Weekly Economic Data for the week 10-May-14 to 16-May-14

Expected impact on price:	This indicator shows the effect of the anticipation of data on the prices of related country’s major indices. We have categorized it as below: Very Good Good Neutral Bad Very Bad
Actual:	Refers to the actual/latest figures after its release.

Data for the week 10-May-14 to 16-May-14

Date	Time (IST)	Country	Data	Exp.	Prior	Exp. chg today	Avg. chg of last 1 year	Exp. Impact on Price
10-15 May-2014	--	China	Money Supply M2 YoY	12.0%	12.1%	-0.10	0.71	Neutral
12-May-2014	01-00 PM	European Monetary Union	EU Foreign Ministers Hold Meeting in Brussels
12-May-2014	05-30 PM	India	Industrial Production YoY	1.5%	1.9%	-0.40%	2.08	Neutral
13-May-2014	11-00 AM	China	Retail Sales (YoY)	12.2%	12.2%	0.00%	0.78	Neutral
13-May-2014	11-00 AM	China	Industrial Production (YoY)	8.9%	8.8%	0.10%	0.67	Neutral
13-May-2014	02-30 PM	Germany	ZEW Survey (Expectation)	40	43.2	-3.20	9.00	Neutral
13-May-2014	02-30 PM	Germany	ZEW Survey - Current Situation	60.5	59.5	1.00	5.46	Neutral
13-May-2014	06-00 PM	United States	Retail Sales (MoM)	0.4%	1.1%	-0.70%	0.63	Neutral
13-May-2014	10-00 PM	Germany	GE - Merkel Holds News Conference With IMF-OECD-World Bank Heads					Neutral
14-May-2014	12-00 PM	India	Wholesale Prices YoY	5.7%	5.7%	0.00	0.46	Neutral
14-May-2014	02-00 PM	United Kingdom	ILO Unemployment Rate (3M)	6.8%	6.9%	-0.10%	0.07	Neutral
14-May-2014	02-30 PM	European Monetary Union	Industrial Production w.d.a. (YoY)	0.9%	1.7%	-0.80%	0.59	Neutral
14-May-2014	03-00 PM	United Kingdom	Bank of England Releases Inflation Report					Neutral
14-May-2014	06-20 PM	Germany	Merkel Gives Speech at Cooperative-Bank Conference					Neutral
14-May-2014	08-00 PM	United States	EIA Crude Oil Stocks change	--	1.78	-1.78	3.45	Neutral
15-May-2014	09-55 AM	Japan	BOJ Governor Kuroda Speaks in Tokyo					Neutral
15-May-2014	02-30 PM	European Monetary Union	Gross Domestic Product s.a. (QoQ)	0.4%	0.2%	0.20%	0.23	Neutral
15-May-2014	02-30 PM	European Monetary Union	Consumer Price Index (MoM)	0.2%	0.9%	-0.70%	0.65	Neutral
15-May-2014	02-30 PM	European Monetary Union	Consumer Price Index (YoY)	0.7%	--	0.70%	0.07	Neutral
15-May-2014	06-00 PM	United States	Consumer Price Index (YoY)	2%	1.5%	0.50%	0.25	Good
15-May-2014	06-45 PM	United States	Industrial Production (MoM)	--	0.7%	-0.70%	0.97	Neutral
15-May-2014	08-00 PM	United States	EIA Natural Gas Storage change	--	74	-74.00	33.60	Neutral
16-May-2014	04-00 AM	United States	Fed's Yellen Speaks to U.S. Chamber of Commerce in Washington					Neutral
16-May-2014	02-30 PM	European Monetary Union	Trade Balance s.a.	--	€15.0B	-15.00€	2.05	Neutral
16-May-2014	07-25 PM	United States	Reuters/Michigan Consumer Sentiment Index	84.5	84.1	0.40	2.48	Neutral

East Ukraine Independence And Gold Movement On Sunday

There's no better time (or fiduciarily dutiful moment) than a Sunday night at 650pm ET after the majority of Eastern Ukraine votes to secede to Russia to sell $231.5 million notional worth of gold futures...

And in case you were wondering... no other asset classes reacted in any way like this...

NIFTY Could Top Around 7225-50 By 25th May 2014.

Nalco plans to raise aluminium output.

Witnessing demand recovery, state-owned National Aluminium Company Ltd (Nalco) has planned to marginally increase its aluminium output. The company had early this week reopened 10 aluminium-producing pots at its Angul smelter in Odisha.

Last fiscal, Nalco had reduced its capacity utilisation by a third because of the sluggish aluminium market and lower LME realisation and coal shortage. It had shut down 329 of its total 960 pots or 4.6 lakh tonnes a year of its smelter. Now the number of operational pots has gone up to 641. A Nalco pot can produce 1.37 tonnes a day.

