Analysis Topic: Commodity Markets - Metals, Softs & Oils
The analysis published under this topic are as follows.
Sunday, July 10, 2022
Trial Begins in Gold & Silver Manipulation Case Against J.P. Morgan Official / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2022
By: MoneyMetals
Fears of further Fed tightening continue to weigh on metals markets.
On Wednesday, the Federal Reserve released the minutes from its most recent policy meeting. As CNBC reported, central bankers remain fixated on inflation.
CNBC Reporter: The minutes of the latest Fed meetings show that officials agreed that another rate hike of 50-75 basis points would likely be appropriate at its meeting later this month. Officials also acknowledge that there could be an even more restrictive stance that could be appropriate if inflation remains high. Now, the minutes show that Fed officials were worried about inflation becoming entrenched, that was debated several times in this document. Many participants viewed that as a significant risk.
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Sunday, July 10, 2022
What Needs to Happen for the Gold Stocks GDXJ to Hit New Lows? / Commodities / Gold and Silver Stocks 2022
By: P_Radomski_CFA
Although the general stock market has risen, this trend may soon reverse. Since it often moves along with gold stocks, junior miners can face a fall too.
Let the S&P 500 Be a Clue
Mining stocks declined significantly this week, but they haven’t severely underperformed gold. There is a good reason for it – the general stock market moved higher recently.
What would have to happen for the mining stocks (in particular, junior mining stocks) to decline in a more profound manner and slide well below $30 (in the GDXJ)? For example, the trend in the stock market could reverse.
Guess what – that’s exactly what’s likely to happen based on what’s going on in the S&P 500 chart.
Saturday, July 09, 2022
Euphoric US Dollar Slams Gold / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2022
By: Zeal_LLC
The euphoric US dollar rocketing stratospheric to extreme multi-decade highs slammed gold this week! That vertical surge ignited heavy gold-futures selling, hammering gold into a serious technical breakdown. The resulting sentiment damage was severe, with traders now convinced gold is doomed to spiral much lower. But a major reversal is imminent in the radically-overbought dollar, which will catapult gold higher.
Gold has two primary drivers, investment demand and gold-futures speculation. Investment capital flows are much-larger and ultimately far-more-important. But because of the extreme leverage inherent in gold futures, speculators punch way above their weights in influencing gold price action. They totally dominate gold when investors are mostly missing-in-action. And the US dollar’s fortunes are their main trading cue.
Each gold-futures contract controls 100 ounces of gold, worth $180,600 entering this week. But traders are only required to maintain $7,200 cash margins in their accounts for each contract traded. That makes for maximum leverage of 25.1x, over an order of magnitude greater than the 2x legal limit in the stock markets. At 25x, each dollar traded in gold futures has 25x the gold-price impact of a dollar invested outright!
But that kind of leverage is exceedingly-risky, as a mere 4% gold move against speculators’ bets wipes out 100% of their capital risked. Always facing fast total ruin, these traders’ time horizons are forced to be ultra-short-term. They can only care what gold prices are doing in coming hours or days, even weeks are too distant. That extreme-leverage-necessitated myopia often leaves gold inversely slaved to the US dollar.
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Friday, July 08, 2022
Commodities: Bounce or Something More? / Commodities / Commodities Trading
By: Gary_Tanashian
Commodities have been corrected hard, generally to support
It is amazing how compressed the cycles are in the markets these days. But maybe it’s not so surprising when you consider the constant involvement of meddling, manipulating central banks and even governments. Add a dash of hysterical media and the human instinct for knee-jerk herding and voila, there you have it; sentiment in commodities (and the inflation trades in general) going from absolutely rock solid (over) bullish to bleak in the span of a month.
All of this in the wake of an entity that held out dovish as long as it could before being directed by the market to put on its hawk costume and go steroidal in its inflation fighting stance. Seriously, market participants are taking their cues from a monetary authority that itself is taking cues from the bond market’s signaling (tardy though they were on the uptake). The link above shows the 3 month T-bill yield’s directive that the Fed aggressively raise rates back back in February. There were other signals as well demanding the same.
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Friday, July 08, 2022
Crude Oil Is Caught Between Recession Fears and Supply Cuts / Commodities / Crude Oil
By: Submissions
Oil prices fluctuated on fears of a recession and a contraction in demand. What are the main figures to observe in this critical month?
