Chinese traders on Wednesday welcomed the government’s oil product pricing reforms, saying more frequent price adjustments would allow gasoline and gasoil supply in the domestic market to better match demand.
The National Development and Reform Commission said Tuesday that it was making changes to the way it sets regulated retail prices of oil products, mainly gasoline, gasoil and kerosene. Price changes will now be made every 10 days in line with crude oil price fluctuations………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Louis Dreyfus Commodities, one of the world’s largest agricultural traders, on Wednesday reported its largest-ever annual profit on robust global demand for food products and historically high crop prices after a severe U.S. drought.
The privately held company said in an annual report that net earnings jumped 25 percent to $1.1 billion in 2012, excluding a $93 million loss in BioSev, the company’s ring-fenced Brazilian sugarcane milling business which suffered from low cane yields and low ethanol prices………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Gold, trading little changed after dropping for three days, headed for the first back-to-back quarterly losses since 2001 as signs that the U.S. economy is recovering cut demand for the metal as a store of wealth.
Gold for immediate delivery was at $1,599.46 an ounce at 9:50 a.m. in Singapore from $1,600.05 yesterday. Prices have lost 4.5 percent this quarter as holdings in exchange-traded products fell 6.8 percent, the most on record. Bullion for June delivery gained 0.2 percent to $1,599.80 an ounce on the Comex………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Gold prices have fallen dramatically in recent months, and the industry as a whole could be in trouble. In fact, if the prices fall as low as $1,000 per ounce, half the industry could be worth absolutely nothing. Hedge funds have apparently lost their interest in gold, starting in the fourth quarter of last year.
Last year was the 12th consecutive year of increases for gold prices, although at this point, gold equities are at historically low valuations………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Switzerland has sought to ­protect its central role in the commodities trading industry, rejecting calls for stringent regulation in the sector and opting instead to launch a consultation over a set of voluntary principles for the industry.
The Swiss government will publish on Wednesday a long-awaited report on the commodities industry, which includes groups such as Glencore, Vitol and Cargill with big offices in cities such as Geneva, Zug and Lugano. The report will stop short of calling for strict mandatory regulation, as campaigners have demanded, instead proposing a wide-ranging consultation about transparency and human rights, according to three people familiar with the discussions………………………………………..Full Article: Source

The Brics (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) Summit in Durban this week generally sparks intense debate and interest in the body’s changing role on the international stage. There are many obvious links between the Brics nations that may form the foundation for these debates.
For example, China is the largest and India the third-largest economy in Asia (after Japan). South Africa is the largest economy in Africa, while Brazil holds the same title in South America. These economies also share the common thread that they are emerging markets with all the usual opportunities and challenges associated with economies in this stage of development………………………………………..Full Article: Source

The US will produce more oil than it imports beginning late this year for the first time in 18 years, the Energy Information Administration said Wednesday. Helped by a surge in shale-based output, monthly crude production has pushed past seven million barrels a day and could reach eight million barrels a day by the beginning of 2014.
Imports meanwhile have dropped below eight million barrels a day and should fall below domestic output by the end of 2013, the EIA said………………………………………..Full Article: Source

