re: Tracking the Shanghai & Shenzhen markets: AFTY nears its August trough

AFTY dropped to 12.01 at one point on Friday, which is a 51.5% drop from 24.75. Articles last July claimed that $3.5 trillion in Chinese asset value had been erased, so I would estimate the total since last June to be about $6 trillion now. That's a lot of paper wealth to vanish.

Putting stock index price drops into comparative historical context to the U.S.: " The Worst Stock Market Collapses Since The Great Depression."
1. 1929-32, -90%
2. 2007-09, -54%
3. 1937-38, -52%
4. 1973-74, -46%
5. 1939-42, -39%
6. 1968-70, -36%
7. 2000-02, -34%
8. 1976-78, -27%

This would explain a good bit of the drop in global commodities prices, with CRBQ, the global commodities ETF for the Thomson Reuters CRB Commodity Producers Index, recently hitting 26.10 on Friday. (It was at 47.12 as recently as June 2014.) You almost have to start wondering how close we are the bottom for commodity prices, including oil.

MarketWatch: " 10 oil companies that will thrive as crude prices rebound."

Long Term Debt-to-Equity Ratios
(S&P 500 companies in the oilfield services/equipment area)
NOV (National Oilwell Varco), 15.3%
BHI (Baker Hughes), 22.2%
SLB (Schlumberger), 35.2%
HAL (Halliburton), 48.3%
CAM (Cameron Int'l), 67.7%
FTI (FMC Tech Inc.), 71.6%

Long Term Debt-to-Equity Ratios
(10 S&P 500 energy and materials companies with the lowest D/E ratios)
HP (Helmerich & Payne), 10.9%
NOV (National Oilwell Varco), 15.3%
XOM (Exxon), 16.7%
CVX (Chevron), 17.9%
OXY (Occidental), 19.6%
BHI (Baker Hughes), 22.2%
HES (Hess), 27.0%
MRO (Marathon), 30.4%
VLO (Valero), 30.9%
PXD (Pioneer), 31.1%

I wouldn't recommend acting on a commodities bottom just yet, until more momentum builds to show evidence of a market turn, and I wouldn't necessarily recommend going for oil as your target commodity to buy--nonetheless, it is interesting to watch.

Maybe now is a good time to learn about commodity price histories for industrial metals...