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Adam Rose, Reuters December 10, 2014 Brent crude remained above $66 barrel on Wednesday, after resuming its drift downward amid a glut of oil on the market, following a short-lived reprieve the previous day when a weaker dollar had provided some support to prices. Worries about oversupply have pushed Brent down 40% since June. "Notwithstanding day-to-day movements, the fundamental picture hasn't really changed, and that is one of supply outstripping demand growth for most of the year," said Phin Ziebell, a senior analyst at National Australia Bank. "It's an incessant march downwards, and it would be interesting to see where...

If the commodity markets were followed as widely as the stock market, the financial world would be buzzing with the news of a crash that has taken place in the value of "stuff." While the plunging prices of oil, natural gas and gasoline are making headlines every day, thanks to the benefits accruing to consumers of energy products, the message of the commodity markets, in many ways, is hardly a reassuring one when it comes to the outlook for global economic growth. Basic materials prices for the likes of copper, nickel, iron ore, and other industrial commodities, have collapsed, both...

December 09, 2014 Jeff Clark A glance at any gold price chart reveals the severity of the bear mauling it has endured over the last three years. More alarming, even for die-hard gold investors, is that some of the fundamental drivers that would normally push gold higher, like a weak US dollar, have reversed. Throw in a correction-defying Wall Street stock market and the never-ending rain of disdain for gold from the mainstream and it may seem that there’s no reason to buy gold; the bear is here to stay. If so, then I have a question. Actually, a whole...

Lower fuel prices are compounding the longest commodity slump in a generation. Because energy accounts for as much as half the cost to produce food and metals, all sorts of commodities will keep dropping, according to Societe Generale SA and Citigroup Inc. With inventories ample and slowing economies eroding demand, cheaper oil lowers the price floor for mining companies and farmers to remain profitable. Corn may drop another 3 percent, cotton 6.5 percent and gold as much as 5 percent, SocGen estimates. Costs are falling as surpluses emerge in copper and sugar and as the economy slows in China, the...

Could rapidly falling oil prices trigger a nightmare scenario for the commodity derivatives market? The big Wall Street banks did not expect plunging home prices to cause a mortgage-backed securities implosion back in 2008, and their models did not anticipate a decline in the price of oil by more than 40 dollars in less than six months this time either. If the price of oil stays at this level or goes down even more, someone out there is going to have to absorb some absolutely massive losses. In some cases, the losses will be absorbed by oil producers, but many...

December 03, 2014 By: Clive_Maund Yesterday was an extraordinary day in the Precious Metals markets, with a good chance that it signals the reversal from the brutal 3-year plus bear market that so many have waited so long to see. The day started with gold and silver plunging on the news that the Swiss voted against backing their currency with gold, but later in the day they rallied strongly on heavy turnover to close with giant reversal candlesticks on their charts. Regardless of the reasons for this bizarre behavior, technically this action looks very positive, and this is written with...

Myles Udland December 1, 2014 Gold is exploding higher. In afternoon trade on Monday, gold futures were up better than 3.5% in the last 24 hours to around $1,215 an ounce, moving back above $1,200 for the first time in more than a week. The spike in gold reverses a plunge in gold late last week that was continued on Sunday night as the futures market re-opened after voters in Switzerland rejected a measure that would have required the Swiss National Bank to increase its gold holdings from 8% to 20%. Oil, which also got crushed last week, is also...

Tyler Durden 12/01/2014After last night's big flush across commodities, they have rallied notably. Gold is now up over $50 from those lows, with Silver, copper, and even crude bouncing hard (after testing below $64 overnight). The USD is notably weaker, stocks lower, and bond yields testing mid-October flash-crash Bullard lows...(snip)

Myles Udland November 30, 2014More than 50% lower. That is how far Canadian billionaire Murray Edwards, chairman of Canadian Natural Resource, thinks oil prices can fall from here. Speaking with Canadian business publication Financial Post, Edwards said, "Prices could spike down to $30, $40. It got down to $35 in 2008, for a very short period of time." Edwards told Financial Post's Claudia Cattaneo that, "On a given day you can have market fluctuations where prices fluctuate far more than the underlying economic value of the unit," adding that if oil falls to $30 or $40 a barrel he doesn't...

