Most Popular
1. It’s a New Macro, the Gold Market Knows It, But Dead Men Walking Do Not (yet)- Gary_Tanashian
2.Stock Market Presidential Election Cycle Seasonal Trend Analysis - Nadeem_Walayat
3. Bitcoin S&P Pattern - Nadeem_Walayat
4.Nvidia Blow Off Top - Flying High like the Phoenix too Close to the Sun - Nadeem_Walayat
4.U.S. financial market’s “Weimar phase” impact to your fiat and digital assets - Raymond_Matison
5. How to Profit from the Global Warming ClImate Change Mega Death Trend - Part1 - Nadeem_Walayat
7.Bitcoin Gravy Train Trend Forecast 2024 - - Nadeem_Walayat
8.The Bond Trade and Interest Rates - Nadeem_Walayat
9.It’s Easy to Scream Stocks Bubble! - Stephen_McBride
10.Fed’s Next Intertest Rate Move might not align with popular consensus - Richard_Mills
Last 7 days
Stock Market Brief in Count Down to US Election Result 2024 - 3rd Nov 24
Gold Stocks’ Winter Rally 2024 - 3rd Nov 24
Why Countdown to U.S. Recession is Underway - 3rd Nov 24
Stock Market Trend Forecast to Jan 2025 - 2nd Nov 24
President Donald PUMP Forecast to Win US Presidential Election 2024 - 1st Nov 24
At These Levels, Buying Silver Is Like Getting It At $5 In 2003 - 28th Oct 24
Nvidia Numero Uno Selling Shovels in the AI Gold Rush - 28th Oct 24
The Future of Online Casinos - 28th Oct 24
Panic in the Air As Stock Market Correction Delivers Deep Opps in AI Tech Stocks - 27th Oct 24
Stocks, Bitcoin, Crypto's Counting Down to President Donald Pump! - 27th Oct 24
UK Budget 2024 - What to do Before 30th Oct - Pensions and ISA's - 27th Oct 24
7 Days of Crypto Opportunities Starts NOW - 27th Oct 24
The Power Law in Venture Capital: How Visionary Investors Like Yuri Milner Have Shaped the Future - 27th Oct 24
This Points To Significantly Higher Silver Prices - 27th Oct 24
US House Prices Trend Forecast 2024 to 2026 - 11th Oct 24
US Housing Market Analysis - Immigration Drives House Prices Higher - 30th Sep 24
Stock Market October Correction - 30th Sep 24
The Folly of Tariffs and Trade Wars - 30th Sep 24
Gold: 5 principles to help you stay ahead of price turns - 30th Sep 24
The Everything Rally will Spark multi year Bull Market - 30th Sep 24
US FIXED MORTGAGES LIMITING SUPPLY - 23rd Sep 24
US Housing Market Free Equity - 23rd Sep 24
US Rate Cut FOMO In Stock Market Correction Window - 22nd Sep 24
US State Demographics - 22nd Sep 24
Gold and Silver Shine as the Fed Cuts Rates: What’s Next? - 22nd Sep 24
Stock Market Sentiment Speaks:Nothing Can Topple This Market - 22nd Sep 24
US Population Growth Rate - 17th Sep 24
Are Stocks Overheating? - 17th Sep 24
Sentiment Speaks: Silver Is At A Major Turning Point - 17th Sep 24
If The Stock Market Turn Quickly, How Bad Can Things Get? - 17th Sep 24
IMMIGRATION DRIVES HOUSE PRICES HIGHER - 12th Sep 24
Global Debt Bubble - 12th Sep 24
Gold’s Outlook CPI Data - 12th Sep 24

Market Oracle FREE Newsletter

How to Protect your Wealth by Investing in AI Tech Stocks

Agri-Food's Stock Rotation Expectations for 2010

Commodities / Agricultural Commodities Mar 16, 2010 - 01:28 AM GMT

By: Ned_W_Schmidt

Commodities

Best Financial Markets Analysis ArticleTHE benchmarks chosen by a nation say a lot about the future that nation will have. In the U.S. we seem to have chosen as one benchmark how often the central bank can create an over inflated stock market. Or, success is the percentage of the nation's mortgages financed by the government. Those benchmarks are reflected in the dismal leadership at the Federal Reserve.


