Analysis Topic: Commodity Markets - Metals, Softs & Oils
The analysis published under this topic are as follows.Wednesday, February 06, 2013
Stock Market Strength "Taking the Shine Off Gold" / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2013
WHOLESALE PRICES for gold bullion hovered above $1670 per ounce Wednesday morning, broadly in line with where it started the week, while stocks and commodities were also little changed and the Euro eased against the Dollar ahead of tomorrow's European Central Bank interest rate decision.
Gold has failed to break through the $1700 an ounce barrier since falling through the level in December. Over the same period, most stock markets have rallied. The S&P 500 had its best January since 1997, touching a new five-year high, while the FTSE 100 had its best start to a year since 1989.
Read full article... Read full article...
Wednesday, February 06, 2013
Why The IEA Wants High Priced Oil / Commodities / Crude Oil
THE IEA' S NEWLY FASHIONABLE QUESTClaiming his views "are not very fashionable", the Turkish-born chief economist of the IEA, Fatih Birol, also describes the IEA's annual flagship reports the World Energy Outlook as "designed and directed" by himself - and his WEO is obliged to reflect "unfashionable" theories and goals.
These new theories and goals are: universal energy supplies for all, and massive worldwide response to the crisis of global warming. Reconciling these two themes or memes needs high priced oil. Regarding the market price for oil, the IEA pitches for $175 per barrel; concerning new energy taxes in the form of carbon taxes "to fight global warming", taxes of $500 per tonne of CO2 on all fossil energy, possibly by 2020 or shortly after, are no problem for Fatih Birol.
Read full article... Read full article...
Wednesday, February 06, 2013
Politicization, Currencies & Gold: The Lost Battle of Central Banks / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2013
Central banks have many losing battles ahead.
The world finds itself immersed in the depths of an economic crisis. This crisis however, is unlike any other experienced in recent history. What is at stake is the very foundation of our monetary system, the currency.
Today's unbacked fiat currency experiment is at the very root of an emerging global monetary problem. While the talk of "recovery" in recent months now populates headlines, the desperate actions of politicians and central bankers show the contrary.
Read full article... Read full article...
Wednesday, February 06, 2013
Does China Still Love Gold? / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2013
The recent price action in gold and silver has been frustrating for some people. Both precious metals logged gains last year, but continue to remain in consolidation mode. On the positive though, bullion demand is still providing support to prices.
Due to the vulnerabilities of the global financial system and numerous quantitative easing programs, several nations are increasing their gold holdings. According to Bloomberg and data from the Census and Statistics Department of the Hong Kong government, gold imports into mainland China from Hong Kong nearly doubled to an all-time high last year. China, the world’s second-largest economy and the biggest gold consumer, imported a record 834,502 kilograms (834.5 metric tons), including scrap and coins, in 2012. In comparison, the nation only imported 431,215 (431.2 metric tons) kilograms the previous year.
Read full article... Read full article...
Wednesday, February 06, 2013
How to Profit From A Potential Doubling in Copper Prices / Commodities / Copper
"I think copper has at least 50% upside from today's price..." legendary analyst Adrian Day told me recently.
"I wouldn't be surprised to see the price double by the end of the decade."
When Adrian talks commodities, I listen... He's written his Global Analyst newsletter for over 25 years. At one time, it was one of the most popular investment letters in America, with over 60,000 subscribers. And for a decade now, he has focused on commodities for customers of Adrian Day Asset Management.
Wednesday, February 06, 2013
Read This Before You Buy Oil Stocks / Commodities / Oil Companies
"You have to buy the oil stocks," a so-called "expert" proclaimed on CNBC yesterday.
"They're under-owned, and the price of crude oil is running higher."
Oil stocks have indeed enjoyed a tremendous rally over the past few weeks. The Energy Select Sector SPDR Fund (XLE) is up more than 10% since the start of 2013. And the fund is just pennies away from making a new multi-year high.
Tuesday, February 05, 2013
Why Silver is Headed Back $50.00-an-Ounce / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2013
Michael Lombardi writes: The pieces of the puzzle are coming together nicely. As I have been expecting, small investors are running towards silver because gold has become too expensive for them. After all, to buy one ounce of gold it costs around $1,700. With the same amount of money, a small investor can buy upwards of 53 ounces of silver at its current price of $32.00 an ounce.