According to Nalco CMD, Angsuman Das, “It’s a small, but significant step” considering the change in the outlook. Nalco, which is yet to announce the results of Q4 of 2013-14, today said in a statement that it was running profitably.

Of late, LME aluminium prices, the premiums over LME prices for export and domestic market sale, as well a weak rupee against dollar has given Nalco incentives to increase production.

Meanwhile, Nalco expects to make its 4-channel 25 km and Rs 190-crore fly ash slurry project operational by December this year.

The project is to carry ash from of the company’s captive power plant at Angul to Mahanadi Coalfield’s Bharatpur mines in the same district. The slurry ash would be used to fill the exhausted mine pits. The project execution, which is running late, may complete the work of laying the first channel by September.

Chinese Media Banned from Writing About Bitcoin And Others Which Are Already Blocked Are Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus & Many More.

The Chinese authorities have ordered local media not to cover the upcoming Global Bitcoin Summit in Beijing and not to promote the digital currency, as China continues its crackdown on the virtual currency.

The digital currency conference is scheduled to be held on 10-11 May, and the media have been ordered to ignore it, according to censorship instructions leaked online by California-based media outlet China Digital Times.

"The Global Bitcoin Summit 2014 will be held on May 10-11 in Beijing. All websites are asked not to participate in or report on the summit," the instruction reads.

"Do not hype bitcoins. All reporting on bitcoins must henceforth accord with the specifications of financial regulatory agencies."

On 6 May, the CEOs of China-based digital currency exchanges OKCoin, BTC China, BtcTrade, CHBTC and Huobi, said they would not attend the conference to comply with state policies and regulations.

In December, the People's Bank of China banned financial institutions from handling transactions in bitcoin, as the central bank was concerned about financial stability amid soaring volumes of digital currency trades in the country.

Subsequently, a number of banks announced that they were withdrawing support for digital currency exchanges. As a result, smaller exchanges such as FXBTC and Linkcoin have shut down.

The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), the largest bank in the world by total assets and market capitalisation, earlier banned customers from using accounts with the bank for transactions in digital currencies.

"To protect property rights and interests of the public, prevent money-laundering risk and safeguard legal tender status of RMB, any institutions or individuals are not allowed to recharge and withdraw funds for Bitcoin and Litecoin transactions, buy and sell transaction recharge codes or engage in other related activities with ICBC accounts, and they shall not transfer relevant transaction funds via ICBC accounts, either, all effective immediately," ICBC said in a statement dated 8 May.

BTC China had suspended yuan deposits from the Bank of China, after halting local currency deposits to accounts at China Merchants Bank. BTC China is the biggest Chinese bitcoin trading platform and it currently handles more than 75% of bitcoin trades in yuan.

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1.TWITTER
Change is afoot in China. Its leaders have promised a decisive role for markets in the huge economy, and recently lifted a 14-year ban on games consoles. But in many areas, there's still a long way to go.
Try using Twitter (TWTR), for example. Too bad!
The social media platform can't be accessed from within the so-called Great Firewall of China, a censorship project operated for decades by the Communist Party.
Thousands of websites cannot be viewed inside China either, but social media platforms draw special attention from censors.
Related: Why did China force The Big Bang Theory offline?
Analysts say Beijing was particularly unnerved by the role social media played in the Arab Spring and the 2009 Green Revolution in Iran, leading to a blackout for the service.

2. FACEBOOK
China turned out the lights on Facebook (FB, Fortune 500) in 2009, and there are no signs that Beijing plans to restore access to the U.S.- based social media platform.
Some analysts trace the ban to riots that broke out in July of that year between Muslim Uighurs and Han Chinese in the restive western region of Xinjiang.
But others also cite a protectionist commercial motive.
China-based social media sites are allowed to operate in the country, which helps to promote the domestic tech industry. Still, these platforms are heavily censored. Domestic operators accept this as a fact of life, while western tech firms are much less likely to give up control.

3.FOREIGN FILMS
Chinese regulators allow only 34 foreign films to be shown in theaters each year, severely limiting access to the latest Hollywood blockbusters.
Approved films still face the heavy hand of government censors, who cut anything the Communist Party considers offensive or subversive.
Chinese audiences love the slimmed-down foreign films, and Hollywood is eager for regulators to expand their quota.
Despite the commercial advantage it gives them, Chinese filmmakers are likely to continue to bump heads with Beijing over censorship. China heaped praise on Taiwan-born director Ang Lee when he won the Academy Award for Best Director in 2005. His film, Brokeback Mountain, was never shown in China.

4. CASINOS
Beijing outlawed gambling in 1949, and casinos are not allowed to operate in China. Yet many Chinese have an inclination toward games of chance, a tradition that dates back thousands of years.
Today, the blanket ban doesn't stop entrepreneurial Chinese from setting up underground gambling operations and private lotteries.
The policy has also given rise to a ring of casinos that operate just outside Beijing's reach. The most notable of these territories is Macau, which boasts a casino industry that is seven times larger than Las Vegas.