The nation’s first physical price for a commodity that sits in a bonded area debuted in the Yangshan deep-water port of Shanghai on Wednesday, on the same day as its first product, the “Yangshan copper premium”, was listed on third-party data platforms.
Experts said the developments may help domestic commodity traders vie for a bigger say in global pricing decisions. The Yangshan copper premium - which is paid on top of the benchmark London Metal Exchange cash copper price - is the first of a series of commodity prices to be launched under the “Yangshan Price” banner, which are being designed by the Shanghai Free Trade Zones to develop the Yangshan bonded area into a bulk commodity trading platform………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Reports pointing to the death of commodities as an investment class appear wildly exaggerated. In fact, despite the doom-and-gloom headlines, the sector seems set to provide investors the benefit of diversification, industry observers say.
The Financial Times and Wall Street Journal reported last month that institutional investors such as pension funds, insurers and hedge funds have pulled large sums of money from commodities following the sector’s worst annual performance in more than a decade. Barclays data showed nearly US$10 billion in outflows from commodity indexes………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Australia, the world’s biggest shipper of iron ore, expects to earn more from the export of minerals and energy resources next fiscal year after raising its price forecast for the steelmaking raw material.
The value of exports may total A$205 billion ($213 billion) in the year ending June 30, 2014, the Canberra-based Bureau of Resources and Energy Economics said in a report today. Export earnings may be A$186 billion in the year ending June 30, it said. The bureau expects iron ore prices to average $119 a ton in 2013, compared with a December estimate of $106 a ton………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Commodity trade continues to attract sufficient financing amid instability in the Middle East and reduced lending by some European banks, said Jean-Francois Lambert, HSBC Bank Plc’s global head of commodity and structured trade finance.
“The world is in a complicated situation, but what needs to be financed, is financed,” Lambert said in an interview in Geneva yesterday. “There is sufficient liquidity in the market to finance commodities.”……………………………………….Full Article: Source

U.S. futures regulators are looking into whether high-speed traders indulged in “wash trading,” a strategy in which they improperly buy and sell futures contracts without taking a position in the market, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the probes.
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) is investigating suspected wash trades by high-speed firms in futures contracts tied to crude oil, precious metals, agricultural commodities, and the S&P 500, among other underlying instruments, the people told the Journal. Wash trades are banned under U.S. futures law………………………………………..Full Article: Source

The commodity super-cycle, in which commodity prices reach ever-higher highs, and fall only to higher lows, is not over. Despite the euphoria around shale gas – indeed, despite weak global growth – commodity prices have risen by as much as 150 per cent in the aftermath of the financial crisis. In the medium term, this trend will continue to pose an inflation risk and undermine living standards worldwide.
For starters, there is the convergence argument. As China grows, its increasing size, wealth, and urbanisation will continue to stoke demand for energy, grains, minerals, and other resources. For example, the US consumes more than nine times as much oil as China on a per capita basis. As more of China’s population converges to Western standards of consumption, demand for commodities – and thus their prices – will remain on an upward trajectory………………………………………..Full Article: Source

In a week that Singapore was hosting two big commodities conferences – one for mining and one for grain trading – over in Geneva, industry executives, government officials and academics gathered for what almost felt like a morale boosting session.
Organised by the Geneva Trading and Shipping Association, which represents the city’s commodity trading companies, and the University of Geneva, the forum, headlined “Relevance of the commodity trading hubs and sustainable factors of success”, looked at Switzerland’s history as a trading hub stretching back to the mid-19th century, as well as its strengths, challenges and the regulatory climate………………………………….Full Article: Source

They tend to have high volatility as their supply can easily be affected by the weather or news that deals with their extraction or transportation. Traditionally, commodities have been one of the most volatile assets in the financial markets.
Copper: As an input for several key industries, copper is a high demand commodity by the industrialized nations around the world. When major economies like China and Europe begin to experience increased manufacturing capacity, the prices of copper will also rise in tandem. Therefore, look for reports relating to GDP’s growths and Purchasing Managers’ Indexes (PMI) to identify opportunities in this commodity………………………………….Full Article: Source

Private investors and hedge funds seeking new ways to gain exposure to commodities may provide a lifeline to trading houses desperate for the short-term liquidity that banks used to offer. European banks have cut their lending in commodity trade finance, the $1.5 trillion-a-year business of financing oil shipments or copper deliveries, ahead of Basel III restrictions aimed at reducing systemic risk after the 2008 financial crisis.
Lending cuts coincide with traders’ growing need for funding due to high commodity prices, especially for oil, where a single shipment can cost more than $200 million at current Brent crude prices…………………………………….Full Article: Source

