Commodity prices skyrocketed as industrial buyers and traders hurried to acquire raw materials disrupted by the conflict in Ukraine.
Nickel rose 30%, platinum touched a record, and gold broke beyond $2,000 per ounce, while oil and wheat rose to 14-year highs.
Commodity markets have been jolted not just by strong Western sanctions against Russia, which may be expanded to include oil, but also by logistical problems that have stymied the movement of grains and metals from the region.
“I suspect growth projections for 2022 around the world will need to be sharply revised lower, and it will be interesting to see what the central banks of the world will do, ” said a senior analyst for online forex trading and brokerage OANDA, Jeffrey Halley.
Oil prices rose after the United States and its European allies said they were considering a ban on Russian oil imports.
Brent crude rose as much as 17.8% to $139.13 per barrel, its highest level since July 2008, when it reached a high of $147.50.
According to JPMorgan analysts, oil might reach $185 this year, while Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc analysts believe it could reach $180 and trigger a worldwide recession.
Concerns about an oil ban also roiled European gas prices, which reached all-time highs.
What About the Wheat?
Chicago wheat futures rose more than 6%, reaching a 14-year high, as traders worried about the impact of the Ukraine conflict on supplies from Russia, the world’s largest wheat exporter, and Ukraine.
Buyers are looking for alternative suppliers as Ukrainian ports remain closed and operators are hesitant to trade Russian wheat in the face of Western financial sanctions.
Russia and Ukraine contribute to around 29% of global wheat exports and 19% of global corn exports.
‘The Great Reset’ Approaches
While market pullbacks over the last two decades have been like a gentle rain, the approaching supercycle of misery, in which the U.S. currency is challenged and our debt may actually come due, might be a pretty good cause for alarm and may lead to a global financial meltdown. The irony is that when there is blood in the streets, as Anthony Scaramucci the founder of Skybridge recently said, it’s time to act.
Over the last two decades, we’ve seen people make fortunes in the market simply by picking a stock and putting money into it while the Federal Reserve prevents markets from falling.
So to say, we have overdrawn ourselves at the bank as much as humanly possible. Global debt to GDP is 3:1. Companies with awful financials have not only been bid up but they have been bid up to fever pitch valuations that, even in the greatest of financial circumstances, no company, especially many that we’ve seen, should ever be afforded.
Weak men make hard times and the Western leadership is about as weak as it comes. Every decision by the Biden regime has made these matters worse.
- Shutting down pipelines in the U.S. and taking it off energy independence.
- Pushing and prodding Russia.
- The sanctions and removal of Russia from SWIFT.
- Multiple NATO nations will suffer as over 50% of their oil came from Russia.
- Wheat and agriculture spike globally as Russia is a main fertilizer and grain exporter.
For a brief on Klaus Schwab, the WEF, and “The Great Reset” see the thread below.
We may have dove into the World Economic Forum’s ”Great Reset” sooner than expected.
