Commodities fell to nearly two-year lows last week, measured by a widely used benchmark, prompting investors to ponder whether the massive rally that began in 1999 may be faltering.
China is cooling down at the same time the U.S. is struggling to heat up, clouding the outlook for the world’s two biggest consumers. And producers of some raw materials have ramped up supplies enough to create at least temporary gluts, particularly if appetites falter………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Speculators cut bets on a rally in commodities by the most since November as Greece’s struggle to form a new government and weaker-than-expected industrial output in China erased this year’s gains in raw materials.
Money managers reduced net-long positions across 18 U.S. futures and options by 19 percent to 723,239 contracts in the week ended May 8, the biggest decline since Nov. 22, Commodity Futures Trading Commission data show. The Standard & Poor’s GSCI Spot Index of 24 raw materials dropped 6.5 percent in eight sessions, the longest slide since December 2008………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Asia-Pacific faces another year of slowing growth as demand for its exports falls in developed countries and capital cost rises, according to latest United Nations projections, which nonetheless show optimism as the region will remain the anchor of global economic stability.
Commodity price volatility with the long term outlook of an upward trend is another major concern for the region, says the Economic and Social Survey of Asia and the Pacific 2012: Pursing shared prosperity in an era of turbulence and high commodity prices, the flagship publication of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP), which is based in Bangkok, Thailand………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Consumers understandably like to see prices for commodities decline, the more the merrier, particularly gasoline and energy costs. Many analysts also take commodity price declines as a positive for the economy, on the theory that consumers will have more spending money in their pockets, and manufacturers will have lower costs, so hopefully greater earnings.
Investors tend to also take declining commodity prices as a positive for the stock market on the same reasoning………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Commodities fell for an eighth straight session, wiping out gains for the year, after data from Asia showed a further slowdown in industrial output and JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) said that it had a $2 billion trading loss.
The Standard & Poor’s GSCI Spot Index of 24 commodities posted its longest slump since December 2008 and dropped to 640.46, the lowest since Dec. 22. The measure fell 0.8 percent to settle at 642.58 at 3:53 p.m., down 0.4 percent since Dec. 31………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Investors fear a battering from renewed storms in the eurozone. How can they avoid losing money in the turmoil?
British investors should be braced for another disappointing summer, experts have warned, as a combination of poor economic growth at home and renewed concerns about the financial stability of the eurozone threatens to blow their investments off course again………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Hedge funds and big speculators made the biggest-ever cuts in their bullish bets on oil, according to weekly regulatory data on Friday that will put a new perspective on the market’s sudden price rout late last week.
Money managers slashed their net long futures and options positions in the major US crude oil contracts to nearly their lowest since 2010, cutting them by 81,674 lots in the week to May 8, a drop of more than one-third, the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s (CFTC) data showed. At current prices, that’s a decline of nearly $8-billion worth of oil contracts………………………………………..Full Article: Source

That’s according to research from analysts at Standard & Poor’s, the credit rating agency. It argues that the health of the oil exporting GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) economies is better now than in 2008/09 at the height of the global credit crunch even though the sovereign debt crisis in Europe continues to rage on.
So although oil prices may have fallen USD 10 from their recent peaks, there needn’t be any panic that oil is going to crash, according to the research………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Top crude exporter Saudi Arabia wants an oil price of around $100 a barrel and would like to see global inventories rise before demand picks up in the second half of the year, oil minister Ali al-Naimi said on Sunday.
International Brent crude settled at $112.26 on Friday, well off a peak of over $128 in March. Brent has mostly traded above $100 since early 2011, keeping fuel costs high and threatening to damage a fragile global economy………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Global trade would be profoundly affected if crude prices permanently doubled from current historic high of $113 a barrel.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has been warned by its internal research team that there could be a permanent doubling of oil prices in the coming decade with profound implications for global trade………………………………………..Full Article: Source

The oil price has tumbled over the past two weeks as global stocks rose and concerns about eurozone debt and Chinese growth mounted. So, for oil investors, is it a case of sell in May and go away?
The macro data certainly supports this view. A statement last week from the Opec oil cartel noted that oil production by member states was more than 8pc ahead of what was needed in the second quarter. It is no surprise the price has been falling………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Iraq, seeking to more than double oil output by 2015, is poised to overtake Iran as OPEC’s second- largest producer by the end of the year as sanctions hobble crude production in its Persian Gulf neighbor.
Iraq is pumping at the highest rate since Saddam Hussein seized power in 1979, supported by foreign investors such as Exxon Mobil Corp. and BP Plc (BP/) that are developing new fields and reworking older deposits………………………………………..Full Article: Source

