Vanilla is one of the world's most popular flavours, but a dear one: a supply squeeze over the past few years has propelled prices to record highs. Five years ago, the price of 1kg of vanilla was $20. In 2018, it briefly became more expensive than silver, reaching a peak of $600 a kilo, before falling back. Most of the world's natural vanilla comes from Madagascar, so events on the island affect the global industry.
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8 of the best properties for sale with communal gardensThe best properties for sale with access to communal gardens – from an apartment in a listed building opposite London’s Hyde Park, to a wing of a mansion with access to 180 acres of parkland in Henley-upon-Thames
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The five insurance policies you should haveSome insurance cover will be more important than others. We look at five insurance policies you may need to have to make sure you aren’t caught out in an emergency
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What would the greatest mathematician of the Middle Ages say about gold today?Sponsored Italian mathematician Fibonacci is most famous for a curious sequence of numbers. Continuing his series on technical analysis, Dominic Frisby explains what these numbers are, and what they can tell us about gold’s next move.
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How moving averages can reveal trades worth betting on – and ones to avoidSponsored Dominic Frisby looks in more depth at how moving averages can help you catch turning points in markets and help you decide which trades are worth pursuing.
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This chart pattern could be extraordinarily bullish for goldCharts The mother of all patterns is developing in the gold charts, says Dominic Frisby. And if everything plays out well, gold could hit a price that investors could retire on.
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Believe it or not, this market is a “buy”Charts With the world in the state it’s in and the market so volatile, buying stocks right now might go against all your instincts. But that’s just what you should be doing, says Dominic Frisby. Here, he explains why.
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Chart of the week: avocados and bitcoin are in syncCharts An amusing new spurious correlation has been spotted between the price of bitcoin and Mexican Hass avocados. In reality, of course, they have nothing to do with each other beyond “superficial price action”.
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Chart of the week: Kuwait's stockmarket is ready for take-offCharts Kuwait's stockmarket is due to be promoted from “frontier” status to an emerging market by index provider MSCI next June. That should entice almost $10bn of global investors’ cash into the country.
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Chart of the week: US stocks outrun profitsCharts The US stockmarket has become totally detached from underlying profits of its constituent companies over the past three years.
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Chart of the week: Dr Copper diagnoses an ailing economyCharts The price of copper has slipped by a fifth this year and is now at a near-two-year low of around $5,600 a tonne.
