Analysis Topic: Commodity Markets - Metals, Softs & Oils
The analysis published under this topic are as follows.Wednesday, September 12, 2007
Macro Musings: Crude Oil and Gold Commodity Milestones / Commodities / Gold & Silver
I have the ability to imagine configurations of the world different from today, and really believe it can happen.
-- legendary hedge fund manager Bruce Kovner
TODAY WE MUSE on gold, but the discussion begins with oil. (With crude hitting nominal contract highs and the yellow metal besting 16-month highs, it seems appropriate to combine the two.)
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Wednesday, September 12, 2007
Gold Is Breaking Out as It Disconnects from the Stock Markets / Commodities / Gold & Silver
Four charts speak volumes, with only a few words to serve as captions. Ever since the lousy August Jobs Report came out (doctored to look better than the real situation), the gold picture has experienced a sea change. Gold is breaking out, not yet to new highs, but that is next. The gold price is not moving reasons offered in explanations. Anchors and interviewed guests fall short of adequate assessment. At the same time, denials persist on the huge damage to be doled out by the USDollar decline, as another round of systemic cost inflation will ensue. Read full article... Read full article...
Wednesday, September 12, 2007
Gold Overbought - FOMC Interest Rate Cut Meeting Could Result in Short-term Selling / Commodities / Gold & Silver
U.S. trade deficit on goods and services for last month was reported as $59 billion. For another month $59+ billion of green paper was exported by the U.S. During same period central banks reduced their holdings of U.S. debt by $30+ billion. Those values, when taken together, mean that around the world $90 billion of green paper was sold, or not not bought, by central banks. Little wonder U.S. dollar has rediscovered downward path and Gold has risen. Just as business media was proclaiming Gold an unwise investment, the price rose to above US$700. Any interest rate cut in the U.S. will only add encouragement to dollar's demise, and initiate next wave in Gold Super Cycle.Read full article... Read full article...
Wednesday, September 12, 2007
Grain Bull Market - The Cartel in Your Cupboard / Commodities / Agricultural Commodities
Sean Brodrick writes :Russia has asked Australia (among others) to join a group of grain-exporting nations that would seek to regulate production, much as OPEC regulates the production of crude oil.
An OPEC of grain sounds a bit odd. Visions of sheiks riding camels through Kansas wheat fields immediately come to mind. But Russia knows there is a lot of money to be made from grains. Fortunately, if you make the right moves, you also stand to reap profits as high as an elephant's eye.
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Wednesday, September 12, 2007
Gold Hits New 16-Month High vs. Dollars and Sterling ; London Press Fails to Notice / Commodities / Gold & Silver
SPOT GOLD PRICES touched a fresh 16-month high in London early on Wednesday, but slipped $3 per ounce to trade at $711.29 as the US open drew near.
The AM Fix came in at $711.75 per ounce, the highest London Fix since 17th May 2006 .
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Wednesday, September 12, 2007
Commodity Markets Update - Gold Remains Undervalued Despite Current Rally / Commodities / Gold & Silver
GoldSpot gold was trading at $705.20/705.70 an ounce as of 1215 GMT after yesterday's 1.5% price increase.
It has traded sideways in Asia and Europe but remains close to new 16 month highs and is not far away from 26 year highs at $730. We believe that given the speed of the recent price surge there may be some back filling and consolidation but that the 26 year high will be challenged and surpassed in the coming days and weeks. The wise old Wall Street saying to always have 10% of one's wealth in gold and hope it doesn't work becomes more appropriate by the day.
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Wednesday, September 12, 2007
Where Next for Gold? / Commodities / Gold & Silver
Look at that gold price? What happened to 650 an ounce? I believe we are witnessing a new floor price for gold being established.
And what happens when that ole' spring is pushed too hard?
Well, gold has finally closed above 700 and I believe this to be more than a short term rally. Now 700 has become the floor for gold where as before 700 was the ceiling. What does this mean? Before, gold was attempting to climb above an imaginary Maginot line of 700. Now 700 has become the floor and imaginary base from which gold will call home.
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Wednesday, September 12, 2007
Commodity Markets Trend - History Should Serve As A Guide To This Wild Ride / Commodities / Gold & Silver
Even though I have not posted commentary in the last few months, I have been keenly aware of the wild ride that has occurred in the commodity markets over the last couple of months. The major sell-offs, that have occurred in nearly every sector, have left many commodity bulls around the world asking the following question: Is this bull market in commodities finally over?Read full article... Read full article...
Tuesday, September 11, 2007
Taking Profits in Gold Long Position / Commodities / Gold & Silver Stocks
I am looking to exit part of my long position (model portfolio) in the streetTRACKS Gold Shares (NYSE: GLD) at 70.80 today for three reasons:Read full article... Read full article...
Tuesday, September 11, 2007
The Wallstreet Big Boys Are Not Interested in Junior Miners / Commodities / Gold & Silver Stocks
And Now For Something Completely Different: What good would it do you if Michael Bloomberg became the next President of the United States ? Answer: In spite of all the platform promises he would undoubtedly make, no good in all likelihood, just like with Bush if you were not a defense contractor or oil baron. That is to say, like Bush, he would work on ways to reward his buddies for supporting his campaign. Good or bad depending on who you are – that's how the game is played. As mentioned here many times now, and highlighted in our piece The Bourgeoisie Of America , what should begin to become more plain to everybody very soon is that guys like Bloomberg, in the top three-percent for sure, are only worried about lining their own pockets – and it's to hell with everyone else. And on a larger scale, and increasingly, official policy is being run on this basis, where again, such actions are not about to help you and me in anyway past putting off the inevitable – that being through a painful process bring us back to a system for the people as opposed to the one we have – designed to rape, pillage, and plunder.Read full article... Read full article...
