The commodities supercycle is probably ending this year as China’s economic growth slows and the nation focuses less on infrastructure and urbanization, Citigroup Inc. said.

A slower-growing Chinese economy, lack of correlation between equities and commodities, and a stronger U.S. dollar are marking the “end of the commodities supercycle,” said Citi in a research note on Tuesday.

This probably isn’t a surprise coming from one of Wall Street’s most prominent bulls, but Deutsche Bank chief strategist Binky Chadha isn’t among those fretting that the stock market’s string of record highs has left markets overextended and due for an imminent pullback.

Treasury secretary Martin Parkinson concedes his department has struggled to keep pace with a ‘‘tumultuous’’ decade for the Australian economy. Addressing an economists’ lunch in Sydney, Dr Parkinson said the difficulty Treasury and other economic forecasters had had was predicting the path of global commodity prices, the exchange rate and capital gains.

The investigation into possible oil-price fixing gathered pace as trading houses from Glencore Xstrata Plc, the $70 billion mining firm, to Gunvor Group Ltd. were asked to provide information to European regulators.

The decline in the global gold price will be only temporary and will rebound on speculation that Italy and other countries in Europe may have to sell gold reserves for debt repayment, the head of the NESDB said on Tuesday. National Economic and Social Development Board (NESDB) secretary general Arkom Tempitayapaisit said he disagrees with an analyst at a foreign bank who forecast that the gold price is now on a five-year downward trend and will fall below US$1,000 per ounce. The gold price on Tuesday evening in New York [...]

Gold is continuing to lose its luster. Last fall, gold was trading at nearly $1,800 per ounce. Last week, its price dipped below $1,400 per ounce. And as prices fall, a number of high-profile investors have moved toward the exits.

Gold’s recent slump could have much further to run, with a breach of its April low at $1,322 potentially setting up bigger losses towards levels not seen since mid-2010, chart analysts say.

Singapore government investment chief says it is difficult to justify the current value of the metal given its limited practical usage. While falling gold prices have sent a flood of Chinese housewives to Causeway Bay jewellery shops to hunt for bargains, Singapore’s top investment official has warned that the precious metal still looks overpriced.

The past week or three have been, to say the least, disappointing for precious metals investors. Gold and silver have continued to step downwards towards new interim lows as money continues to move from bullion (or at least from paper variations of it) to the general stock markets which have been continuing to perform well.

The price of both silver and gold slipped back in London on Tuesday morning, cutting into yesterday’s rapid gains from four-year and one-month lows respectively.World stock markets stalled after hitting a series of near and new all-time highs so far this month.

At a time when diminishing faith in gold is spurring investors to sell record amounts of the metal, demand for platinum and palladium is strengthening as mining companies curb supply.

Investors in platinum stocks have dumped their shares in a panic over the last six weeks, fearing that the platinum sector is in terminal decline. Since April the sector has fallen by 20%, bringing the cumulative decline for the year to 30%.

Weak global demand will constrain Latin American metals and mining sector’s performance this year, Standard & Poor’s advised Monday. “Sluggish demand and oversupply remain key risks for most metal commodities,” said S&P Credit Analysts Rafaela Vitoria and Diego Ocampo. “We expect metal prices to continue to drop in 2013, as a result of oversupply and slowing demand, which will pressure credit metrics.”

World crude steel production of the 63 countries reporting to the World Steel Association (worldsteel) rose to 132 mn tons in April 2013, an increase of 1.2% compared to April 2012.

Silver has been performing quite poorly over the past few weeks due to the broad commodity weakness and a shift to more risky asset class like equities. This is especially true with the backdrop of the strengthening dollar and continued bullishness in the equity space that are tempering the demand for lower risk assets across the board.

Ghana is ready to restructure its capital market to spur economic growth, Finance Minister Seth Terkper said. The restructuring is necessary for the Ghana to meet international standards in its securities market regulations, Seth Terkper told Ghana’s first-ever capital market conference.

Former top commodities traders from Deutsche Bank are in talks with U.S. private equity group Riverstone to set up a $0.5-1.0 billion venture that will both invest and trade in commodities.

Fiat currencies are paper monies issued andcirculated by government legislation and decreed as a country’s legal tender tofunction as a medium of exchange for all transactions of goods and serviceswithin its economy. Only the federalgovernment has the power and the authority to issue currency notes fordistribution throughout the nation.

Currency strength due to stimulus measures in the developed world is currently Latin America’s Achilles’ heel, though the region’s macroeconomic management is a bright spot, the head of the United Nations’ body for the region said on Monday.

Operating details of China’s first pilot carbon-trading scheme, in Shenzhen, have been released as it gets ready to launch next month, and as the country prepares to roll out seven pilot schemes by 2014.

Silver prices have slumped to their lowest level since September 2010 and gold prices are down 18% year-to-date leading many market observers to declare that the super-rally in commodities is over.

Rather than wonder if the supercycle has ended, keep watching for confirmations of continuity, or signs of reversal. From an Indian investor’s viewpoint, the debate on whether the supercycle of commodities has ended is relevant for several reasons. A declining trend in commodity prices can take the edge off rising inflation.

As opposed to the gold and silver markets, which are racing like the Corkscrew at Cedar Point (and the stock market for that matter, which looks like a Gemini rocket), the oil market has been a steady earner for traders this year, despite the weakness other commodities and the economy that might be expected to hit crude oil as well.

