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Greece The Dangerous Game of Brinkmanship Continues
ETFS Multi-Asset Weekly – Greece The Dangerous Game of Brinkmanship Continues
Highlights
Energy rallies while agriculture pares recent gains.
China A-shares rally on positive indications from MSCI.
Commodity currencies diverge.
Talks between Greece and its creditors collapsed over the weekend adding a further blow to the country’s precarious financial situation after the IMF pulled out discussions last week. Euro-zone finance ministers will meet again on Thursday to try to break the impasse, but the willingness from either side to see a resolution appears to be wearing thin. Elsewhere, the Federal Open Market Committee will host a press conference and present its summary of economic projections after its rate decision, where no change is expected.
Commodities
Energy rallies while agriculture pares recent gains. Natural gas gained 7.6% last week, reversing the previous two week’s losses. Higher power demand driven by air-conditioning needs tend to drive up natural gas demand in the summer period. Above average temperature forecasts for the south east of the US were the catalyst for the recent gains. There were no surprises in the weekly natural gas in storage data with a net change of 111 Bcf, close to 113 Bcf expected. Both Brent and WTI continued to defy the lack of material supply tightening news, with both benchmarks gaining close to 5%. Crude oil prices appear to be reacting to higher demand forecasts, but we believe that the higher prices themselves are likely to choke off demand. Sugar declined a further 3.5% last week, to a 6 year low, driven mainly by a depreciating Brazilian Real exchange rate. The global glut in sugar continues to weigh on sentiment. The USDA surprisingly increased wheat supply forecasts for this year. Wheat had previously been rallying following excess rain in in the key growing areas in the US.
Equities
China A-shares rally on positive indications from MSCI. MSCI declared it is a matter of “when” and not “if” they will include domestically traded A-Shares to its Emerging Market benchmark. MSCI announced that is working with the China Securities Regulatory Commission on overcoming the final roadblocks to inclusion. Furthermore they said they will not necessarily wait to their annual index review to announce inclusion. If reform maintains its current pace, we are likely to see MSCI’s concerns on capital mobility, quota allocation and beneficial ownership quickly resolved. That would pave the way for domestically traded shares to enter the emerging market index that currently has approximately US$1.5tn benchmarked against it. European bourses meanwhile traded lower as concerns about Greece’s precarious finances linger.
Currencies
Commodity currencies diverge. Citing weak commodity prices, falling import prices and subdued wage inflation, the Reserve Bank of New Zealand cut the official cash rate last week driving the NZD lower. It also expressed concern that the currency is still overvalued despite depreciating since April, and that further rate cuts are possible. The Reserve Bank of Australia also remains dovish. Meanwhile the recent bounce in oil price has supported NOK and CAD, driving the commodity currencies apart. The lack of progress in Greece’s negotiations with its creditors continued to weigh on the Euro. With the IMF pulling out of discussions, the risk of a dramatic end to the standoff between the Greek government and its creditors has now increased. As long as the Fed continues to indicate it is on track to raise rates in September, we are likely to see the US dollar remain a key haven for investors.
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• Crypto prices jumped over the weekend as President Trump announced details of the US strategic crypto reserve.
• Why is Bitcoin digital gold? How does it act as a hedge against inflation and currency debasement?
• A Solana upgrade doubles validator incentives and further reinforces our positive view.
Strategic crypto reserves are coming to America
Donald Trump announced plans for a U.S. strategic crypto reserve to diversify assets and position the U.S. as a crypto leader. Funded partly by seized assets, the news spiked markets for the assets he mentioned: XRP (+33%), Solana (+26%), and Cardano (+69%) surging before Bitcoin (+11%) and Ethereum (+13%) followed—more details expected March 7.
The Full Story
Why is Bitcoin digital gold?
With a fixed 21 million Bitcoin supply and halving events that slow inflation, this asset is built for scarcity—just like gold. Learn how its supply mechanics shape its value.
The Full Story
Solana’s upgrade doubles validator incentives
Solana’s latest upgrade changes how priority fees are distributed, boosting validator rewards but sparking debate among stakers. Priority fees are extra payments users make to speed up transactions. Validators confirm these transactions and now keep 100% of those fees—but stakers aren’t happy. A new proposal aims to fix this—will it pass?
In case you missed it:
Learn more about Solana
Bitcoin Halving Report
This Week’s Calendar
March 7, 2025
Further details on the US strategic crypto reserve
Job Report
March 8, 2025
Estimated date of the on-chain vote on Solana aiming to automate the distribution of priority fees.
Research Newsletter
Each week the 21Shares Research team will publish our data-driven insights into the crypto asset world through this newsletter. Please direct any comments, questions, and words of feedback to research@21shares.com
Disclaimer
The information provided does not constitute a prospectus or other offering material and does not contain or constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of any offer to buy securities in any jurisdiction. Some of the information published herein may contain forward-looking statements. Readers are cautioned that any such forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve risks and uncertainties and that actual results may differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements as a result of various factors. The information contained herein may not be considered as economic, legal, tax or other advice and users are cautioned to base investment decisions or other decisions solely on the content hereof.
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