Crude oil prices hovered between red and green on Thursday after two days of steep losses this week, still plagued by fears of a global economic recession that could threaten demand but also supply cuts in a tight market.
New Lockdown and Restrictions for the Chinese Panda
On the Asian continent, several million people may again suffer from strict restrictions because of China’s “zero-Covid policy” because of this epidemic rebound, which raises fears of the return of restrictions in Shanghai a month after the lifting of a long and grueling lockdown.
Thursday, July 07, 2022
Crude Oil Collapsed Below $100PPB – Has The US FED Broken Inflation? / Commodities / Crude Oil
By: Chris_Vermeulen
On Tuesday, July 5th, Crude Oil collapsed very sharply, down over 10% near the lows, in an aggressive breakdown of the price. The $97.43 lows reached that day were more than -14% from recent highs (set on June 29, 2022) and more than -21% from highs set on June 14, 2022.
Consumer Discretionary Spending Likely To Fall Further
In a recent research article (published June 9, 2022: CRUDE OIL PRICE AND CONSUMER SPENDING – HOW THEY ARE RELATED), we shared a similar breakdown that took place in Crude Oil in 2009 and how tightening consumer spending often correlates with peaks in Crude Oil when crisis events happen.
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Tuesday, July 05, 2022
Gold Price Summer Seasonal Doldrums / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2022
By: Zeal_LLC
Gold, silver, and their miners’ stocks suffer their weakest seasonals of the year in early summers. With traders’ attention normally diverted to vacations and summer fun, interest in and demand for precious metals usually wane. Without outsized investment demand, gold tends to drift sideways dragging silver and miners’ stocks with it. Long feared as the summer doldrums, they’ve actually moderated in recent years.
This doldrums term is very apt for gold’s traditional summer predicament. It describes a zone surrounding the equator in the world’s oceans. There hot air is constantly rising, spawning long-lived low-pressure areas. They are often calm, with little prevailing winds. History is full of accounts of sailing ships getting trapped in this zone for days or weeks, unable to make headway. The doldrums were murder on ships’ morale.
Crews had no idea when the winds would pick up again, while they continued burning through their limited stores of food and drink. Without moving air, the stifling heat and humidity were suffocating on these ships long before air conditioning. Misery and boredom were extreme, leading to fights breaking out and occasional mutinies. Being trapped in the doldrums was viewed with dread, it was a very trying experience.
Gold investors can somewhat relate. Like clockwork trudging through early summers, gold starts drifting listlessly sideways. It often can’t make significant progress no matter what trends looked like heading into June, July, and August. As the days and weeks slowly pass, sentiment deteriorates markedly. Patience is gradually exhausted, supplanted with deep frustration. Plenty of traders capitulate, abandoning ship.
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Sunday, July 03, 2022
Stagflation With Powell Could Make Gold Price Happy / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2022
By: Arkadiusz_Sieron
The upcoming stagflation might be less severe than in the 1970s. So is the Fed’s reaction, which could mean good news for gold.
There are many terrifying statements you can hear from another person. One example is: “Honey, we need to talk!” Another is: “I’m from the government and I’m here to help.” However, the scariest English word, especially nowadays, is “stagflation.” Brrr! I’ve explained it many times, but let me remind you that stagflation is a combination of economic stagnation and high inflation. This is why it’s a nightmare for central bankers as they should ease monetary policy to stimulate the economy and simultaneously tighten it to curb inflation. Although we haven’t fallen into recession yet, the pace of GDP growth has slowed down recently. According to the World Bank’s report Global Economic Prospects from June 2022, “the global economy is in the midst of a sharp growth slowdown” and “growth over the next decade is expected to be considerably weaker than over the past two decades.” The U.S. growth is expected to slow to 2.5 percent in 2022, 1.2 percentage points lower than previously projected and 3.2 percentage points below growth in 2021.
Thursday, June 30, 2022
Central Banks Plan To Buy More Gold In 2022 / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2022
By: Travis_Bard
While gold and silver prices have fluctuated somewhat of late, both assets were performing a little more solidly throughout US trading last week.
In fact, August gold futures were up by around $6.90 at $1,828.10 by Wednesday last week, while July Complex silver futures increased by $0.054 to $20.86 per ounce during the same timeframe.
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Wednesday, June 29, 2022
Rebounding Crude Oil Gets Far Away from the Bearish Side / Commodities / Crude Oil
By: Submissions
Demand for crude oil is accelerating – a bullish sign for its prices. What may the current energy market environment say about the black gold’s outlook?
