Saudi Arabia's new heir to the throne Crown Prince Mohammed bin Nayef, a close friend of the United States and a scourge of Islamist militants, will be the country's first king from the third generation of its ruling dynasty.

King Salman bin Abdulaziz, in a decree on Wednesday, appointed his nephew and Interior Minister Prince Mohammed as heir apparent, replacing the monarch's half-brother Crown Prince Muqrin in a shake-up at the top of the world's biggest oil exporter.

The move, three months after he took the throne following the death of King Abdullah and coming as Saudi Arabia leads a military campaign against Iranian-allied Houthi militias in Yemen, appeared to settle for many years to come tough decisions over the kingdom's succession.

By sending an assassin to try to kill Prince Mohammed when he was Saudi security chief in 2009, al Qaeda paid him the compliment of treating him as one of its most dangerous enemies.

The prince narrowly survived that attack, in which a militant approached him claiming he wanted to defect before detonating a bomb concealed under his clothes, and was named Interior Minister in November 2012.

The 55-year-old is now firmly established as the most powerful member of his generation in the ruling al-Saud family, and even before he becomes king will be one of the most important figures in the kingdom.

He is the first grandson of Saudi Arabia's founding monarch, King Abdulaziz, or Ibn Saud, to join the line of succession. Abdulaziz established the kingdom in 1932 and ruled until his death in 1953, a period in which Saudi Arabia assumed growing geopolitical importance because of its huge oil resources, developed with U.S. partners.

Mohammed, who was named as first deputy prime minister, remained in his position as Interior Minister, Wednesday's decree said.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/04/29/saudi-politics-crownprince-idUSL5N0XQ08820150429

Andrew Thrasher, who studies price rather than macroeconomics, had the below remarks and chart in his weekly roundup Monday:

One way we can chart inflation is through the relationship between commodities and Treasury’s.

If commodity prices are rising at a faster pace than bonds, then it’s believed that inflation is also on the rise. As you can see from the ratio chart below, commodities have been under-performing the 10-year Treasury bond since early 2014, However, it seems we may be seeing a possible double bottom in this relationship, which would favor commodities over Treasury’s. At the same time momentum via the Relative Strength Index (RSI) is creating a positive divergence by putting in a higher low.

I’ll be watching to see if the ratio between $CRB and $UST is able to break above its prior high at 1.80. If this happens then we may begin seeing signs of inflation re-introducing itself. What would cause this? That’s not my concern nor on my radar. All I know is this setup may turn to be bullish for commodities after the terrible performance they have had over the last year.



Read more: http://thereformedbroker.com/2015/04/27/chart-o-the-day-are-commodities-bottoming/#ixzz3YcSSu

Sweden's Atlas Copco said that weak demand for its mining equipment and large compressors had slumped further in the first quarter.

Atlas, which has long been an investor darling because of its nimble cost structure, strong aftermarket sales and robust cashflow, said orders had fallen furthest for underground mining equipment, in which it is the global market leader.

"We saw strong demand for industrial tools and assembly solutions, while the mining area continued to be challenging," Chief Executive Ronnie Leten said in a statement.

Atlas and its peers in a Nordic cluster of mining gear suppliers, including Sweden's Sandvik, Denmark's FLSmidth and Finland's Metso, have been squeezed by spending cuts among miners in recent years.

Order intake at Atlas rose to 25.5 billion Swedish crowns ($2.97 billion) from a year-ago 22.7 billon, boosted by favourable exchange rates, but fell well short of the 26.4 billion seen in a Reuters poll of analysts.

"The order intake for equipment ... was mixed and, overall, it was weaker than expected," the company said.

Atlas Copco shares were down 7.7 percent by 1222 GMT, heading toward what would be their biggest daily decline in nearly four years, and were the worst performer in the STOXX Europe 600 Industrial Goods & Services Index.

Before the report, the shares were up 37 percent on the year, sharply outpacing the sector.

"This is Atlas Copco. When orders come in like this, this is what happens," Handelsbanken Capital Markets analyst Peder Frolen said, referring to the firm's history of continuously delivering strong results.

The order intake for the mining unit alone lagged analyst forecasts by 8 percent in the quarter while orders at Compressor Technique, its biggest unit, fell short by 5 percent.

Signs mining demand has slowed still further came last week as Metso posted weaker-than-expected earnings and complained of a further slide, though a more upbeat take from Sandvik had lifted Atlas shares on Monday.

Operating earnings at Atlas, whose mining gear includes drill rigs and loaders, rose to 4.5 billion crowns from a year-ago 3.8 billion, lagging a mean forecast of 4.8 billion in a Reuters poll of analysts.

The company said it expected overall demand to rise somewhat in the current quarter.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/04/28/atlascopco-results-idUSL8N0XP2AN20150428