The statistics are clear: commodity demand is moving east, and fast. For the moment, the bulk of trading and price-setting is done out of New York and London, but will banks, exchanges and physical trading houses move east as well? Joanne Hart reports
For more than a decade, commodity markets have attracted increasing levels of investment, a trend that accelerated when returns from equity markets fell away in the financial crisis. Jim Banks asks what Asia's growing appetite means for commodities in the future: will investment lead to oversupply, or will demand from rapidly growing nations mean scarcity and price hikes?
Sovereign debt is no longer the easily defined sector that it used to be. As investors run scared of many developed governments' debt and turn instead to the 'true' sovereigns of emerging markets, uncertainty and volatility reign in an area that was once so simple. Joanne Hart reports.
With developed world governments strapped for cash, many hope the sub-sovereign or municipal bond markets can take on more of the local funding load. It may not work out that way. In Europe, sub-sovereign issuance has grown but it remains a fragmented and loan-driven market. In the US, the municipal market is huge but issuers are under increasing strain. Geraldine Lambe reports.
In early October, it was revealed that Alliance Bernstein's asset-backed securities funds had returned 23% in 16 months. The US asset-management firm was benefiting from the recovery of the US asset-backed securities market. David Wigan asks whether the European market is following suit.
The sharp fall in Gulf property markets has dampened confidence in a market that many expected to be relatively immune to the global financial crisis. But sharia-compliant assets are still growing, and perhaps tougher times will encourage a more sophisticated industry.