Analysis Topic: Commodity Markets - Metals, Softs & Oils

The analysis published under this topic are as follows.

Monday, October 31, 2011

Gold and Silver Building Bullish Momentum / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2011

By: Bob_Kirtley

After correcting from above $1900 to below $1550, gold prices have undergone the necessary consolidation and now look poised to challenge the old highs.

Examining the chart below it is apparent that the recent decline in gold prices was not the bursting of a bubble, but merely a correction within a larger secular bull market. Although we were not fortunate enough to take a short position prior to the correction, we did signal a bullish options trade on GLD to subscribers on 26 September 2011, the day gold prices bottomed.

Monday, October 31, 2011

Gold Rallies on Euro-zone Inflation Solution / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2011

By: Clive_Maund

No politician wants to end up with his head adorning the railings of some public building, and thus - possibly spurred into action by the video of the grisly end of Colonel Gaddafi - European leaders started to display qualities normally totally alien to them last week, in particular unity and resolve and a rare sense of urgency, in dealing with the acute crisis facing Europe. It did not go as far as statesmanship, however, because that would involve actually dealing with the root causes of the crisis, although with the best will in the world it's too late for that, so instead, predictably, they decided to fall in line with the tried and tested US solution to all economic problems, which is to print money and sell more debt - if they can find anyone dumb enough to buy it, that is, and a nice touch later in the week was the sight of a European representative going cap in hand to meet people with real hard cash in their pockets, the Chinese.

Monday, October 31, 2011

Silver Breakout Rally to Continue / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2011

By: Clive_Maund

Last week the weight of the evidence suggested that silver was late in a base building process, and our judgement that this was the case was vindicated by subsequent action, when it broke out upside from the intermediate base pattern during the week in response to the inflation positive news out of Europe. This is discussed in some detail in the Gold market update, but suffice it to say here that Europe has decided that it will attempt to print its way out of trouble, just like the US, which is great news for holders of inflation hedges like gold and silver.

Saturday, October 29, 2011

How Will Gold and Silver React to the EU Bailout Plan? / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2011

By: Eric_McWhinnie

After numerous jukes and headline rumors, the world finally received a so-called EU solution. After threatening with a total insolvency Greece situation, European leaders were able to talk bondholders into accepting a 50% haircut on Greek debt. Furthermore, the euro zone leaders agreed to increase the firepower of the European Financial Stability Facility. The markets reacted quite well to the news, even if it was just a knee-jerk reaction. The Dow surged 340 points, and is now on track for its biggest monthly percentage gain in nearly 25 years.

Saturday, October 29, 2011

New Bull Phase for Agricultural Commodities Grains ETF / Commodities / Agricultural Commodities

By: Mike_Paulenoff

The medium-term technical work in the iPath DJ-UBS Grains TR Sub-Idx ETN (JJG) indicates that a new bull phase started after the June 2010 low at 32.33, which completed its initial up leg at the Feb 2011 high of 58.25.

All of the action off of the Feb 2011 high, into the Oct 4 low, represented a complex corrective process that fully digested the gains of the prior up leg.

Friday, October 28, 2011

Will Gold and Silver Go Up Along with the General Stock Market? / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2011

By: Przemyslaw_Radomski

The yellow metal, money for more than three millennia, has a close relationship to other forms of money. Some argue that it isn’t gold that has risen in value in the last decade, as much that fiat currencies have lost value against gold. Ever since gold began its spectacular rise a decade ago, the U.S. dollar has lost over 80% of its purchasing power. The other currencies have not fared much better. The euro and the Japanese yen have lost over 70%. Gold is the only form of money that governments cannot create out of thin air which is why the supply of fiat currencies is expanding exponentially faster than gold supplies, which increase by about only 3% per year.
 

Friday, October 28, 2011

The New Steel Silk Road / Commodities / Steel Sector

By: Richard_Mills

The Silk Routes, collectively known as the "Silk Road", refer to a 7000 mile network of interlinking trade routes that were used for three millennia. They connected China, India, Tibet, the Persian Empire, the Mediterranean countries and parts of North and East Africa.

Friday, October 28, 2011

Unconventional Oil Supply / Commodities / Crude Oil

By: Zeal_LLC

Each year a small portion of the world’s finite oil supply is drained.  And over time this annual draw has grown larger in a world that seems to be getting smaller.  As global commerce gains fluidity, the demand for this hydrocarbon appears to be insatiable.

Transportation is of course by far the largest consumer of oil, responsible for about 60% of global demand.  Everything we own and everything available to us to buy had to get from where it was made to the point of sale.  And it is oil that fuels this transportation.

Friday, October 28, 2011

Gold Research Again Proves Gold as “Risk Management Vehicle” and “Store of Wealth” / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2011

By: GoldCore

Gold is trading at USD 1,736.36, EUR 1,227.21, GBP 1,078.67, JPY 131,718, ZAR 13,432/oz and CHF 1,500.36 per ounce.

Gold’s London AM fix this morning was USD 1,735.00, GBP 1,077.91 and EUR 1,224.50 per ounce.

Yesterday’s AM fix was USD 1,708.00, GBP 1,067.83 and EUR 1,219.74 per ounce.

