Glencore reported “robust” trading in the first quarter, reassuring investors with its view of broadly healthy demand for the commodities it mines, farms and drills, in a week when renewed fears over Europe’s debt crisis dominate markets.
The world’s largest diversified commodities trader, which spans oil, grains and metals, gave no profit or revenue numbers in the statement, published ahead of its maiden shareholder meeting on Wednesday………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Rio Tinto Ltd, one of the world’s largest mining companies, told investors today that it was slightly more confident about the outlook for commodities demand.
Chairman Jan du Plessis said short-term volatility was expected, but the company was well prepared to weather this. “Overall, we are somewhat more confident than six months ago,” Mr du Plessis told the company’s annual shareholders meeting in Brisbane………………………………………..Full Article: Source

China’s impact on world commodity markets was rising, but remained smaller than that of the US, International Monetary Fund economist Shaun Roache said in a working paper.
The views expressed in the working paper (WP) were those of the author and did not necessarily represent those of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) or IMF policy. WPs describe research in progress by the author and are published to elicit comments and to further debate………………………………………..Full Article: Source

A U.S. lawmaker called on the White House this week to eliminate what he said was a “disturbing connection” between U.S. energy demands and violence in the Middle East. New Englanders get about 20 percent of their liquefied natural gas from Yemen, where al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula is a grave security concern.
In Yemen, AQAP was blamed for a series of attacks on oil and natural gas pipelines. In the United States, it’s tried at least twice to strike a major blow……………………………………….Full Article: Source

Increasingly, a long U.S. Natural Gas ETF (UNG) and/or short U.S. Oil ETF (USO) position is appearing attractive. I often trade both, along with their options.
Like all ETFs, UNG and USO have inescapable administration and transaction costs eating away at longer-term returns. With the use of options, I am able to mitigate risk and take advantage of time decay. When I position into UNG, I either sell covered calls or write put options. My risk is lower and my odds of success are greater………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Gold dropped below $1,600 an ounce in heavy trading o n W ednesday, nearly wiping out gains for 2012 as political uncertainty in Greece and Spanish bank worries prompted investors to sell bullion for a third straight daily decline.
The precious metal was down more than 3 percent so far this week on European debt fears due to a change in the French presidency, the frail state of Spanish banks and political gridlock in Greece……………………………………….Full Article: Source

Dollar Gold Bullion prices dropped to a four month low of $1581 per ounce in Wednesday morning’s London trading – 3.7% down on the week so far – while stocks and commodities also fell and US Treasuries gained, with Greek uncertainty continuing to cast a shadow over markets.
A day earlier, gold fell below $1600 for the first time since early January. “Gold seemed to know only one direction today – down,” says Tuesday’s note from Swiss precious metals group MKS………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Global gold prices declined below the $1,600 an ounce mark for the first time since January. The last time it went below the the strong resistance level was on January 5, this year when gold prices closed at $1,597.70 an ounce.
COMEX benchmark gold contract was trading at $1,587.40 an ounce today mainly affected by a sell off across markets pressurised by the looming Eurozone debt crisis………………………………………..Full Article: Source

U.S. economist, Nouriel Roubini, has gained a great, largely self-promoted, following from his prediction of the 2007/8 global market and U.S. housing crash. In this he was hardly alone, but somehow seems to have cornered the market in accolades for his supposedly remarkable prescience!
But, since then many of his prognostications have been so far from reality that he is perceived by some as more of a laughing stock than a great seer. His saving grace though is, that given time - maybe a decade or so - some of these predictions will undoubtedly come true………………………………………..Full Article: Source

In a trading pattern that has become all too familiar, almost the minute the US session began on Comex Tuesday, the price of gold was sold down by almost $40 an ounce to trade at a five month low of around the $1600 an ounce.
Yet the fundamentals for gold remain extremely bullish and there were two new major pieces of market news that investors would normally consider as rather bullish. And, this is in addition to the deteriorating crisis in the Eurozone that should have seen a flight out of capital into gold………………………………………..Full Article: Source

I believe most investors and savers should hold up to 10% of their investible assets and personal savings in physical gold and for some high-net-worth investors a greater percentage allocation to gold may be appropriate.
First, it provides a form of financial insurance should unforeseen economic or political events diminish the value or liquidity of your ordinary equity, fixed income, or real estate assets. This alone is sufficient reason to allocate up to 10% of one’s investments and savings to physical gold……………………………………….Full Article: Source

The break under $1,600 an ounce for gold may finally attract buyers to the yellow metal, freshening the recent stale price action seen lately, said Edel Tully, precious metals strategist at UBS.
Although the European sovereign debt risks, less-than-stellar U.S. economic data and removal of the Indian excise duty can spur buying, Tully says price appeal might be the biggest variable among these factors………………………………………..Full Article: Source

The midweek trading session in New York opened to and continued to witness additional long liquidation among holders of gold, silver, platinum, and palladium positions. The US dollar’s vault to above the 80.00 mark on the trade-weighted index and the euro’s slippage to under the pivotal $1.30 level stoked the bears.
They lost no time in pouncing on the already weakened prey and they clawed their way to much lower price levels right at the opening bell………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Copper futures rose on Thursday, bouncing off the previous session’s three-week lows as some Chinese investors took advantage of the dip in prices to cover short positions and restock.
Chinese data this week, including trade data later in the session, will likely show the economy has bottomed out as inflation slows and output picks up, which will ease concerns about slowing demand from the world’s top copper user………………………………………..Full Article: Source

World copper markets will probably turn into surplus in 2013, a latest report by the International Copper Study Group (ICSG) states. Copper has been in deficit for 2011.
As per the ICSG, refined copper production growth is estimated to be at a lower 2.5% compared to mine production growth of 5.1%. The lower refined copper production is expected to be the result of a shortage of copper concentrate. As the availability of concentrate increases, refined copper production is seen to grow by 6.9% in 2013………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Fighting back against the widespread notion that speculation has driven commodity and in particular oil prices, the Investment Company Institute on Wednesday released a study showing that fundamentals rather than fund flows drive commodity prices.
The study tested emerging market industrial production growth and commodity mutual fund flows against commodity prices, as measured by the Dow Jones-UBS Commodity index……………………………………….Full Article: Source

French bank Natixis said it plans to close its commodities trading division, as one of the oldest ringdealing members of the London Metal Exchange becomes the latest victim of the European debt crisis.
The bank had “wound up” Natixis Commodities Markets (NCM), which offers derivatives on a range of metals, fuels and commodities as part of its CIB adaptation plan, the bank said in its earnings statement on Wednesday………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Options traders are the least bearish on Asian currencies versus the dollar in a year as confidence builds that China will avoid a so-called hard landing, helping lure funds as Europe’s debt crisis deepens.
The premium charged for the right to sell China’s yuan in a month over contracts to buy the currency, known as the risk- reversal rate, was 15 basis points yesterday, down from 64 basis points at the end of last year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg………………………………………..Full Article: Source