Analysis Topic: Commodity Markets - Metals, Softs & Oils
The analysis published under this topic are as follows.Saturday, March 30, 2013
Major Financial Market Forces’ Trajectories / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2013
“We are in a period where the "haves" are determined to hold on to their positions in the world. The "haves" include the world's leaders and politicians, and the world's "masters of the earth," which includes those who control the world's money.
“Those who control the money make the rules, and their main aim is to remain in power. Currently, the various central banks control the creation and the issuance of money. To ensure that they remain in power, the central banks are spewing forth a veritable avalanche of fiat currency, money created out of a computer -- money that has been created out of "thin air." In turn, we are supposed to bow down and thank the money creators, those who are saving us from a new world depression. Thank you, thank you, marvelous Alan Greenspan and great Ben Bernanke.
Saturday, March 30, 2013
Gold and the Global Chess Game of Capital Controls / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2013
The best indicator of a chess player's form is his ability to sense the climax of the game. –Boris Spassky, World Chess Champion, 1969-1972
You've likely heard that the German central bank announced it will begin withdrawing part of its massive gold holdings from the United States as well as all its holdings from France. By 2020, Bundesbank says it wants half its gold reserves stored in its own vault in Germany.
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Friday, March 29, 2013
Safe Solar Havens - What You Dont Expect Wont Happen / Commodities / Solar Energy
BLOOMBERG MIRACLE ADVICE
On March 29 Bloomberg told its readers that Germany’s solar industry "is set to benefit from the financial crisis in Cyprus as investors seek a haven in the guaranteed returns provided by clean-energy plants". It cited a small German firm called Milk the Sun GmbH (more appropriately Milk the Pigeons Unlimited) which claims it is now deluged with investor requests for advice on placements in the "sensitive range" of 100 000 euros and up.
Friday, March 29, 2013
Silver’s Coming of Age / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2013
Silver is winning market share from gold buyers.
2008 - In March 2008, sales increased nine times over the month before - 200,000 to 1,855,000.
In April 2008, the United States Mint had to start an allocation program, effectively rationing Silver Eagle bullion coins to authorized dealers on a weekly basis due to "unprecedented demand."
On June 6, 2008, the Mint announced that all incoming silver planchets were being used to produce only bullion issues of the Silver Eagle and not proof or uncirculated collectible issues.
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Friday, March 29, 2013
SILJ New ETF For Investing in Silver Mining Stocks / Commodities / Gold and Silver Stocks 2013
David Zeiler writes: With silver looking even more alluring than gold lately, it's smart to consider investing in silver miners - and a new ETF gives investors one more option.
The PureFunds ISE Junior Silver ETF (NYSE: SILJ), launched in November, differs from other silver mining ETFs in that it focuses only on junior silver miners.
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Friday, March 29, 2013
Storing Silver for the Next Generation / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2013
Many parents looking to the future and concerned about their children’s financial security have been reframing reasons for owning silver as a long term investment.
Awareness seems to be growing among parents that an outstanding way to provide for their child's future educational expenses is to employ silver ownership as an investment vehicle.
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Friday, March 29, 2013
Buy Silver Now? / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2013
Do you want to buy silver? Have you considered seasonal price patterns before jumping in with both feet? What typically has happened to the price of silver, in past years, following a March/April purchase? Does it make sense to buy now or wait to make that purchase?
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Thursday, March 28, 2013
Gold and Silver Where From Here? / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2013
These days gold and silver seem to attract more attention than pretty much any other commodity, perhaps other than oil, and not a day goes by without numerous commentators:
■on one side extolling the ownership and prospective higher prices of both physical gold and physical silver; and,
■on the other side decrying the ownership of both physical gold and physical silver.
Thursday, March 28, 2013
Gold Consfication - If You Don't Own your Bank Deposit, Do you Own your Gold? / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2013
Three New Realities
When it was announced that both large and small depositors were to have a percentage of them seized, it was not the amount that horrified the world but the discovery that you do not own your own bank deposits.
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Most investors worldwide are of the belief that when you deposit your money in a bank, it simply has safe-keeping of that money. The realization that you have lent the bank your money and are an "Unsecured Creditor" of the bank is an unpleasant revelation.
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The sight of deposits being confiscated by bank creditors and governments brought home this fact and blew away the illusion, never to be reinstated again, that you own your own money. The reassurances from Brussels that "this is not a template for future bailouts" do not remove the stark realities of the state of depositors from now on. The reality that your money can be confiscated in your bank brought home the meaning of the word, confiscation as a present and very real danger in the future, if the situation warrants it.
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Governments have the power to control your money through Capital and Exchange Controls in a bloc like the E.U. This can happen for a long time, probably, in an emasculated state, in a developed country. This is an additional shock to investors and depositors. Note that this is not Argentina or South Africa or Zimbabwe, but a member of the E.U. whose demise was caused by the E.U. through its handling of another member of the E.U., Greece!
Thursday, March 28, 2013
Gold Sustainable Trends and Unsustainable Ones / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2013
Today I’m going to start off with a look at the big picture. The next chart pretty much says it all.
