Analysis Topic: Commodity Markets - Metals, Softs & Oils
The analysis published under this topic are as follows.
Thursday, June 23, 2011
Gold Drops after QE3 Disappointment, Faber Says "Don't Trust the Fed" / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2011
By: Ben_Traynor
U.S. DOLLAR gold prices continued falling Thursday morning in London, hitting $1538 per ounce – a 1.3% drop from Wednesday's high, and nearly back to where they started the week.
Stock and commodity markets fell and longer dated US Treasury bonds rose after US Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke made no specific reference to QE3 – a third round of quantitative easing – at a press conference on Wednesday.
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Thursday, June 23, 2011
The Outlook for Natural Gas: The Stocks With Upside Around the Corner / Commodities / Natural Gas
By: Keith_Schaefer
Dear OGIB reader,
Timing is everything in the market and being able to spot trends is critical for locking in attractive returns.
Natural gas producers have taken a beating over the past three years but there are encouraging signs that natural gas might be ready for a break to the upside.
Thursday, June 23, 2011
Coal Generators Power Struggle: Consumers To Foot The Electric Bills? / Commodities / Energy Resources
By: Dian_L_Chu
Utility giant American Electric Power (AEP) sent shock wave last week by suggesting consumers could see their electricity bills jump an estimated 40-60% in the next few years. AEP is one of the country's largest investor-owned utilities, serving parts of 11 states with more than 5 million customers.
Thursday, June 23, 2011
Armada of Black Swans Hitting U.S. Economy and Financial Markets, Gold Breakouts on QE TO INFINITY / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2011
By: Jim_Willie_CB
Mohammed El-Erian is given credit for the phrase 'The New Normal' to mean an altered state of perceived instability within the normalcy realm, as in crisis being called normal, like endless crisis. As buddy Jim Mess in Europe says, just like trying to redefine what debt default is, it sounds like high octane prevarication. El-Erian is considered one of the good guys. He managed to slip away from Harvard University without much smear, where he served on the management team of the giant multi-$billion endowment fund. If truth be told, Harvard hatched the Enron monster from its Business School as a project, funded by Citigroup, where JPMorgan created all the off-shore companies to hide their dealings. Building #7 in Lower Manhattan contained the records until it fell from structural sympathy. Harvard successfully made money all the way on the Enron runup, but also successfully shorted Enron all the way down. So El-Erian is hardly squeaky clean. He does give a good interview though, does not deal much in varnished truths, and is an avid NYMets baseball fan. At PIMCO, he worked on the team to direct the biggest bond fund in the world to turn its back on the entire USTreasury Bond complex. In fact, their Total Return Fund, its flagship bond fund, is net short on USTreasurys as a group. That means they own a raft of Credit Default Swaps for USGovt debt default and an assortment of other vehicles like the TNX and TYX that track the 10-year and 30-year bond yield. They recognize an asset bubble when they see one, and even invest in Gold.
Thursday, June 23, 2011
Can Gold Prospectors Cushion Against Market Volatility? / Commodities / Gold & Silver Stocks
By: The_Gold_Report
Mercenary Geologist Mickey Fulp has adopted a new prospector-generator model portfolio with an emphasis on good people. In this exclusive interview with The Gold Report, he outlines the impact global volatility could have on junior mining companies.
The Gold Report: Is there a danger of food shortages starving emerging economies and putting an end to the secular commodity bull market? In your March 21 Musing newsletter, you tracked the commodities market back to 1955, illustrating the worldwide food inflation problem crushing poor countries. You have also written about the important role of these same emerging economies in pushing the eighth year in a commodity bull market. So I have to ask, could food shortages choke growing commodity demand?
Wednesday, June 22, 2011
It's Time to Invest in Coal / Commodities / Coal
By: Marin_Katusa
Marin Katusa, Casey Research Energy Team writes: Coal prices are surging ahead even as most other commodities pull back, spurred on by expectations that metallurgical and thermal coal production will again fail to meet rising global demand this year. The result? Record profits for major coal producers like Xstrata, a surge in acquisitions from coal-hungry India, Chinese electricity shortages, and a raging carbon tax debate in Australia amid record investments in that country's coal-heavy mining sector.
