China Attempts to Gain Canadian Royalties Inc.

Recently China has been making just about every effort possible to gain an ever growing amount of natural resources. We learned today that state-controlled Jilin Jien Nickel Industry Co. Ltd. launched a $148.5-million unsolicited takeover bid to gain control of mineral exploration company, Canadian Royalties Inc, so as to increase their resource supply.

China Continues It's Recovery

Amid financial stimulus plans, China's trade and factory output is rising. Statistics show that retail sales, exports, Chinese steel output and investment in factories and other fixed assets also rose also rose in July. Economic growth increased in July by 7.9%, showing that China's stimulus package is working despite fears that it would just create more economic bubbles.

Economic Forecasting: Oil

It is a relatively common belief that the global economy will turn around by the end of 2009 with oil helping the rebound along. However in some opinions the oil business doesn't look to be at its finest right now. Merill Lynch expects that the demand for petroleum will fall 5.2mm b/d below capacity this year. It is also expected that refining will continue to be a low margin buisness, as the world has a much larger oil refining capacity than needed and we currently have 85 million barrels worth of oil products sitting in floating storage. There is a spare capacity of 20% this year as opposed to the 5-6% of years previous. So maybe it is not looking so rosy for the oil industry.

LS Power Associates to Buy Greater Share in Dynergy

LS Power Associates is expected to announce today (8/10) that they will be purchasing 9 power plants from Dynergy. LS Power will give Dynergy $1 billion and $500 million worth of shares that LS Power already had in Dynergy. They will also now own 15% of the energy company.

Barnes & Noble to Buy

Barnes & Nobles announced a deal stating that an agreement has been made to buy Barnes & Noble College Booksellers from the company's Chairman. The deal is worth $596 million and Barnes & Nobles expects that the deal will increase earnings for this year by 30-35%.

Chinese Academy of Sciences to Sell Stake in Legend Holding

The Chinese Academy of Sciences announced that it is looking for a buyer for 29% of the shares of Legend Holding which is the parent company of Lenovo. They are looking to complete a deal by early September and are hoping to earn $404 million from the sale. They believe they will sell to another Chinese company.

M&A Activity Reaches All-Time Highs in Mining

Proposed takeovers in mining for the quarter a currently valued at over $122 billion. This is the highest total value for the mining industry in M&A for a quarter in years and more than twice the second-highest total value of $57 billion from the first quarter of 2008.

China's New Bullet Train

China is currently working on what could be the most technologically advanced transportation system ever. The country is spending over $50 billion to create a new bullet train system and will lay down over 16,000 miles of track. A project like this will not only boost travel but the Chinese economy as they are currently employing over 110,000 people on the project and it will greatly decrease the amount of time it takes to travel between China's major cities.

Fall of The British Empire

Britain has seemingly lost its standing in the world and is becoming increasingly insignificant in world affairs and in the world economy. Newsweek suggests that for some time now England has been the pawn and sidekick to the United States and now the U.S. is in decline England no longer has a hold, especially as emerging nations are giving little thought to the British. Is there any hope left for Great Britain or will they merely become insignificant?

Big Banks Still Failing

The United States may be hitting the bottom of the recession and may be on the turn around to get above water soon but the U.S.'s big banks have yet to come that far along. The FDIC has listed 305 banks as being problematic and Bankrate.com has given two dozen banks with $5billion+ in assets a one-star rating for soundness and safety, three banks have stated that they are close to collapsing. 69 banks have already failed this year. It will seemingly take a lot longer for banks to follow the trend and begin their recovery.