Friday, October 28, 2011

Gold Returns to Form, China Considers "Strategic Opportunities" of Bailing Out Europe / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2011

By: Ben_Traynor

SPOT MARKET gold prices touched a one-month high of $1752 an ounce during Asian trading on Friday – a 7.9% gain from the start of October – before falling back by lunchtime in London. 

Stock and commodity markets edged lower and US Treasury bonds gained, as investors began to digest the implications of this week's Euro Summit deal.

Friday, October 28, 2011

Argentina Rule Change Casts a Dark Shadow Over the Gold Mining Industry / Commodities / Gold & Silver Stocks

By: Bob_Kirtley

The re-elected President, Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, wants export revenues from mining projects to be repatriated and converted to Argentine currency prior to their distribution.

This rule change by the Argentinian government renders this country less attractive than it use to be to inward investors. It also serves as a reminder as to the myriad of risks involved in any mining operation. This one comes under the heading of Geo-political risk, as the re-elected government seeks to stem the flow of capital out of the country. Having this cash repatriated also gives the government the opportunity, further down the line, to introduce capital controls which would result in the cash having to be re-invested in Argentina.

Friday, October 28, 2011

Buying Gold, A Golden Mistake Worth Repeating / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2011

By: Jeff_Clark

Jeff Clark, Casey Research writes: The following conversation took place between a friend's son and me; he's a bright but relatively young investor. He had purchased some gold based on some things I'd told his father. Shortly afterward, the price dropped hard. As you'll see, he was not very happy with my advice and said so in an email to me. So I called him...

Thursday, October 27, 2011

Gold Surges Higher as EU’s ‘Grand Plan’ Leads to More “Irrational Exuberance” and Prevents Contagion / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2011

By: GoldCore

Gold is trading at USD 1,722.10, EUR 1,228.20, GBP 1,076, JPY 130,520 , AUD 1,622.40 and 10,955 CNY per ounce.

Gold’s London AM fix this morning was USD 1,708.00, GBP 1,067.83 and EUR 1,219.74 per ounce.

Thursday, October 27, 2011

Gold Gains as Eurozone Optimism "May Fade" Following Details / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2011

By: Ben_Traynor

THE SPOT MARKET gold price rallied to $1725 an ounce Thursday lunchtime in London – 5.1% up from the start of the week – following a mid-morning dip.

Silver prices continued to see-saw around $33.50 per ounce – 6.7% up for the week so far.

Thursday, October 27, 2011

Why A Mega Gold Stocks Rally Is Imminent / Commodities / Gold & Silver Stocks

By: Hubert_Moolman

During the Great Depression, at a certain point, gold stocks started a massive rally. While most things were going down in price, gold stocks made significant gains, becoming one of the best performing sectors during that time. Below is a chart (from sharelynx.com), which illustrates the performance of the gold stocks during this time:

Thursday, October 27, 2011

Two Ways to Profit From La Nina Seasonal Weather Shift / Commodities / Agricultural Commodities

By: Money_Morning

Jack Barnes writes: If you follow the commodity markets, you know that weather can have a dramatic effect on your investments.

A flood, drought, hurricane, tornado, or even something as simple as the changing of the seasons can be a game changer.

Thursday, October 27, 2011

An Unlikely New Supporter for Alternative Energy / Commodities / Ethanol

By: Money_Morning

Dr. Kent Moors writes: During a biofuels conference at Mississippi State University last week, Navy Secretary Ray Mabus announced that his branch would be leading the charge to lessen the U.S. Department of Defense's (DOD) dependence on fossil fuels.

This involves a rather large chunk of traditional fuel usage.

Thursday, October 27, 2011

Gimmick Car Fuels: Biofuels And Hydrogen Are Back / Commodities / Renewable Energy

By: Andrew_McKillop

Not for long, of course.
Biofuels as a gimmick alternative to oil-fuelled cars wax and wane with oil prices. At times of specially high stress, that is high or fast-rising oil prices even hydrogen cars will be dredged out of the timewarp closet, to join today's real favourite - electric cars. Gimmick fuels and the cars which go with them are totally linked to the vagaries of oil prices because they all need oil to be manufactured: their media exposure soars when oil prices are high, then wanes with oil price lows, but everybody (sane) knows the simple fact: these are time wasting and money wasting gimmicks, to which we can add - with H2 Cars - they are outright lethal hydrogen bombs on wheels making Osama bin Laden totally surplus !

Thursday, October 27, 2011

Hands Off Germany's Gold!!! / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2011

By: Adrian_Ash

Gold still represents the ultimate form of payment. Why throw it away before the Euro collapses...?

"HANDS OFF!" shouts German newspaper Bild today. "Failed states are still going to get our gold," screams the tabloid's headline.

Thursday, October 27, 2011

Gold Miners’ Leverage Effect Is Gone. But For How Long? / Commodities / Gold & Silver Stocks

By: Willem_Weytjens

In this article, we will have a look at the so called “leverage” effect that mining companies are supposed to have to the underlying metal prices.

To explain briefly why mining companies SHOULD have a leverage effect to increasing metal prices, I will illustrate this with a simple example.