Analysis Topic: Commodity Markets - Metals, Softs & Oils

The analysis published under this topic are as follows.

Friday, January 06, 2012

Using Options To Hedge Against a Gold GLD ETF Collapse / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2012

By: Bob_Kirtley

At SK Options Trading, we primarily use the SPDR gold trust (Symbol: GLD) for exposure to the gold price. GLD is an exchange traded fund, designed to track the price of one tenth of an ounce of gold. GLD currently holds around 1280 tonnes of physical bullion, the sixth largest holding in the world, preceded only by the U.S. Germany, the IMF, Italy and France. The major benefit of using an ETF such as GLD is that one can gain exposure to the gold price as easily as buying a stock and one can effectively trade gold options as easily as trading stock options.

Friday, January 06, 2012

Why Has Gold Been Down? / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2012

By: Jeff_Clark

Jeff Clark, Casey Research writes: In spite of some short-term fixes, there remains no real resolution to the sovereign debt issues in many European countries. We're certainly not spending less money in the US, and now we're bailing out Europe via currency swaps with the European Central Bank. Shouldn't gold be rising?

Friday, January 06, 2012

Gold Stocks Complete First Major Bottom Since 2008 / Commodities / Gold & Silver Stocks

By: Jordan_Roy_Byrne

All bull markets have to endure a plethora of corrections and all bull markets have to endure a handful of major corrections. The gold stocks are no different. In fact, due to nature of the mining business and the high-beta status of these stocks, it is very easy for investors to forget that they (the gold stocks) are in a real structural bull market. Corrections and crashes are commonplace and yes, even in a bull market. Yet in 2011 the gold equities did not crash. They merely digested and consolidated the massive recovery gains from 2009 and 2010. This persistent consolidation has left many scared, frustrated and distrustful of the sector at precisely the wrong time. Gold stocks have quietly completed a major bottom, their first since 2008.

Friday, January 06, 2012

Food, The Near-Perfect Product / Commodities / Agricultural Commodities

By: Ned_W_Schmidt

What if we found a product to which consumers have an uncontrollable physical craving?

What if consumers bought more of this addictive product as their incomes rose?

What if as their incomes rose they demanded higher quality, more expensive to produce versions of this product?

Friday, January 06, 2012

Was 2011 The End of The Gold Rush, Is This the Top? / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2012

By: Peter_Schiff

For such a wonderful year for precious metals investors, the final calendar quarter left little to celebrate. Just as people now take for granted that their phones will also take pictures, play music, and surf the internet, many investors have come to expect gold and silver to move up in a straight line.

Thursday, January 05, 2012

Safe Haven Status Returning to Gold as Euro Sinks After Weak Bond Sales / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2012

By: Adrian_Ash

WHOLESALE MARKET prices to buy gold touched a two-week high at $1625 per ounce as London opened for business on Thursday, before pulling back to $1609 as commodities and world stock markets fell, led by Eurozone banking shares.

The 17-nation Euro currency fell to its lowest level in 16 months vs. the US Dollar.

Thursday, January 05, 2012

Euro, Iran and Asian New Year Buying Fuels Gold / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2012

By: GoldCore

Gold is trading at USD 1,612.90, EUR 1,256.10, GBP 1,037.30, CHF 1,530.40, JPY 123,934 and AUD 1,573.0 per ounce.

Gold’s London AM fix this morning was USD 1,614.50, GBP 1,038.33, and EUR 1,256.32 per ounce.

Yesterday's AM fix was USD 1,603.00, GBP 1,024.28, and EUR 1,229.96 per ounce.

Thursday, January 05, 2012

How to Buy Silver, Bullion, Coins and ETFs / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2012

By: Money_Morning

Peter Krauth writes: Silver prices soared as high as $50 an ounce last year before experiencing a brief correction that took it back below $30.

However, despite this blip, mounting inflationary pressures, a weakening dollar, and emerging market demand will see silver retest its record highs in 2012. In fact, this time around it could even climb as high as $150 an ounce.

Thursday, January 05, 2012

Silver Industrial Demand - The Commodity to Watch / Commodities / Steel Sector

By: Dr_Jeff_Lewis

Forecasting the future of the economy is a difficult task; one who can do it with regularity will most certainly see massive investment profits.  Most of this complexity comes from the lack of clarity in commodities prices.

Commodities earn their price from demand.  Most commodities are tied to a specific industry – palladium is a barometer for autos, while steel is a barometer for real estate.  Some commodities are then related entirely to geography – copper is the commodity for a growing Asian economy, while oil is the commodity for all emerging markets.

Thursday, January 05, 2012

Go to Market, Not the Vault for Gold Bargains / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2012

By: The_Gold_Report

Baker Steel Capital trades on its analysts' "intellectual capital and technical expertise" when it comes to knowing when and where to invest. Right now, its funds favor equities over the physical gold market. The lion's share of those equities are companies exploring and producing in Africa, where careful risk management can bring high returns, says Baker Steel Capital Managing Partner David Baker in this exclusive Gold Report interview.

The Gold Report: You've been quoted as saying that intellectual capital and technical expertise set Baker Steel Capital apart. Tell us more about that.

