Analysis Topic: Commodity Markets - Metals, Softs & Oils
The analysis published under this topic are as follows.Tuesday, August 28, 2012
Why Gold Investors Should Fear the Financial System / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2012
The dire economic situation that persists globally despite the best efforts of central planners to make things seem normal leads Sprott Inc.'s legendary Chairman Eric Sprott to broadcast a loud message of caution: "Fear the financial system." In this exclusive interview with The Gold Report, Sprott says it's time for people to take matters into their own hands and that means pushing further and further into precious metals equities as well as physical gold and silver. With 80% of his own portfolio in that arena, he certainly puts his money where his mouth is.
The Gold Report: You've stated before that the price of gold should be above $3,200/ounce (oz) and the price of silver above $200/oz but market manipulation keeps both metals artificially low. Who is manipulating it?
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Monday, August 27, 2012
Is the Price of Silver Signaling the Next Monetary Supernova, or Will it be the Cause? / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2012
If the pricing in the world’s commodity and financial markets accurately reflected anything but the culmination of decisions made by high frequency trading systems, then the recent price action in the silver market might have something meaningful behind it. In an alternative parallel universe, the recent rally in silver might actually be ‘pricing in’ the next major monetary event.Read full article... Read full article...
Monday, August 27, 2012
Reasons Why China Wants Its Citizens to Own Gold and Silver / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2012
Due to China’s huge size, its developing economy is having a growing influence on the global economic system. One commodity that has been particularly strongly affected by Chinese popular demand is silver and other precious metals like gold.Not only has the Chinese government been moving toward holding precious metals in reserve as an alternative to paper currencies like the U.S. Dollar, but it has recently also encouraged its citizens to own precious metals as a way to store their wealth in a valuable physical asset.
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Monday, August 27, 2012
Gold Bull Run is Still Happening / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2012
The gold Bull Run of 11 years is still happening; make no mistake about that. The fact that the USD gold price has held above the $1525 level is a strong indicator. Seasonal factors and other strong indicators tell me this long gold price consolidation period is nearing its conclusion at last. Gold has formed a new higher base from which it can launch higher.
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Monday, August 27, 2012
Will History View ECB's Drahgi as the Currency Forger of Europe? / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2012
Today the London Bullion Market is closed for a national holiday.
Friday’s AM fix was USD 1,666.50, EUR 1,329.16 and GBP 1,051.88 per ounce.
Silver is trading at $30.91/oz, €24.77/oz and £19.62/oz. Platinum is trading at $1,550.00/oz, palladium at $647.90/oz and rhodium at $1,025/oz.
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Monday, August 27, 2012
Is Gold Still "The Next Greatest Trade Ever"? / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2012
Peter Krauth writes: Believe it or not, the housing crash wasn't all heartache and tears. When the mortgage bubble burst a few select investors made a boatload.
One of them was hedge fund titan John A. Paulson.
In what has been called "the greatest trade ever," Paulson earned $15 billion for himself and his clients as the rest of the markets fell hard.
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Monday, August 27, 2012
High U.S. Gas Prices Could Continue Despite Falling Demand / Commodities / Gas - Petrol
Crude oil rallied alongside other commodities and the euro to its highest in three months last week on NYMEX, mostly from market's expectation of new Euro Zone bailouts and a third round of quantitative easing from the U.S. Fed.
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Monday, August 27, 2012
Gold Stocks New Cyclical Bull Market Underway / Commodities / Gold & Silver Stocks
Three weeks ago we wrote that the short-term outlook in precious metals was bullish. Quoting our conclusion: "The bottom line is this sector is very close to a breakout which would likely confirm the May bottom. The price action has started to improve and the sector has not been deterred by the aforementioned bad news which, in normal conditions would have caused a selloff. In the meantime, the public has been bearish the entire year and the dumb money has started to exit the market. It is this combination of factors that lead us to a firm bullish posture over the rest of the summer." In terms of weekly closing prices, GDX and SIL closed last week at a four month high, while GDXJ closed last week at a three month high. Silver closed at a four month high while Gold closed at a five month high. From that it would seem that these markets are overbought. However, a quick study of the long-term charts, sentiment and valuations confirms that we are in an absolute sweet spot. Markets have bottomed, a new cyclical bull has begun and there is substantial room to move over the coming months and year.
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Sunday, August 26, 2012
Silver Uptrend Pending Break of Major Downtrendline / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2012
The sharp advance by silver last week was presaged by the late July breakout from the important "inner" downtrend that we had earlier delineated, which had been in force from early March, as we can see on the 8-month chart for silver shown below. So is that it - are we on our way now? - almost, but there is one remaining major hurdle left to clear. Before going on to consider what that is we should take note of the fact that silver is now critically overbought short-term overbought as shown by its RSI indicator, and it has also run into a still falling 200-day moving average, factors which point to a high probability of it pausing to consolidate or perhaps react back somewhat in the immediate future - if it does keep going higher near-term, the advance is likely to be measured. The fact that the 50-day moving average is still some way below the falling 200-day also suggests that some more time is needed before the major uptrend expected gets into full swing.
