Analysis Topic: Commodity Markets - Metals, Softs & Oils

The analysis published under this topic are as follows.

Wednesday, August 22, 2012

Financial Alchemy and Fraud in Gold / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2012

By: Vin_Maru

The gold bull market is alive and well as the summer doldrums come to a close and gold accumulation and trading starts to heat up going into the fall.  As the gold bull market matures and it draws more attention from investors all around the world, it does open up the doors for fraud.  By now we have heard many stories and accusations about manipulations by central planners, bullion banks, short-sellers and futures traders.  The regulators in the West have largely ignored these accusations and have looked the other way when it comes to oversight and creating a fair and legal market place for precious metals.

Tuesday, August 21, 2012

Russia Accumulates Gold As Price Consolidates Below Resistance At $1,644/oz / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2012

By: GoldCore

Today's AM fix was USD 1,624.00, EUR 1,308.94, and GBP 1,030.26 per ounce.
Yesterday’s AM fix was USD 1,615.25, EUR 1,306.84 and GBP 1,028.04 per ounce.

Silver is trading at $28.95/oz, €22.40/oz and £18.44/oz. Platinum is trading at $1,495.75/oz, palladium at $604.70/oz and rhodium at $1,025/oz.

Tuesday, August 21, 2012

Investing in Companies to Play Rising Natural Gas Price / Commodities / Natural Gas

By: Money_Morning

Patrick Vail writes: The price of natural gas hit a 10-year low in April, sinking to $1.91 per MMBtu on April 19. Since then, natural gas prices are on the rise. In fact, prices have surged nearly 50%, to around $2.75 per MMBtu over the past four months.

What changed?

One, the sector came out of a very mild winter that saw very poor demand for natural gas.

Tuesday, August 21, 2012

Why a Strategic Petroleum Reserve Release Won't Help Crude Oil Prices or President Obama / Commodities / Crude Oil

By: Money_Morning

Dr. Kent Moors writes: With oil prices showing no signs of retreat during the final months of the U.S. presidential campaign, beltway insiders are turning to one misguided solution to combat rising oil prices.

Releasing oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR).

Trial balloons floated all over Washington during the past few days. The only reason politicians didn't move on this sooner (say a few months ago) was the price level.

Tuesday, August 21, 2012

Silver Hits 2-Month High / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2012

By: Ben_Traynor

SPOT MARKET prices to buy silver rose to their highest level in two months Tuesday, hitting  $29.09 per ounce– 3.5% up on last week's close – after extending gains from yesterday's trading.

"This changes [silver's] posture to bullish," says the latest technical analysis note from bullion bank Scotia Mocatta.

Tuesday, August 21, 2012

Gold and Silver Shine on Weaker U.S. Dollar / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2012

By: Ron_Hera

Gold, silver and crude oil prices are closely related to the movement of the U.S. dollar.  After a healthy consolidation, gold began to move up in August 2012.  At the same time, deteriorating expectations for crop yields in the American Midwest moved corn and soybean prices to new highs.  Higher food prices in late 2012 or early 2013 could have far reaching and geopolitically destabilizing effects likely to weigh on stocks, putting the shine back on precious metals.  While billionaires George Soros and John Paulson are buying gold, silver has been in backwardation in recent weeks and silver held in ETFs rose to $16.2 billion according to Bloomberg.

Tuesday, August 21, 2012

Gold Love Trade Cools as Central Banks’ Gold Demand Heats Up / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2012

By: Frank_Holmes

The two largest gold buyers in the world that largely drive the Love Trade, China and India, underwhelmed the metals market with their subdued demand for the yellow metal during the second quarter of this year.

According to the World Gold Council’s (WGC) quarterly Gold Demand Trends report, total demand was 990 tons, which was about 7 percent lower compared to the second quarter of 2011. When you break down demand and look at the jewelry sector, you can see that Chindia remains about 50 percent of the world’s total gold demand. However, this quarter’s jewelry demand of a little more than 400 tons makes it one of the weakest periods in two years.

Tuesday, August 21, 2012

HFT Tail Wagging the Silver Price Dog / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2012

By: Dr_Jeff_Lewis

The use of HFT computer systems to execute large deals rapidly in electronic markets typically allows their users to take advantage of short-lived pricing disparities in large size.

Furthermore, the growth of High Frequency Trading or HFT in the silver derivatives market is exerting an ever-increasing influence on the price of physical silver. Unfortunately, the hedge fund crowd is now often mindless relying on computers to do their thinking for them.

Tuesday, August 21, 2012

Great Expectations for Silver in an Inflationary World / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2012

By: Dr_Jeff_Lewis

Many observers currently expect the Chinese economy to land softly, perhaps relying on domestic stimulus measures alone. Nevertheless, while the inflationary bias in the developed world made it easier to accept more economic stimulus plans in 2008, the situation is now different.

This means that China and other developing Asian countries are now being faced with increased de-leveraging and other fear-based financial concerns, much like Western countries have experienced in recent years.

Tuesday, August 21, 2012

Gold Price Forecast, Indian Demand Shifting Trends / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2012

By: Chris_Vermeulen

One of the top stories in the financial markets in 2012 has to be the stagnation in the price of gold at around $1600 an ounce, which is down approximately 17% from its peak at $1920.30. Those bullish on the yellow metal have been disappointed in gold’s performance while those bearish on the shiny metal have reveled in its stagnation, saying that gold’s status as a safe haven is over.

