From Bloomberg: Cotton futures rose, closing at the highest price since 1995, on concern that supplies will trail rising demand from Asia. [more]

From Commodityonline.com: World cotton production and consumption are forecast to roughly balance at 25.1 million tons in 2010/11, as a result of a 15% rebound in production and a 2% increase in mill use,according to International Cotton Advisory Committee. [more]

From Mineweb.co.za: Gold bugs have spent the last ten years in the sun but, in relative terms the price of gold is rather expensive now, how much higher can it go? [more]

From Hardassetsinvestor.com: A spread consists of two or more related futures positions. Note the word “related” here. In order for a spread to be recognized for margin purposes—more on that in a moment—there has to be an economic connection between its constituents. [more]

From Bloomberg: Gold gained in London on signs of increased demand from investors seeking to protect their wealth. [more]

From Ninemsn.com.au: Copper rose to a four-month high on Thursday as optimism about Chinese demand buoyed the industrial metals markets amid tightening physical supplies. [more]

From Metalmarkets.org.uk: The price of copper was up Thursday after the National Association of Realtors reported that pending home sales were unexpectedly higher in July, adding 5.2 percent to give a boost to the metal that is used extensively in construction. [more]

From Mineweb.co.za: Ernst & Young’s Global Mining & Metals Leader, Mike Elliott, says the volume of completed deals in the mining and metals sector during first half of 2010 is up 20% to 544 on the same period last year, while deal value is up 46% to US$40.6 billion. [more]

From Telegraph: An economic crisis and an oil spill have shown the Russian government the benefits of green technologies, but tax breaks and other policy incentives await approval. [more]

From Bloomberg: The premium of United Nations emissions offsets for this year to those for 2011 traded near a record as the regulator reviews the way it awards emission credits tied to hydrofluorocarbons, or HFCs. [more]

From Europeanvoice.com: UN scheme under fire for lack of effectiveness, while Commission seeks to protect emissions scheme. Pollution trading was not invented in Europe, but it has become as much a part of EU political life as farm subsidies and summits. [more]

From Seekingalpha.com: A significant portion of investing wealth has flowed into commodities funds in recent years as investors sought greater and greater returns. Anyone who invested in equities during the recent decade’s run up in oil prices had to be coveting the large returns they were seeing over in the commodities space. [more]

From Investopedia.com: When investors add a commodities component to a portfolio, they generally do so for capital gains exposure. Commodities are seen as the perfect way to add inflation protection. After all, inflation hits most of us in the food we eat and energy we consume. [more]

From Optionetics.com: Exchange traded securities come in a variety of types offering equity traders and investors with an opportunity to participate in the other financial markets. Of course with opportunity comes risk and a key aspect to managing that risk is by first understanding it. [more]

From Reuters: Up to five JPMorgan proprietary metals traders in London left the company this week, including former Sempra trader Tim Jones, industry sources said on Thursday. [more]

From Fiercefinance.com: The decision by JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon to exit proprietary trading has been attributed to Dodd-Frank, in particular the Volcker Rule. But you have to wonder if the bank was considering a drastic scale back anyhow. [more]

From Efinancialnews.com: Galtere, a hedge fund that specialises in commodities, has pledged to double its assets under management to $2bn through a push into private equity. [more]

From Smh.com.au: Significant price lifts in Fonterra’s internet auction of commodity milkpowders have set the scene for the start of NZX trading in global dairy futures contracts. [more]

From Business-standard.com: If implemented, it will be the first commodity exchange to offer such a facility. The Multi Commodity Exchange (MCX) plans to offer co-location facility to its broker members, which will allow them to host servers near the exchange’s trading platform, facilitating faster trades. [more]

From Rediff.com: A parallel system of futures trading in commodities, operating outside recognised commodity exchanges, better known by its colloquial epithet Dabba, has been thriving unchecked and is believed to be now generating bigger trading volumes than the regular exchanges. [more]

From AFP: The global economic crisis has driven investors to the forex markets where turnover has soared to a staggering four trillion dollars a day — equal to what Germany produces in a year. [more]

From Ctv.ca: In the past three years commodity currencies like the Canadian and Australian dollars have become increasingly popular and the greenback’s dominance of trading volume has slipped, according to the most recent Central Bank Survey put out by the Bank for International Settlements. [more]

From Favstocks.com: The long wait is over! The Bank of International Settlements (BIS) has just released the results from its Triennial Central Bank Survey of Foreign Exchange and Derivatives Market Activity, conducted in April 2010. [more]