Analysis Topic: Commodity Markets - Metals, Softs & Oils

The analysis published under this topic are as follows.

Sunday, February 27, 2011

Gasoline: No Cure For High Prices Like High Prices / Commodities / Gas - Petrol

By: Dian_L_Chu

Crude oil market has been on a wild roller coaster ride ever since riots started escalating in Egypt and Libya. The latest Libyan supply disruptions sent WTI futures surging above $103 a barrel in New York on Thursday, Feb. 24, while Brent oil in Europe was also closing in on $120 a barrel.

However, both oil markers retreated mostly due to traders scrambling to reposition when NYMEX and ICE boosted margin requirements on oil futures as crude traded above $100 a barrel.

Sunday, February 27, 2011

Crude Oil, Natural Gas and Geopolitics / Commodities / Crude Oil

By: John_Hampson

Revolt in Libya and fear of the spread of revolt to Saudi Arabia and Algeria - all oil producers - helped push oil prices higher last week. Libya shut down what amounts to roughly 1% of the world's supply. Saudi Arabia responded by increasing supply and the IEA discussed releasing some of the emergency stockpiles. These emergency stockpiles amount to 1.6 billion barrels, or around 4 million barrels a day for a year. Given that Libya produces around 1.6m barrels a day and Algeria 1.3m barrels, the IEA could cover the eventuality of both losing all their supply for up to a year, which is clearly an outside scenario. But, if an uprising gathers pace in Saudi Arabia and disrupts its pumping of 10% of world supply, then the supply gap is unlikely to be filled. For now, this also represents an outside scenario, as the Saudi Government has taken proactive steps to placate its people.

Sunday, February 27, 2011

Gold Fails to Break to New All Time High Despite Middle East Crisis / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2011

By: Merv_Burak

Despite all the turmoil gold was not able to get into new high territory.  It will be interesting which way for gold next week.

Sunday, February 27, 2011

Silver Market Hit Hard With Bear Raid / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2011

By: Jesse

Friday I said: "Today was the option expiration on the Comex, and those options which are 'in the money' and have not been settled for cash are now converted to March futures positions.

Depending on the size and distribution of those conversions we may see some 'action' in the front month because they are sometimes notoriously weak hands and will receive at least one 'gut check.'"

Sunday, February 27, 2011

The Global Flight into Gold and Silver / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2011

By: Bob_Chapman

The world is awash in dollars and that is being reflected in the USDX, which are six major currencies versus the dollar. The loss of value is being loudly trumpeted as the IMF says a replacement must be found. This is the same IMF that has been foisting non-gold backed SDRs on us since 1969. Every time they have tried this it has been a failure. We can give the Illuminists an ‘A’ for effort, but what they do not get is that the professionals and investors see right through it. Another batch of fiat currency is not going to solve the world’s currency crisis, which can only be saved by gold backing. Needless to say, the mainstream media will never talk about this in realistic terms, because the elitists control them. The denigration of currencies versus gold and silver are advancing apace, as the elitists day after day try to suppress gold and silver prices.

Saturday, February 26, 2011

Crude Oil Unique Price Formation, Should You Buy Here? / Commodities / Crude Oil

By: Jared_Levy

This has been a turbulent week on the geopolitical front, triggering waves in the stock market and sending the price of crude oil through the roof. While the stock market corrects itself (as we anticipated), the price of crude oil seems to be creeping ever higher, putting upward pressure on the price of fuel and energy. Worse still is the serious effect this could have on the economic recovery that everyone has been banking on.

Saturday, February 26, 2011

The Most Compelling Argument for Owning Silver I've Ever Heard / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2011

By: DailyWealth

Sean Goldsmith writes: The talk of the investment industry is a video making its way around the internet right now…

Saturday, February 26, 2011

Gold Moving Closer To All-time High / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2011

By: LiveCharts

Gold prices have slipped a bit to close out the week, but an ounce of gold is holding steady over $1,400 as a run toward late December’s all-time intraday trading high of $1,431.50 appears inevitable in the coming weeks.

Continued political unrest in Libya and Bahrain, combined with the recent overthrow of 30-year Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, has driven speculators toward commodities.

Friday, February 25, 2011

Mideast Mayhem to Drive Gold Price Higher / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2011

By: The_Gold_Report

As Casimir Capital Managing Director Wayne Atwell sees it, further political unrest in the Middle East could push gold higher, while inflation risk and sovereign debt issues in Europe are longer-term price catalysts. He also shares a few up-and-coming gold juniors that Casimir covers in this exclusive interview with The Gold Report.

The Gold Report: In a recent interview with Bloomberg you said, "Gold's gotten stronger because it's no longer weak." Can you explain that concept to our readers?

Friday, February 25, 2011

Gold Stocks Long-Term Trend Still Up, Despite Price Declines / Commodities / Gold & Silver Stocks

By: Przemyslaw_Radomski

Economic and social developments across the globe are significantly affecting the capital market moves in the present scenario. Global markets, still fragile, could be tilted off course if instability in the Middle East spreads. Markets largely ignored the revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt, two countries that are basically not that significant on the global economic scheme of things. They don’t owe much money to western banks, nor do they export large quantities of commodities, such as oil. But markets certainly took notice this week of the violent upheaval in Libya.

