Analysis Topic: Commodity Markets - Metals, Softs & Oils

The analysis published under this topic are as follows.

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Libya Crisis and Crude Oil Stock Portfolio Positions / Commodities / Oil Companies

By: Richard_Shaw

Many of you may be watching the reports of the revolt in Libya on TV and listening to breathless commentators. Clearly, the situation in the Middle East is changing. But let's balance the TV excitement about oil and Libya with logic and data.

First, whatever government results from the revolts in oil producing countries, they need to sell their oil to support their regimes as much as the rest of the world needs to buy their oil. Therefore, looking past short-term supply disruption concerns, oil wells will not be shut down long-term and oil will continue to flow.

Monday, February 21, 2011

Silver Buoyed by Growing Industrial Demand / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2011

By: Mike_Stall

Irrespective of the concerns over financial tightening, talks of a gold bubble and economical weakness, gold marked its tenth straight annual gain in 2010. Not only gold, other members of the precious metal group such as silver and platinum were also up last year. At this juncture, last year’s bull run appears to be running out of steam. However, both technicals and fundamentals indicate improved investment options in precious metals, particularly silver, if you have a long-term investment horizon. 

Monday, February 21, 2011

Plastic Bottles to Push Food Prices Even Higher / Commodities / Food Crisis

By: Pravda

Polypropylene, one of the most popular materials used in the production of various packages, has increased in price by 133 percent during the recent two years. Prices on plastic packages continue to grow still, which will eventually affect consumers in a number of industries, including the food sector.

Monday, February 21, 2011

Silver Jumps 4.7% as Gold Unwinds New Year's Drop / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2011

By: Adrian_Ash

THE PRICE OF GOLD broke above $1400 per ounce and the silver price jumped above $33.50 in London trade on Monday, extending last week's strong gains on what a growing number of market professionals call "safe haven buying" amid fresh turmoil in the Middle East.

"A particularly ominous sign for the Dollar is that there's been no safe-haven demand for the [US currency]," says Steven Barrow, chief forex strategist at Standard Bank in London.

Monday, February 21, 2011

Gold and Silver Prices Strengthen as the US Dollar Weakens / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2011

By: Bob_Kirtley

We kick off with a quick look at the chart for gold and as we can see both the 50dma and the 200dma are moving up nicely in support of gold prices. The recent correction could have taken gold to have tea with the 200dma, however, strong buying came in and pushed the price through resistance in preparation for the next leg up. The technical indicators, the RSI and the STO, are on the high side suggesting that a breather could be on the cards, but don't count on it, indicators can remain distant from the ‘norm’ for extended periods of time.

Monday, February 21, 2011

Clean Energy: Coconuts vs. Swallows of Coal and Natural Gas / Commodities / Energy Resources

By: Dian_L_Chu

Bill Willoughby writes: There’s a memorable part in the 1970s movie Monty Python & the Holy Grail where King Arthur argues with a guard on a castle wall about whether a swallow could have carried a coconut to England, the punch line being is that an African or European swallow?

Fact checking about birds aside, the point of the story is if you don’t have the ability to lift a coconut you need to increase capacity by adding more swallows, that or find yourself an African swallow.

Monday, February 21, 2011

Diverging Crude Oil Prices WTI $12 Cheaper than Brent, Anybody Got A Big Rig? / Commodities / Crude Oil

By: Dian_L_Chu

On Wednesday, Feb. 16 Israel said Iran is sending two warships into the Suez Canal on way to Syria, and that the action is considered a “provocation.” Due to the long history of bad blood between Israel and Iran, this very possible scenario was enough to even send the bear-infested NYMEX crude oil futures volume surging midday.

West Texas Intermediate (WTI) on Nymex rose to just below $85, while Brent crude on the ICE futures exchange spiked $2.17 higher to $103.81 a barrel--a 29-month high--widening the WTI-Brent spread to a new record near $19.

Sunday, February 20, 2011

China becomes World's Largest Producer of Gold / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2011

By: Pravda

In 2010, China mined the record amount of gold in the world. The production volume of nonferrous metals in China amounted to 340.88 tons, which is 8.57% higher than a year earlier, and continues to grow. In recent years, China has consistently increased the amount of its gold reserves. Nevertheless, experts believe that China has a long way to go to reach the level of the world leading economies.

Sunday, February 20, 2011

Three Ways to Profit From the Oil Market’s “New World Order” / Commodities / Crude Oil

By: Investment_U

At the moment, the Gulf of Mexico owns the title of being the largest offshore oil production area in the world.

But not for long.

