China

When it comes to dealing with the mass media and its impact on public confidence, China has a long and illustrious history of not beating around the bush.  Last summer around the time its stock market bubble started to crack, Beijing banned the use of such terms as "equity disaster" and "rescue the market." Then earlier this year, China's president Xi Jingping visited the country’s three big state news organizations, Xinhua, the People’s Daily and China Central Television, to lecture them on the need to toe the party line, "tell China’s sto

From our friends at Fasanara Capital we get their latest contrarian - and very bearish - Investment Outlook, which can be summarized as follows: "Reflation Phase To Be Temporary, More Downside Ahead", and which also contains four key conviction trade ideas over the next 12 months.

This is what fund manager Francesco Filia cautions about the market over the next year:

• Global stocks slide as yen, euro gains question policy potency (Reuters)
• U.S. Index Futures Signal Stock Losses as AIG Drops on Earnings (BBG)
• EU Sees Weaker Growth in Eurozone and Wider EU as China Slowdown Weighs (WSJ)
• Euro Set for Longest Run of Gains Since 2013 as Fed Focus Fades (BBG)
• German Bonds Advance as EU Cuts Euro-Area Inflation Outlook (BBG)
• Trump hopes to land decisive blow in Indiana showdown with Cruz (Reuters)
• Hedge Funds Under Attack as Cohen Says Skilled People Are Scarce (BBG)

Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump has compared the People’s Republic of China to a rapist and has vowed to turn the situation around. Referring to China’s high number of exports relative to the U.S., Trump said: “We can’t continue to allow China to rape our country, and that’s what they’re doing” CNN reports: Trump has repeatedly accused China of manipulating its currency to make its exports more competitive on the global market and has claimed that China is “killing” the U.S. on trade.

Submitted by Rakesh Upadhyay via OilPrice.com,

Ship tracking data from Bloomberg shows that 83 supertankers carrying around 166 million barrels of oil are headed to China, which has stockpiled an impressive 787,000 barrels a day in the first quarter of 2016 - the highest stockpiling rate since 2014.

While the world was speculating about oil prices plunging to $20 and $10 per barrel, China was busy stockpiling its reserves.