OPEC got some great news lately, Chinese growth is cooling to a ‘cow like’ 8.2% rather than the bullish 8.5% analysts had previously expected for 2012. For oil fundamentals that’s pretty important: Brent has dropped to $112/b. Confused? Don’t be.
OPEC would normally be more than happy to maximise receipts to keep prices as high as possible, but even its most vocal members were getting worried they were pushing their luck this time. Prices reached nominal euro / sterling highs in March, and it was hardly a well-kept secret on the trading floors of London that the Saudis had lost control of the market………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Industrial metals have ended a bumpy week on a lower note. Prices for copper, silver, palladium and platinum all fell Friday after new data showed China’s economy continued to slow in April. In particular, industrial production expanded less than expected.
The National Bureau of Statistics said China’s industrial production expanded 9.3 percent last month compared with a 12 percent increase in March. Investment also slowed more than expected………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Gluskin Sheff chief economist David Rosenberg says gold will hit $3,000 as global stock markets are repeating the downturns of 2010 and 2011 and it is time to search for safety.
There’s a “very good opportunity in gold” as it has corrected and seems to be “off the radar screen right now,” Rosenberg tells the Financial Times. Gold traded late Friday at about $1,584………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Gold prices are set for a 12th consecutive year of gains despite volatility, with investor demand likely to be spurred by unfolding euro zone sovereign debt crisis, a senior official of the World Gold Council (WGC) said on Thursday.
“We believe this will be the 12th year of a bull run by the end of this year,” Marcus Grubb, managing director for investment at the industry-funded WGC, said………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Barclays Capital has cutback on their price projections for precious metals like gold and platinum as both these have been behaving like risk assets, the bank’s latest report says.
“While the macro backdrop remains positive, gold has behaved closer to risky assets rather than differentiating itself as a safe-haven asset”, the bank states while lowering gold price forecast for 2012 to $1716/oz . Platinum has also been forecasted lower at $1622/oz. Gold is also being weighed down by political uncertainty and a fragile physical market, the report added………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Canadian uranium producers (URA) can now compete with Kazakhstan, Australia and Russia to sell uranium to China. Canada produces about 20% of the world’s uranium and exports over 80% of annual production. The fast growing nuclear industry has never been open to China and will create a boom in the Athabasca Basin for uranium explorers.
This deal will allow Cameco (CCJ), the largest publicly traded uranium company to deliver 52 million pounds of uranium to China by 2025. The contract is worth about $2.5 billion in sales. China is hungry for nuclear with dozens of reactors planning to be built over the next 10-15 years………………………………………..Full Article: Source

In recent years, gold has become arguably the most popular commodity from an investing perspective, and with good reason. Gold and the funds that track it have provided some massive returns for traders and investors all around the globe.
But that popularity got especially heated in 2010 and the first half of 2011, as gold featured a meteoric rise to eclipse the $1,900 /oz. level with the financial world buzzing about what appeared to be the best investment at the time……………………………………….Full Article: Source

The Australian Exchange Traded Fund market has edged towards an all time highest recorded value with funds under management reaching $5.4bn last month, according to BetaShares’ April Australian ETF Review.
According to the review, $7 million of new money flowed into Australian Exchange Traded Fund (ETF) market last month with a continuing trend being the gradual shift between competing products as investors conduct their due diligence and look for similar beta exposures at lower costs………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Nigerian president Goodluck Jonathan and Eleni Z. Gabre Madhin (PhD), Chief Executive Officer of the Ethiopian Commodity Exchange (ECX), signed a Memorandum of Understanding on how to establish a commodity exchange in Nigeria after the Ethiopian model, according to the Reporter.
Signed yesterday at ECX’s office, the MoU stipulates that ECX would provide the assistance and the model for the Nigerian Commodity Exchange to be effective in a year’s time………………………………………..Full Article: Source

The British pound has become currency traders’ favorite refuge from the resurgent European debt crisis, threatening efforts by U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron to lift the economy out of its second recession in three years.
Sterling has climbed 3.4 percent this year, the most among 10 developed-market peers, data compiled by Bloomberg show………………………………………..Full Article: Source

In the 1990s, as they prepared to launch the euro, the continent’s political leaders said they couldn’t imagine a Europe without Athens or go forward without the glory of Rome.
While some finance ministers and many economists around the continent worried whether the fiscal policies and economic cultures of more than a dozen countries could be united under one currency, politicians answered forcefully — even poetically………………………………………..Full Article: Source

The leaders of China, Japan and South Korea agreed to start negotiations this year on a free-trade accord between three of Asia’s four biggest economies.
China’s Premier Wen Jiabao, Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda and South Korea President Lee Myung Bak met in Beijing yesterday as their trade ministers signed an investment agreement described as the “first legal document on trilateral cooperation in the economic field.”……………………………………….Full Article: Source