Rather than a meritocracy, leaders are chosen as if a giant social experiment of a board game was being played. Or perhaps the benchmark for the national government is how many wealth destroying policies can be implemented in a short period of time. The future for the U.S. can only be dismal when such benchmarks are chosen to be pursued by uninspiring leadership. Little wonder Gold is US$1,100.

China seems, however, to have chosen a far different set of benchmarks. That list might include how many million people rise to the middle class, how many millionaires can be created, how many thousands of miles of road and rail can be created, how soon they can get to the moon, how many college graduates can they produce, etc. Which set of benchmarks, those chosen by the U.S. or those chosen by China, are more likely to create a prosperous society in the future? Which nation is changing the way the world works? Which will determine the price of gasoline and corn in the next decade? And finally, who is Mr. Bo?

The incremental demand for Agri-Food created by the largest migration of people in China into the middle class in all of history can be observed in the prices for Agri-Food. Chinese demand has changed the pricing environment for Agri-Food as has never been done in peace time. They now consume a quarter of the world's entire production of soybeans. As can be observed in the above chart, financial assets have experienced a negative return while the median price change for Agri-Food has been about +20%.

In this past year, as shown in the chart below, the Federal Reserve has been able to reinflate a bubble in financial asset prices. Great has been the praise heaped on those bubble-inducers for their success. But, just how successful have they been? As can be observed in the chart below, a mere bale of cotton has produced a far greater return than U.S. stocks. And as the previous chart shows, that bale of cotton held value far more than the stock market. That bowl of sugar, chart below, on your kitchen table has performed about as well as the U.S. stock market this past year.

The average gain for Agri-Food prices, as shown in the above chart, has been more than 20% in the trailing year. As a consequence of that excellent advance, the Agri-Food stocks produced a gain of more than 100%, as we showed in our last article. They will of course do far less in the year ahead. If one owns Gold in part due to the shift of economic power to China, then prospering from China's purchases of soybeans is a natural next step. China may never buy an ounce of foreign Gold, but they will be swapping money for corn with Nebraska farmers as they become a net importer of corn.

While the Agri-Food stocks were one of the strongest groups in the past year, stock rotation does occur on a regular basis. As the above chart portrays, the recent performance of the Agri-Food stocks includes both some winners and some losers. Those laggards may make a good match with the Gold in your portfolio as China, and soon India, consume the world's Agri-Food harvest.

Only the naive would deny that Chinese demand for resources has and will alter the pricing of all natural resources, including Agri-Food, in the years ahead. Group rotation in the equity markets may provide an opportunity for you to harvest some of these Agri-Food benefits. While you sit gloating over your Gold profits, do some research on how China and India are changing the price of what we eat. Not doing so may create the necessity of selling your Gold to feed you family in the years ahead. One place to start is: www.agrifoodvalueview.com

By Ned W Schmidt CFA, CEBS

AGRI-FOOD THOUGHTS is from Ned W. Schmidt,CFA,CEBS, publisher of The Agri-Food Value View , a monthly exploration of the Agri-Food grand cycle being created by China, India, and Eco-energy. To receive the most recent issue of this publication, use this link: http://home.att.net/~nwschmidt/Order_AgriValue.html

Copyright © 2010 Ned W. Schmidt - All Rights Reserved

Ned W Schmidt Archive

© 2005-2022 http://www.MarketOracle.co.uk - The Market Oracle is a FREE Daily Financial Markets Analysis & Forecasting online publication.


Post Comment

Only logged in users are allowed to post comments. Register/ Log in