Analysis Topic: Commodity Markets - Metals, Softs & Oils
The analysis published under this topic are as follows.Friday, February 25, 2011
Timber Investing: The Inflation Hedge That Pays Off in Every Type of Market / Commodities / Resources Investing
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.
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Friday, February 25, 2011
Libya Crisis Advice From the Guy "Big Oil" Calls for Answers / Commodities / Crude Oil
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.
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Friday, February 25, 2011
Food Price Inflation Calculator / Commodities / Inflation
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!"
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Thursday, February 24, 2011
What You Need to Know About Buying Silver Today / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2011
It's hard to believe that less than three years ago, silver was $8.80 an ounce. Since then it has nearly quadrupled in value (up 385%) and more than doubled in the last 12 months alone.
That's great for those who already own the metal - but is it too late for the rest of us to get in?
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Thursday, February 24, 2011
WTI and Brent Disparity Means Higher Crude Oil Prices / Commodities / Crude Oil
West Texas Intermediate (WTI) oil is trading at a significant discount to Brent crude, the latter of which is used to price two-thirds of globally traded crude oil. WTI, on the other hand, is the commodity underlying Nymex futures contracts and has, more often than not, traded slightly above Brent. Although the current Brent/WTI divergence is widening, disruptions in equilibrium don't tend to last. "True energy demand," says Raymond James Director of Energy Research Marshall Adkins, "will ultimately bring WTI in line with global oil prices." Marshall reveals how equity investors can profit from oil service providers in this exclusive interview with The Energy Report.
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Thursday, February 24, 2011
End of the Gold Bull Market? / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2011
Is time running out for the mighty gold bull?Has a favorite son been brought to his knees?
Take a close look at the following evidence.
We may have seen the end of this gold cycle.
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Thursday, February 24, 2011
Clean Energy Commodities: The Answer To Middle Eastern Oil / Commodities / Renewable Energy
Many of the great declines in the stock market over the past 30 years have been related to oil (United States Oil (USO)). This week we have seen the major indices plummet on geopolitical chaos throughout North Africa, especially the large oil-producing Libya, as investors returned to gold (SPDR Gold Shares (GLD)), silver (iShares Silver Trust (SLV)), and oil. As the market reached record overbought territory, any excuse could begin a significant pullback in equities (SPDR S&P 500 (SPY)).
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Thursday, February 24, 2011
Gold Up, Silver Down as Soaring Oil & Bond-Market Rates Snub Geithner's "No Stagflation" Claim / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2011
THE PRICE OF GOLD rose further in London trade Thursday morning, hitting new 2011 highs for Dollar investors as Brent crude oil jumped to $119 per barrel and a raft of economic analysis warned of "stagflation" ahead for the global economy.
Silver prices ticked lower together with platinum and palladium – which also find the bulk of their demand from industry, rather than investment or jewelry – as well as base metals.
Thursday, February 24, 2011
Crude Oil Goes SuperNova, $115, $150, $200, Implications for Inflation / Commodities / Crude Oil
The inflation forecast for 2011 warned that the key risks to the forecast were all to the upside and specifically if Crude oil were to go super nova during 2011, subsequent events starting in Tunisia, magnifying in Egypt and now exploding in Libya have sent crude oil prices soaring into the stratosphere as speculators pile into a panic sparked trend, where Brent Crude has now spiked higher to $115 on the spot market, up $40 from the recent trading range of $75 and leaving the US WTI Crude presently lagging behind at $101.
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Thursday, February 24, 2011
China Steps up Silver Purchases / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2011
Carefully hidden in the depths of a recent Forbes blog was perhaps one of the most important stories for all of 2011, at least for silver. Robert Lenzner wrote that “China’s Industrial and Commercial Bank (ICBC) reports purchases of physical gold and gold-related investments are growing at record setting rates.”
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Thursday, February 24, 2011
Gold and Silver Prices, Getting to Know Crisis Premiums / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2011
There’s a term gold and silver investors like to use to describe changes in premiums based solely on changes in the markets and demand for physical metals: the crisis premium.
The crisis premium was most recently encountered at the turn of the new millennium when hundreds of thousands of people stashed record collections of gold and silver to protect against what was supposed to be the worst electronic catastrophe ever. Bank balances were supposed to go to zero, and computers were to become virtually worthless when the date rolled over to 01/01/00. Of course, that never happened, no one died, and the sun still rose the next morning.
