Analysis Topic: Commodity Markets - Metals, Softs & Oils

The analysis published under this topic are as follows.

Monday, April 11, 2011

U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve: What’s the Trigger for Release? / Commodities / Crude Oil

By: Dian_L_Chu

In early March, White House Chief of Staff Bill Daley told NBC that the Administration was considering releasing oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) if it deems the high oil prices would threaten the U.S. economic recovery.

President Obama, in a press conference on March 11, also reiterated that a plan to tap the SPR was "teed up" and said he would move quickly should ‘conditions’ worsen. However, the President refused to say what price could trigger a release.

Monday, April 11, 2011

Silver New Record High, Speculative Sentiment Remains Tame / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2011

By: GoldCore

Gold and silver rose to new record nominal highs (all time and 31-year respectively) in Asian trading overnight. Both have given up earlier gains with profit taking being cited. Cash silver surged nearly 3% in Asia to $41.9525 an ounce, a new 31 year high, before trading at $41.31 an ounce.

Monday, April 11, 2011

Silver Investors Still Not Stretched as Gold's Fresh Dollar Record Leaves Euro-Price Unchanged / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2011

By: Adrian_Ash

WHOLESALE-MARKET gold prices rose at the start of Asian trade on Monday, touching new all-time highs above $1476 per ounce before slipping 0.4% as world stock markets held flat and European Brent crude oil ticked back to $125 per barrel.

"The silver market went nuts," according to one Hong Kong dealer, with "swift buying" pushing spot silver prices to a fresh 31-year high above $42 per ounce.

Monday, April 11, 2011

Crude Oil Price Drivers  / Commodities / Crude Oil

By: John_Hampson

1. Developments in the Middle East and North Africa - A real supply loss in Libya and fear of supply loss elsewhere. The fear factor and uncertainty premium is likely to last all the way through to new elections, but intermittent 'good news' from the region should ease the oil price.

Sunday, April 10, 2011

Gold Breaks into New High Ground / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2011

By: Merv_Burak

Into new high ground and no resistance ahead.  The only two things to keep an eye on are the global upheavals and the U.S. $.  The upheavals are unpredictable but the U.S. $ seems to have only one long term direction, lower.  So, the worst long term scenario for gold is a 50/50 upside potential.

Sunday, April 10, 2011

Why I Am Leaving Silver for For What It Is... / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2011

By: Submissions

Willem Weytjens writes: In this article, I will try to describe why we suddenly moved out of our positions in silver mining companies…

First of all, like I posted two days ago, silver has been going Vertical, which should make us cautious:

Sunday, April 10, 2011

U.S.Government Austerity Budget and the Gold Bubble, Sell Silver / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2011

By: Ned_W_Schmidt

What a wonderful and glorious time to talk with you. With a reduction in U.S. government spending to avoid a shutdown of the government, greatest political change in 60 years of U.S. history has taken  another step. What are the implications of this historic event? Will the trajectory of U.S. financial mismanagement be changed? Some possibility of that happening does exist, and must be acknowledged. Remember, that in all things related to investments, the second derivative dominates. The second derivative of U.S. government debt may become negative. However, change is slow, and we still need to deal with today’s speculative bubble in precious metals.

Saturday, April 09, 2011

Balancing the Budget with Silver / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2011

By: Barry_M_Ferguson

Today is Friday, April 8, 2011. Japan was hit with another earthquake this week. Portugal joined Greece and Ireland for a ECB bailout rendering them a ward of the EU state. The US Congress has yet to agree on a budget for the fiscal year as they haggle over spending cuts. The Republican plan is to leave the citizens with $15,800,000,000,000 dollars of debt in another year and the Democrat plan is to leave the citizens with $15,900,000,000,000 dollars of debt in another year. The current WHO (White House Occupant) has proposed a budget with a deficit of $1.6 trillion. Added to the current debt of $14.3 trillion, I extrapolate the debt in another year to be $15.9 trillion. So, our ‘representatives’ are arguing over whether or not to cut a paltry $100 billion from the proposed budget. Let’s be honest. Does it really matter any more?

Saturday, April 09, 2011

Rare Earth Stocks Heat Up On Legislative Action / Commodities / Metals & Mining

By: Jeb_Handwerger

There have been major developments occurring this week in the rare earth arena, which could hold significance for the expansion into Europe of Molycorp (MCP) and the development of a US domestic supply chain of rare earths (Market Vectors Rare Earth/Str Metals ETF (REMX).

Saturday, April 09, 2011

Vanadium, Gray Metal Driving Green Revolution? / Commodities / Metals & Mining

By: The_Gold_Report

Vanadium, a gray metal mainly used as an additive to steel, could see a jump in demand as new technologies emerge in energy storage. In this exclusive interview with The Gold Report, Jonathan Lee, a battery materials and technology analyst with Toronto-based Byron Capital Markets, talks about which vanadium producers are ready to grapple with the prospect of increasing demand from the adaption of "green" uses.