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) will need to pump slightly more oil than it thought in 2013 and expects global consumption to be much higher in the rest of the year, signs of a stronger market that argue against any calls for supply restraint when the group meets on May 31.

Turkey and Egypt have agreed with Iran’s proposal to form an international petrochemical association similar to the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).

The famous Danish physicist Niels Bohr once humorously observed, “Predictions are very difficult, especially about the future.” And so, as the world considers yet another rosy oil supply forecast, this time from the Paris-based International Energy Agency (IEA), it is worth reviewing the agency’s record.

For more than a decade, the biggest question in energy has been whether production could keep pace with the rapidly escalating demand from emerging markets. It did, barely, thanks to crude prices that have quadrupled over that span.

Pessimism on gold is so extreme that sometimes even the bears worry it might be overdone. Today the price jumped a little more than 1 percent after news hit the wires that was perceived to be bullish: Moody’s Investors Service reported that U.S. policymakers must do something about the government debt to avoid a rating downgrade this year.

Hedge-fund managers are making the biggest ever bet against gold as billionaire George Soros sold holdings last quarter and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. predicted more declines after the longest slump in four years.

Gold futures may rebound to $1,500 an ounce in June after hitting a “double bottom” yesterday, according to technical analysis by R.J. O’Brien & Associates.

Gold is two tales in one metal. Most immediately, gold (like silver) is the story of renewed dollar strength as investors come to appreciate that the Federal Reserve’s lower-for-longer interest rate policy really does have a sell-by date.

Base metals on the London Metal Exchange (LME) have closed higher, tracking a stronger euro in a jerky session for all metal markets as volumes were thinned by a European holiday.

The big divergence over the past few months in the direction of the S&P 500 and copper, which historically trade in tandem, has one strategist questioning which market is getting it wrong.

ETF Securities short commodity ETPs continued to see inflows last week as tactical investors remained bearish gold, and a strong US dollar continued to weigh on sentiment towards commodities broadly.

Currency strength due to stimulus measures in the developed world is currently Latin America’s Achilles’ heel, though the region’s macroeconomic management is a bright spot, the head of the United Nations’ body for the region told Reuters.

It won’t be long before the essential raw minerals and commodities of the planet’s Far North such as rare earths, oil and gas get gobbled up by the industrialists. On Wednesday, the Arctic Council granted China, India, Italy, Japan, Republic of Korea and Singapore new Observer States status. Essentially, the six nations gained rightful entry to listen in on meetings of the council, as well as propose and finance policies.

Real estate topped the list of sovereign wealth funds’ investments last year, overtaking commodities and financial services, according to Institutional Investor’s Sovereign Wealth Center.

West Texas Intermediate crude swung between gains and losses after rising the most in a week. OPEC was forecast to increase crude exports this month to meet rising demand from Asian refiners.

Investment in Australia’s resources sector is expected to peak at a record $85 billion this year, led by unprecedented spending in the oil and gas sector.

LNG prices have fallen on weak demand and high stocks Spot LNG prices in Asia have retreated sharply to $14/MMBtu after reaching a 4-year high of almost $20 in February. Tightness in global LNG markets evaporated as gas demand in North East Asia eased seasonally after the winter and cyclically on rising economic headwinds.

Gold has the worst 12-month outlook among key commodities markets and could see falls over the coming months, according to a client survey from Credit Suisse. The survey, published yesterday and based on responses from a poll of around 185 Credit Suisse clients, showed that 60% of investors named gold as the commodity with the worst forecast when compared with copper, crude oil and corn.

Gold, down 17% since January, is poised to lose 20% in a year as inflation fails to accelerate and with the worst risks to the global economy waning, Credit Suisse Group AG said.

Gold investors are just not feeling the love, once again left to wonder why gold prices are going down. The yellow metal dipped again Thursday, with gold for June delivery ending down $10 at $1,386.10 an ounce. It was the sixth consecutive trading day of declines and marked a four-week low for the metal.

A recent central bank order allowing only jewelry exporters to use bank credit lines has hit gold imports, traders said Thursday. “Hardly any new bullion imports are coming through banks. Only consignments ordered before the new rule are coming through,” Suresh Hundia, former president of the Bombay Bullion Association and a bullion dealer, told The Wall Street Journal.

The kind of leverage that billionaire investor George Soros has on the psyche of investors is beyond comparison. When he buys gold investors too, when he sells gold investors too. Actions of George Soros heralds the fortunes of gold; in other words, gold’s future is wedded to Soros’ investment decisions. At least that is how it is in the present conditions.

A year ago, the technical picture suggested that the market was coming to a major change that could have been several hundred dollars up or down. My brain said it could be down, but my heart said up and I stuck with my heart.

Looking back at the articles I’ve written about silver over the years, if there’s one theme that keeps recurring, it’s the word: ‘frustrating’. Silver can meander about and do nothing for years. Then, when your back’s turned, it’ll suddenly spike to unheard-of levels, making its owners rich.

New York-based commodities research consultants, CPM Group, forecast that silver prices will weaken further this year, “weighed down primarily by the increased price sensibility among investors.” “Prices could potentially decline as low as $24 during the year,” CPM warned in its Silver Yearbook 2013, which was made public Thursday.

Gold exchange traded funds (ETF), among the hottest financial products in recent times, may face a curious problem because of a recent RBI circular which bars the import of gold on a consignment basis for domestic use.