Key Articles on Commodities
9 May 2011
As we near the end of the first quarter of 2011, the potential for a widening of the uprisings in North Africa and the Middle East has pushed oil prices past the $100 mark. Long before the riots began, commodity prices had risen to uncomfortable...
|
14 Apr 2011
U.S. retail gasoline demand fell last week following sharp increases in prices at the pump, MasterCard Advisors' SpendingPulse report noted earlier this week. Average gasoline demand dropped 1.8 percent week-over-week and 3.0 percent year-on-year...
|
8 Mar 2011
We continue to be very concerned about systemic risk in the global economy. Thus far, the systemic risk that was prevalent in the global credit markets in 2007 and 2008 has not subsided; rather, it has simply been transferred from the private sector...
|
|
28 Feb 2011
Global food prices reached record levels last month as the weather around the globe adversely impacted crops. High food prices have already sparked protests across the Middle East and North Africa.
|
|
24 Feb 2011
For 2010, the year just ended, the IEA estimates that global crude oil and natural gas liquids demand was around 87.8 million barrels a day — an incredible 2.8 million barrel per day increase from year earlier levels, one of the largest increases in...
|
22 Feb 2011
Perhaps we are beginning to discover that if we look not only to U.S. interest, but also to the interest of poorer nations, we find that their best interest is in our best interest.
|
18 Feb 2011
As most readers have probably heard by now, January inflation increased by more than expected at 0.4% from the previous month. Rather than focus on the big number, I investigated a few of the smaller categories in the BLS data, particularly in foods...
|
10 Feb 2011
For those of you looking to protect yourselves and your family from increasing food prices and also profit off of this developing trend, the best way, in my opinion, to invest in the higher food prices trend is to invest in Potash/Fertilizer stocks...
|
10 Feb 2011
Today a sign of true wealth is owning a horse. Cost of feeding them has escalated dramatically as Agri-Food prices have risen. Owning two horses is an ostentatious flaunting of one’s wealth. Paying an Iowa farmer for corn with which to produce...
|
9 Feb 2011
At the risk of stating the obvious, the recent market action in the commodities has been manic with wild gyrations of price in a wide variety of basic materials, metals, and energy. Given these wild fluctuations in price, I thought we could look at...
|
|
31 Jan 2011
Mr. Market has thrown traders a few curve balls lately as precious metals and crude oil have been selling off while the U.S. Dollar Index futures were consolidating. Additionally, the volatility index has been very choppy and was indicating that we...
|
18 Jan 2011
“…Some governments will topple….” –Jim Rogers, referring to the effects of coming rising food prices. Jan 14, 2011.
|
|
10 Jan 2011
ONIONS! Will the onion shortage in India bring down another government, as was the case in 1998? Onions in India are much like garlic in Italy, an essential part of the good life. In India, onion demand is exceeding the ability of the nation to...
|
5 Nov 2010
Savers and merchants worldwide are being forced to price scarce resources in ever-depreciating money..
|
|
5 Oct 2010
Munching sound in back ground is that of locusts as they make Australia their Spring snack. Australia is in the process of preparing for war against the worst locust swarms in 75 years.
|
30 Sep 2010
The interesting part of growing older, that my wife and I have noticed, is the appearance that time speeds up. As each month that passes turns into years, as a 60+-year-old I’m feeling the passage of time quite differently than a child would; a...
|
24 Sep 2010
New orders for manufactured durable goods in August decreased $2.5 billion or 1.3 percent to $191.2 billion, the U.S. Census Bureau announced today. Down three of the last four months, this decrease followed a 0.7 percent July increase. Excluding...
|
|
19 Sep 2010
With $Gold clearly in a parabolic formation, investors may need to realistically appraise their investing activities. $Gold is likely to suffer inevitable consequences of disappointment that follows from a parabolic move. Investors may want to...
|
16 Sep 2010
Over the past few months, leading grain prices have climbed up the commodity wall like a "mile-a-minute" kudzu vine. From late June to early August, the big three grain markets (wheat, corn, and soybeans) soared 40%-plus in a coordinated rally to...
|
|
3 Sep 2010
One road to wealth is to only own those assets for which the price is rising. That seems to be a rule that equity investors have forgotten. In any event, a great market technician once suggested only looking at those things with prices making new 52...
|
3 Sep 2010
As I dug deeper into the inner workings of the economy I became convinced that most of it was – like the housing industry – a house of cards. Diversification for me boiled down to just a few things that I can have faith in. I'm not alone in this...
|
|
16 Aug 2010
Chart above of the Agri-Food Price Index makes a very clear statement on the state of Agri-Food prices. Index continues at a new cycle high. Versus the all time high of 2008, it is down only 3%. Those results compare more than favorably with the...
|
|
15 Aug 2010
Since the early 1900’s the U.S. has been the world’s largest energy consumer and the world’s largest auto manufacturer. It took a century to accomplish, but last year China knocked the U.S. from its perch as the world's largest auto market. Last...
|
12 Aug 2010
The US–economy has not experienced sustained deflation since the Great Depression of the 1930’s, when consumer prices fell 10% between 1929 and 1933. But Japan has been battling falling prices since 1995, – triggered by the bursting of the Nikkei–...
|
11 Aug 2010
India’s GDP is growing rapidly and is expected to rival China’s GDP growth for the next few years. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s government has done an exceptional job. His administration has been able to gradually decrease the bureaucratic...
|
4 Aug 2010
When countries get grouped together for economic or political purposes, an acronym or other shorthand device is soon to follow. OPEC, EU and G7 are a few of the old standards, while G20, PIIGS (European nations with dangerously large sovereign debt...
|
|
31 Jul 2010
Last we talked on Agri-Food part of our discussion was drought in Russia and wetness in Canada. Mother Nature just does not understand that just in time inventory management requires the weather to be properly scheduled. Or, perhaps humans should...
|
|
15 Jul 2010
Last we talked was how pigs were being made into bacon in the markets for oats. Many at that time perhaps did not realize that both a cash and futures market existed for their oats. In that discussion we noted that a goodly reason the back of the...
|
8 Jul 2010
A cooling real estate market in China (and the resulting slowing of associated construction activity) may be the primary reason for the weakness being shown on the chart of the Baltic Dry Goods Index. This cooling is likely to have flow-on effects...
|
|
6 Jul 2010
For the past 6 months or so, I’ve tried to show the gold communitythe blood-relative link between GOLD and FOOD. Here’s the wheat chart. It’s beena cornucopia of profits for those who bought into the lows.
|