Saturday, April 09, 2011

Food Inflation Harsh Times – A New Normal / Commodities / Agricultural Commodities

By: Richard_Mills

The approaching storm I wrote about in last year's article The Rising Cost of Survival has certainly struck many countries with a vengeance. I thought it would be an appropriate time to revisit.

In 2008, a spike in food prices resulted in food riots around the world. The recession brought prices down while record crops allowed some stockpiles to be rebuilt and gave us a respite from the turmoil.

Saturday, April 09, 2011

Will Silver Become Money Like Gold Again? / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2011

By: Julian_DW_Phillips

We have always referred to silver as the 'long shadow' of gold because its price moves with gold's. When the gold price rises, silver rises more. When the gold price falls, silver falls further, but they move in sync. Why?

Saturday, April 09, 2011

Breakouts in Gold and Silver Prices / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2011

By: Przemyslaw_Radomski

The story of gold is as rich, lustrous and complex as the metal itself. It is as ancient as the Egyptian Pharos and modern as the mirrors coated with gold which astronomers use to capture images of the universe. The metal's mounting value is connected directly to its economic role as a stable alternative to paper currencies, and its rise should speak volume about the health of the global monetary system.

Friday, April 08, 2011

Gold Mania: Are We There Yet? / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2011

By: Casey_Research

By Louis James, Casey International Speculator

It’s understandable that people want to know where the precious metals market is headed next. And not just because big fluctuations can be nerve-wracking, but because it makes a big difference how you’d invest today if, for instance, you think there’s a big correction ahead (save cash to buy cheaper) or not (load up and ride the wave).

Friday, April 08, 2011

The Utah Gold Standard Part II / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2011

By: Adrian_Ash

No, not gold as money. The gold standard never kept a lid on inflation that way...

SO THIS is 2011 – a world of pleaders and moaners.

Friday, April 08, 2011

If Interest Rates Rise, Will Gold Go Down and the Dollar Rise? / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2011

By: Julian_DW_Phillips

So frequently today we rely on economically established perceptions that fail time and again, simply because the conditions in which they were established have changed. One of the economic clichés is that exchange rates will rise if interest rates rise. You can be sure that if there was still a Spanish Peseta or Greek Drachma and they were paying the sort of interest rates their sovereign bonds were paying now, these currencies would still be falling, why? Many feel that if interest rates rise, gold would automatically fall. But is that going to be true? There's a great deal more involved to this story than just interest rates!

Friday, April 08, 2011

Gold Bull Market Technicals / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2011

By: Zeal_LLC

Gold has much to celebrate.  Not only did it just hit new all-time nominal highs, its secular bull was born exactly 10 years ago this week!  It’s enough to bring a tear to the eye of the bold contrarian investors who’ve been riding this mighty bull market for an entire decade.  Much has changed since I first started recommending physical gold coins as long-term investments in May 2001, when gold traded at $264.

Friday, April 08, 2011

New Gold Record and Silver Bears Consistently Wrong as Price Breaks $40/Oz / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2011

By: Adrian_Ash

THE PRICE OF GOLD hit new all-time Dollar highs in London trade on Friday morning, with dealing desks pointing to two short-term drivers – Japan's huge monetary response to the recent earthquake disaster, and the US government's impending "shutdown" after lawmakers failed to agree a new budget ceiling.

Friday, April 08, 2011

Perfect Storm for Gold and Silver / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2011

By: GoldCore

Gold and silver reached new record all time and 31-year highs respectively again yesterday and this morning - both nominal highs. Silver has surged to a new 31-year nominal high of $40.28/oz and may now target next resistance at $50/oz - the 1980 nominal high.

Gold is now targeting $1,500/oz after just reaching new nominal highs at $1473/oz. Gold is higher in all currencies this week but especially the beleaguered yen which has fallen 4% against gold in the week so far.

Friday, April 08, 2011

The Gold:Silver Price Ratio / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2011

By: Submissions

Ian R. Campbell writes: An article this morning asks “Am I being too conservative with my silver price target?” - reading time 3 minutes.  In the article, the author states his current physical silver price target to be U.S.$300 per ounce, which he bases on his long-term physical gold price target of U.S.$5,000 per ounce, and what he (and many other authors) refer to as the historic gold/silver price ratio of 16 (divide 5,000 by 16, and you get 312.5).  As someone who owns some physical silver I certainly would like to simply sit back today and watch the first round of the Masters Golf Tournament, secure in the knowledge that based on this article my economic future and that of my family is secure.  That said, while I plan to watch snippets of the Masters today, I will be spending most of it in front of my computer.