Tuesday, September 11, 2007
Commodity Markets Update - Gold Trades Sideways Near 16 Month Highs / Commodities / Gold & Silver
GoldSpot gold was trading at $705.20/705.70 an ounce as of 1215 GMT. It has traded sideways in Asia and Europe but remains close to 16 month highs. Yesterday's close above $700 was only the 7th daily close above $700 in 26 years.
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Tuesday, September 11, 2007
Gold Moves Sideways for Non-US Investors; "Safe Haven the Way to Go" / Commodities / Gold & Silver
SPOT GOLD PRICES traded sideways in Asia overnight, moving in a $2 range before rising steadily in London to break $705 per ounce as the New York open drew near.
European stock markets rallied meantime, with London 's top 100 share index adding 1.5% during the morning session to reach break-even from this time last month. Both the FTSE Eurofirst 300 index and the Dow on Wall Street remain 7% off their top of mid-July.
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Monday, September 10, 2007
Significant Near-Term Bottom for Natural Gas / Commodities / Natural Gas
This afternoon's spike to the upside in the U.S. Natural Gas Fund (AMEX: UNG) has imbued the near-term chart structure with the look of a potentially significant near-term bottom (37.00-34.00). A sustained upside hurdle of last Thurday's rally peak at 37.40 should triggered upside follow-through to the 40.00-40.40 area initially, and possibly to 42.00 thereafter as the price structure fulfills its "destiny" off of the three-week base pattern.Read full article... Read full article...
Monday, September 10, 2007
Gold Opens London at 27-Year High; Western Fund Managers Buy US Bonds, Even as Inflation Rises and Foreign Banks Sell / Commodities / Gold & Silver
SPOT GOLD PRICES dipped 30 cents below the $700 mark in Asian trade on Monday, only to spike sharply higher before opening the week in London above $706 per ounce – the highest weekly start since Sept. 1980.
Today's Morning Fix of $704 per ounce was the highest since May 17th last year.
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Monday, September 10, 2007
Gold Breaches $700 Barrier as Fed Fails to Contain Subprime Credit Crisis / Commodities / Gold & Silver
GoldSpot gold traded at a new 16 month high this morning and was trading at $704.00/704.50 an ounce as of 1215 GMT.
Gold has continued to show strength in Asian and European trading after last week's surge of $26 or more than 4%. Last weeks surge was likely due to strong physical demand, near record oil prices, the weaker dollar and then the worryingly bad payroll numbers on Friday. These led to gold rising and the Dow declining 1.9% and the S&P 500 falling 1.4% for the week. Read full article... Read full article...
Sunday, September 09, 2007
A Perfect Financial Storm for Gold - Technically Precious with Merv / Commodities / Gold & Silver
Global markets weakening, U.S. dollar weakening, gold zooming higher – is this what is sometimes called a “perfect storm” for gold?
Global Markets and the Price of Gold
Last week I deviated from my normal commentary and looked in on the global equity markets. The question not asked at that time was “If the global markets are all weakening how does that affect the price of gold?” It is often inferred that gold price moves counter to the direction of the equity markets.
Sunday, September 09, 2007
Gold and Silver Analysis - Precious Metals Breakout Sustainable Growth? / Commodities / Gold & Silver
“A second consecutive close above the 5-week moving average in gold bodes well for a break of this resistance level, after which $690 and $700 become strong resistance.Read full article... Read full article...
Saturday, September 08, 2007
The Big Bull Market in Grains / Commodities / Agricultural Commodities
Sean Brodrick writes: Vampire bats and piranha scare the bejeezus out of me. So I probably won't be visiting an Argentinean cattle ranch anytime soon. See, the Argentineans are emptying out their world-famous cattle lands, driving their herds north into scrublands and swamps infested with vampire bats and piranha.Read full article... Read full article...
Friday, September 07, 2007
Will Gold Rise Still, When The Next Financial Shock Hits? Does Liquidity Mean Confidence? / Commodities / Gold & Silver
Smoke and mirrors, the confidence game is such a difficult one, once the crowd is suspicious. Our generation trusts few figures in authority. It is a generation used to being taken for a ride, with the sin now in being gullible. And the beginning of the run up in gold and silver testifies to market fears.Read full article... Read full article...
Friday, September 07, 2007
Real Interest Rates and Gold / Commodities / Gold & Silver
Back in the young days of this gold bull, early 2001, gold languished in the $260s following a multi-decade bear. With little encouraging price behavior at that time, early contrarians focused on supply-and-demand fundamentals to undergird their highly controversial bullish views on gold. One key bullish thesis from those dark early days regarded gold's behavior relative to real interest rates.
Real interest rates are the actual returns realized by debt investors after inflation is subtracted out. So if an investor buys a US Treasury Bill that pays 4% a year, and inflation is running 3% a year, then he is earning a real rate of return of 1% on his investment. His purchasing power, the goods and services his capital can actually buy in the real world, grows by just 1% annually.
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