China’s cooling economic growth will cap gains in commodities’ prices and temper the roaring earnings performance of mining companies. But easier credit and fresh spending on infrastructure will likely drive a strong medium-term outlook.
Soft manufacturing data last week coupled with warnings about economic risks by two of China’s most influential government think-tanks have shaken confidence in the strength of commodities demand in the world’s No. 2 economy, hammering miners’ shares and pulling oil and base metals prices lower………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Investors pared bullish commodity bets on signs of slowing growth in China and as Goldman Sachs Group Inc. cut its recommendation on raw materials. Hedge funds and other money managers reduced combined net- long positions across 18 U.S. futures and options by 1.8 percent to 1.14 million contracts in the week ended March 27, Commodity Futures Trading Commission data show.
Bullish wagers on hogs fell the most, dropping 31 percent to the lowest since June, while those on gold had the biggest gain, rising 15 percent, the largest increase since the end of January………………………………………..Full Article: Source

OPEC oil output has risen in March to its highest since October 2008 as higher supply from Iraq and further recovery in Libya’s production offset a drop in shipments from Iran, a Reuters survey found on Friday.
Supply from the 12 members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries has averaged 31.26 million barrels per day (bpd), up from 31.16 million bpd in February, the survey of sources at oil companies, OPEC officials and analysts found………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Although there have been no serious threats to global supplies since the Arab uprisings started more than one year ago, a new study predicts that oil prices will remain volatile as political developments combine with global economic gloom, and surviving regimes spend to pacify populations.
The report titled ‘The Arab Uprisings and the International Oil Markets’ has been authored by Professor Paul Stevens who is Senior Research Fellow, Energy, Environment and Development Programme at the Chatham House, a prestigious UK think-tank………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Oil prices in the first quarter advanced further from last year’s elevated levels, providing a lift for GCC economies but a potential threat to the global economic recovery.
The spectre of Iran loomed large after the United States and the European Union burdened Opec’s second-largest producer with a new round of sanctions designed to stifle oil exports………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Probably well-intentioned but always ineffective oil saving plans, schemes and notions are reaching the limit of their low effectiveness, a rising number of indicators suggest.
In a week where newswires tell the story of French election-oriented attempts by the outgoing Sarkozy government to persuade the IEA’s main powerbrokers to release oil stocks, and shave a few cents off the price of car fuel in time for Sarkozy’s re-election bid, this is schizophrenically opposed by the same French government. It is pressurizing other EU governments to further tighten their oil embargoes on Iran………………………………………..Full Article: Source

The big debate in global financial market circles last week was not whether there was a case for additional quantitative easing but whether there will be further quantitative easing by the US Federal Reserve.
There are no easy answers; yet, the Fed Chairman, Mr Ben Bernanke’s averment about monetary policy – “stronger economic growth would be needed to reduce the US unemployment and that such growth can be supported by continued accommodative policies”- is important pointer to the option available. The comments have been interpreted as dovish………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Comex gold futures edged higher on Friday on the back of a weaker dollar and window dressing towards the quarter-end. Bullion garnered support as the dollar fell to one-month low against a basket of currencies, including the euro, after European finance ministers agreed to boost the Euro zone’s debt crisis firewall to roughly €800 billion .
Last year worries over the potential spread of the Euro zone debt crisis helped drive gold to record highs, but the metal has since re-established its usual inverse relationship with the dollar. ……………………………………….Full Article: Source

Contrarian investors everywhere often look to 52 Week Rolling Low Lists for buying opportunities. This is a strategy fraught with considerable risk, as even if the market sentiment is wrong about a particular stock or sector, buying into a company on a downward trajectory can lead to an investment that keeps falling and falling.
Early in this trading week the 52 Week Rolling Low list included 13 Junior Miners with seven of them qualifying as pure play gold miners………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Gold investors have had to endure quite a lot in the last six months. Not only has the gold price barely moved from six months ago, but it has endured an up, down, up, down chopping motion during this period of volatility.
Future volatility in the gold price was something that some investors were calling for at the beginning of 2011, and volatility we got. During the last six months, this most psychological of markets, has endured all sorts of emotional squeezes, take downs and Buffett’s now regular wise cracks………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Zurich based UBS bank has cut their 2012 gold forecast by 18% owing to improved indications of US recovery. 2012 gold prices is now expected to average $1680/oz as against the previous forecast of $2050/oz.
“The view that the U.S. economic recovery is looking more sustainable is becoming increasingly accepted. Gold is at risk, for it needs persistent inflows of investor money to keep it on its upward trajectory”, BBS states in a report while adding that the $2050/oz estimate is now considered an aggressive target………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Around this point in the fractal cycle in the late 70’s, Gold bust out of its channel to rise sharply higher, along with Silver. Silver’s channel top will lie up around $68 to $70 over the coming months which we believe will be reached in 2012.
The next higher angled resistance bands for Silver run from $112 to $115, and then up at the $123 area. By the end of the Silver Bull, we expect to see Silver reach $500+………………………………………..Full Article: Source

The most influential countries in the world are joining forces to (try to) act against the recently announced rare earth element (REE) export restrictions by China. In other words: the decade-long risk of a REE shortage has finally become public reality recently.
Over the last months China has stopped granting new REE exploration and mining permits to foreign resource companies and increased its export quotas for domestically produced REE that (apparently) is urgently/strategically required for its own consumption/future………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Aluminum should continue to outpace other base metals in 2012-13, despite softer demand for the past two quarters, said BNP Paribas, a Paris based global banking group.
According to the commodity research note, the metal will also be affected by probable slower Chinese growth in 2012-13, not least due to the depressed housing market………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Investors should never be fooled into trading an exchange traded fund based solely on its moniker, lest they discover some nasty surprises down the line. While their moniker may give a sense of the what the investment covers, individuals will still need to do some homework on their part before diving in.
If properly understood, misleading ETFs can be effectively utilized like any other fund, writes Vedran Vuk, Senior Analyst at Casey Research, in a special report. Like the saying goes, “don’t judge a book by its cover.”……………………………………….Full Article: Source

Asian currencies rose this quarter, led by India’s rupee and the ringgit, as the world’s fastest economic growth attracted funds to regional assets. Stock markets in South Korea, India and Taiwan together attracted some US$24bil of overseas funds this year, exchange data show.
Asia’s developing economies will expand 7.3% this year, outpacing growth of 3.6% in Latin America and 1.8% in the United States, according to International Monetary Fund projections published in January. The euro-area is forecast to contract 0.5%………………………………………..Full Article: Source

When the euro was being created, the economics profession split into three groups — enthusiasts, opponents and realists — that predicted wildly different costs and benefits for the project.
By 2007, when the young currency was thriving, the enthusiasts declared a premature victory. Now it’s the turn of the opponents, and they are, of course, wrong………………………………………..Full Article: Source

As the first quarter of 2012 comes to a close, we take a look at the winners and losers during the first three months. It was a quarter that was driven by geopolitical risk, sovereign debt worries and contradicting signs on the economic progress of different regions, said Saxo Bank in a quarterly commodity research note.
While the US stock market roared ahead - regaining pre-Lehman levels in the process - Europe was left in the doldrums and Asian economies began to worry about the implications of an increasingly visible Chinese slowdown, they added………………………………………..Full Article: Source