Analysis Topic: Commodity Markets - Metals, Softs & Oils
The analysis published under this topic are as follows.Wednesday, August 29, 2012
It's Game On for Rare Earth Metals in Greenland / Commodities / Rare Earths
Far from icebound, Greenland is wealthy in rare earth elements, precious metals and oil. Already, says Aheadoftheherd.com owner Rick Mills, companies are beginning to outline major discoveries at just pennies a share. And that's just the tip of the iceberg. Read more in this exclusive interview with The Critical Metals Report.
The Critical Metals Report: Let's start by talking about growth in developing nations, where populations are starting to demand the good things in life that we in the developed world have long enjoyed. That means continued growth in the commodity markets, specifically in mining. What are the implications of that?
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Tuesday, August 28, 2012
Gold Daily and Silver Pausing... / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2012
The pause at resistance continues. I have added a chart line to gold to help make it more visible.
I added some hedges to my bullion position today on the if/come of Bernanke and Draghi.
There was some intraday commentary on economics and the markets here.
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Tuesday, August 28, 2012
The Gold Standard Gets Another Look / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2012
As Republicans convene in Tampa to nominate Mitt Romney and hammer out their party platform, one of the planks that could attract the most attention is the Party's official position on the gold standard. As it is now being considered, the platform stops short of recommending a return to the gold standard, but does advocate a commission to consider the possibility. However, judging by the reaction with which many Republicans have greeted the idea, one would think that the platform might as well have called for the return of slavery.Read full article... Read full article...
Tuesday, August 28, 2012
Ignore the Crude Oil 40 Doom-and-Gloom Crowd / Commodities / Crude Oil
Dr. Kent Moors writes: I just returned from a week down South with a few of my energy clients. It's good to get my hands dirty and remind myself firsthand what is going on at the project level of some of the country's top energy companies.
But when I returned home this weekend, I made the mistake of flicking on the television and opening the newspaper.
I can't believe that the pundits are now predicting that oil will fall to $40 a barrel. They also are projecting that the entire natural gas sector is going to collapse.
Tuesday, August 28, 2012
Fed Easing Discussion "Will Push Gold Prices Higher" / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2012
SPOT MARKET gold prices traded just above $1660 an ounce during Tuesday morning's London session, a few Dollars down on last week's close, while stocks and commodities were also broadly flat on the day and US Treasuries gained.
Silver prices rallied to nearly $31 per ounce, having fallen back through that level a day earlier, before easing back towards lunchtime.
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Tuesday, August 28, 2012
Gold First Mover Advantage / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2012
In the Investor Alert, our investment team shares charts and data that we believe provide readers with a first mover advantage. While markets don’t always move like we anticipate, recognizing historical trends can provide an edge if you act quickly.
Last week, gold bugs were rewarded with the long-awaited positive momentum in the yellow metal, and on Friday, bullion rose to about $1,670. After falling below the 200-day moving average, gold had been stuck in quicksand for several months. With the jumps in the price last week, bullion swiftly rose above this critically important long-term moving average.
Tuesday, August 28, 2012
Why Gold Investors Should Fear the Financial System / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2012
The dire economic situation that persists globally despite the best efforts of central planners to make things seem normal leads Sprott Inc.'s legendary Chairman Eric Sprott to broadcast a loud message of caution: "Fear the financial system." In this exclusive interview with The Gold Report, Sprott says it's time for people to take matters into their own hands and that means pushing further and further into precious metals equities as well as physical gold and silver. With 80% of his own portfolio in that arena, he certainly puts his money where his mouth is.
The Gold Report: You've stated before that the price of gold should be above $3,200/ounce (oz) and the price of silver above $200/oz but market manipulation keeps both metals artificially low. Who is manipulating it?
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Monday, August 27, 2012
Is the Price of Silver Signaling the Next Monetary Supernova, or Will it be the Cause? / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2012
If the pricing in the world’s commodity and financial markets accurately reflected anything but the culmination of decisions made by high frequency trading systems, then the recent price action in the silver market might have something meaningful behind it. In an alternative parallel universe, the recent rally in silver might actually be ‘pricing in’ the next major monetary event.Read full article... Read full article...
Monday, August 27, 2012
Reasons Why China Wants Its Citizens to Own Gold and Silver / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2012
Due to China’s huge size, its developing economy is having a growing influence on the global economic system. One commodity that has been particularly strongly affected by Chinese popular demand is silver and other precious metals like gold.Not only has the Chinese government been moving toward holding precious metals in reserve as an alternative to paper currencies like the U.S. Dollar, but it has recently also encouraged its citizens to own precious metals as a way to store their wealth in a valuable physical asset.
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Monday, August 27, 2012
Gold Bull Run is Still Happening / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2012
The gold Bull Run of 11 years is still happening; make no mistake about that. The fact that the USD gold price has held above the $1525 level is a strong indicator. Seasonal factors and other strong indicators tell me this long gold price consolidation period is nearing its conclusion at last. Gold has formed a new higher base from which it can launch higher.
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Monday, August 27, 2012
Will History View ECB's Drahgi as the Currency Forger of Europe? / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2012
Today the London Bullion Market is closed for a national holiday.
Friday’s AM fix was USD 1,666.50, EUR 1,329.16 and GBP 1,051.88 per ounce.
Silver is trading at $30.91/oz, €24.77/oz and £19.62/oz. Platinum is trading at $1,550.00/oz, palladium at $647.90/oz and rhodium at $1,025/oz.