The BMC would give additional security to traders from situations such as the flash crash in the US market. The Forward Markets Commission (FMC), the commodity derivatives markets regulator, has levied base minimum capital (BMC) for algo members five times higher than that of normal manual members. Until now, minimum base capital was determined by individual exchanges based on the membership criteria.
Interestingly, FMC has kept both the Multi Commodity Exchange (MCX) and the National Commodity & Derivatives Exchange (NCDEX) in the same category with Rs 50 lakh of BMC requirement for algo traders. Against that, the normal manual members should require to have a BMC of Rs 10 lakh…………………………………….Full Article: Source

With a market as sticky as this one is, it is very difficult to short anything. It’s also very difficult to buy any more equities when they are up so much in such a short period. So if you have cash lying around, what do you do?
You can sit on it and wait, which isn’t a bad idea but you can also look elsewhere. You can find other non-equity instruments to purchase where the probability of success is high and the reward-to-risk favorable………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Gold had a rare banner day in trading markets on Tuesday, as a combination of short covering and hopes for more central bank easing sent the yellow metal to a two week high. Still, traders aren’t sure what’s next for bullion, which has taken a battering since the start of 2013.
Traders rushed to buy back gold after an European Central Bank official suggested monetary easing might continue. That weakened the euro and made bullion appear more attractive as an inflation hedge………………………………………..Full Article: Source

China should accelerate opening commodities futures to overseas investors and detail regulations allowing domestic firms to trade raw materials contracts on bourses abroad, Shanghai Futures Exchange Chairman Yang Maijun said in proposals to the National People’s Congress.
Government agencies including foreign exchange regulators and the tax bureau should use preparations already under way for crude oil futures trading to prepare similar policies allowing foreign investors to trade base metals, precious metals and natural rubber futures, Yang said………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Soft commodities represent the main area of overlap between NYSE Euronext and IntercontinentalExchange (ICE). The former is best known for its stock markets and financial futures, while Atlanta-based ICE runs derivatives exchanges heavily geared towards energy products, as well as soft commodities following its acquisition of the New York Board of Trade.
In December, ICE announced that it had agreed to buy NYSE Euronext for $8.2 billion (£5.5 billion). After the completion of the prospective merger, currently undergoing European and US regulatory approvals, ICE will keep the NYSE Euroenext soft commodity derivative contracts based in London and will put a five-year ceiling on their trading fees………………………………………..Full Article: Source

There was always going to be a decline in China’s commodity imports in February, but the pullback appears to have been bigger than expected. Crude oil, iron ore and copper all suffered sharp drops, so much so that even putting them together with January’s numbers still leaves year-on-year comparisons in negative territory.
The question then becomes is this the start of a new trend toward renewed weakness in the world’s largest importer of natural resources, or is it more likely that temporary factors are at work?
It’s always risky to call a trend based on one month’s data, but despite the weak data there is little evidence elsewhere to support the view that China’s economic growth is losing momentum………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Gold Bullion imports to China through Hong Kong fell to a 3-month low in January, new data showed Friday, dropping by more than one-half from late-2012’s build-up to the strong Chinese New Year period. Net of re-exports, the total gold bullion inflow to mainland China fell below 30 tonnes for the month, according to figures from the Hong Kong government, down from almost 100 tonnes in December.
Hong Kong is the major route for bullion flows to and from China, the world’s second-largest consumer market behind India and already the world’s No.1 nation for newly-mined gold………………………………………..Full Article: Source

In a recent Commodities Note, Reuters detailed how the Paris-based International Energy Agency (IEA) is changing the way it records and reports China’s crude and refined oil products consumption as a result of a growing realization that the data used to date has been at best misleading, and often downright wrong.
Measuring China’s oil consumption was not a particularly important process 10 years ago, but now the country is ranked only behind the US as an importer of oil………………………………………..Full Article: Source