Monday, August 20, 2012

Gold and Silver Long-Term Technical Outlook / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2012

By: Jordan_Roy_Byrne

Knowing that it’s very likely that Gold and Silver have bottomed, we feel it is time to look at the charts and assess what may or may not be in store over the next year or two.

Gold has consistently made impulsive advances that were digested by multi-quarter corrections and eventually followed by a breakout and new impulsive advance. Following the last major breakout in late 2009, Gold enjoyed an extended impulsive advance that lasted two years. Previous impulsive advances lasted less than a year. Gold, having bottomed, remains well entrenched in another consolidation that is 12 months old. As we can see from the chart, previous consolidations lasted 16 to 20 months.

Monday, August 20, 2012

Watch Out For A Silver Breakout Higher / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2012

By: Jeb_Handwerger

An old melody advises us to look for the silver lining whenever dark clouds appear in the blue.  There is economic and political upheaval all over the world, especially in the South China Seas.  This may directly affect the world’s supply of industrial metals such as graphite, rare earths, molybdenum and tungsten.

Today we direct our attention to an area where silver is shining.  Poor man’s gold may come into prominence shortly and provide our subscribers with possible profits.

Monday, August 20, 2012

Trade of the Year - Gold Versus Paper / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2012

By: Adam_Brochert

I often harp on the Dow to Gold ratio, as I think it is the easiest way to see the "bigger picture" secular trend of poorly performing common stock markets (i.e. paper) relative to the free market's real money (i.e. Gold). I have been not-so-patiently waiting for a turn in this ratio back to the advantage of the Gold bulls. Well, we have now gotten to the point where I feel comfortable arguing that this ratio now is likely to provide the best trade over the next 12 months. When I say best trade, I mean the best potential reward/return relative to the risk.

Sunday, August 19, 2012

Gold $2,000 Will Soon Kickstart Mining Shares / Commodities / Gold & Silver Stocks

By: The_Gold_Report

The lack of excitement haunting the precious metals and mining shares markets over the past year is expected to change in the next few months, according to Michael Fowler, senior mining analyst with Loewen, Ondaatje, McCutcheon Ltd. In this exclusive interview with The Gold Report, he explains why he expects gold to finally break through the $2,000/ounce barrier in 2013 and how this should affect the mining stocks that he covers. While share prices are generally low across the board now, Fowler tells us about a few of the ones that he expects to shine bright when the market turns.

Saturday, August 18, 2012

Gold Just Became Money Again, Big Changes Ahead / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2012

By: Doug_Horning

Doug Hornig, Casey Research - On June 18, the Federal Reserve and FDIC circulated a letter to banks that proposes to harmonize US regulatory capital rules with Basel III.

BASEL III is an accord that tells a bank how much capital it must hold to safeguard its solvency and overall economic stability.

Saturday, August 18, 2012

Are Central Banks Still Hoarding Gold? / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2012

By: Eric_McWhinnie

A new report shows global gold demand fell in the second quarter from year earlier levels. Demand in the jewellery, investment and technology sectors all posted a decline, as the average price of the precious metal remained elevated, but range-bound. While some investors were discouraged by the price action, central banks were more attracted to gold than ever before.

Saturday, August 18, 2012

Gold in Stocks Bear Market / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2012

By: Zeal_LLC

With the odds for a new stock bear growing, prudent contrarian investors are looking for bear-resistant destinations for their hard-earned capital.  Plain old cash tops the list, as it will not only preserve wealth but increase its relative stock buying power as the markets grind lower.  But why merely sideline capital if it can still be grown even during a stock bear?  Gold has proven its ability to thrive in such markets.

Last week I wrote an essay on the rising chances a new stock bear is looming.  This primarily has to do with the bull-bear cycles.  The stock markets endlessly march forward in a series of alternating bulls followed by bears.  After a bull, a bear is pretty much inevitable.  This is true at both scales of the bull-bear cycles, the great decade-plus secular moves and the smaller multi-year cyclical moves within them.

Friday, August 17, 2012

Short-term Rally in the Euro Index and Temporary Strength For Gold and Silver? / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2012

By: P_Radomski_CFA

The summer dog days are upon us leaving investors cooling off in the shade waiting for a refreshing breeze of market-moving news. They are anticipating something important that will energize the gold price for an upward move, perhaps another round of quantitative easing by the U.S. Federal Reserve that could possibly be announced at the Fed’s Jackson Hole, Wyoming annual gathering in late-August, or at the next meeting of the Fed’s Federal Open Market Committee in September. Several U.S. economic reports released Wednesday failed to significantly impact the precious metals.

Friday, August 17, 2012

Gold Ponzi Schemes Revealed / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2012

By: GoldCore

Today's AM fix was USD 1,616.50, EUR 1,306.05, and GBP 1,028.57 per ounce.
Yesterday’s AM fix was USD 1,603.50, EUR 1,306.74 and GBP 1,021.34 per ounce.

Silver is trading at $28.19/oz, €22.94/oz and £18.03/oz. Platinum is trading at $1,460.50/oz, palladium at $587.30/oz and rhodium at $1,025/oz.

Friday, August 17, 2012

Central Bank Stimulus Hopes Boost to Gold Price / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2012

By: Ben_Trayner

SPOT MARKET prices for buying gold bullion traded just below $1620 per ounce during Friday morning's London session, very slightly below where they ended last week, while stock markets also gained, amid renewed speculation over central bank stimulus measures.

Silver bullion traded around $28.30 per ounce, slightly up on where it started the week, while other commodities were also broadly flat.