Analysis Topic: Commodity Markets - Metals, Softs & Oils

The analysis published under this topic are as follows.

Sunday, October 28, 2012

Renewable Energy: The Global Clean Tech Bubble - Part 2 / Commodities / Renewable Energy

By: Nicole_Foss

Continued from Part 1

Those who advocate for a complete shift to renewables often state that it would be possible if only the political will to fund the transition were available. In fact, funding programmes have been introduced in many jurisdictions, often on a very large scale. Capital grants and long term Feed-In Tariff (FIT) contracts have been introduced in many European countries and in other regions. Feed-In Tariffs, which typically offer a twenty year guaranteed income stream in order to overcome the investment risk, have often been the economic tool of choice. Some of these have been very generous, and the subsidy regimes have driven large investments in renewables for many years. The costs have been in the hundreds of billions of dollars, with projections for many times that much in the future, both for generation capacity and for the necessary infrastructure to service it:

Sunday, October 28, 2012

Renewable Energy: The Vision And A Dose Of Reality - Part 1 / Commodities / Renewable Energy

By: Nicole_Foss

In recent years, there has been more and more talk of a transition to renewable energy on the grounds of climate change, and an increasing range of public policies designed to move in this direction. Not only do advocates envisage, and suggest to custodians of the public purse, a future of 100% renewable energy, but they suggest that this can be achieved very rapidly, in perhaps a decade or two, if sufficient political will can be summoned. See for instance this 2009 Plan to Power 100 Percent of the Planet with Renewables:

A year ago former vice president Al Gore threw down a gauntlet: to repower America with 100 percent carbon-free electricity within 10 years. As the two of us started to evaluate the feasibility of such a change, we took on an even larger challenge: to determine how 100 percent of the world’s energy, for all purposes, could be supplied by wind, water and solar resources, by as early as 2030.

Sunday, October 28, 2012

Oil Nationalism: Russia Versus Saudi Arabia / Commodities / Crude Oil

By: Andrew_McKillop

TOO MUCH
In a week where Malaysia's Petronas' buyout bid for Calgary-based Progress Energy was rejected by the Canadian government, and the rejection called "resource nationalism" by Fitch ratings, Rosneft's buyout of TMK-BP is seen as Vladimir Putin's vehicle to regain state ownership of Russia's oil fields. Rosneft was firstly handed control over Yukos Oil in 2003, by Putin's government hitting Yukos with a $26-billion tax bill which bankrupted it, followed by Putin's bundling of Yukos founder, the billionaire Mikhail Khodorkovsky, into a Siberian prison. The present buyout of TNK-BP has Rosneft acquiring BP's 50% stake of the joint venture in exchange for cash and stock, for $27 billion.

Saturday, October 27, 2012

Gold Mining Stock Margins Will Expand Further / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2012

By: Jordan_Roy_Byrne

Longtime readers know that we are a fan of intermarket analysis. The movement of certain markets influences other markets so it is always wise to analyze a handful of markets rather than just a single market by itself. Several years ago we learned from others before us how intermarket analysis can help us get a handle on the margins of gold (and silver) miners. Generally, Oil (energy) represents about 25% of the cost of mining while industrial metals prices can be a proxy for the costs of trucks, chemicals and blasting agents (like cyanide). It has been a while since we’ve looked at these charts but with the gold stocks having put in a major bottom it is time to analyze whether it is sustainable or not.

Friday, October 26, 2012

Crude Oil Price Falls to a 3-Month Low: Why Blaming "Soft Economy" Isn't the Answer / Commodities / Crude Oil

By: EWI

After a 4-day losing streak, on October 23 crude oil futures fell as low as $85.69 a barrel -- the lowest price since July.

Predictably, the mainstream energy market observers have blamed the drop on "global economic worries." Of course, we have pointed out before how, on one recent occasion, oil fell in the face of positive economic expectations. And on another recent occasion, oil fell despite the absence of any real news, period.

Friday, October 26, 2012

Putin Is the New Global Oil Shah / Commodities / Crude Oil

By: Marin_Katusa

Marin Katusa, Casey Research : Exxon Mobil is no longer the world's number-one oil producer. As of yesterday, that title belongs to Putin Oil Corp – oh, whoops. I mean the title belongs to Rosneft, Russia's state-controlled oil company.

Rosneft is buying TNK-BP, which is a vertically integrated oil company co-owned by British oil firm BP and a group of Russian billionaires known as AAR. One of the top-ten privately owned oil producers in the world, in 2010 TNK-BP churned out 1.74 million barrels of oil equivalent per day from its assets in Russia and Ukraine and processed almost half that amount through its refineries.

Friday, October 26, 2012

Why Platinum May Outperform Gold and Silver / Commodities / Platinum

By: Jeb_Handwerger

We are seeing some healthy profit taking in gold (GLD) and silver (SLV) after making an explosive breakout over the summer. Investment demand after QE3 is increasing as investors seek alternatives to fiat currencies which are being devalued by Central Banks all over the world.

Friday, October 26, 2012

Big Jump in London Gold Trading / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2012

By: Adrian_Ash

Wholesale gold trading through London's global center just leapt towards summer 2011's records...

GOLD TRADING in London – heart of the world's wholesale bullion market – leapt in September.

How come? "The continued economic uncertainty in the Eurozone and US, the end of the holiday period and the start of the Indian festival season boosted clearing turnover," says trade body the London Bullion Market Association, releasing the new data to members on Thursday.

Friday, October 26, 2012

Indian Gold Demand "Surprisingly" Absent as "Bearish Trend" Remains / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2012

By: Ben_Traynor

U.S. DOLLAR gold prices traded just above $1700 an ounce throughout Friday morning in London, following an overnight reversal of yesterday's rally, while European stock markets traded lower this morning following losses in Asia, ahead of the release of US GDP data later today.