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Copper analysts are the most bullish in five weeks because of mounting optimism the global economy is strengthening, diverging from hedge funds holding their biggest wager on a retreat since August.
Thirteen analysts surveyed by Bloomberg expect prices to rise next week. Four forecast declines and three were neutral, for the highest proportion of bulls since Feb. 1. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. recommended March 1 buying the metal for a 16 percent gain in six months………………………………………..Full Article: Source

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The Shanghai Futures Exchange, the country’s leading commodities market, is expected to launch after-hours trading before the end of the year, in a critical step to gain a foothold in global futures trading. The exchange will further boost its international ambitions by expanding the list of futures contracts in the coming years, including crude oil - one of the world’s most important commodities - said Yang Maijun, general manager of the exchange.
“We are actively making preparations and hope to roll out night trading this year,” Yang, a national legislator from Shanghai, said on the sidelines of the first session of the 12th National People’s Congress………………………………………..Full Article: Source

China has overtaken the US as the world’s largest net importer of oil, in a generational shift that will shake up the geopolitics of natural resources. US net oil imports dropped to 5.98m barrels a day in December, the lowest since February 1992, according to provisional figures from the US Energy Information Administration. In the same month, China’s net oil imports surged to 6.12m b/d, according to Chinese customs.
The US has been the world’s largest net importer of oil since the mid-1970s, shaping Washington’s foreign policy towards energy-rich countries such as Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Venezuela………………………………………..Full Article: Source

The new transaction tax on commodity trading is bad economics, as these columns have argued many times. There are substantial differences between the equity and commodity markets, including the fact that the latter is a pure hedging play.
Therefore, the “what’s fair for equity is alright for commodity” argument doesn’t apply. But having done the bad thing, the Budget did a semi-good thing. After decades of being treated as a vice, commodity trading has finally been officially declared respectable. The Budget says commodity futures trading will not be considered a speculative transaction……………………………………….Full Article: Source

Gold traders are divided on the outlook for prices, balancing central bank concern that more economic stimulus is needed against signs of recovering growth that spurred the longest run of monthly losses since 1997.
Fifteen analysts surveyed by Bloomberg expect prices to gain next week, while 14 were bearish and three were neutral. They were mostly negative the previous two weeks and evenly split the week before that. Bullion fell for a fifth straight month in February as investors sold the most metal ever from exchange-traded products, data compiled by Bloomberg show………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) will now be allowed to trade in the exchange-traded currency derivative segment. They will be able to participate to the extent of their Rupee exposure in India.
Besides presence in equities, FIIs engagement in India has also been growing in the debt market. FIIs have invested Rs 1.42 lakh crore in Indian debt instruments in the last five years (CY2008-12). In CY2013 so far, they have invested Rs 6,500 crore. So, they need to more avenues to hedge their currency risk………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Asia should work to develop a trading hub and facilitate the emergence of a market as well as prices that better reflect supply and demand, the chief of the International Energy Agency said.
Governments in the region need to work to allow markets to decide natural gas prices with minimal interference and through price deregulation, while also meeting institutional requirements to attract new market participants, IEA Executive Director Maria van der Hoeven said………………………………………..Full Article: Source

The oil & gas industry has experienced a good start to 2013 as improvements in the global economy has seen both the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) and OPEC raise their forecasts for global oil demand in 2013. The SPDR S&P Oil & Gas Exploration & Production ETF (XOP) has gained over 6 percent year-to-date.
The EIA has raised its 2013 growth forecasts by 110,000 barrels per day (bpd) to 1.05 million bpd in 2013. Global oil demand is now expected to total 90.2 million bpd this year. The increase follows a report from OPEC earlier in the week projecting oil demand to increase by 840,000 bpd, 80,000 bpd higher than its previous estimate. Prices for Brent crude have gained approximately 10 percent year-to-date hitting a 10-month high of over $118 a barrel………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Singapore is the most likely hub for trading liquefied natural gas and reducing the government interference that keeps Asia’s prices higher than anywhere else in the world, according to the International Energy Agency.
A new LNG terminal in Singapore, set to receive its initial cargo from Qatar in the first quarter, will serve a wide array of tankers and boost import capacity “far beyond” domestic consumption, the IEA said today in a report. The city-state, Asia’s oil-trading center, is also creating an example for Asia by unbundling transmission from other gas and power infrastructure and taking a “hands off” approach, according the IEA, an energy adviser to 28 nations………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Asia is on course to become the world’s second largest gas market, after North America, by 2015, a new report from the International Energy Agency says. Yet the future role of gas in Asia “will depend considerably on how the pricing of natural gas is tied to the fundamentals of supply and demand in the region,” said IEA Executive Director Maria van der Hoeven Tuesday as she released the “Developing a Natural Gas Trading Hub in Asia” report in Tokyo.
Natural gas trading in the region predominately relies on long-term contracts in which the price of gas is linked, or indexed, to that of oil………………………………………..Full Article: Source