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Sunday, August 26, 2012
Gold Needs to Consolidate Before Commencing Major Uptrend / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2012
Last week we got what we had expected - and prepared for - for weeks, an upside resolution of the tight standoff in both gold and silver. Actually, gold signalled that it was going to go up several weeks back, when it broke out of the Triangle shown on its 8-month chart below, in late July. The breakout from the Triangle was on good volume, and it then consolidated in a nice tight Pennant pattern before breaking higher to run ahead sharply last week.
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Saturday, August 25, 2012
Will Gold Miners Underperform Precious Metals in the Weeks to Come? / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2012
Fish are jumping and the cotton is high. Yes, it’s summertime and the living is (quantitatively) easy. At least that’s how it looks from the Federal Open Market Committee minutes for the July/August meeting that revealed support among some of the members for a new round of quantitative easing. With the release of the minutes Wednesday, gold went up and the U.S. dollar took a dive. The Fed members see three pitfalls for the economy-- the sovereign debt crisis in Europe, a global economic slowdown led by China and other BRICs, and the fiscal cliff, which could result in substantial fiscal contraction. (Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke has repeatedly asked Congress to solve the problem, but with a Presidential election coming in November it is difficult to see how Republicans and Democrats will reach an agreement.)
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Saturday, August 25, 2012
Energy Markets Being Driven by Fear / Commodities / Energy Resources
Crude oil demand in the United States is down to its lowest level since the onset of the global economic recession. A lackluster economic recovery, coupled with cautious consumer sentiment, is keeping demand for petroleum products suppressed. Nevertheless, lingering concerns over geopolitical tensions with Iran has prompted some governments to raise the possibility of releasing strategic petroleum reserves. Fundamentally, it seems, markets are well supplied, though it may be emotional factors driving certain aspects of the energy market.
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Saturday, August 25, 2012
Gold Coins Render Unto Caesar / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2012
What the history of ancient gold coins says about Europe's kingless, faceless money today...
SO WHEN Vespasian was proclaimed Emperor by the legions in Egypt in AD 69, he hurried to strike silver and gold coins at Antioch, Tacitus tells us.
Two hundred years later, the "insane despot" Commodus would only believe that his friend Perennius was plotting to overthrow him when he was shown coins already bearing his former favorite's image. And ancient Persian kings went further, says the later Armenian chronicler Moses of Chorene, each seeing to it that "all the money in the royal treasury was recoined with his effigy" as soon as he took power.
Saturday, August 25, 2012
Gold Futures Contrary Speculation / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2012
With gold awakening from its usual summer slumber, traders are getting more excited about its prospects. Presumably this shifting sentiment will even grow to encompass futures traders, who’ve been incredibly bearish on the yellow metal for months now. While traders hold futures guys in high esteem, they are just as susceptible to groupthink as everyone else. They are actually a powerful contrary indicator for gold.
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Saturday, August 25, 2012
U.S. Water Shortages to Impact Power Supply / Commodities / Energy Resources
Electricity enables our modern life style - the degree of dependency we have built into our lives in regards to "power on demand" has raised expectations that plentiful electricity will be available to us 24/7.
Read full article... Read full article..."Electrical power, in the short span of two centuries, has become an indispensible part of modern day life. Our work, leisure, healthcare, economy, and livelihood depend on a constant supply of electrical power. Even a temporary stoppage of power can lead to relative chaos, monetary setbacks, and possible loss of life. Our cities live on electricity and without the customary supply from the power grid, pandemonium would break loose." Dieselserviceandsupply.com
Friday, August 24, 2012
Gold and Silver Drive Hard into Resistance / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2012
So far it has been a real lift for the metals, as they have both broken out of their short term capping and coiling patterns.
Now they have both reached intermediate, rather than short term, overhead resistance from trend lines.
Friday, August 24, 2012
Two Irrefutable Signs of America's New Energy Dominance / Commodities / Energy Resources
Porter Stansberry writes: Yesterday, I showed you how new investments in energy production are now bearing fruit...
U.S. natural-gas production reached a new high last year. U.S. oil production, which had been in decline since the 1970s, will reach a new high in five years.
Friday, August 24, 2012
Gold and the $600 Billion Question / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2012
After spending the better part of three months locked in a lateral range, gold finally broke out on Aug. 21 and went on to make a series of follow-through highs. December gold was quoted at $1,667 as of this writing, its highest level since early May. The move came as many investors assume the Fed is about to stimulate the economy.Read full article... Read full article...
Friday, August 24, 2012
Gold Is in Very Strong Bull Market / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2012
SPOT MARKET gold bullion prices hovered just below $1670 an ounce for most of Friday morning's London trading, a few Dollars below yesterday's four-month high.
Stock markets ticked lower and US Treasuries gained, as analysts continued to speculate on the prospects for more quantitative easing from the US Federal Reserve.
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Friday, August 24, 2012
Why Gold Mining’s Still a Great Place to Make Money / Commodities / Gold & Silver Stocks
Gold has shown some good support and buying after previously declining to below $1,525 an ounce. The metal has rallied above $1,600 and is currently showing some promise, being on the verge of a possible breakout towards $1,700.
I continue to like gold going forward, given the massive financial distress and possible exit of Greece from the eurozone, despite recent statements from the European Central Bank and its desire to keep the eurozone intact. And then there is Spain and the other five eurozone countries currently in a recession.
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