Tuesday, September 2, 2014

5 Must-Reads for Tuesday: Gold, China, India, Cyberspying and More!

1. Factoid for the day ...
After the Second World War the U.S. earned 50% of the globe’s cash flow. As the developed world recovered, its share of global cash flow rose to 80% by the turn of the century. This is changing rapidly. China now has 40% of that cash flow and the entire ‘emerging’ world will command 65% of this cash flow sometime between 2016 and 2020 with the developed world earning 35% of the global cash flow.

2. India Outpacing China’s Oil Demand

India’s oil demand has shown steady growth through July at an average of 3%, or 101,000 barrels a day. China’s oil demand has declined at an average of 0.6%, or 62,000 barrel a day.

In absolute terms China is Asia’s largest oil consumer, having burned 10.76 million barrels a day of oil and accounting for 12.1% of global oil consumption in 2013, according to BP PLC. The second-largest oil consumer in Asia is Japan, though its oil consumption has been declining as its economy has matured. 

India ranks third at 3.7 million barrels a day and accounted for about 4.2% of global oil consumption in 2013. 

3. Gold Investment Positive last month, But Only Just

Argentina's default, the death toll in Gaza, LOL jihadis in Iraq...nothing shook gold from its summer slumber. In case you missed it – because you passed out with boredom – this is how tedious precious metals became in August 2014...

  • Gold traded in the narrowest monthly price range for five years, a mere $40 per ounce;
  • The monthly average price of $1296 was almost precisely the average gold price of the previous 12 months ($1297.50);
  • Speculators and commercial traders both cut their holdings of Comex futures & options. In fact, open interest (ie, the number of contracts now open) fell to a series of 5-year lows;
  • Investment funds also shrugged and took to the beach. The giant SPDR Gold Trust (GLD) shrank by 6 tonnes, reversing July's addition and erasing all 2014 growth so far at 795 tonnes – a 5-year low when first hit this January.

See also: 3 Important Gold Charts

4. Phony Cell Towers Could Be Intercepting Your Data 

Les Goldsmith, the CEO of ESD America, the company that makes the super-secure CryptoPhone 500, found 17 phony towers around the U.S. in July alone. No one knows for sure who's running them, Goldsmith tells Popular Science.

"What we find suspicious is that a lot of these interceptors are right on top of U.S. military bases. So we begin to wonder – are some of them U.S. government interceptors? Or are some of them Chinese interceptors?" he says.

5. Morgan Stanley: The Market Could Rally For Years, And The S&P Might Go To 3,000

"We believe a prolonged period of deleveraging in the U.S., coupled with an uneven global recovery, are just two of the reasons why this could prove to be the longest US expansion — ever," he writes.

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