Investor appetite for U.S. stocks has slumped to its lowest level in more than seven years. Though the S&P 500 has hit three new highs in May, the region has suffered its biggest drop in equity allocation since September 2008, with the number of investors overweight U.S. equities declining to a net 19% in May, according to Bank of America Merrill Lynch’s monthly fund manager survey.
Hundreds of people crowded 42nd Street in hopes of recording the event.Almost 1,000 illegal immigrants landed in Italy yesterday after threatening to throw babies into the sea if their rusting ship was turned back.
The 240ft Monica had been spotted in international waters during the night.
When Italian coastguard boats drew alongside, the crews were shocked to see men and women on board begin dangling the infants over the side.
MGL: The acute failure of the emerging world to grow is causing havoc, not just in the commodity space, but also in the political space. Immigration in both the EU and the USA has exploded out of obscurity these last ten years to being a defining issue. If the political or economic environment at home won't allow you to succeed, then you leave. This seems to be matched by capital flows, here's China for example:
Thursday offered a case in point. The first March data to be released showed average monthly U.S. crude production at 9.5 million barrels a day, the highest level since 1972 and higher than indicated by the weekly data released in March. The weekly data showed that output peaked in mid-March around 9.4 million barrels a day, then declined, which boosted prices at the time.
The production data for February and January were also revised higher. The EIA now reports production of roughly 9.4 million barrels a day for both months, up from last month’s figures of 9.2 million barrels a day for January and 9.3 million barrels a day for February.
The updated figures suggest that the glut of oil in the U.S. may not shrink as quickly as bullish traders have expected. U.S. producers have gotten more efficient, and their service costs have dropped. Some producers now say that if prices stabilize around $60 or $65 a barrel, they can increase output.
“Threshold oil prices required to drive production growth are considerably lower than what people thought,” said Bill Herbert, managing director at Simmons & Co. International. Shale-oil production is only about five years old, he noted, and its resiliency in a low-price environment has never been tested before. “We are going to be learning an awful lot in the next three to six quarters.”
Peak record Saudi crude production has maintained oil prices below profitable levels for major U.S shale oil producers.Fracklog is a term that is used to describe the number of wells waiting to be hydraulically fractured. If you think the U.S. is awash in oil now, think again, and thank the fracklog that it isn't worse. An analysis by Bloomberg Intelligence puts the backlog of wells at 4,731, with 322,000 barrels a day kept underground. To provide perspective, that is as much oil as Libya has been pumping this year and represents a tripling of wells that could be pumping oil. This crude is kept off the market with U.S. storage facilities now the fullest they have been since 1930.
Karnataka, which entered the global power map by setting up Asia’s first hydroelectric station, is now embarking on another milestone mission of setting up a mega solar power park, said to be the world’s biggest. The park, with a capacity of 2,000 MW, will come up on 10,000 acres of land in the parched Pavagada taluk of Tumakuru district.
Secretary, Union Ministry of New and Renewal Energy, Upendra Tripathy and Additional Chief Secretary, Karnataka Energy Department, Ravi Kumar, who announced this at a press conference here on Friday, said the work on the proposed park would start soon.
The 1,000 MW solar park being implemented in Andhra Pradesh is the biggest such project so far in the country. The Centre would support the park by offering a subsidy of Rs. 20 lakh per mega Watt, Mr. Tripathy said.
According to sources, Pavagada was chosen for the solar park because of a combination of various factors, including high sunlight exposure, backwardness of the area, and lesser demand for land.
In addition to the park, Karnataka has bigger plans for the renewable energy sector as the State on Friday committed itself to setting up projects to tap green energy to the tune of 16,000 MW in the next five to seven years. The commitment was made at a meeting with Ministry of New and Renewal Energy authorities here where the Centre wanted the States to take up the responsibility of executing green energy project proposals to the tune of 1,75,000 MW received by it during the renewable energy global investors’ meet.
To facilitate evacuation of such a massive quantum of renewable energy from the generation sites, the Centre has also decided to set up an exclusive pan-India green corridor at a cost of Rs. 36,000 crore, Mr. Tripathy said. To raise resources for renewable energy sector infrastructure, the Centre would float tax-free green bonds to the tune of Rs. 5,000 crore in about three months from now, he said.
Set up roof-top solar plants with home loans
Special Correspondent
Now, you can set up a roof-top solar power plant on your house to take care of your power requirements through bank loans which would be part of home loan or home improvement loan.
Secretary, Union Ministry for New and Renewable Energy, Upendra Tripathi, who announced this at a press conference here on Friday, said this was possible as the Reserve Bank of India had included renewable energy under the priority lending category. Individuals could borrow a maximum of Rs. 10 lakh under this scheme.
Also to take care of the service and repair requirements of such roof-top solar power plants, the Centre was set to launch Surya Mithra scheme under which 50,000 rural unemployed youth with a qualification of Class 7 would be given free training in handling solar power plants, he said.
Traders who normally make money as middlemen shipping commodities around the world are increasingly shifting their metals holdings from London Metal Exchange-approved warehouses to cheaper, less well-documented locations, analysts say.
The traders’ main aim is to reduce storage costs, a big chunk of their expenses. Warehouses in places such as Malaysia, South Korea and Singapore typically charge storage rates that are as low as one-tenth of those levied by official LME warehouses.
But while the LME publishes daily data about stock levels in its warehouses, little is certain about the size of metal stockpiles held outside its network.
