Pursuant to the European Commission (EC) approval of its restructuring plan, the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), is selling its non-core businesses in select markets to shore up its financial standing.  As part of the restructuring plan, Royal Bank intends to sell its 51% stake in commodities trading firm RBS-Sempra, which it jointly owns with Sempra Energy (SRE). The deal is expected to fetch about £2.5 billion. Macquarie has been named along with JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) and Deutsche Bank (DB) as bidders for the RBS Sempra Commodities business.  Royal Bank of Scotland is also selling its retail and commercial units in the Asia-Pacific region, while remaining focused on the wholesale and investment banking sector. Its presence shrank from 15 countries to 11 In the Asia-Pacific regions. HSBC Holdings Plc (HBC) is the likely contender for the purchase.  The bank ...

a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20602013amp;sid=aym0w6OwbWsIamp;refer=commodity_futures"Interesting news today/a out of Potash Corp. (a href="http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=pot"POT/a):br /br /blockquotePotash Corp of Saskatchewan Inc., the world’s largest fertilizer producer by market value, said 2009 profit will be less than it previously expected after North American sales of the crop nutrient reached “a virtual halt.” pEarnings this year will be $7 to $8 a share, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan-based Potash Corp. said today in a statement. That’s less than the $10 to $12 a share the company forecast in January and trails the $9.33 average estimate of 14 analysts surveyed by span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0"Bloomberg/span. /p/blockquotep/pWe know the global slowdown would cut demand, but this is still a bit surprising. With prices under pressure, Potash will be cutting production.br /br /blockquote“The potash companies are cutting production to prop up their prices, and we’re cutting our ...

By Millie Munshi

 

March 19 (Bloomberg) — Commodities surged, led by precious metals and energy, on speculation that the Federal Reserve’s steps to revive the U.S. economy will spur demand for raw materials as a hedge against inflation.

Silver headed for the biggest gain since 1979. Gold jumped the most since September, and crude oil topped $52 a barrel. Every commodity in the Reuters/Jefferies CRB Index of 19 prices climbed, while the dollar tumbled. The Fed said yesterday it may buy more than $1 trillion in government and mortgage debt to help end the recession and credit crisis.

“We’ve got a massive increase in the Fed’s balance sheet, and the markets are taking it to be both inflationary and as devaluing the dollar,” said

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Since Donald Coxe’s departure from BMO towards the end of last year, I have been inundated with enquiries about whether his much-revered “Basic Points” research reports would still be published. The good news is that Donald is planning on resuming these reports, and a new issue may very well appear later this month.

In the meantime, Donald has also resumed his weekly audio commentaries, which can be accessed by clicking here or on his image in the right-hand sidebar of this site.

The latest recording was made on February 6 (althought the webcast site incorrectly mentions January 30). A full transcript of this recording was produced and is shared with you in the paragraphs below (courtesy of Green

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Royal Philips Electronics (NYSE: PHG) announced yesterday an agreement “to establish a joint researc...