Read full article... Read full article...
Tuesday, February 05, 2013
Gold Could Test Resistance After Consolidation / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2013
WHOLESALE MARKET gold bullion prices rose above $1680 an ounce Tuesday morning in London, trading close to last week's high, as stocks, commodities and the Euro also gained and US Treasuries fell, following better-than-expected services sector data from Europe.
Silver meantime touched $32 an ounce for the first time this week.
"We will remain short term bearish [on gold] while resistance [around $1696 per ounce] caps," says Axel Rudolph, senior technical analyst at Commerzbank.
Read full article... Read full article...
Tuesday, February 05, 2013
Bill Gross Bond Market King Says Buy Gold / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2013
Renowned bond investor Bill Gross, the manager of PIMCO's Total Return Fund, the world's largest bond fund, just shared his top investment picks with Barron's. Leading the savvy investor's short and selective list was gold.
Why is a bond bull keen on investing in gold?
It's because Gross sees gold as a stellar inflationary hedge as global central banks attempt to reflate their economies.
Read full article... Read full article...
Tuesday, February 05, 2013
China's Gold Imports From Hong Kong Double To New Record / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2013
Today’s AM fix was USD 1,678.00, EUR 1,240.02, and GBP 1,063.57 per ounce.
Yesterday’s AM fix was USD 1,664.25, EUR 1,224.52, and GBP 1,057.47 per ounce.
Silver is trading at $31.94/oz, €23.65/oz and £20.34/oz. Platinum is trading at $1,707.50/oz, palladium at $758.00/oz and rhodium at $1,200/oz.
Read full article... Read full article...
Tuesday, February 05, 2013
Why Global Gold Accumulation is Underway / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2013
"Lenin was certainly right, there is no more positive, or subtler, no surer means of overturning the existing basis of society than to debauch the currency...The process engages all of the hidden forces of economic law on the side of destruction, and does it in a manner that not one man in a million is able to diagnose." -- John Maynard Keynes
Neither Keynes nor Lenin would have envisioned currency debasement on a global basis yet that is exactly where we find ourselves today. As mentioned in last month's The Gold Owners Guide to 2013, it is as if John Law had been reincarnated simultaneously in every major nation state in the world. At this stage, it is difficult to gauge the potential effects though, as you are about to read, there is plenty of speculation. Though the price of gold remained range bound this past January, global demand for coins and bullion has been anything but restrained. The U.S. Mint reports the highest monthly sales ever for the Silver Eagle in January and the highest monthly total for the Gold Eagle in over two years. Similarly ETF gold holdings are up about 12% since last August reflecting strong interest among financial institutions and funds. Though Keynes was right about currency debasement, he missed the mark on the public's ability to identify the problem. Apparently, a good many understand the problem all too well.
Read full article... Read full article...
Tuesday, February 05, 2013
Why Buy Silver? / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2013
■Silver has no counter-party risk. It is not someone else's liability. Silver Eagles or Canadian Silver Maple Leaf coins are recognized around the world and have intrinsic value everywhere. The same is NOT true for hundreds of paper currencies that have become worthless, usually because the government or central bank printed them to excess to pay the debts of governments that did not control spending.
Read full article... Read full article...
Monday, February 04, 2013
The Bernanke Shock, Where is Germany's Gold? / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2013
The financial world was shocked this month by a demand from Germany's Bundesbank to repatriate a large portion of its gold reserves held abroad. By 2020, Germany wants 50% of its total gold reserves back in Frankfurt - including 300 tons from the Federal Reserve. The Bundesbank's announcement comes just three months after the Fed refused to submit to an audit of its holdings on Germany's behalf. One cannot help but wonder if the refusal triggered the demand.
Read full article... Read full article...
Monday, February 04, 2013
Gold Reaches 155,180 Yen/oz - New Record In Japanese Yen / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2013
Today’s AM fix was USD 1,664.25, EUR 1,224.52, and GBP 1,057.47 per ounce.
Friday’s AM fix was USD 1,665.00, EUR 1,217.99, and GBP 1,052.46 per ounce.
