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Who could have seen this coming? Remember a week ago when TV entertainers crowed about the surge in The Baltic Dry Freight Index was a "clear signal" that 'China is back' baby and that escape velocity growth was just around the corner as global growth was destined to pick up... Well, just as we warned very explicitly, the ramp in the index merely reflected the frenzied speculation in industrial metals by the Chinese and as authorities have cracked down on that idiocy, so the Baltic Dry has plunged by the most since November... as real demand punches back.

We continue to get more evidence that the U.S. economy has entered a major downturn. Just last week, I wrote about how U.S. GDP growth numbers have been declining for three quarters in a row, and previously I wrote about how corporate defaults have surged to their highest level since the last financial crisis. Well, now we are getting some very depressing numbers from the rail industry. As you will see below, U.S. rail traffic was down more than 11 percent from a year ago in April. That is an absolutely catastrophic number, and the U.S. rail industry is feeling...

292 Union Pacific engines idled in Arizona Desert Total US rail traffic in April plunged 11.8% from a year ago, the Association of American Railroads reported today. Carloads of bulk commodities such as coal, oil, grains, and chemicals plummeted 16.1% to 944,339 units. - snip - Only five of the 20 commodity categories saw gains. Of the decliners, coal was the biggest. But petroleum products also plunged 25%, and grain mill products dropped 7%. Even without coal, carloads were down 3% year-over-year.

April 27, 2016 Sol_Palha We are still not convinced that Gold is fully out of the woods. Peter Schiff is busy telling everyone that it was a bad idea to have sold Gold in 2011, we beg to differ for the trend indicates otherwise, and so does the price of Gold. He is coming out with scary scenarios though they are not as grandiose as James Sinclair's scenario that calls for Gold to move to $50,000 an ounce. Even, when we dream we find it hard to envision such a price, so it is interesting that he can come up...

DeviantInvestorFeburary 29, 2016 What will the price of silver be in 2021? You can find articles suggesting the price of silver will be over $1,000 and under $10. Perhaps this is the wrong question. A better approach: The global financial system is increasingly unstable and fragile, more so than in 2008. The important question is: How will governments, central banks and financial systems respond to the ongoing crisis? Future prices for silver are dependent upon the answer to that question. I suggest three possible scenarios. Scenario One – status quo: The next five years could look much like the last...

With lithium prices skyrocketing beyond wildest expectations, talk heating up about acquisitions and mergers in this space and a fast-brewing war among electric car rivals, it’s no wonder everyone’s bullish on this golden commodity that promises to become the ‘’new gasoline”. Moreover, land grabs, rising price predictions, and expectations of a major demand spike are leaping out of the shadows of a pending energy revolution and a new technology-driven resource era. For once, we have agreement across the board on a commodity: Demand for lithium will continue to rise throughout the year--and beyond--spurred by the rise of battery mega/gigafactories and...

Under powerful attack from Bernie Sanders in last night's debate over her cozy relationship with Wall Street titans like Goldman Sachs, Hillary Clinton stated that Sanders is "the only one of this stage that voted to deregulate the financial market in 2000. . .which [was] one of the main causes of the collapse in '08." [Snip] Consider this, however. Bill Clinton signed into law the very act - The Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000 - that Hillary attacked Sanders for supporting.

CNBCJanuary 18, 2016 While gas prices are low nationwide, some stations are slashing the fuel's price to rock-bottom levels to the tune of less than 50 cents a gallon. The drastic price cuts are part of a gas price war at three Houghton Lake, Mich., stations. During the last three days, the prices dropped below a buck per gallon, falling as low as 46 cents at Sunrise Marathon. Meanwhile, the Beacon & Bridge gas station was as low as 47 cents, said employees of each station in interviews with CNBC.(snip)

Tyler Durden 11/25/2015 When it comes to commodity metals, the dead cat no longer bounces. We showed this last night in "No End In Sight For Commodity Carnage As Chinese Fear Fed Hike Blowback", a post which can be summarized with the following chart showing that at least for nickel, copper, zinc, iron ore and aluminum it will be a very unhappy holiday season: The one-word reason for this condition: China, which as documented extensively in the past, has clammed down on its unprecedented credit creation now that its debt/GDP is well over 300% and as a result conventional industries...

