How is everyone's resource stock recently—a summary of key news on oil, gas, gold, and iron (August 16)

Seeing how many friends like resource stocks, but don't focus on commodity news at the bottom line, we've loaded up on commodity news to make it easier for everyone to invest in resource stocks.

Copper led the basic metals sector lower as China's weak economy raised concerns about demand prospects. In July, China's industrial production increased 3.7% year on year, lower than the forecast of 4.4%. The growth rate of fixed asset investment slowed to 3.4% in the first seven months of this year. Retail sales were also disappointing, growing just 2.5% year over year in July. Continued weakness in industrial activity has caused the government to cut key policy interest rates to boost confidence. The recent rebound in inventories has also dampened market sentiment. Zinc fell as high as 1.9% as LME warehouse inventories jumped to their highest level since April 2022. Copper stocks have been rising for the sixth day in a row. $JIANGXI COPPER(00358.HK)$

Continued weakness in the real estate sector remains a drag on the steel and iron ore markets. In the seven months up to July, real estate investment fell 8.5% year over year. New real estate construction was the main driver of demand for steel and iron ore, falling 24.5% to 569.7 million square meters. Despite this, China's central bank cut interest rates on one-year loans by 15 basis points to 2.5%, bringing some hope to the real estate market. China's iron ore futures finally closed higher. The data showed that China's crude steel production remained above 90 tons in July, and this is usually a period of weak demand. $SSIF DCE Iron Ore Futures Index ETF(03047.HK)$

Fears that the Chinese economy will affect demand offset the impact of tight supply in the oil market. Brent crude fell below $85 per barrel due to reduced risk sentiment in the commodities market. Although the spot market continues to show signs of tightness, this is still the case. Crude oil inventories at the Cushing Center are expected to fall to their lowest level since April. Asian refineries are also snapping up all available U.S. oil cargoes. Rongsheng Petrochemical received millions of barrels from the spot market last week. Although the crude oil obtained by Chinese refineries from Saudi Arabia increased by about 40% in September, this is still the case. Subsequently, refining profits have risen sharply in recent weeks.

European gas prices rose sharply for the second time in a week due to concerns about interruptions in the supply of liquefied natural gas. Discussions between union officials and Woodside did not produce a clear outcome on the labor dispute. If no agreement is reached by Friday, a strike action may be taken. As the threat of a possible strike looms, the Gaogang plant operated by Chevron has limited part of the supply in the spot market. The gas supply to the US Corpus Christi liquefied terminal fell to 1.6 bcf, increasing actual tension. The impending strike is also driving up LNG prices in North Asia. The move comes at a time when China is increasing its purchasing efforts. From August 7 to 13, global weekly imports increased 2% from a week ago to 7.7 tons, with China's imports increasing by nearly 0.6 tons. This brings them to levels not seen since January. $YANKUANG ENERGY(01171.HK)$

The price of gold fell slightly as positive US economic data raised the prospect of further tightening monetary policy. Retail sales in the US increased more than expected in July by 0.7%. Following the release of the data, swap traders slightly raised the possibility of another rate hike this year to slightly more than 50%.

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3047HK Iron Ore ETF

3047 is a team specializing in the research of commodities and smart beta. We like to exchange investment strategies.

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