Posted on 29 June 2010 by VRS | Email |Print
From Guardian: The gold price could smash new records as investors pile into bullion on fears of a worsening economic outlook. The spot price today flirted with the all-time high of $1,264.90 (£838.93) reached last week.
“Debt on government balance sheets and worries that the world could be heading towards a double-dip recession are driving the gold price higher,” says Charles Cooper at Oriel Securities……………………………………….Full Article: Source
Posted on 29 June 2010 by VRS | Email |Print
From Mineweb.co.za: Many market participants and commentators are obviously having a hard time distinguishing between a bull market and a bubble. More and more articles are referring to the imminent burst of the “gold bubble” and to an alleged “crowded trade”. But are the authors of these articles crying wolf?
The facts quickly put the fear-mongering into perspective. Currently some 0.8% of all global financial assets are invested in gold, gold shares, and ETFs……………………………………….Full Article: Source
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From Marketoracle.co.uk: Gold futures expire today, June 28th. If you follow the manipulation theories, it is just prior to expiration time, either in futures or options, that paper shorts increase their net short positions in order to manipulate precious metals (and stocks) downward.
This allows the manipulators to profit as the contracts they sold to unwitting investors expire worthless. The sudden drop in price also provides an opportunity for the shorts to cover their positions, profiting via paying back their creditors with lower priced gold or equities……………………………………….Full Article: Source
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From Commodityonline.com: Chins’s consumer gold demand is expected to rise in double digits annually as people get richer, said a senior manager at the World Gold Council today.
“We expect gold demand in China to grow faster than its economic growth each year,” said Albert Cheng, Far East managing director of the World Gold Council……………………………………….Full Article: Source
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From Mineweb.co.za: As global sovereign debt and large government deficits continue to influence the value of the major currencies, it appears that Britain is the first major western government to seriously address this problem. And, last week the British Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne, unveiled his ‘emergency’ budget austerity plans.
The most significant part of Osborne’s speech was the part about all the tax changes……………………………………….Full Article: Source
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From Theaureport.com: Silver is attracting investors betting on both faster and slower economic growth, as prices extend the longest run of quarterly gains in three decades.
Doubling as a store of value for buyers concerned about the economy and an industrial material for those bullish on growth, silver is outperforming metals from copper to zinc this year and keeping pace with gold……………………………………….Full Article: Source
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From Business-standard.com: The Indian appetite for silver is as legendary as it is for the more expensive precious metal gold. In fact, for both the metals, this country is counted as the world’s leading importer and user. Being a voluminous importer and at times surprising the world like in 2008, Indian moves have a significant bearing on world silver prices.
In the years since 2003, India’s silver imports have seen some major fluctuations. If the high point was reached in 2008 when imports totalled 160 million ounces, thanks largely to currency arbitrage inspired buying spurt in the second half, the next year saw imports dipping to 40 million ounces……………………………………….Full Article: Source
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From Hardassetsinvestor.com: Last week, I took a look at gold miners, and pointed out the volatility alligators lurking beneath what seemed like a simple precious metals play. This week, I thought I’d turn to a different kind of miner: copper miners.
I laid out a lot of the current fundamentals back in April, when it seemed that the classic inventory story for copper finally began making sense again. But for years now, the real macroeconomic story driving copper has been China. And, as Lara Crigger covered in her most recent podcast, the story is still China……………………………………….Full Article: Source
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From Msn.com: Environmental disasters, nationalisations, swinging prices and political disputes all point to one thing: the impending end of the age of oil.
BP’s ill-fated oil well is still pumping its contents into the Gulf of Mexico. Some analysts are even concerned that what was one of the FTSE 100’s biggest companies a few short months ago could go bankrupt……………………………………….Full Article: Source
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From AFP: OPEC urged the United States on Monday to reconsider legal moves and ditch a ban on deep-water drilling slapped on the oil industry in the wake of the Gulf of Mexico disaster.
“We should not really ban it and we should not jump to conclusions without serious study,” OPEC secretary general Abdullah al-Badri said after meeting with European Union energy chiefs in Brussels……………………………………….Full Article: Source
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From Agra-net.com: The International Energy Agency (IEA) in its Medium-Term Oil and Gas Markets outlook said biofuels production should grow to 2.4 mln barrels per day in 2015 from 1.6 mln in 2009.
2010 biofuels production was revised up by 55,000 barrels per day from the December 2009 forecast mainly due to sharp upward revisions in the United States, more favourable estimated biodiesel production in Europe and an upward revision to Chinese ethanol output carried through from 2008……………………………………….Full Article: Source
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From WSJ: Congressional Democrats are still struggling to come up with a plan for energy legislation in response to the Gulf oil spill and are looking to a bipartisan meeting with President Barack Obama on Tuesday to produce some clarity about trade-offs the White House favors.