Myles Udland November 27, 2014Crude oil just broke $70 for the first time since June 2010. West Texas Intermediate crude futures are below $70 after Thursday's OPEC meeting resulted in the oil cartel announcing that it will not cut production. On Thursday, WTI futures were down as low as $68.90, a more than 6% decline in the last 24 hours following the news. (snip)

Rise of protectionism in China a threat to commodities imports By Fayen Wong SHANGHAI Fri Nov 14, 2014 1:12pm EST (Reuters) - As China lobbies world leaders to back its free trade plan at an Asia-Pacific summit this week, businesses are complaining about Beijing's use of non-tariff barriers from customs clearance to quality restrictions to curb raw material imports. Amid a slowdown in economic growth, the world's top commodities buyer is facing a supply glut that has sent local prices tumbling and miners deep into the red. Inventories of iron ore, coal and cotton are bulging at ports across the...

Tyler Durden11/05/2014 When it comes to buyers of physical assets as opposed to traders of paper representations of such assets, there is one key difference: the latter, more than anything, enjoy looking at "heatmaps", chasing trends and jumping on momentum, the result being the most recent massive selloff in such "paper" representations of precious metals as the GLD and SLV ETFs, and various gold futures. On the other hand, those who prefer to hold the metal in their hands, as well as others such as China whose ravenous apetite for gold over the past 4 years has been extensively covered...

Elena Holodny November 5, 2014 Gold is getting crushed. Again. The yellow metal is at $1,140 per ounce, down by about 2.3%. It got as low as $1,137. This is the lowest level since April 2010. Gold has been dropping to new lows for several weeks as the dollar has strengthened. Oil is another commodity that is tumbling again. WTI crude oil prices dropped as low as $75.84 per barrel shortly after 5 a.m. ET. Brent crude touched $81.63. While this is great for consumers, this is troubling for the oil producers, who may be forced to idle unprofitable projects....

Tyler Durden October 30, 2014 US shale oil is now the marginal swing barrel in the new world oil order, and as Goldman Sachs warns (despite Larry Kudlow apparently knowing better), a decline in WTI to $75/bbl would start to significantly slow US shale growth (and thus employment, capex, and the entire US economy). Via Goldman Sachs, Our oil forecast calls for a slowdown in US shale oil production which our North American Energy equity research team led by Brian Singer estimates will occur at $75/bbl WTI prices. They estimate that the WTI oil price at which average wells in...

Tyler Durden 10/25/2014 18 months ago we first brought the world's attention to the end of what has now been exposed as among the largest ponzi schemes in history - the Chinese Commodity Financing Deals (CCFDs) - pointing out how this meant commodities like copper were likely to come under pressure as firms liquidate what minimal holdings they had (and sell out futures hedges) to manage the risk of unwinds in these quasi-collateralized deals. Since then, copper prices have indeed plunged, as has global growth expectations and global bond yields as a realization that 'demand' implied by previous prices was...

Akin Oyedele October 22, 2014"Gold gets dug out of the ground in Africa or someplace. Then we melt it down, dig another hole, bury it again and pay people to stand around guarding it. It has no utility. Anyone watching from Mars would be scratching their head." That's what Warren Buffett said back in 1998. Gold has long been considered a safe-haven investment. However, the price of gold has performed dismally in recent years. For those who don't trust the conventional financial markets, there are alternative more unorthodox ways to put away wealth. We put together a list of some...

Joe WeisenthalOctober 10, 2014 The global market plunge continues. On Thursday we saw the Dow give up more than 300 points, and markets again awash in a sea of red. France is down 1.6%. German shares are down over 2%. Hong Kong's Hang Seng fell nearly 2%, while Japan lost just over 1%. US futures are all lower, by just under 1%.(snip)

Tyler Durden 10/06/2014 Following Friday's post-payrolls exuberance, the US Dollar crashed by the most in over a year today and stocks retraced most of their gains with only European data (weak) to base any momentum ignition on. Today's stock weakness turning point coincided with the bankruptcy headlines of GTAT but the divergence to USDJPY and bonds set the scene for stocks' demise. Trannies were today's laggard (after leading Friday) along with small-caps as The Dow clung to 17,000 and S&P closed marginally red. EUR strength led USD weaker and the plunge accelerated into the US close (eradicating all payrolls gains)....

   October 5, 2014Joe Weisenthal There goes gold. As markets whirr back to life to start the week, gold is falling again. (snip)

Buying Time.