Silver is trading at $31.57/oz, €23.37/oz and £20.17/oz. Platinum is trading at $1,701.00/oz, palladium at $754.00/oz and rhodium at $1,200/oz.
Read full article... Read full article...
Monday, February 04, 2013
Gold Market Retreat Good in the Long Term / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2013
WHOLESALE MARKET gold prices hovered just below $1665 per ounce Monday morning in London, having failed to hold onto gains in earlier Asian trading, as stocks and commodities also ticked lower along with the Euro, which retreated from recent highs following news of a political scandal in Spain.
Silver erased most of Friday's gains this morning, dropping below $31.60 an ounce.
The gold price in Euros meantime regained some ground this morning as the Euro fell against the Dollar. Last Friday, gold in Euros dropped to its lowest level since May last year as Euro-Dollar touched a 14-month high.
Read full article... Read full article...
Monday, February 04, 2013
Wheat Commodity Analysis - A Technical Treatise For All Markets / Commodities / Commodities Trading
What could wheat possibly have in common with gold/silver, or the S&P, or interest rates? When put into chart form, they are all the same: Bars that show highs, lows, closes, and volume. Market psychology affects all players, regardless of market. The factors of fear and greed are no different in a wheat trader than for a silver, S&P or interest rate trader, even stock investors.
The corollary to the above is that precious metals and/or S&P traders also think they have nothing in common with grain traders. All miss the point. Profit/loss opportunity, which is what the market provides, is the exact same across the board. Markets are neutral! They do not care what is being traded nor by whom. All markets do is reflect back what the collective is doing, be it in wheat, silver, cotton, stocks, you name it.
Read full article... Read full article...
Sunday, February 03, 2013
Will American Rightists Turn Fascists? / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2013
From the perspective of a person born in the 1940s, America is thoroughly right-wing. President Obama has achieved the miraculous: he has radicalized his constituents to the Right while maintaining their delusions of being liberals, Democrats and progressives. But should the right-wing continue to move farther rightward, it can only move to one place: FASCISM!
Read full article... Read full article...
Sunday, February 03, 2013
Copper – Upside Breakout. Gold/Silver To Follow? / Commodities / Copper
The unshiny metal may be outshining its other metal cousins as its price has an upside
breakout. As with any potential move, it remains potential until confirmed by the next
successful retest. This is true for any move in any market. Confirmation is a critical and
overlooked aspect in price activity. While there is no clear correlation between copper,
relative to gold and silver, there is an occasional lag/lead aspect to them, and it may be
that if this upside breakout holds, it can only help gold and silver.
Sunday, February 03, 2013
Germany Repatriates Its Gold / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2013
On Wednesday, January 16 the German Central Bank (i.e., Bundesbank) announced that it was going to repatriate some of its gold reserves currently being held at the New York Fed and all of its gold reserves held by the Banque de France. It had previously repatriated 940 of the 1385 tons of its gold reserves held at the Bank of England, citing high storage fees as the reason (the New York Fed and the Banque of France charge no such fees). Three-hundred-and-seventy-four metric tons will be trucked from Paris to Frankfurt, representing 11 percent of its reserves, and 300 metric tons will be shipped from New York. By 2020, the plan is to have 50 percent of its reserves held in Frankfurt. Germany has the second largest stock of gold next to the US and has not bought or sold gold since 1973.
Read full article... Read full article...
Sunday, February 03, 2013
Gold And Silver - Pushing On A String Amidst A Shaky Environment / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2013
The January monthly charts are now complete. Not sure that anything new can be learned, but it is always worth looking, never presuming anything. Remember, the point of reading developing market activity is to make factual observations of the information that the market is generating.
The information takes the form of highs and lows for successive bars, over any/all time frames, where price closed, [telling us who won the battle for that bar], along with volume, the energy/effort of each bar. It reflects the bottom-line decision-making of all participants, but our interest is learning what smart money, [those who control/ influence the market the most], is saying in their net decisions, for they always try to mask their intent. Their "fingerprints" are all over the market, usually in the form of high volume days, for it is not the public that generates high volume. We proceed:
Read full article... Read full article...