5. WEBSITES
Beijing blocks access to thousands of websites at any given time, including social media platforms and websites that host Indecency.
Censors also prohibit Internet users from visiting sites that criticize the Communist Party or address sensitive issues such as human rights.
Search results and social media chatter are also censored, forcing Internet users to come up with a clever alternate language to discuss news or historical events like the Tiananmen Square protests and crackdown.
The massive censorship project has been dubbed the Great Firewall of China, and using a Virtual Private Network or secure proxy are the only ways to access forbidden websites.

6. BOOKS
China's General Administration of Press and Publication screens all books before publication in China, and censorship is standard procedure.
Critical talk regarding human rights, Tibet or the Communist Party is off limits. Reporting on the wealth of Chinese officials is also forbidden.
Publishers that skirt the rules are quickly shut down, leaving authors with a choice: Agree to censorship or forfeit access to 1.4 billion potential readers.
Books are often smuggled into China from jurisdictions including Hong Kong, where publishers enjoy more freedom. Bookstores in the city overflow with works on everything from President Xi Jinping to the devastating Chinese famine that killed upwards of 45 million people during the Great Leap Forward.

7. SNAPCHAT
Facebook and Twitter aren't the only social media platforms blocked in China. Chinese users are unable to access Snapchat, either. Youtube is also blocked.

Keeping western firms out has given Chinese tech companies ample time to develop their own networks. Well as per Wikipedia - List of websites blocked in China

Trading platforms struggle as more banks ban bitcoin in China

As more Chinese banks have moved to close bitcoin trading accounts this week, online platforms for the virtual currency's transactions are struggling to survive.

Industrial and Commercial Bank of China on Thursday said it had decided to bar trading activities related to bitcoin.

The previous day, Agricultural Bank of China, China Guangfa Bank and Shanghai Pudong Development Bank all announced that they had banned customers from using accounts to trade bitcoin.

Announcements posted on their websites said that any institution or individual is not allowed to use accounts opened in the bank for deposits, withdrawals and transfers of funds for bitcoin and litecoin trading.

This is aimed at protecting the property rights and interests of the public, maintaining the legal currency status of the renminbi and preventing money laundering risks, the statements said. If customers break the rules, the banks will suspend or shut down their accounts.

Bitcoins, stored in a virtual wallet, can pass from person to person around the world in secret, allowing users to remain anonymous, bypassing both banks and banking regulators worldwide.

As the crypto-currency has the potential to be exploited for fraud and presents high risk investment opportunities, it has aroused controversy.

The bans followed a warning from Chinese regulators in December. Five government departments including the central bank cautioned people on the risks related to bitcoin and demanded financial and third-party payment institutions not engage in transactions involving the virtual currency.

According to statistics released by Huobi, one of the leading bitcoin exchanges, transactions have dropped monthly since December. In April, the price of bitcoin decreased by 30%, while the transaction volume fell by 40% on the previous month.

Five leading Chinese bitcoin trading exchanges, including BTC China, Huobi and OKCoin, released a statement on Tuesday, promising to restrain from excessive speculation and cooperate with regulators.

Bitcoin transactions on these five exchanges take up more than 80% of the total Chinese market.

"If China maintains tough regulatory policies, the price of bitcoin will definitely keep dropping," said Du Jun, co-founder of Huobi.

It is a matter of urgency for Chinese bitcoin trading platforms to speed up overseas expansion. "We are developing some overseas platforms right now," Du said.

Last year, China became the most active bitcoin market in the world. Exchange platforms have also attracted many international investors.

He Yi, OKCoin vice president, said his company started tapping into the overseas market at the end of 2013.

"But it does not mean we are giving up on the Chinese market. Going global was one of our original plans," he added.

The restrained bitcoin trading service in China has affected the virtual currency on the global market.

According to statistics released by Blockchain, a popular bitcoin wallet, the global market value of the virtual currency has slumped to US$5.6 billion from a record high of US$13.9 billion in December.

In February, Tokyo-based Mt Gox, once the world's largest bitcoin exchanges, suddenly shut down after hundreds of millions of dollars worth of bitcoin was stolen following a number of cyber attacks.

Overseas expansion is not easy, but insiders regard it as an opportunity.

Li Qiyuan, CEO of BTC China, said more exchanges may close down in the future. "The market will select the superior and eliminate the inferior. Only professional exchanges may survive," he said.

People like Li still have confidence in the market despite regulations being adopted by countries worldwide.

"Bitcoin does not belong to China or America. It is a global digital currency. It will survive as long as countries allow trading," Du added.

Modi's Campaign Largest Mass Outreach in Electoral History