A Chinese Panda’s Appetite
On the Asian continent, the lifting of health restrictions in China could signal resuming oil demand for the world’s top consumer. Given the context of tight supply, this has partially triggered a rebound in crude while driving prices higher.
Geopolitical Scene
The Libyan National Oil Company (NOC) warned that they could declare a state of "force majeure" on the facilities in the Gulf of Sirte – blocked due to the political crisis that has been hitting the country for months.
In Ecuador as well, the spectre of a halt in oil production is becoming clearer following the blockades and demonstrations initiated by a movement protesting the rise in the cost of living.
Tuesday, June 28, 2022
GOLD STOCKS ARE WORSE THAN GOLD / Commodities / Gold and Silver Stocks 2022
By: Kelsey_Williams
Gold stocks latest swoon confirms what has been stated and inferred in my previous articles about gold mining shares – namely, gold stocks are a lousy investment.
The original article linked in the preceding paragraph was published in September 2016. I just finished reading it again and find no reason to edit or modify its contents.
The price of gold peaked in the summer of 2016 – shortly before my article was written and published – at $1357 oz. (monthly average closing price). At that time the GDX (ETF index of gold mining shares) peaked at 30.60.
Both gold and gold mining shares (gold stocks) have been lower and higher since then, and the past six years have seen a fair amount of volatility. Lately, both gold and gold stocks have undergone downside corrections since their most recent highs earlier this year.
So where are we now?
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Monday, June 27, 2022
Gold Junior Miners: A Bearish Push Is Coming to Move Them Lower / Commodities / Gold and Silver Stocks 2022
By: P_Radomski_CFA
Let's not be confused by the temporary USDX weakness. Junior miners are faint and we can expect them to decline again soon.
April and May Replay?
Although history doesn’t repeat itself to the letter, it rhymes. At least that’s what tends to happen in the financial markets.
In today’s analysis, I’ll explain why I think we’re about to see another example of the above in the case of junior mining stocks. There’s a technique that suggests one thing, but there’s also another that suggests that a 1-to-1 analogy wouldn’t be as good a fit, as a slight deviation from it.
So far, the situation in the GDXJ – a proxy for junior mining stocks – has been similar to what happened in the second half of April and early May.
Saturday, June 25, 2022
Crude Oil Price Forecast - Trend Breaks Downward – Rejecting The $120 Level / Commodities / Crude Oil
By: Chris_Vermeulen
The recent downward Crude Oil trend may have caught many traders by surprise. Just before the US Fed raised interest rates on June 15, 2022, Crude oil was trading above $120ppb. Less than 5 days later, it collapsed -12% and has continued to trend lower. Currently, Crude Oil is near -17% lower than recent highs.
It appears Crude Oil has confirmed resistance near $120 and is devaluing as consumers pull away from traditional driving/spending habits while the Fed aggressively attempts to burst the inflation bubble. This type of contraction in Crude Oil is very similar to what happened in 2008-09 when the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) hit – Crude Oil collapsed more than -70% after IYC started trending lower in 2007.
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Thursday, June 23, 2022
Why Are Precious Metals Considered A Good Investment? Find Out Here / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2022
By: Steve_Barker
Are you thinking about investing in precious metals? Precious metals have been considered a good investment for centuries. There are many reasons they are seen as a valuable commodity, and in this article, we will discuss some of the most important ones. From their stability to their ability to hold value over time, precious metals are an excellent choice for investors who want to protect their money. If you're considering investing in this type of asset, read on to learn why it might be a smart move.
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Monday, June 20, 2022
Gold/Gold miners fundamental checkup / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2022
By: Gary_Tanashian
As they leverage the macro, what’s good for gold is even better for gold miners
After last week’s article, in which we noted a unique move on ‘CPI Friday’ as gold and the miners put in an expected test of the lows and quickly reversed upward, unique among a world full of bearish markets…
A pivotal juncture for gold and gold stocks
…let’s take a checkup on and important fundamental consideration in the wake of FOMC and the .75% rate hike that everyone knew was coming.
But first I want to remind readers that this (NFTRH & NFTRH.com) is not a place to visit if you want to get pumped on oil, copper and general (and cyclical) commodities and resources along with gold. It is the place to visit if you want discrete commodity analysis amid cyclical/inflationary conditions and/or a guide to the proper macro fundamentals that should be in place for gold and gold stocks in their rare but unique utility as a counter-cyclical market, unlike commodities and stock markets.
