Analysis Topic: Commodity Markets - Metals, Softs & Oils

The analysis published under this topic are as follows.

Friday, April 13, 2012

Brazil's Biofuel Boom / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2012

By: The_Energy_Report

Believe it or not, industry experts see biofuels accounting for up to 25% of global energy consumption by 2050. With this long-term vision in mind, Mark McHugh, president and CEO of consultancy firm CenAm Energy Partners SA, assesses the current biofuel industry from his base in Brazil, the seat of the growing industry. In this exclusive interview with The Energy Report, McHugh explains why specialized energy feedstocks are the solution to current technological and political growth constraints, predicting that biofuel investment returns may rival historic fossil fuel profit ratios.

Friday, April 13, 2012

Soybeans: The New Corn / Commodities / Agricultural Commodities

By: Ned_W_Schmidt

Markets are intriguing due to their constantly changing character. New leadership constantly evolves. In equity markets, that tendency is always pushed to an extreme. A maker of electronic toys is today considered the most valuable company. Nonsensical forecasts of a $1,000 share price have even appeared. A company involved in the social networking fad is praised for a billion-dollar acquisition of a company with no revenues, making the internet bubble look like value investing.

Thursday, April 12, 2012

Gold Miners on the Move / Commodities / Gold & Silver Stocks

By: Mike_Paulenoff

Apart from what we discussed about the relationship of the Market Vectors Junior Gold Miners ETF (GDXJ) and the SPDR S&P 500 (SPY) on Tuesday evening, what is interesting today is that the heretofore (and more often than not) inverse relationship between the GDXJ and the SPY has morphed into a direct relationship.

That is to say, both the SPY and the GDXJ are climbing today, although, more to the point, the former is up about 1%, while the latter is up 4.4% so far today.

Thursday, April 12, 2012

Useless Gold Overtakes Platinum / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2012

By: Adrian_Ash

It's more than "interesting" that platinum prices are lagging gold...

GOLD has risen nicely since the meltdown following Lehmans' collapse, with the gold price in Dollars rising 130%. Until last summer, however, platinum had done better still.

Thursday, April 12, 2012

Why High Oil Prices Even at $200 Won't Cause a Recession / Commodities / Crude Oil

By: Money_Morning

Martin Hutchinson writes: Last Friday's weak unemployment numbers, with only 120,000 jobs created, brought renewed wails that high oil prices were causing a recession.

Having heard this refrain so many times, I thought I'd dig a little deeper.

Thursday, April 12, 2012

Vietnam goes nuclear on Gold / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2012

By: Jan_Skoyles

Vietnam is frequently cited as an example of somewhere which acknowledges gold’s role as money; it is a medium of exchange and is used as such every day. Houses come with two prices in Vietnam; the price in dong and the price in gold – gold is most often the favoured form of payment (Thiers’ law in effect).

Thursday, April 12, 2012

Crude Oil and Natural Gas Ratio Explodes to 52:1 / Commodities / Crude Oil

By: EconMatters

The ink on our last article is barely dry when its dire prediction actually came true 48 hours later--natural gas price dropping below $2, a level not seen in over a decade.  Henry Hub natural gas front month futures declined to $1.982 per 1,000 cubic feet (mcf) on Wed. April 11, its lowest level since January 28, 2002, when the price hit $1.91.  Meanwhile, WTI crude oil rose by $1.68 to finish at $102.70 per barrel; Brent rude increased by 30 cents to finish at $120.18.

Thursday, April 12, 2012

Cameco Uranium Miner Worth Another Look / Commodities / Uranium

By: Bob_Kirtley

Cameco Corporation (CCJ) is one of the world’s largest uranium producers. It is also the world’s largest publicly traded uranium company. Cameco operates several mines across North America and one in Kazakhstan. 

Twelve months on, the fallout from the Fukushima disaster (nuclear and financial) has subsided and the uranium sector has started to see some positive signs once again. The number of reactors globally is expected to increase in coming years, and Japan is even seriously considering reopening some if not all of its reactors.

Thursday, April 12, 2012

Gold Stocks Gaining Credibility / Commodities / Gold & Silver Stocks

By: The_Gold_Report

While gold equities continue to trail the gold price, junior stocks are gaining traction according to Doug Groh, co-portfolio manager and senior analyst with Tocqueville Asset Management. He believes investors should not let the market's risk aversion keep them out of a stock picker's market. The trick, Groh reveals in this exclusive Gold Report interview, is to pick managements, not jurisdictions.

Companies Mentioned: Abzu Gold Ltd. - ATAC Resources Ltd. - Bear Creek Mining Corp. - Detour Gold Corp. - Gold Resource Corporation - Osisko Mining Corp. - Randgold Resources Ltd.

