According to the Institute of International Finance, a trade group, the ratio of global debt to gross domestic product hit an all-time high of over 322 per cent in the third quarter of 2019, with total debt reaching close to $253tn. The implication, if the virus continues to spread, is that any fragilities in the financial system have the potential to trigger a new debt crisis. In the short term the behaviour of credit markets will be critical....
Diamond News Archives
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(IDEX Online) - Alrosa has launched a website for its new Luminous Diamond brand, as it seeks a new market for the lower-value fluorescent stones.
The Russian state-owned diamond mining company says the first jewelry pieces will be available for sale later this year, although no date has been fixed.
It describes them on its website as having "inner light".
Fluorescent diamonds lose 15 to 35 per cent of their value because of their bluish glow, as far as traders are concerned.
But the majority of consumers have no clue about fluorescence.
In fact, six out of 10 said they'd actually pay MORE for a diamond that was fluorescent, according to research in the USA and China published by Alrosa.
They typically described fluorescent diamonds as being "unique", "cool" and "exciting".
Only 2 to 3.5% of all diamonds show medium to very strong fluorescence, according to GIA laboratory, and only 25% show any fluorescence at all....
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(IDEX Online) - De Beers has blamed coronavirus for a significant drop in sales of rough diamonds at its latest sight, held in Botswana last week.
The provisional figure for Cycle 2 is $355m, down from $551m at January's sight (Cycle 1) and the lowest since Cycle 8 of last year.
The company allowed a number of deferrals from sightholders, especially for smaller stones, under 1-carat, that would normally be destined for China.
De Bers Group CEO Bruce Cleaver said: "Following an improvement in demand for rough diamonds during the first sales cycle of 2020, we recognised the impact of COVID-19 Coronavirus on customers focused on supplying the Chinese market and put in place additional targeted flexibility to enable customers to defer allocations of the relevant rough diamonds."
A source said downstream demand remained healthy aside from China and Hong Kong, in spite of coronavirus and the US/China trade war.
De Beers announced earlier this week that it plans to relax its sight terms, in order to offer dealers, manufacturers and integrated retailers more of the stones they want. ...
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![[https://m.wsj.net/video/20200229/02292020trumpcoronavirus/02292020trumpcoronavirus_167x94.jpg]](https://m.wsj.net/video/20200229/02292020trumpcoronavirus/02292020trumpcoronavirus_167x94.jpg)
Just ahead of an emergency Federal Reserve rate cut, big banks’ demand for Fed temporary liquidity shot higher and exceeded what the central bank was willing to provide on Tuesday, as financial markets remained deeply unsettled amid big worries about the coronavirus situation’s impact on the global economy.
But even as the Fed added substantial amounts of money to the market via two repurchase-agreement operations, or repos, its lever to affect the performance of the economy and the focus of its monetary-policy actions, the... ...
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(IDEX Online) - US consumers are staying home, as experts warn the coronavirus could lead to a "retail apocalypse".
Malls are braced for a sharp decline in footfall, with 58 per cent of consumers saying they're likely to avoid public areas such as shopping centers and entertainment venues if the outbreak worsens, according to the research and advisory firm Coresight Research.
Its survey of almost 2,000 adults was taken before California announced last Thursday that it was monitoring 8,400 passengers who arrived on commercial flight for the virus.
Coresight quotes Dr Nancy Messonnier, director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases as saying: "Forgive me for going biblical on you, but since we've long talked about the 'retail apocalypse' we may as well go all the way to the potential for a retail Armageddon if our public health officials enact such aggressive, proactive measures to halt the spread of the disease."...