Sunday, February 20, 2011

Silver Bankers May Be Sitting on Huge Derivatives Losses and the Fed May Be Funding Them / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2011

By: Jesse

My question is simple. What are bankers like J.P. Morgan and HSBC doing playing in such size in this market? What is the economic and productive benefit? Perhaps there is a good answer. The taxpaying public certainly deserves to know. The CFTC says they have looked into this, but the detailed results of their findings remain less than forthcoming.

Sunday, February 20, 2011

Gold Uptrend Lacks Enthusiasm / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2011

By: Merv_Burak

Well, it was up, up all week long for gold.  However, there seemed not to be any enthusiasm behind the move and trends do not last long without enthusiasm.  Maybe it will enter this coming week.

Sunday, February 20, 2011

Gold Rally About to Reverse to the Downside Again / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2011

By: Clive_Maund

Gold and silver have reversed to the upside and advanced substantially exactly as predicted in the last updates posted on 30th January, and now the majority of commentators are raving bullish again, but the internal technical condition of the sector following this rally suggests that it is about to reverse to the downside again, although longer-term the outlook remains strongly bullish.

Sunday, February 20, 2011

Silver Showing Amazing Strength / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2011

By: Clive_Maund

Silver has shown amazing strength in recent weeks, surprising even its staunchest advocates by making light work of recovering the ground lost in the January reaction, and even went as far as to break out to new highs late last week, hugely outperforming gold in the process, which not unnaturally has silver bugs *****-a-hoop. We were looking for a big rally in the last update posted at the end of January and we have not been disappointed.

Saturday, February 19, 2011

Gold and Silver Sell Targets / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2011

By: Ned_W_Schmidt

Below is a picture of a dog. In order to simplify this discussion in such a way those even Silver momentum traders might understand it, we have placed a circle around the approximate location of the dog's brain and a rectangle around the tail. At this point, we should all be together.

Saturday, February 19, 2011

Gold Producers Takeovers Talk / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2011

By: The_Gold_Report

Michael Fowler is a senior mining analyst with Loewen, Ondaatje, McCutcheon in Toronto and he was more than willing to speculate on potential takeovers in this exclusive interview with The Gold Report. "All of these gold producers are going to be active in the mergers and acquisitions (M&A) market. They are going to acquire because there's a huge amount of cash on their balance sheets," he says. Michael also talks about some undervalued names in his coverage universe, including one junior he thinks could climb 210% before year-end.

Saturday, February 19, 2011

GOLD RED ALERT: U.S. Government Plans Confiscation of Gold and Silver This Year / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2011

By: Chris_Kitze

Sherrie writes: I received an email with the words "RED ALERT".  I received this from someone heavily involved and an expert in the metals and mining.  I highly respect both men involved, as they know and always telling the truth about what is happening in the world of metals.  

Friday, February 18, 2011

EGYPT: Placebos, Protests and Gold and Silver Breakouts / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2011

By: Jeb_Handwerger

We are constantly being advised that the Egyptian Military has the situation under control. As the situation develops it is becoming increasingly apparent that there is something wrong with this picture. The military and the media assures us that the morganatic wedding between the Generals and the Masses will proceed as scheduled. As the old song goes, "its time to wind up the masquerade...the piper must be paid." Is Iran sailing through the Suez sending a message of who may be trying to gain power during this chaos?

Friday, February 18, 2011

Gold and Silver Rally is Not Over Yet / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2011

By: Przemyslaw_Radomski

As per the World Gold Council, precious metals demand will stay high this year with growing Indian and Chinese appetite for the yellow metal, but fresh buying in developed markets of jewelry will depend on economic outlook. At this juncture, market news suggests positive momentum for precious metals. Investment and industrial demand are set to witness an upsurge in the upcoming months. Let’s have an outlook on the present status of precious metals market.

Friday, February 18, 2011

Can The Middle East 'Revolutions' Affect The Gold Price? / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2011

By: Julian_DW_Phillips

When the Tunisian, then the Egyptian revolutions succeeded we were all surprised. Many believed that at last democracy had won in the Middle East. When the King of Jordan changed his government a feeling of contagion set in. Then we heard of riots in Yemen, Libya, Bahrain, Iran and we now look at the entire Middle East as ripe for contagious revolutions.

Friday, February 18, 2011

Gold Bull Market Big Picture, Time for a Rest / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2011

By: Aden_Forecast

If we had to pinpoint a time during the last 10 years when the gold price broke out into a full on bull market, it was in 2005 when the $500 level was clearly broken. That was a key level at the time and this break out coincided with the launching of gold's ETF, GLD.

It was also clearly a break away from the dollar as gold began jumping up in all currencies. This is when the bull market started heating up and gold never looked back until it surpassed the 1980 record high in 2008.