Wednesday, June 22, 2011
Platinum to Gold Ratio and Detecting Bubbles / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2011
By: Willem_Weytjens
An article on BespokeInvest about the Platinum-to-Gold ratio today drew my attention.
I therefore wanted to get to know more about this ratio. I knew that the ratio had been trading around 2 over the last 10 years, which was why I invested heavily in Platinum and its little sister metal Palladium in December 2008 and early 2009 when prices crashed, and Platinum became cheaper than gold (the ratio thus dropped below 1). When the economy rebounded, the ratio rebounded to 1.50, but the last couple of months, it has been declining again, and is approaching 1 again, as it is currently at 1.13 with gold prices around 1546 and Platinum around 1742.
Wednesday, June 22, 2011
Greeks Turn to Gold as Safe Haven Demand Surges / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2011
By: GoldCore
Gold is trading at $1,544.31/oz, €1,072.96/oz and £957.30/oz. Gold is lower in dollars but higher in euros and has reached new record highs in pounds sterling at £958.25/oz. Gold is being supported by strong and increasing demand internationally.
Sterling has fallen after the BoE minutes raised concerns of further quantitative easing and currency debasement. The Bank of England looks increasingly likely to maintain its ultra accommodative monetary policies. Interest rates may continue to remain at multi century lows and the BoE is again considering more printing of money to buy government debt.
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Wednesday, June 22, 2011
Gold Falls in Dollars But Hits New High in Sterling as Greeks Hoard Bullion / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2011
By: Ben_Traynor
THE SPOT MARKET Dollar gold price fell to $1542 per ounce late Wednesday morning in London – still a touch above where it started the week, and 2.2% off last month's record high – while commodities fell and stocks were mixed after Greece's prime minister survived a confidence vote.
Silver prices fell below $36 per ounce – 28% below April's record high.
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Wednesday, June 22, 2011
Are Gold Stocks Facing Another 2008 Crash? / Commodities / Gold & Silver Stocks
By: Jordan_Roy_Byrne
In a word, no. We divide our rationale into three parts.
Macro : Back in 2008, a recession was beginning, the private sector was in intense deleveraging mode and the credit markets foreshadowed what was to come in the equity and commodity markets. Today we are seeing growing credit stress on the sovereign side and not in the private sector as we had in 2008. Certainly there are issues with banks but its impossible to see a repeat of 2008 when major liquidation, bankruptcies and layoffs already happened. They can and will happen again but the scale would be much smaller and so would the effect on capital markets.
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Wednesday, June 22, 2011
Best Uranium Stocks to Rebound in 2011 / Commodities / Uranium
By: The_Energy_Report
While uranium prices fell after the Japanese earthquake and tsunami, Versant Partners Analyst Rob Chang says in the long term, prices must rise due to a supply shortfall and the economic necessity of using nuclear power. In this exclusive interview with The Energy Report, Chang suggests ways to take advantage of the eventual rebound and highlights some companies that will be the first to see rising stock prices.
Wednesday, June 22, 2011
Could Rare Earth Elements Cartel Dictate Future for Junior Miners? / Commodities / Metals & Mining
By: Critical_Metals_Repo
An Americas-centric rare earth elements-processing cartel is forming to create a supply chain independent of China. In this exclusive interview with The Critical Metals Report , Mercenary Geologist Mickey Fulp points to the top companies that could be big players in the next five years.
The Critical Metals Report: The critical metals space can be very confusing. People lump all kinds of metals, including lithium, into general categories using the terms rare earth elements (REE), strategic or technology metals. What is your view on this and what should investors really be concerned with?
