punitive delivery conditions at lower prices through next year.
Cotton users in Bangladesh, China and Pakistan will benefit, but exporters in India, which harvested a good crop in the year to September 2011, will still feel the pain of curbs lifted only in August, after prices halved from March highs.
Oil falls $1 as dollar gains, investors shun risk
SINGAPORE, Sept 12 (Reuters) - Oil fell by more than $1 as the dollar strengthened and investors shunned commodity risk because of Europe's deepening sovereign debt crisis, while economic gloom dampened the outlook for energy use.
"People are quite nervous about Greece and other countries in the European area, so that is why investors are escaping to the dollar," said Tetsu Emori, a fund manager at Tokyo-based Astmax Co Ltd. "It's risk aversion."
Oil production restarts in Libya - interim PM
TRIPOLI, Sept 11 (Reuters) - Libya has started producing oil again, the country's interim prime minister said on Sunday, promising that more of it would come online in the "near future".
"We started producing oil yesterday," Mahmoud Jibril told a news conference in Tripoli. He declined to say where or how much.
Japan Aug aluminium stocks hit over 2-year high
TOKYO, Sept 12 (Reuters) - Aluminium stocks held at three major Japanese ports at the end of August stood at their highest level since May 2009, boosted by the arrival of delayed shipments from July, an official at trading house Marubeni Corp said on Monday.
Aluminium stocks at these ports rose by 37,700 tonnes or 18.5 percent to 241,200 tonnes as of the end of August from 203,500 tonnes a month earlier, said Marubeni, which collects data from the key ports of Yokohama, Nagoya and Osaka.
India's NALCO temporarily cuts daily output on power shortage
BHUBANESWAR, India, Sept 10 (Reuters) - Insufficient power supply has forced India's state-run National Aluminium Co Ltd (NALCO) to cut it's daily aluminium output by about 6 per cent, a senior company official said on Saturday.
The disruption caused by a scarcity of coal however will not affect the company's quarterly or yearly output target although the production may decline slightly by around 2,100-2,400 tonnes for a month, said A.K. Sharma, director (Production).
Aluminium consumers hold off 2012 buys on slowdown fears
LONDON, Sept 9 (Reuters) - The outlook for aluminium demand for the remainder of 2011 is shaky in the debt-troubled economies of the West, which has discouraged consumers from filling all their 2012 needs for now, participants at a recent conference said.
"I cannot imagine we will have a very soft landing, for the simple reason that the banks are sitting on a lot of liquidity that they don't lend any more," Constellium's Chief Executive Christel Bories told delegates to a Metal Bulletin aluminium conference in Paris.
Vietnam plans Nov alumina production start
HANOI, Sept 9 (Reuters) - Vietnam's first alumina refinery would start producing in November, after several delays, and sell an estimated 50,000 tonnes this year directly to clients without any tenders, the company operating the plant said on Friday.
Alumina output at the $460 million Tan Rai plant would rise to 350,000 tonnes next year, around half its projected annual capacity, said Chief Executive Officer Le Minh Chuan of Vietnam National Coal and Mineral Industries Group, adding that no tenders had been planned yet.
Codelco clients ask to cancel orders on global turmoil
SANTIAGO, Sept 11 (Reuters) - Chile's Codelco, the world's top copper producer, said some of its European and U.S. clients asked to cancel orders due to fears there will be less demand amid global financial turmoil, a newspaper reported on Sunday.
Codelco did not reveal the amount or value of the cancellations. The state company begins its sales season in October and local media say it has committed to selling 80 percent of its 2012 production.
China August copper imports at 340,398 tonnes
BEIJING, September 10 (Reuters) - China's imports of copper rose 11.0 percent to 340,398 tonnes in August from 306,626 tonnes in the previous month, data from the General Administration of Customs showed.
Copper imports to China, the world's leading copper and aluminium consumer, include anode, refined, alloy and semi-finished copper products.
China August iron ore imports at 59.09 mln T, up 8.3 pct
BEIJING, September 10 (Reuters) - China imported 59.09 million tonnes of iron ore in August, up 8.3 percent from the previous month, official data from China's customs authority showed.
Imports of steel products rose 8.9 percent to 1.35 million tonnes while exports fell 5.6 percent to 4.19 million tonnes.
Indonesia's Aug tin exports up 7.3 pct yr/yr
JAKARTA, Sept 12 (Reuters) - Indonesia's refined tin exports rose 7.3 percent in August from the same month last year, but were down 7.6 percent on the previous month, an official at the trade ministry said on Monday.
Indonesia, the world's top tin exporter, shipped 8,559.61 tonnes of refined tin in August, compared with 7,974.05 tonnes in August last year, trade ministry data showed. In July, tin exports stood at 9,265.72 tonnes.
METALS-London copper falls 1 pct on economic concerns
SINGAPORE, Sept 12 (Reuters) - London copper declined 1 percent, extending a fall of 3.2 percent in the previous session, as mounting worries about stalled economic growth in the West outweighed robust growth in China's copper imports.
"The euro cracked and risk has cracked," said a Singapore-based trader. "The foreign exchange market has taken a turn to the worse and base metals are going to be shattered today."
Gold demand to strengthen by end 2011-WGC
MILAN, Sept 9 (Reuters) - Gold demand which dropped in the second quarter of this year is expected to strengthen by the end of 2011, driven by robust jewellery consumption in India and China and recovery in investment demand, senior World Gold Council (WGC) officials said on Friday.
Overall gold demand fell 17 percent year-on-year in the three months from April to June to 919.8 tonnes as a sharp drop in investment demand offset a tentative recovery in jewellery buying, the gold mining industry-funded WGC said in August.
PRECIOUS-Gold extends losses on dollar, jewellers shop around
SINGAPORE, Sept 12 (Reuters) - Gold fell further after posting its worst closing since June last week but bargain hunters could cushion the fall, while escalating worries about Europe's ability to resolve its debt crisis sent bullion priced in euro to a record high.
"We still lean negative in our bias and expect a fall toward $1,750 over the next week or so," said Tom Pawlicki, precious metals and energy analyst at MF Global.
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