Thursday, April 12, 2012

How Serious are China and India About Their Gold? / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2012

By: Eric_McWhinnie

Despite the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 suffering their worst day of the year on Tuesday, precious metals were able to decouple and climb higher. Gold futures for June delivery increased almost $17 to settle at $1,660, while silver gained 16 cents to close at $31.68. Although gold prices declined in March and had the media buzzing once again about a possible bubble, the world continues to be more interested in precious metals than ever before.

Wednesday, April 11, 2012

Copper Projects Push Forward in Prolific Walker Lane Belt / Commodities / Metals & Mining

By: Chris_Devauld

Perhaps best known as the fault zone that could replace the San Andreas plate boundary if California slips into the Pacific, the Walker Lane Belt also hosts a whole lot of copper. Aligned with the California / Nevada border, the Walker Lane descends across the two states, incorporating the famed Death Valley along with myriad geological features that have attracted scores of miners.

Wednesday, April 11, 2012

Gold Steady as Italy and Spain Face Higher Borrowing Costs / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2012

By: Ben_Traynor

DOLLAR prices to buy gold hovered at just under $1660 an ounce during most of Wednesday morning's London trading – up around 1.5% for the week so far – as European stock markets recovered some ground following yesterday's losses, commodities were broadly flat and government bond prices fell.

Gold prices rallied in yesterday's US trading, hitting a high of $1663 per ounce.

Wednesday, April 11, 2012

Chinese Gold Imports From Hong Kong Rise Nearly 13 Fold, PBOC Likely Buying Dip Again / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2012

By: GoldCore

Gold’s London AM fix this morning was USD 1,654.00, EUR 1,261.63, and GBP 1,040.25 per ounce. Yesterday's AM fix was USD 1,643.75, EUR 1,255.92 and GBP 1,037.72 per ounce.

Silver is trading at $31.66/oz, €24.08/oz and £19.87/oz. Platinum is trading at $1,591.50/oz, palladium at $636.30/oz and rhodium at $1,350/oz.

Wednesday, April 11, 2012

The Keystone Oil Pipeline Fallout: Canada Makes Over a Billion New Friends / Commodities / Crude Oil

By: Money_Morning

James Baldwin writes: "If you do not change direction, you may end up where you are heading." Lao Tzu

You can forget about energy independence for now.

Without Canadian oil it is nothing but the latest American pipe dream.

Wednesday, April 11, 2012

JP Morgan Metals Market Manipulation, Blythe Masters Lays an Egg / Commodities / Market Manipulation

By: Rob_Kirby

On April 5, 2012, JPMorganChase commodity executive Blythe Masters appeared on CNBC, and she was questioned whether the bank is manipulating metals markets?

Wednesday, April 11, 2012

Surging central bank gold demand adds new dimension to bull market / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2012

By: Michael_J_Kosares

The longer-term trends in gold's supply-demand fundamentals point to a potentially explosive market situation in the years ahead. In short, the supply trend is static to shrinking while global demand trends, particularly from investors and central banks, appear to be in a period of rapid expansion. What's more the political, financial and economic dynamics driving these trends are not likely to undergo any significant reversal anytime soon for reasons explored below.

Wednesday, April 11, 2012

Gold Remarkable Reversal on Euro Jitters Flight to Safety / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2012

By: Jesse

There was a remarkable intra-day reversal in gold as stocks slumped hard on fresh European debt jitters of the Italian and Spanish variety.

This divergence was probably a flight to safety, as gold soared but silver lagged.

Tuesday, April 10, 2012

Gold Moves Higher For No Particular Reason Yet Seen / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2012

By: Jesse

I am checking various rumours, but so far nothing in the news can explain this remarkable short term rally in gold.

This is a significant divergence from the equity markets. Silver also has lagged a bit.

I would not chase it at this point, although that is easier to say as I did some additional buying earlier today and then went out for a walk and some light reading on the patio. Spring is in the air.

Tuesday, April 10, 2012

Managing Gold Investors Expectations: Why Gold Should Thrive / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2012

By: Frank_Holmes

It was a challenging week for gold investors. Although the yellow metal has been on a spectacular 11-year bull run, recent strength in the economy has some thinking gold's heyday is over.

As I often say, investing, like life, is about managing expectations--even throughout gold's decade-long rise, price action over the short term can go both ways. It helps to look at what happens after short-term drops. For example, looking at the past decade of one-day 5 percent declines in gold, you can see that this event is pretty rare. In 2006, gold dropped more than 5 percent in a day only two times. In 2008, there were three such events. Another one occurred at the end of this February.

Tuesday, April 10, 2012

A Return to the Gold Standard, or Gold Behind Currencies - Part 1/5 / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2012

By: Julian_DW_Phillips

This is the first part of a five part series on how gold will return to the monetary system globally but not in the form of the defunct Gold Standard.