Knowledge is Power: Live Free, Big Risks, Impact of Geopolitical Crises on Stocks Edition

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Global equity markets have stabilized in the past few after having a few rough weeks since the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Unlike last year, markets this year started on shaky note facing a multitude of headwinds from inflation to interest rate raises. Then came the shock of a new year in Europe. It remains to be seen how the rest of the year plays out.

The S&P 500 is still down about 7% YTD. Most European markets strengthened as well last week. The DAX index is off by around 9% so far this year. With that said, below are a few interesting reads for the weekend:

Horse Wagon

Sources of China’s Crude Oil, Coal, Liquefied Natural Gas and Pipeline Imports: Chart

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Global energy markets are in turmoil since the invasion of Ukraine by Russia. Crude oil prices especially shot up dramatically only a few days ago but have declined some in the past few days. We can expect the current volatility to continue until the war is over. While the US imports very little from Russia, it is not the case with China. Russia is one of the major source of imports for China for many energy needs. For instance, Russia is the second largest import source country in crude oil imports for China. In 2021, Russia accounted for 21% of China’s oil import according to a research report published by The Oxford Institute for Energy Studies .

Sources of China’s oil imports:

Sources of China’s Coal imports:

About 15 percent of China’s imported gas comes from Russia. To put it another way, Russia is the third largest gas supplier to China.

Sources of China’s LNG imports:

Sources of China’s Pipeline imports:

 

Source: The Russian invasion of Ukraine and China’s energy markets, Michal Meidan, The Oxford Institute for Energy Studies

The Top 10 Crude Oil Importers and Exporters in 2020

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The Top 10 Crude Oil importing and exporting countries in 2020 are shown in the table below. As expected, China is the world’s largest importer and Saudi Arabia is the top exporter. Russia is the second largest exporter followed by Iraq and the US.

Of all the countries in this list, the US is the only one that is both and exporter and importer of crude oil.

In addition, most of the world’s top importers import oil from undemocratic countries (excluding Canada, Norway and the US) as shown in the table below.

Click to enlarge

Source: worldstopexports.com via Russia’s invasion of Ukraine – repercussions by Scott Blair, CFA, CWB McLean & Partners Wealth Management Ltd.

DW Documentary: The End of a Superpower – The Collapse of the Soviet Union

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I came across this excellent 2021 documentary from DW on the foreign policy of Russia under Putin. For any one interested in the causes of the current Ukraine war this video offers some in-depth reporting and perspective from a wide variety of people and experts.



Source: DW via YouTube