For its part, the White House wants to know what Republicans would be willing to support……………………………………….Full Article: Source
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From Businessweek.com: European commissioners are in a holding pattern over whether to introduce a tax on carbon across the EU, a proposal that if backed by the EU executive could prove to be one of the most controversial and bitterly fought over pieces of legislation Brussels has mooted in years.
Under initial proposals by taxation commissioner Algirdas Semeta, from 2013, sources of greenhouse gases that are not currently covered by the EU’s flagship environmental endeavour, the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) – sectors such as agriculture, as well as transport and households – would see a flat, minimum fee of between €4 and €30 per tonne……………………………………….Full Article: Source
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From AP: Federal regulators on Monday paved the way for a second online exchange letting investors make bets on movies’ future box-office receipts, but the exchange said a congressional ban may force it to change its plans.
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission approved the proposed futures contracts for the new Cantor Futures Exchange. That allows the movie futures trading to proceed. The vote was 3-2. Two weeks ago, the agency also narrowly approved box-office futures contracts for the new Trend Exchange……………………………………….Full Article: Source
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From Reuters: The Tokyo Commodity Exchange said on Monday it would be willing to consider taking on futures trading in corn, soybeans and coffee from an ailing rival exchange but is not interested in its other products.
Local media have reported that TOCOM and the Tokyo Grain Exchange are looking to integrate as more signs emerge that the nation’s struggling commodities exchanges are seeking to streamline their operations. TOCOM has denied the reports……………………………………….Full Article: Source
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From Ameinfo.com: The Emirates Securities and Commodities Authority (SCA) has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the National Statistics Center (NSC) to boost cooperation between them in the areas of data collection, management and analysis, aimed at setting up and developing a nationwide national database of statistics.
H.E. Abdullah Al-Turifi, SCA Chief Executive Officer, signed the MoU for his side, while H.E. Rashid Khamis Al-Suwaidi, NSC Director General, also signed the agreement for his outfit during a ceremony attended by officials from both sides……………………………………….Full Article: Source
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From Etftrends.com: Last week, China announced that it would allow its currency to float. Analysts and investors were anticipating the news for quite some time, as evidenced by the dramatic inflow of cash to WisdomTree’s yuan exchange traded fund (ETF). But the yuan may not rise as much as people think.
The Economist reports that China decided to increase the flexibility of its currency. But the announcement was a bit vague, as it also pledged to keep the RMB exchange rate “stable at an adaptive and equilibrium level.”………………………………………Full Article: Source
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From Indexuniverse.com: State Street Global Advisors, the Boston-based fund sponsor of the SPDR family of ETFs, filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission to offer a new equities fund tracking the Standard & Poor’s Global Natural Resources Index, which has a lighter allocation to energy companies than one of the more popular ETFs it will compete against.
SSgA will enter a market of equity ETFs already occupied by iShares’ North American Natural Resources Sector Index Fund………………………………………Full Article: Source
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From MarketWatch: China is likely tracking more than a dozen currencies in addition to the U.S. dollar in setting the value of the yuan, though there’s no guarantee it will pay much heed to fluctuations apart from those of the greenback in setting the value of its currency, analysts say.
In a note Monday, Bank of America-Merrill Lynch economists headed by Ting Lu in Hong Kong cautioned that that “jury was still out” on whether Beijing will truly follow a basket-linked currency regime. Nevertheless, he offered estimates of the composition and weighting of the basket of currencies that China is using to set its daily trading range for the yuan……………………………………….Full Article: Source
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From BBC: China has set the exchange rate for the yuan at its highest level in five years, after previously saying it would make the currency more flexible.
The move follows the G20 summit in Toronto that took place over the weekend……………………………………….Full Article: Source
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From Theaustralian.com.au: China’s appetite for raw materials has again powered a strong commodity price recovery over the past financial year. This continues to offset the slump in Western economies.
Strong price gains across base metals and bulk materials were recorded for the 2009-10 fiscal year, with a 40 per cent jump in base metals prices, a 26 per cent gain in oil markets and an 82 per cent gain in the iron ore industry……………………………………….Full Article: Source
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From Busrep.co.za: Africa’s recent growth surge has come with the help of a commodity boom. But the surge in commodity prices is only part of the reason the continent’s gross domestic product (GDP) rose by 4.9 percent a year, between 2000 and 2008, more than twice its pace in the previous two decades.
According to a report, released last week by the McKinsey Global Institute (MGI), Africa’s economic growth surge was “widespread across countries and sectors and its roots extend far beyond the global commodity boom”……………………………………….Full Article: Source
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From Torontosun.com: G20 pledges to halve fiscal deficits within three years along with promises of stricter banking regulation to come did little to rally wary stock markets Monday, with some commentators saying the summit pointed more to disunity than global co-operation.
According to the final communiqué, the G20 acknowledges that there is no one-size-fits-all solution to the world’s economic problems and fiscal consolidation will be “differentiated to national circumstances.” Those with serious debt problems need to step up the pace, while Japan was given an exemption……………………………………….Full Article: Source
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