“The best way to protect a portfolio against stagflation in future years is to buy commodities, particularly agricultural products, a U.S.-based fund manager said on Monday. Adam Robinson, director of commodities at Armored Wolf, said the massive amounts of money flooding into the global economy from central banks and governments may have set the world up for rampant inflation within a couple of years,” reports Reuters.
* “World stock markets fell as oil prices slumped below $64 a barrel Monday amid concerns that any recovery in the global economy will be a long, hard slog following disappointing U.S. jobs data last week,” reports AP.
“A slump in the energy sector and worries about the upcoming earnings season weighed on U.S. stocks Monday. The consensus on Wall Street was that the global economy would begin a rebound in the second half of the year. But now that the second half is here, there is little evidence of such a comeback. The dollar stuck to narrow ranges, losing ground to the yen but edging higher against the euro ahead of this week’s Group of Eight meeting,” reports MarketWatch.
“California’s credit rating was cut for the second time in as many weeks by Fitch Ratings after a stalemate over how to close a $26 billion budget deficit forced the most-populous U.S. state to pay some bills with IOUs. Fitch lowered its rating of California’s general obligation bonds by two steps to BBB from A-, placing the debt two ranks about so-called high-yield, high-risk junk ratings, and said the state may be cut further,” reports Bloomberg.