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Thursday, February 24, 2011
Sales of Existing U.S. Homes Moved Up, But Median Price Establishes New Low / Commodities / Crude Oil
Sales of all existing homes rose 2.7% to an annual rate of 5.36 million units in July of 2010, while purchases of single-family existing homes rose 2.4% to an annual rate of 4.69 million, which is up 38% from the cycle low of 3.390 million registered in July 2010. Regionally, sales of existing homes fell in the Northeast (-4.6%), but rose in the Midwest (+1.8%), South (+3.6%) and West (+7.9%).
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Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Natural Resources Sector, Finding Value Amidst Volatility / Commodities / Resources Investing
Cranberry Capital Inc. President Paul van Eeden still favors the natural resources sector above all others because they are "absolutely central to our standard of living, our quality of life and the technological progress we've made." Despite the dangers, frothiness of equities and absence of fundamentals to support current valuations, he says, "there are always opportunities in the market. . .you just have to recognize them." Find out where Paul believes investors can find good value in the current market in this exclusive interview with The Gold Report.
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Wednesday, February 23, 2011
QE2, The Road To A Gold Standard / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2011
What an incredible few weeks with global uprisings! It is not all too surprising that social eruptions over food prices come from the Arab world, since they spend up to 75% to 80% of income on food for basic needs. What proof that the global economy is not a closed system! The QE and QE2 initiatives have spread like a powerful virus, leading to global commodity prices heading upward and quickly. Even cotton is up 170% in price. The USFed has suffered even more credibility blows, calling the global food price inflation unrelated to its QE2 policy. It is obviously connected. What we have is the Western Big Banks protected from fraud prosecution, redeemed for their broken toxic balance sheets at government expense, leading to a global price tag in the form of foodstuffs and commodities.
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Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Silver a Sound and Credible Currency / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2011
As a currency, the Euro doesn't have to do much to equal its peers...
"SILVER HITS new all-time highs in Euro" proclaimed Zero Hedge on Monday.
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Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Powerful Spike in Crude Oil / Commodities / Crude Oil
Crude oil's upside pivot reversal off of last week's low at $83.85 has morphed into a powerful spike that has climbed above the prior high of $92.84 to a new, post-Dec 2008 high at $99.94 today.
The explosive upmove has blown through key resistance at $90.15 -- the 50% resistance plateau of the huge $114.87/bbl bear market from July 2007 to Dec 2008. It has hurdled key multi-week resistance at $92.30/90 into what looks like a vicious new upleg that could be heading for a confrontation with the upper channel resistance line, now up near $110.50 to $113.00.
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Gold $2,300, Silver $150 and Looming Stock Market Crash / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2011
Notes from the Cambridge House Silver Summit - Cambridge House puts on some of the best commodity-focused investment conferences in the industry and this year was no different. The February show in Phoenix, Arizona included presentations from industry heavyweights such as Ted Butler, Bill Murphy, Jay Taylor, Mickey Fulp, John Kaiser and others. Over 40 booths were filled with up-and-coming junior resource miners, including one of my favorite silver plays, Aurcana Corporation (CVE: AUN or AUNFF). Aurcana stock advanced as much as 19% today, the first trading session following the conference. Aurcana just began construction on their Shafter mine in Texas, which is estimated to be one of the top ten largest silver mines in the world. In addition the company is already producing one million ounces from its La Negra mine in Mexico and is projecting a jump to 5 million ounces per year once Shafter comes online.
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Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Gold Short Position Could Pay Off With This Scenario / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2011
In this 4 minute video I explain exactly what I mean by a "short gold position." It does not mean I am bearish on gold, however the scenario I point out in this video could make money by being short gold and long another important market.
The video points out what the scenario is, and which market you should be long in, against a short gold position. This is an interesting twist and a video you shouldn't miss.
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Gold Finds Bargain Hunters at $1400 as Saudi King Spends $38bn to Avoid Revolution / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2011
THE WHOLESALE LONDON PRICE of physical gold held onto this week's early rise again on Wednesday, pushing back above $1400 per ounce as world stock markets fell and crude oil rose to new two-year highs as fresh anti-government protests hit the Gulf state of Bahrain.
More gunfire was reported in the Libyan capital Tripoli, but eastern cities enjoyed "delirious celebrations" at the demise of Colonel Gaddafi's forty-year regime, according to the BBC.
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Crude Oil Prices Near $96 as Political Crisis Shifts to Libya / Commodities / Crude Oil
Libya is the latest country facing political upheaval as it nears Civil War. Just a week after Egypt’s President Hosni Mubarak ended his 30-year run by resigning amid public unrest, Libya’s leader Moammar Gadhafi is dealing with similar anti-government demonstrations.
Gadhafi spoke out on Tuesday asking those that support the Libyan government to go on the offensive against the demonstrators, now supported by several army units that have defected from the government.
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