Thursday, January 05, 2012

Silver Eagle & Maple Leaf Sales Up As Supply Slips / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2012

By: Steve_St_Angelo

For the first time in history, Silver Eagle & Maple Leaf sales will surpass domestic silver production in the U.S. and Canada in 2011

The demand for American Silver Eagles and Canadian Maple Leaf coins has increased tremendously over the past several years.  2011 will be the first year in which official coin sales will surpass domestic silver production in both countries.

Thursday, January 05, 2012

Wild Gyrations in Gold and Commodities / Commodities / Commodities Trading

By: Gary_Dorsch

If traders in the commodities markets were to check into a Psyche ward, the files would no doubt read "Bi-Polar" or Schizophrenic." This is so, because commodity traders have a habit of fixating on a set of data one day, and then quickly forgetting about the data the very next day, and re-focusing on something else. Market sentiment often turns on a dime, and without notice. This shifting of sentiment in commodity futures is nothing new, of course. That's why for decades, dabbling in commodities was considered too risky for most investors, since sentiment, by definition, is unpredictable and impossible to measure.

Thursday, January 05, 2012

How Gold Bullion Beat the Best Fund Managers / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2012

By: Adrian_Ash

How a lump of gold bullion beat the City of London's brightest and best since 2007...

HOW QUICKLY time flies! The global financial crisis will mark its 5th birthday in 2012.

Wednesday, January 04, 2012

Gold Price Facing Resistance Cluster / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2012

By: Mike_Paulenoff

Right now my technical work is undecided as to whether gold and the SPDR Gold Shares (GLD) established THE corrective low on Dec 29 at 148.27. What I think I do know is that the upmove so far from 148.27 to today's high at 157.02 (+5.9%) has propelled the price structure into a very heavy cluster of resistance.

This resistance is represented by the simple and exponential 200-day moving averages, the prior Sep-Oct bottoming period, and my declining shorter-term EMAs of 14, 30 and 50 days.

Wednesday, January 04, 2012

Investment in African Renewable Energy Reaches $3.6 Billion in 2011 / Commodities / Renewable Energy

By: OilPrice_Com

First, the bad news.

Although Africa has vast fossil and renewable energy sources, only twenty percent of its population has direct access to electricity and in some rural areas, four out of five people are completely without power. According to the UN, over 600 million Africans currently do not have access to electric power. A depressing 70 percent of Sub-Saharan Africa's population is living without access to clean and safe energy for their basic needs such as cooking, lighting and heating, making energy poverty among the most urgent issues facing Africa. Worldwide, more than 1.4 billion people worldwide have no access to electricity, and 1 billion more only have intermittent access.

Wednesday, January 04, 2012

The Gold Bullet 2012 / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2012

By: Mario_Innecco

Could 2012 be the year in which Chairman Bernanke will use the ultimate tool a government has, under a paper-money system, to combat deflation and weak economic growth by printing money to reduce the value of the dollar? It is certainly possible as all the other tools which he mentioned in his November 21, 2002 speech to the National Economic Club of Washington D.C. have been utilized. If one combs through that speech one sees that the tool of driving rates to zero has already been used up, the tool of buying government and MBSs securities, in order to cap longer term yields, has been used as well and so the only tool left could be to "print money and distribute it willy-nilly" as Mr Bernanke points out in his famous speech. *

Wednesday, January 04, 2012

Precious Metal Investors Battered by Gold and Whipped By Silver / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2012

By: William_Bancroft

As we enter the New Year only the firmest of gold and silver investors are holding with serene assurance, as the gold and silver prices have been trending down for a couple of months.

Prices have softened again since our latest update on this issue, and thin markets over the festive period allowed relatively low levels of market activity to have an un-naturally significant effect on price direction. These things happen.

Wednesday, January 04, 2012

Weak U.S. Dollar and Physical Demand Could Support Gold Price / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2012

By: Ben_Traynor

THE SPOT MARKET gold price ticked down to below $1600 an ounce Wednesday morning – having earlier touched its highest level since before Christmas at $1612 – while stock and commodity markets also edged lower as the US Dollar looked to have ended its recent spell of weakness.

The previous day saw the gold price gain over 2.5% in thin trade, with the Dollar falling against other major currencies on Tuesday – before easing as Asian markets reopened.

Wednesday, January 04, 2012

Iran's Threat to Global Oil Market Means USO ETF Profits / Commodities / Crude Oil

By: Money_Morning

Jack Barnes writes: Iran kicked off the New Year with aggressive messages for the Western world, setting the stage for heightened political tensions and a huge oil price push in 2012.

Oil futures finished at their highest level in eight months yesterday (Tuesday), with West Texas Intermediate crude jumping 4.2% to settle at $102.96 a barrel on the on the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX).

Wednesday, January 04, 2012

Gold Going to $3,000 - $10,000 in 2012! Here’s Why / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2012

By: Lorimer_Wilson

Back in 2009 I began keeping track of those financial analysts, economists, academics and commentators who were of the opinion that it was just a matter of time before gold reached a parabolic peak price well in excess of the prevailing price. As time passed the list grew dramatically and at last count numbered 140 such individuals who have gone on record as saying that gold will go to at least $3,000 – and as high as $20,000 - before the gold bubble finally pops. Of more immediate interest, however, is that 8 of those individuals believe gold will reach its parabolic peak price in the next 12 months - even as early as February, 2012. This article identifies those 8 and outlines their rationale for reaching their individual price expectations.