Friday, February 25, 2011

Junior Gold Miners and Resource Stocks Correction / Commodities / Gold & Silver Stocks

By: Zeal_LLC

Junior resource stocks are fickle little things.  And most investors who dabble in this realm are fully aware of their capricious nature.  One of the best ways to describe owning these stocks can be summed up by one of the most famous lines in literary history, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…”

Friday, February 25, 2011

Why is the Dollar Falling in Gold and Currency Terms? / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2011

By: Julian_DW_Phillips

In the last few days a fairly new market perception has been creeping in. The expectation that Eurozone interest rates are going to start rising ahead of U.S. interest rates is taking hold. But while the original intention in Europe was to raise them as soon as it was seen that the recovery was really taking hold, it is becoming apparent that inflation may well beat them to it. As energy and food inflation are here to stay the reason rates will rise now is to tackle inflation.

Friday, February 25, 2011

Europe Replaces Gazprom Natural Gas With Algeria / Commodities / Natural Gas

By: Pravda

In March, Algeria will export gas to Europe via Medgaz pipeline laid beneath the Mediterranean Sea. The EU continues to reduce its dependence on Russian gas, and Algeria continues to strengthen its position as a natural gas distributor in Europe. At the moment this country is the third largest supplier to the EU.

Friday, February 25, 2011

Gold Adds 1% But Silver Unwinds Week-on-Week Jump as Oil Price Hit by Margin Hike / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2011

By: Adrian_Ash

BOTH GOLD and physical silver prices failed to hold onto a sharp overnight bounce in London trade on Friday, trading below $1404 and $33 respectively per ounce as volatility in crude oil remained at record levels but world stock markets rose for the first day in six.

The US Dollar snapped its 7-day losing streak, bouncing against the Euro, Sterling and Yen and leaving gold prices for non-Dollar investors slightly higher again.

Friday, February 25, 2011

Crude Oil, Natural Gas and AMEX Oil Index Stocks Analysis / Commodities / Crude Oil

By: David_Petch

The daily chart of oil is shown below, with oil shooting well above all three Bollinger bands, suggestive that oil will consolidate for at least 7-10 days before trending higher. Normally, when prices run well above upper Bollinger bands, a consolidation is required, or a pullback is in order. Given the fact that all three lower Bollinger bands are positioned in close proximity to each other and the lower 55 MA Bollinger band curled lower, oil prices are highly likely to remain above $90/barrel and eventually rise above $100/barrel before summer's end. Full stochastics 1, 2 and 3 are shown below in order of descent, with the %K beneath the %D in all three instances.

Friday, February 25, 2011

Global Food Crisis, Not Only Speculation / Commodities / Food Crisis

By: Andrew_McKillop

THE BIG PICTURE - Recent massive food commodity price rises, with occasional day trade plunges on the back of market rumours, price chart gazing or analysts' theories – followed by a return to the growth trend - is taken by many as a key proof of the Ponzi scheme new economy. The food commodity sell-off through February 21-23, 2011 is a typical example, explained by market watchers as due to speculation by traders that riots in North Africa and the Middle East could cut government spending and curb food demand from the Arab world, which buys about 33 percent of global shipments.

Friday, February 25, 2011

Booster Rocket Ignites in Crude Oil / Commodities / Crude Oil

By: Seven_Days_Ahead

Following Brent Crude’s earlier break above the May-10 high we had been focusing on certain Fibo targets and more recently looking for signs of bull fatigue as these were approached. But bulls have got a second wind, calling for higher projections/targets now.

Friday, February 25, 2011

Timber Investing: The Inflation Hedge That Pays Off in Every Type of Market / Commodities / Resources Investing

By: Money_Morning

Larry D. Spears writes: If you start a conversation about the building inflationary pressures already sapping consumer pocketbooks, that talk will almost certainly turn to such classic hedges as gold, silver and even crude oil.

But one of the best inflationary hedges of the 20th century is often forgotten - even though it's likely to be just as effective this time around.

Friday, February 25, 2011

Libya Crisis Advice From the Guy "Big Oil" Calls for Answers / Commodities / Crude Oil

By: Money_Morning

Kent Moors, Ph.D. writes: Given the events that we've seen in Egypt and elsewhere in recent weeks - as well as the developments we've seen in Libya in recent days - there's only one conclusion to reach.

We are right now looking at the prospect of significant and sustained instability in a region that's home to two-thirds of the world's known crude oil reserves.

Friday, February 25, 2011

Food Price Inflation Calculator / Commodities / Inflation

By: Richard_Daughty

Mark Thornton of the Mises Institute writes, "The price of everything seems to have skyrocketed. Only housing, the dollar and inflation-adjusted income are negative."

I immediately interrupt to wittily say, "Well, housing is going down because nobody wants to buy a still-over-priced-yet-even-lower-quality house that now needs painting, a new water heater, some leaky things fixed and a new roof, especially now that inflation-adjusted incomes are negative!"