REUTERS/Supri
The oil glut continues as firms reach their maximum storage levels.
Copper Prices Plunged. In Asian trading the price of March copper futures sank by as much as 6% to below $2.50 per pound for the first time in about five years. Analysts at Morgan Stanley put the move down to "speculation that cheaper energy costs will encourage mining companies to increase production."
Commodities Overall Have Been Knocked To A 12-Year Low. Declines in copper and oil prices helped drag the Bloomberg Commodities Index to a 12-year low, with global growth expected to slow even further.
Eurozone Industrial Production Is Coming. The euro area's industry and manufacturing output figures for November are on their way, coming at 10 a.m. GMT. Analysts expect a 0.2% rise from November, but that production will still be down 0.8% year-on-year.
Japan Just Approved Its Biggest Defence Budget Ever. For the year to March 2016, Tokyo will spend 4.98 trillion yen ($41.97 billion), the government said, rising for the third straight year. Hawkish Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is looking to strengthen surveillance of territorial waters in the face of a continuing spat with China.
'Huge Scepticism' May Kill The EU-US Trade Deal. Cecilia Malmstrom, Europe's trade commissioner, conceded yesterday that 150,000 replies to a survey of views about the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership were broadly negative, putting the deal in further doubt, according to the Financial Times.
Plunging Oil Prices Are Driving Inventories To Near-Maximum Levels. Oil prices hit fresh six-year lows on Tuesday, and storage trends also imply further price falls, with US. stocks possibly approaching 80 percent of capacity by the upcoming spring season, according to U.S.-based PIRA Energy Group. "The last time the US built inventories in December was in the middle of the financial crisis in 2008," the firm said.
Asian Markets Got Hit. Japan's Nikkei closed down 1.71% on Wednesday, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng is currently down 0.53%, and the Shanghai Composite is 0.80% lower.
Goldman Is Reportedly Writing Down Its Loan To Banco Espirito Santo. Goldman Sachs had to write down its loan to the troubled Portuguese bank in the fourth quarter, cutting the bank's profit and some employees' bonuses, people familiar with the matter told Reuters.
Tesla Shares Slumped After A Comment About Weak China Sales. Tesla Motors Inc shares slumped late on Tuesday after Chief Executive Elon Musk said the electric luxury car maker's sales in China were "unexpectedly weak" during the fourth quarter. But he assured an audience in Detroit the problems are being fixed.
The World Bank Slashed Growth Forecasts Pretty Much Everywhere Except The US. "The global economy is running on a single engine," said Kaushik Basu, the World Bank's chief economist, according to the Financial Times. US growth was uprated from a likely 3% to 3.2% for this year, and eurozone growth expectations were pared back from 1.8% to 1.1%.