Healthcare bid: if defensives rotate, who leads—managed care or big pharma?
With policy rates likely to ease into year-end, investors often rotate toward “defensives.” In healthcare, that typically means managed care (health insurers) and big pharma. But 2025’s cross-currents—Medicare Advantage (MA)…
Gold after PCE: “PCE stays at 2.6%—does sticky core keep bullion bid?”
The U.S. PCE inflation rate held at 2.6% year-over-year in July—right in line with consensus—while core PCE edged to 2.9% y/y and 0.3% m/m. For gold, the next leg is…
EU gas is comfy, but winter risk hasn’t vanished
Heading into late August, European gas storage is comfortably above pre-2022 norms, wholesale prices are sitting in the low-to-mid €30s/MWh, and policymakers have even agreed to loosen the once-strict storage…
Cocoa’s Next Shock: Ghana Farmer Revolt + Weather Whiplash
West Africa’s cocoa belt is flashing two kinds of risk at once. In Ghana, hundreds of thousands of growers are protesting the newly set 2025/26 farm-gate price and threatening to…
Panama Canal normalising… slowly: will coal/grain premia compress?
After two years of drought-driven bottlenecks, the Panama Canal has eased both daily transit limits and draft restrictions. Conditions are better than the 2023 nadir—but they’re not fully back to…
Canada’s Data Leak Snafu: How a Premature Manufacturing Post Tests Market Integrity
On Thursday, Aug. 14, Statistics Canada (StatsCan) inadvertently published parts of its June manufacturing release a day early, then pulled the page after Reuters alerted the agency. StatsCan said it…
Brent Hovers Near $66 Ahead of Trump–Putin Summit—How Geopolitics Sets Q4 Oil Risk
Brent crude is orbiting the mid-$60s as markets brace for the Trump–Putin summit in Anchorage, Alaska, a meeting that could shape sanctions, Russian export flows, and sentiment into Q4. With…
UK Opens the Door to Retail Crypto ETNs—What Changes on 8 Oct and Who Benefits?
The UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has confirmed that retail investors will be able to buy crypto exchange-traded notes (cETNs) on UK Recognised Investment Exchanges (RIEs) from 8 October 2025—ending…
UK Beats Forecasts: Q2 GDP +0.3% q/q—BoE Cut Timetable Now Trickier
Better-than-expected growth with services and construction up—even as production slips. What that mix means for sterling and the Bank of England’s sequencing.
Small-Business Credit in the U.S. & UK: Are Tight Standards Finally Biting?
United States. The Federal Reserve’s July 2025 Senior Loan Officer Opinion Survey (SLOOS) reported that, on balance, banks tightened standards and saw weaker demand for commercial & industrial (C&I) credit…