Monday January 18 2016 Housing and Economic stories

TOP STORIES:

Oil Plunges to $32-Handle, Chinese Stocks Crash and are Halted, Whiff of Mayhem Breaks out - (www.wolfstreet.com) After having been through the greatest two-year loss on record, the price of oil plunged 9.6% on Wednesday and in evening trading. As I’m writing this, WTI hit $32.62 a barrel, a new low since the desperate depth of the Financial Crisis, when it very briefly kissed $30.28 a barrel on December 23, 2008, before bouncing off sharply. This time, it’s serious. Brent, the global benchmark, has crashed to $32.75, an 11-year low. This isn’t a quick scare that happens during a Financial Crisis. It’s the result of a persistently growing glut. Since the oil price plunge began in July 2014, every rally, every “opportunity of a lifetime” to buy oil “for cents on the dollar” has turned out to be a falling knife.

China's Stock Traders Go Home After 29 Minutes: Chart - (www.bloomberg.com) Less than half an hour. That’s how long China’s stock markets were open before declines triggered automatic circuit breakers, shutting down trading for the day. China’s stock exchanges closed at 9:59 a.m. local time, just 29 minutes after markets opened, as the CSI 300 Index fell more than 7 percent. Trading was halted for half that time after a 5 percent drop triggered an earlier suspension. China’s markets are normally open from 9:30 a.m. to 3 p.m., with a 90 minute break in the middle.

Shanghai Fund Manager Dumps All Holdings in ‘Insane’ Market  - (www.bloomberg.com)  A Shanghai fund dumped all its holdings as Chinese shares tumbled and triggered a circuit-breaker that halted trading in the world’s second-biggest stock market. “This is insane,” Chen Gang, chief investment officer at Shanghai Heqi Tongyi Asset Management Co., said in an interview on Thursday. “We were forced to liquidate all our holdings this morning,” said Chen, whose firm manages about 300 million yuan ($45.5 million). China’s CSI 300 Index plunged 7.2 percent before trading was halted by automatic circuit-breakers for the second time this week, after a weaker-than-estimated yuan fixing fueled concern that slowing economic growth is prompting authorities to guide the currency lower. Many private funds and hedge funds in China have agreements with investors spelling out mandatory liquidation levels if their holdings drop below a certain value.

Rio Olympic stadium lights go out in bills spat as Brazil recession impacts bite - (www.stuff.co.nz)  Rio city hall and football club Botafogo are blaming each other over unpaid utility bills after the lights went out on Monday on the track and field stadium for this year's Rio de Janeiro Olympics. In a statement, Rio's city hall said Botafogo had been responsible for the utility bills since May 2015, but the club said in a statement that the city government owed it money to pay water and electricity bills. "We have to find out who is responsible for the debt," the club said. The Brazilian newspaper Globoesporte said the unpaid bills totalled 1 million reals (NZ$370,000). Brazil is in the middle of a deep recession, forcing cutbacks to Olympic preparations. Organisers are trying to chop about US$500m (NZ$740,000) in expenditures to keep the operating budget at US$1.9 billion (NZ$2.8b). The cuts are reaching all aspects of the Games, including reducing the use of unpaid volunteers. The volunteers receive uniforms, meals on the days they work and transportation to venues. They must pay their own housing costs.

Deepening Metals Rout Sends Copper Below $2 First Time Since '09 - (www.bloomberg.com)  Copper futures fell below $2 a pound for the first time in more than six years as a slump across industrial metals deepened on concern that China’s economic slowdown is worsening. The retreat in prices helped send a gauge of world mining companies to the lowest since 2004 on Thursday. The Bloomberg Industrial Metals Subindex tumbled 27 percent in 2015, the worst loss since the global recession of 2008. Weak Chinese economic reports this week triggered turmoil across global markets and billionaire George Soros warned of a crisis.

OTHER STORIES:

China Stocks Halted for Rest of Day After CSI 300 Tumbles 7% - (www.bloomberg.com)
China Cuts Yuan Fixing 0.5% - (www.bloomberg.com)
China Markets in Turmoil as Weak Yuan Fixing Sparks Stock Tumble - (www.bloomberg.com)
U.S. Index Futures Tumble as China Stocks Halted After 7% Rout - (www.bloomberg.com)
Offshore Yuan Tumbles to Five-Year Low as PBOC Weakens Fixing - (www.bloomberg.com)

Global Stocks Tumble to Worst Start Since 2000 on China Concerns - (www.bloomberg.com)
U.S. Stocks Tumble to Three-Month Lows After China Weakens Yuan - (www.bloomberg.com)
Concern for China’s economy as currency sinks near 5-year low - (www.ft.com)
Fires rage at Libyan oil ports after Islamic State attacks - (www.reuters.com)