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Wednesday, June 22, 2011
Critical Raw Materials / Commodities / Metals & Mining
By: Richard_Mills
A critical or strategic material is a commodity whose lack of availability during a national emergency would seriously affect the economic, industrial, and defensive capability of a country.
The report "Critical Raw Materials for the EU" listed 14 raw materials which they deemed critical to the European Union (EU): antimony, beryllium, cobalt, fluorspar, gallium, germanium, graphite, indium, magnesium, niobium, platinum group metals , rare earths , tantalum and tungsten.
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Tuesday, June 21, 2011
Kazakhstan's Uranium Industry Could Lose Its Luster / Commodities / Uranium
By: OilPrice_Com
What a difference a year and a tsunami make.
Western investors have been salivating over the post-Soviet space's energy riches since the 1991 collapse of communism. While focusing on the Caspian's hydrocarbon reserves other mineralogical riches awaited development as well, none more so than Kazakhstan's vast uranium deposits.
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Tuesday, June 21, 2011
Uranium Stocks Basing As Fukushima Proves Nuclear Power Is Here To Stay / Commodities / Uranium
By: Jeb_Handwerger
A significant base may be forming in uranium stocks -- seen in the Global X Uranium ETF (URA) -- as Japan's troubled nuclear energy industry passed its first major vote since the Fukushima tragedy. Many of the stocks that make up this etf are down more than 40% such as Uranium Resources (URRE) and Uranium Energy Corporation (UEC). But positive news is beginning to reemerge after three months of naysaying. Fukushima is proving nuclear is here to stay.
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Tuesday, June 21, 2011
Gold Gains on US Debt Woes that Far Exceed Europe's / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2011
By: Ben_Traynor
THE WHOLESALE price of gold bullion rose above $1545 per ounce Tuesday morning in London – just over 2% off last month's all-time high – while stock and commodity markets also gained.US Treasury bonds fell meantime as negotiations continued over the US federal debt ceiling.
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
Indian Gold and Silver Imports Surge 222% as Official Inflation Surges to 8.65% / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2011
By: GoldCore
Gold is trading at $1,544.39/oz, €1,076.08/oz and £954.27/oz. Gold is marginally higher in most currencies today and on the verge of making new nominal highs in dollars, euros and pounds.
It is holding near record highs as there is no quick end in sight to economic turmoil in Europe after Greece was told to approve brutal new austerity measures to avoid defaulting on its debt. This would threaten the solvency of many western banks and the European Central Bank's Ordonez (member of the ECB’s governing council) warned this morning that the Greek crisis could have ‘transcendent consequences’.
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Tuesday, June 21, 2011
Agriculture's Impending 'Storm' Will Send Corn Prices Soaring / Commodities / Agricultural Commodities
By: Money_Morning
Kerri Shannon writes: Don't let the recent slip fool you: Corn prices are ready to soar.
Worldwide demand for corn has surged, and shrinking stockpiles are unlikely to be replaced due to extreme weather conditions that have destroyed millions of acres of farmland.
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Tuesday, June 21, 2011
Don't Get Suckered by Wall Street's Low Gold Price Forecasts / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2011
By: Money_Morning
William Patalon III writes: I was scanning the news wires in search of a particular item late last week when a story caught my eye: It seems that Newmont Mining Corp. (NYSE: NEM), the world's No.2 gold producer, believes that the burgeoning demand from Asia's newly minted middle class will send the yellow metal up to $1,600 this year and even higher in 2011.
The Newmont story reminded me of another news item that I'd read just days before - a news-service poll of analysts that said that the current Wall Street consensus was for gold prices to reach $1,700 an ounce in 2015.
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Monday, June 20, 2011
Gold on the Brink... Of What? / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2011
By: Julian_DW_Phillips
Greece
This weekend, the E.U. Ministers promised the next tranche of money to Greece and a second bailout package if Greece enforces another bout of austerity on itself. Does this clear the E.U. of its obligations? They have not yet finalized these terms and await the next episode in Greece of its acceptance of this principle.
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