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Wednesday, June 15, 2022
The Gold Market Is Getting Ready for Another Interest Rate Hike / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2022
By: P_Radomski_CFA
As predicted, gold stocks are gradually declining. Their situation is unlikely to improve - the Fed is already planning another interest rate hike.
After yesterday’s huge slide in the PMs (GDXJ declined by over 8%!) and a sizable increase in our short positions in junior miners, gold and silver are moving back and forth, gathering strength for the next move. Or waiting for the next trigger.
They are likely to get it tomorrow (Wednesday, June 15), as the Fed is about to make another interest rate decision. The word got out yesterday that the Fed might hike interest rates by 0.75% instead of just 0.5%, and the markets reacted accordingly. Stocks and PMs fell, while the USD Index rallied.
The best part is that you knew about the bigger rate hike before almost everyone else – I wrote about that in the extra analysis that I posted/sent out on Saturday. Quoting:
The next interest rate decision is this Wednesday, and it’s probably going to be very interesting. I wouldn’t be surprised if we saw a rate hike by more than 0.5% - for example by 0.75%. This might be enough to send a message to the market that they are serious about the inflation and have positive political implications. Whether that happens or not, the following conference will likely aim to rebuild investors’ confidence in the Fed. It might or might not work with regard to confidence, but it should be enough to trigger declines in the markets (including PMs) – after all that’s how hawkish surprises work.
Saturday, June 11, 2022
Big Inflation Will Spur Gold Price / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2022
By: Zeal_LLC
Gold investment demand should be soaring with serious inflation raging, catapulting gold way higher. Yet recently it has greatly lagged fast-rising general price levels, confounding contrarian investors. But history argues this anomaly won’t last, that eventually big inflation will spur gold. Today’s terrible inflation super-spike fueled by extreme Fed money printing is the first since the 1970s, when gold rocketed up by multiples.
The most-widely-followed US inflation gauge is the Consumer Price Index. While its components and calculation methodologies have been changed countless times, the CPI’s history extends back well over a century to 1913! For an entire decade prior to April 2021, the monthly headline CPI averaged modest 1.7% year-over-year gains. That long span didn’t see a single 4%+ print, even with pandemic-lockdown disruptions.
But something changed in April 2021, when the CPI suddenly accelerated up 4.2% YoY. That proved its hottest read since September 2008, emerging from that year’s brutal stock panic. The Fed itself blamed that mounting inflation on supply-chain disruptions. The Federal Open Market Committee’s monetary-policy statement released late that month argued “Inflation has risen, largely reflecting transitory factors.”
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Friday, June 10, 2022
Crude Oil Price Trend Trajectory / Commodities / Crude Oil
By: Donald_W_Dony
Buoyed by tight world supply and higher demand, Light crude oil prices are expected to reach the first resistance level of $124.50 over the next few weeks. WTI prices are being driven by several factors. First, the summer driving season in the US, and second by the relaxation of China's Covid curbs (Chart 1).
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Friday, June 10, 2022
How Will Rising Crude Oil Prices Affect Demand and Gasoline? / Commodities / Crude Oil
By: Submissions
What are the new fundamentals for crude oil to look at this week? Could Asian demand be slowed down by Saudi Arabia raising its prices?
Crude oil prices soared earlier this week after Saudi Arabia said on Sunday it would raise crude oil prices for most regions except the United States. Just days after opening the floodgates a little wider (as announced last week following an OPEC+ meeting), Saudi Arabia wasted no time in raising its official selling price for Asia, its main market. It is worth noting that the country is one of the few OPEC members that has spare oil capacity. Thus, this decision to raise prices happens just when demand, especially in Asia, is increasing.
In the prediction contest, Goldman Sachs raised its forecast for the price of a barrel of Brent to $135 by the end of the year.
Monday, June 06, 2022
Understanding Profit Potential In Gold / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2022
By: Kelsey_Williams
An analysis of any profit potential in gold requires an understanding of gold and its fundamentals. The problem is that most folks do not understand gold or its fundamentals.“Most folks” includes investors, traders, speculators, advisors, analysts, marketers, etc.
THERE IS ONLY ONE GOLD FUNDAMENTAL
The single fundamental for gold is that gold is real money. PERIOD. Gold’s value is in its use as money.
Whereas gold is real money, the US dollar and all paper currencies are substitutes for real money, i.e., gold.
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