"The trend remains bearish so long as gold trades below $1723," says the latest note from Scotiabank technical analyst Russell Browne.

Friday, October 26, 2012

Gold To Rally Strongly In November After October Correction / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2012

By: GoldCore

Today’s AM fix was USD 1,704.00, EUR 1,316.44, and GBP 1,057.01 per ounce.  Yesterday’s AM fix was USD 1,715.00, EUR 1,317.71, and GBP 1,063.24 per ounce.

Silver is trading at $31.76/oz, €24.72/oz and £19.80/oz. Platinum is trading at $1,552.80/oz, palladium at $594.20/oz and rhodium at $1,045/oz.

Thursday, October 25, 2012

UK Economic GDP Growth News Dents Gold in Pounds / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2012

By: Ben_Traynor

WHOLESALE gold bullion prices rallied to $1718 an ounce Thursday morning in London, less than 24 hours after dipping below the $1700 mark for the first time since the US Federal Reserve announced a third round of quantitative easing last month.

Gold in Sterling however ended the morning lower at £1068 per ounce, close to yesterday's seven-week low, as the Pound rallied after the release of better-than-expected UK economic growth data.

Thursday, October 25, 2012

Uranium Could Now be the Best Investment / Commodities / Uranium

By: Richard_Mills

Under the terms of the 1993 government-to-government nuclear non-proliferation agreement (Megatons to Megawatts program), the United States and Russia agreed to commercially implement a 20 year program to convert 500 metric tons of HEU (uranium 235 enriched to 90 percent) taken from Soviet era warheads, into LEU, low enriched uranium (less than 5 percent uranium 235).

To date 463.5 metric tons of bomb-grade HEU have been recycled into 13,345 metric tons of LEU - enough material to produce fuel to power the entire United States for about two years.

Thursday, October 25, 2012

Silver Demand In China For Wealth Protection to Climb to Record 7,700 Tons / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2012

By: GoldCore

Today’s AM fix was USD 1,715.00, EUR 1,317.71, and GBP 1,063.24 per ounce.  Yesterday’s AM fix was USD 1,708.50, EUR 1,321.04, and GBP 1,069.28 per ounce.

Silver is trading at $32.11/oz, €24.81/oz and £19.88/oz. Platinum is trading at $1,580.75/oz, palladium at $602.30/oz and rhodium at $1,070/oz.

Thursday, October 25, 2012

Sell Your Gold, Q4 Defence, Hedge Your Bets and Up Your Stops / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2012

By: Money_Morning

Keith Fitz-Gerald writes: So far fourth quarter earnings have made a mockery of things.

Of the 20 S&P 500 companies that have provided Q4 guidance so far, 18 of them have guided lower, "slashing" their forecasts, according to Goldman Sachs and CNBC (as of Monday afternoon).

Thursday, October 25, 2012

Forecasts for Gold, HUI Index And The US Dollar / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2012

By: Vin_Maru

Looking at the gold chart below, we can see that gold has been correcting over the last two weeks. When applying some technical analysis to the gold chart, we can clearly see that there would have been overhead resistance at $1800 since most of the year gold has traded between $1550 and $1800. A few weeks ago, we also noticed a big build in the short position on the Comex's Commitment of Traders report COT by the commercial and bullion banks. The effort to stop gold's advance at a key resistance level was successful in part because of the huge increase in the short position at that level, which is why we knew to take some profits and that would be an ideal place for a correction to start.

Thursday, October 25, 2012

Gold James Bond, and Europe's New Gold Standard / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2012

By: Adrian_Ash

Europe's huge gold reserves are currently more useless than Bond-villain Auric Goldfinger could wish...

LET'S SAY you owe the world €2 trillion, but you also hold the world's 4th largest hoard of physical gold.

Sounds like a no-brainer, right? Use Italy's gold to pay Italy's debt.

Thursday, October 25, 2012

Why Soybeans Beat iPads / Commodities / Agricultural Commodities

By: Ned_W_Schmidt

Technology businesses have always seemed to this researcher to be a losers' game. Soybeans, in the past decade or so, have been converted to a winning game. Why play with losers when one can play with winners? The simple, but elegant, reason soybeans are a better bet than iPads is the cost structure of the two businesses. One is desirable and one is not. The reason soybeans are better is that the cost structure in the industry is now fundamentally better than that of technology.

Wednesday, October 24, 2012

Peak Price Not 'Peak Oil', Free 26 Page Report / Commodities / Crude Oil

By: EWI

Greetings,

In July 2008, when crude oil prices were at $148 a barrel and "peak oil" bulls were forecasting a rise to $200, even $300 a barrel, contrarian technical analyst Robert Prechter took the opposite stance:

Wednesday, October 24, 2012

Gold Falls as Draghi to Enter the Lion’s Den / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2012

By: GoldCore

Today’s AM fix was USD 1,708.50, EUR 1,321.04, and GBP 1,069.28 per ounce.  Yesterday’s AM fix was USD 1,717.00, EUR 1,317.22, and GBP 1,072.12 per ounce.

Silver is trading at $31.93/oz, €24.77/oz and £20.02/oz. Platinum is trading at $1,577.25/oz, palladium at $596.70/oz and rhodium at $1,100/oz.

Wednesday, October 24, 2012

Renewable Energy Could Cause Your Electric Bill to Plummet in 2013 / Commodities / Electricity

By: Money_Morning

Dr. Kent Moors writes: As we come to the end of an election campaign cycle, something else will be ending as well.

Wind subsidies.

A poster child for the ongoing debate over government support for renewable energy, the wind subsidy will expire at the end of 2012. Amidst the fog and din of a political war, Congress is not going to renew it.