A weaker than expected China growth number and finality on the Italian election is giving commodities new life. The market is rebounding on the thought that despite the efforts of Wen Jiabao to slow the housing market in China, perhaps not all economic stimuli will fall to the wayside.
Oil imports into China jumped 7.5 percent over one year ago levels. China’s manufacturing growth hit a four-month low in February, HSBC PMI hit 50.4 for the month, down from a final 52.3 in January. The figure was seasonally adjusted to take account of the Lunar New Year holiday that fell in the middle of the month………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Is liquidity-led commodity price boom coming to an end? This is a question everyone with exposure to markets is asking. Last week witnessed broad-based price declines across the global commodity markets, led by the precious and base metals.
Release of FOMC minutes was the trigger. The market participants interpreted the release of FOMC minutes as hawkish and expected liquidity injections to end sooner. An additional factor impacting commodities was the Chinese government announcement of measures to cool property markets………………………………………..Full Article: Source

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Gold futures prices are trading near steady in early U.S. dealings Friday. The market is pausing following the recent downside rout in prices that saw gold hit an 8.5-month low Thursday. The bears are still in near-term technical command in gold and silver markets.
The U.S. dollar index is slightly lower early Friday but is hovering near a three-month high. The U.S. dollar bulls have gained strong upside technical momentum recently, to suggest the dollar index has put in a market bottom and that prices can trend sideways to higher in the near term………………………………………..Full Article: Source

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The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries will increase shipments into next month as refiners in the U.S. and Europe prepare to start operating after seasonal maintenance, according to tanker tracker Oil Movements.
The group that supplies about 40 percent of the world’s oil will export 23.56 million barrels a day in the four weeks to March 9, up 90,000 barrels or 0.4 percent from the previous period, the researcher said today in an e-mailed report. The figures exclude Angola and Ecuador……………………………………Full Article: Source

Barclays forecast deficit for the palladium market remains sizable at 681koz for 2013, and the market is set to remain in deficit, should mined and recycled supply not be supplemented with stock releases.
“We retain our positive view on the palladium market and believe that it has the most constructive fundamentals across the precious metals” the report from Bank noted…………………………………….Full Article: Source

Despite great resource potential, government bureaucracy and local sensitivities have effectively stymied India’s bauxite/alumina expansions in the country.
It is likely that smelter production will move well ahead of domestic alumina availability requiring higher imports over the next several years, said Deutsche Bank in a report…………………………………….Full Article: Source

Commodities tumbled on Wednesday amid speculation a hedge fund had been forced to liquidate positions across metals and oil markets, and gold fell to more than a seven-month low on worries that the U.S. economic stimulus may soon dry up.
Already under pressure from ongoing concerns about global supply and demand, commodity markets tumbled in high volume trade just before 11 a.m. EST (1600 GMT), with oil and gasoline prices dropping about 2 percent each……………………………………Full Article: Source