Greg McKennaNovember 23, 2015 It’s an ugly day on industrial commodity markets in Asia today with some big falls in crude oil, copper, zinc, and Chinese rebar steel. At the moment Nymex crude for January delivery is down 2.74% to $40.75 a barrel, Brent crude is down 1.75% to $43.87 a barrel, Copper in US trade has fallen 2% to another six-year low of $2.01 a pound, but it is down 3.74% in Shanghai. Zinc in Shanghai is down 1.03%, and rebar steel on the Shanghai exchange is off 3.35%. Interestingly even against this back drop Gold still can’t find...

If you recall, the popular storyline since late last year has been that the U.S. economy is moderately improving while the world’s other major economies – Japan, China, and Europe – are rolling over. The U.S. economy would power through. Moreover, stock prices had achieved a permanently high plateau.

The Paris tragedy clearly showed the world that the war on terror has gone global. If that had not already been made clear by terror bombings in Baghdad, Beirut, and the Russian airliner in recent weeks, it was hammered home by Paris. Israeli media (debka.com) reports that no western intelligence picked up any signs of the attack plan. The grim message to the world: It could happen anywhere. For any that still needed to be convinced, the attack also revealed that the greatest threat to the west comes from radical Islam, not from Iran, Russia, or China. That fact was...

Tyler Durden 11/16/2015 Shanghai Copper is down 4.6%, hitting fresh cycle lows not seen since March 2009. No clear catalyst is evident for now aside from stronger USDollar, Codelco's cuts, and more chatter of CCFD unwinds. If COMEX Copper holds these losses, it will be down for 10 straight days - the longest on record from what we could tell. Copper is crashing in China... (snip)

Over the weekend, Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak announced that Moscow is ready to meet with both OPEC and other oil producers to address the low price of oil. For the first time in nearly 11 months, geopolitics is likely to give support to higher crude, and oil prices saw a new push. Ever since OPEC decided last Thanksgiving to defend market share rather than price, crude has been in a swoon. That has had a major negative impact on countries relying upon the sale of oil to balance their central budgets. All producing countries have been affected as oil...

It’s well-known that you have to make a declaration if you physically transport $10,000 or more in cash or monetary instruments in or out of the US, or almost any other country; governments collude on these things, often informally. Gold has always been in something of a twilight zone in that regard. It’s no longer officially considered money. So it’s usually regarded as just a commodity, like copper, lead, or zinc, for these purposes. The one-ounce Canadian Maple Leaf and US Eagle both say they’re worth $50 of currency. But I’ve recently had some disturbing experiences crossing borders with coins....

Mike BirdSeptember 11, 2015Oil prices have been on a roller-coaster ride over the past year. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) oil tumbled late in 2014 from over $100 (£64.78) a barrel to just around $45 a barrel early this year. After a recovery back to around $60 a barrel during the early summer, prices have gone through the floor again, down to $45.12 on Friday. But oil could go even lower.The price of a barrel of oil could go to just $20 soon, according to Goldman Sachs analysts led by global commodities research chief Jeffrey Currie. There's a huge surplus of...

Tyler Durden 09/09/2015 Just over one month ago, when looking at the latest changes in registered gold held at the Comex ,we were stunned not only by the collapse in this series to a record low of just over 350k ounces or barely over 10 tons, but also by the surge in "gold coverage", or the amount of paper gold claims on physical gold, which exploded to a record high 124 per ounce. This is what we said on August 3: While on its own, gold open interest - which merely represents the total potential claims on gold if exercised...

August 27, 2015 Dan_Norcini Dr. Copper apparently does not approve of the prescription ordered by the Chinese authorities to stem the slowdown in that nation, namely another 25 basis point interest rate reduction and a lowering of bank reserve requirements. The red metal cannot sustain any upside action for long before sellers emerge to whack it again. This is number one of my THREE BIG C’s, Copper, Crude oil and Cotton. So what exactly are the other two C’s telling us? (snip)

Tyler Durden 08/27/2015 Shortly before 10amET, amid USD strength, futures prices for Copper, Crude, and Silver suddenly started spiking higher...(snip)

Civilisation is built on sand – literally. It's been a critical component of construction and progress since ancient times. In the 15th century an Italian artisan figured out how to turn it into the transparent glass that made it possible to make the microscopes, telescopes and other technologies that helped drive the Renaissance's scientific revolution. Sand is an essential ingredient in detergents, cosmetics, toothpaste, solar panels, windows, silicon chips and buildings; every concrete structure around the world is basically sand and gravel glued together with cement. Apart from water and air, humble sand is the natural resource most consumed by...