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Monday, August 27, 2012
Is Gold Still "The Next Greatest Trade Ever"? / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2012
Peter Krauth writes: Believe it or not, the housing crash wasn't all heartache and tears. When the mortgage bubble burst a few select investors made a boatload.
One of them was hedge fund titan John A. Paulson.
In what has been called "the greatest trade ever," Paulson earned $15 billion for himself and his clients as the rest of the markets fell hard.
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Monday, August 27, 2012
High U.S. Gas Prices Could Continue Despite Falling Demand / Commodities / Gas - Petrol
Crude oil rallied alongside other commodities and the euro to its highest in three months last week on NYMEX, mostly from market's expectation of new Euro Zone bailouts and a third round of quantitative easing from the U.S. Fed.
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Monday, August 27, 2012
Gold Stocks New Cyclical Bull Market Underway / Commodities / Gold & Silver Stocks
Three weeks ago we wrote that the short-term outlook in precious metals was bullish. Quoting our conclusion: "The bottom line is this sector is very close to a breakout which would likely confirm the May bottom. The price action has started to improve and the sector has not been deterred by the aforementioned bad news which, in normal conditions would have caused a selloff. In the meantime, the public has been bearish the entire year and the dumb money has started to exit the market. It is this combination of factors that lead us to a firm bullish posture over the rest of the summer." In terms of weekly closing prices, GDX and SIL closed last week at a four month high, while GDXJ closed last week at a three month high. Silver closed at a four month high while Gold closed at a five month high. From that it would seem that these markets are overbought. However, a quick study of the long-term charts, sentiment and valuations confirms that we are in an absolute sweet spot. Markets have bottomed, a new cyclical bull has begun and there is substantial room to move over the coming months and year.
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Sunday, August 26, 2012
Silver Uptrend Pending Break of Major Downtrendline / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2012
The sharp advance by silver last week was presaged by the late July breakout from the important "inner" downtrend that we had earlier delineated, which had been in force from early March, as we can see on the 8-month chart for silver shown below. So is that it - are we on our way now? - almost, but there is one remaining major hurdle left to clear. Before going on to consider what that is we should take note of the fact that silver is now critically overbought short-term overbought as shown by its RSI indicator, and it has also run into a still falling 200-day moving average, factors which point to a high probability of it pausing to consolidate or perhaps react back somewhat in the immediate future - if it does keep going higher near-term, the advance is likely to be measured. The fact that the 50-day moving average is still some way below the falling 200-day also suggests that some more time is needed before the major uptrend expected gets into full swing.
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Sunday, August 26, 2012
Gold Needs to Consolidate Before Commencing Major Uptrend / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2012
Last week we got what we had expected - and prepared for - for weeks, an upside resolution of the tight standoff in both gold and silver. Actually, gold signalled that it was going to go up several weeks back, when it broke out of the Triangle shown on its 8-month chart below, in late July. The breakout from the Triangle was on good volume, and it then consolidated in a nice tight Pennant pattern before breaking higher to run ahead sharply last week.
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Saturday, August 25, 2012
Will Gold Miners Underperform Precious Metals in the Weeks to Come? / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2012
Fish are jumping and the cotton is high. Yes, it’s summertime and the living is (quantitatively) easy. At least that’s how it looks from the Federal Open Market Committee minutes for the July/August meeting that revealed support among some of the members for a new round of quantitative easing. With the release of the minutes Wednesday, gold went up and the U.S. dollar took a dive. The Fed members see three pitfalls for the economy-- the sovereign debt crisis in Europe, a global economic slowdown led by China and other BRICs, and the fiscal cliff, which could result in substantial fiscal contraction. (Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke has repeatedly asked Congress to solve the problem, but with a Presidential election coming in November it is difficult to see how Republicans and Democrats will reach an agreement.)
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Saturday, August 25, 2012
Energy Markets Being Driven by Fear / Commodities / Energy Resources
Crude oil demand in the United States is down to its lowest level since the onset of the global economic recession. A lackluster economic recovery, coupled with cautious consumer sentiment, is keeping demand for petroleum products suppressed. Nevertheless, lingering concerns over geopolitical tensions with Iran has prompted some governments to raise the possibility of releasing strategic petroleum reserves. Fundamentally, it seems, markets are well supplied, though it may be emotional factors driving certain aspects of the energy market.
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Saturday, August 25, 2012
Gold Coins Render Unto Caesar / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2012
What the history of ancient gold coins says about Europe's kingless, faceless money today...
SO WHEN Vespasian was proclaimed Emperor by the legions in Egypt in AD 69, he hurried to strike silver and gold coins at Antioch, Tacitus tells us.
Two hundred years later, the "insane despot" Commodus would only believe that his friend Perennius was plotting to overthrow him when he was shown coins already bearing his former favorite's image. And ancient Persian kings went further, says the later Armenian chronicler Moses of Chorene, each seeing to it that "all the money in the royal treasury was recoined with his effigy" as soon as he took power.
Saturday, August 25, 2012
Gold Futures Contrary Speculation / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2012
With gold awakening from its usual summer slumber, traders are getting more excited about its prospects. Presumably this shifting sentiment will even grow to encompass futures traders, who’ve been incredibly bearish on the yellow metal for months now. While traders hold futures guys in high esteem, they are just as susceptible to groupthink as everyone else. They are actually a powerful contrary indicator for gold.
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