The series of government measures to contain gold imports seems to have paid off. Gold shipments has fallen nine per cent to 860 tonnes last year against 969 tonnes in 2011, according to the World Gold Council.
While gold imports dipped, supply through recycled gold increased substantially as consumers made the most of sharp jump in prices. Domestic supply by way of recycled gold nearly doubled to 117 tonnes last year against 59 tonnes registered in the preceding year……………………………………Full Article: Source

Aluminum inventories in China’s main trading regions are estimated to have climbed to a record as supply growth outpaces demand in the largest user and producer, adding to a global glut of the lightweight metal.
Reserves expanded to 1.119 million metric tons from 750,000 tons a year ago, according to a survey of warehouses in four cities by data provider SMM Information & Technology Co. Stockpiles in six hubs including Shanghai increased to 1.156 million tons, according to Li Xun, an analyst at Myyouse.com, researcher Mysteel.com’s sister website, citing their survey……………………………………Full Article: Source

Commodity trading advisor funds have become an increasingly rewarding asset class, but their computer-driven strategies present a number of challenges to selectors.
Compared to other Alternative Ucits strategies, commodity trading advisor (CTA) funds have done well during the long and windy post-crisis period. Since 2007 they have maintained second place in terms of assets under management behind the long/short equity peer group and are now slowly gaining ground……………………………………Full Article: Source

Cleartrade Exchange, the Asian Regulated Futures Exchange, today launched its new Data Centre web portal. The CLTX Data Centre is the only free-to-market portal which consolidates market information for freight and commodity derivatives contracts.
The Data Centre combines daily data from major clearing houses, providing users with the ability to see daily traded lots and open interest figures for the whole market, on all delivery periods. In addition to this users are able to use a customisable charting and data export function to compare historical daily figures for individual or multiple delivery periods……………………………………Full Article: Source

A windfall from the sale of shares in the London Metal Exchange, acquired from collapsed broker MF Global, has helped swing the European arm of one of the world’s largest commodities brokerages into a profit.
INTL FCStone Europe Ltd, the London-based arm of commodities broker INTL FCStone, had been on track to post an operating loss of just over $7m for the 12 months ended December 31, according to accounts filed with Companies House last week……………………………………Full Article: Source

Anyone hoping the return of China to the trading fold after the week-long lunar new year holiday would invigorate the commodity sector will be disappointed by the price action of recent days. On Tuesday, copper led the industrial metals lower, sliding to a three-week trough near $3.67 a pound.
Trading Post last week highlighted how commodities had lagged behind the recent equity market rally. Again there is talk of the end of the resources supercycle. A hotly debated point……………………………………Full Article: Source

With India’s commodity trading volumes more than doubling through the past three years, many global commodity indices majors are now considering India one of the most promising markets for commodity indices trading.
S&P Dow Jones Indices (S&P DJI) feels the potential for commodities indices trading in the Indian market is immense. “India’s commodity market is growing big. More and more investors are now getting into commodities trading. We are looking at India and the entire Asia as a potential market for S&P indices,” said Daniel Ung, associate director (index research & design group), S&P DJI…………………………………….Full Article: Source

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Chinese commodity futures are positioned to fall Monday when the markets reopen following a broad drop in prices on international markets over the week-long holiday. The Thomson Reuters-Jefferies CRB index, which tracks prices across 19 commodity markets across the globe, fell about 1 percent last week, Reuters reported Friday.
The losses were especially heavy in the precious metals and crude oil markets. The most traded Comex gold contract fell about 1.6 percent Friday to settle the week down about 3.5 percent at $1,609.50 per ounce. The March silver contract lost 1.6 percent Friday to finish the week down about 5 percent at $29.85 per ounce………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Chinese consumers’ insatiable longing for gold is set to provide a strong push for local mines, as the country’s demand for the precious metal is expected to surpass supply by at least 550 metric tons by 2015, data from China Gold Association showed Saturday.
According to the latest statistics released by the organization, the nation bought a total of 832.18 tons of gold, 71.13 tons, or 9.35% more than in 2012……………………………………….Full Article: Source