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Thursday, March 28, 2013
No Significant Capital Flows Into Gold From So Called ‘PIIGS’ Yet / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2013
Today’s AM fix was USD 1,602.50, EUR 1,253.13 and GBP 1,057.41 per ounce.
Yesterday’s AM fix was USD 1,591.00, EUR 1,243.75 and GBP 1,052.39 per ounce.
Silver is trading at $28.60/oz, €22.44/oz and £18.97/oz. Platinum is trading at $1,583.00/oz, palladium at $768.00/oz and rhodium at $1,200/oz.
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Thursday, March 28, 2013
Jump in Euros Confirms Gold as Safe Haven as Cyprus Imposes Exchange Controls / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2013
The GOLD PRICE slipped back to $1600 per ounce Thursday morning in London, heading into the 4-day Easter weekend 1.3% higher from the start of March.
Silver bullion was flat for the month at $28.65 after recovering yesterday's sharp 2.3% drop.
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Thursday, March 28, 2013
Why Death of Peak Oil Still Won't Mean Cheap Crude Oil Prices / Commodities / Crude Oil
David Zeiler writes: Today (Wednesday) an analyst from Citigroup became the latest lemming to declare the death of peak oil.
In a report entitled "The End is Nigh," Seth Kleinman says a combination of flattening demand and rising supply will cause oil prices to slide slightly by the end of the decade to $80-$90 a barrel.
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Thursday, March 28, 2013
End of the Gold Bull Market- Ignore Banks' Bearish Statements / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2013
Goldman Sachs has lowered its gold price projections and says the metal is headed to $1,200. Credit Suisse and UBS are bearish. Citigroup says the gold bull market is over.
So I guess it's time to pack it in, right?
Not so fast. As we've written before, these types of analysts have been consistently wrong about gold throughout this bull cycle. Another reason to disagree, however, is history; we've seen this movie before. In the middle of one of the greatest gold bull markets in modern history – the one that culminated in the 1980 peak – gold experienced a 20-month, one-way decline. Every time it seemed to stabilize, the bottom would fall out again. From December 30, 1974 to August 25, 1976, gold fell a whopping 47%.
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Thursday, March 28, 2013
Cyprus and Gold: Lighting a Candle in a Dark Room / Commodities / Credit Crisis 2013
By now most people are aware of the events unfolding in Cyprus. The financial world was rocked by the announcement that the "Troika" of the European Central Bank (ECB), International Monetary Fund (IMF), and European Commission (EC) decided to give the tiny island of Cyprus an ultimatum - either pay a 9.9 percent wealth tax on deposits over 100,000 euros, or leave the EU. This tax would be taken directly from bank savings accounts. The expropriated funds would be used to "bail out" troubled Cypriot banks. Those banks will in turn pay off larger European banks to which they owe money. Because some Cyprus banks will fail, some investors stand to lose up to 40 percent of their deposits and many bank employees will lose their jobs.
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Thursday, March 28, 2013
Resource Sector Paradigm Shift / Commodities / Gold and Silver Stocks 2013
From The March 2013 HRA Journal: There were a lot of long faces at the PDAC this year. Many of the companies there were pulled off the waiting list when long standing attendee companies decided there was no point having a booth. Others have expressed surprise that few companies seemed to be trying to market financings. This was taken as complacency but it felt more like resignation to me. For the record, resignation is better if you're a contrarian.
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Wednesday, March 27, 2013
Gold Prices Will Explode Higher When These Investors Start Buying / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2013
David Zeiler writes: Until recently, an entire class of investors that control a huge pool of money - more than $27 trillion worldwide - have almost entirely ignored gold.
But lately, this group has begun to show more interest in the yellow metal, a trend that ultimately will exert massive upward pressure on gold prices.
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Wednesday, March 27, 2013
Whom to Believe on Gold: Central Banks or Bloomberg? / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2013
Bloomberg reported recently that Russia is now the world's biggest gold buyer, its central bank having added 570 tonnes (18.3 million troy ounces) over the past decade. At $1,650/ounce, that's $30.1 billion worth of gold.
Russia isn't alone, of course. Central banks as a group have been net buyers for at least two years now. But the 2012 data trickling out shows that the amount of tonnage being added is breaking records.
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Wednesday, March 27, 2013
Four Billion Reasons Rare Earth Elements and Graphite Will Make You Money / Commodities / Rare Earths
Self-help manuals tell us that what we focus on, we manifest. This is certainly true for rare earth elements enthusiast Chris Berry. Where some see a spiraling global economy and stagnation, Berry sees an emerging world with four billion people hungry for new technologies in which graphite and rare earth elements play a big part. In this interview with The Metals Report, Berry describes what he calls the changing complexion of the commodity super cycle and names a few companies to start focusing on.
The Metals Report: You just gave a speech at the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada (PDAC) convention. What was your message for natural resource investors?
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Wednesday, March 27, 2013
Cyprus Crisis Means Do Not Buy Gold Stocks / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2013
Crisis in Cyprus has lead investors and speculators re-considering how they allocate their portfolios. Despite Cyprus only representing a minute 0.2% of Eurozone GDP, the possibility that fear of a meltdown may spread across the markets does mean that one should consider the possible downside risk. If the market believes that other Eurozone nations could go the same route as Cyprus, then it is likely that we would see a selloff in the market.
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