Commodity Ban in China

China's ICBC Closes Commodity-Linked Products to New Investments: Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) has suspended access for new investors to retail products linked to commodity futures due to extreme market volatility, including U.S. oil futures crashing below zero. Investors already holding ICBC’s commodity-linked retail products will not be able to add to their positions from Tuesday, but existing positions can be traded as normal, the bank said on its website on Monday. ICBC also warned retail investors they could lose all their investments and cash deposits in the commodity linked products. “The debate in China is about whether those products were suitable for the retail market,” a commodity source in China said. China’s regulator has told commercial banks to halt sales of a range of wealth management products that might result in unlimited investor losses, two sources told Reuters. Other state-run banks have also closed new investments in commodity-linked products, ranging from oil to soybeans to copper.