MH Daily Bulletin: October 3

October 3, 2022 • Posted in Daily Bulletin

News relevant to the plastics industry:

At M. Holland

  • M. Holland is a Gold Sponsor of the SPE Automotive TPO Engineered Polyolefins Global Conference happening this week in Troy, Michigan. If you’re planning to attend, please stop by M. Holland’s booth to meet our Automotive team!
  • We are sponsoring MAPP’s Benchmarking & Best Practices Conference in Indianapolis on Oct. 5-7! If you’re planning to attend, don’t forget to stop by M. Holland’s booth and tune in for our session featuring Debbie Prenatt, Market Manager, Sustainability. Click here to read more.
  • Come see us at the IWCS Cable & Connectivity Industry Forum in Providence, Rhode Island, on Oct. 10-13! M. Holland is a Gold Sponsor. If you are attending, please stop by Booth #113 to discuss our materials and offerings serving the wire and cable market.
  • At our Plastics Reflections Web Series event on Oct. 13, M. Holland will host panelists from Maersk and Bank of America to discuss the macroeconomic factors influencing global and domestic economies, including impacts on the plastics industry. Click here to register!
  • M. Holland’s latest press release features our post-consumer recycled (PCR) resins, which are cleaner and easier to color, enabling brand owners and OEMs to meet aggressive sustainability goals. Click here to read the full press release.

Supply

  • Oil rose last week for the first time in five weeks on signs that OPEC may cut November output, tightening supply. In the third quarter, crude prices were down roughly 25%.
  • In mid-day trading today, WTI futures jumped 5.2% to $83.59/bbl and Brent was up 4.3% at $88.81/bbl. U.S. natural gas, which fell for a sixth straight week last week, was down 4.1% at $6.49/MMBtu this morning.
Natural gas

Supply Chain

Domestic Markets

  • The U.S. averaged 45,725 new COVID-19 infections and 325 virus fatalities over the past seven days.
  • COVID-19 cases in New York are rising, with nine of the state’s counties now considered at “high risk,” prompting the CDC to recommend mask-wearing in those areas.
  • New York City saw sharp declines in child academic proficiency on the first release of state test scores since the start of the pandemic.
  • A stopgap bill to fund the U.S. government into December was passed by lawmakers just hours before the deadline on Friday. The bill allocates over $12 billion in additional aid to Ukraine.
  • U.S. consumer spending rose a larger-than-expected 0.4% in August amid signs of a cutback on discretionary purchases.
U.S. Consumers Keep Spending in Defiance of Inflation

International Markets

The Pound in Recovery After Hitting Record Low
  • After the yen hit a 24-year low against the dollar last week, Japan spent nearly $20 billion intervening in foreign exchange markets to prop up its flagging currency, draining nearly 15% of available foreign currency reserves.
  • South Korea’s exports grew just 2.8% in September, the slowest pace in two years.
  • Sales by major Chinese retailers fell sharply in the third quarter, worrying investors over long-term impacts of the nation’s pandemic and regulatory policies.
  • New home prices in China fell for a third month in September as the nation’s slowing economy discouraged potential homebuyers.
  • Chinese companies have sold a net $23.6 billion of U.S. commercial properties since 2019, a dramatic turnaround from over $50 billion in net purchases between 2013 and 2018.
  • Mexico’s government revealed that it suffered a major cyber hack of sensitive data last week.

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