Speculators increased bets on a rally in commodities for a second consecutive week, just as prices tumbled into a bear market after the Federal Reserve refrained from expanding monetary stimulus.
Hedge funds and other money managers raised net-long positions across 18 U.S. futures and options by 7 percent to 628,560 contracts in the week ended June 19, Commodity Futures Trading Commission data show. That’s the highest in four weeks and the first consecutive gain since the end of February………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Positive news in the commodities markets has been sparse over the past six months. A raft of banks have scaled back their trading desks, while others, including Crédit Agricole, Santander and BBVA, have closed their commodity divisions altogether.
Amid this downsizing, however, pockets of opportunity remain. With a wider regulatory focus on risk mitigation, an increasing need for banks to differentiate their trading operations in a more concentrated market and a shift to automated execution, specialist risk management and technology vendors are reaping the rewards………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Commodities are now in a bear market – and they could have further to fall. Economic data last week from around the world have dampened the demand outlook for basic resources.
China’s export order sentiment is at its lowest point since the start of 2009, business activity in the eurozone has shrunk for five consecutive months and US manufacturing is growing at its slowest rate in 11 months………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Commodity markets may perform poorly in the third quarter, “given the macro economic environment and the European headwinds,” said a leading financial services provider TD Securities (TDS) in a snippet.
TDS continued that, “Poor demand for finished Chinese goods from Europe and increasingly the U.S., as well as a challenging domestic economic environment in China, will likely mean that commodity demand expectations will continue to weaken for a few months to come.”……………………………………….Full Article: Source

Commodities were mixed with industrial metals, precious metals and oil getting beaten down as fears of a slowdown in global consumption increased while agri commodities posted gains due to bad weather conditions.
Data, which showed that business confidence in Germany dropped to a two-year low, US manufacturing shrank and China’s factory sector contracted, saw crude oil and copper post their biggest declines since December………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Oil prices could slump as low as $US70 a barrel in the coming months as analysts warned of an impending “oil glut”. Prices for Brent crude, the European benchmark, have already fallen from $US120 to under $US90 a barrel in less than two months as the eurozone crisis deepens and concern about the global economy mounts.
The collapse will offer some much needed respite to motorists and energy bill-payers………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Oil traded below $80 a barrel in New York for a third day as Tropical Storm Debby moved away from oil rigs and natural-gas platforms in the Gulf of Mexico. Futures were little changed after advancing as much as 1.2 percent.
Debby shifted eastward, according to the National Hurricane Center, taking it away from offshore energy installations. Companies including ConocoPhillips, Anadarko Petroleum Corp. and BP Plc had shut about 23 percent of output in the Gulf, the U.S. Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement said………………………………………..Full Article: Source

There may be little reason to hope the Rio+20 meeting in Brazil will lead to major global action against climate change. World leaders have skipped it. The draft agreement the delegates from 190 countries have written is rightly criticised as weak.
Yet it turns out that one specific climate challenge - how to eliminate subsidies for fossil fuels such as oil, gas and coal - is attracting extraordinary interest, and might at least inspire countries to take small but significant steps toward reducing greenhouse-gas emissions………………………………………..Full Article: Source

“Gold price plummets” is the obvious headline right now. But fact is, the gold price has in truth been surprisingly strong so far this year.
First up, the US gold futures and options market. These contracts rarely run to physical settlement, but still they wag the dog of physical prices near-term. Because the price of gold for future delivery of course affects how much people ask or bid for metal today………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Global commodity prices have fallen rapidly in recent days with no exception. Crude, base metals and precious metals prices have moved south, triggering some kind of a panic in the market with participants wondering whether the world is moving towards a 2008 type situation.
As an expert commented, the speed and extent of the recent price falls suggest that market participants may be expecting a severe deterioration in the macroeconomic outlook………………………………………..Full Article: Source

While everybody’s gushing about the returns gold has delivered over the past four years, it’s the yellow metal’s poorer cousin that has been winning the race. Silver prices have jumped from Rs 16,525 per kg in 2008 to Rs 75,020 per kg in 2011, a gain of 354%.
However, over the past few months silver prices have dropped to a more affordable level of Rs 54,000 per kg. Does this mean the potential in silver is already exhausted?……………………………………….Full Article: Source

On the back of healthy demand, rise in input costs and hike in excise duty, steel prices are likely to go up by 5.7 per cent this fiscal, according to economic think tank CMIE.
“We expect steel companies to undertake further round of price hikes in the coming months of 2012-13 on the back on healthy demand, rise in input costs and hike in excise duty,” Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) said………………………………………..Full Article: Source

In its worst weekly performance in the past nine months, the Indian rupee declined 3% and eventually closed at a record 57.15 against the dollar on Friday. Almost inevitably, the focus is back on the Reserve Bank of India (RBI); and, if outgoing finance minister Pranab Mukherjee’s bluster is to be believed, there will be some serious policy action today from the central bank that will restore the rupee’s mojo.
While this may or may not be true, it is evident that RBI has been taking several steps, including in its mid-quarter monetary policy review, that suggest it has kept the exchange rate in focus………………………………………..Full Article: Source

The largest emerging markets, whose economies grew more than four-fold in the past decade, are making losers out of everyone from central bankers to Procter & Gamble Co. (PG) as their currencies post the biggest declines since at least 1998.
For the first time in 13 years, the real, ruble and rupee are weakening the most among developing-nation currencies, while the yuan has depreciated more than in any other period since its 1994 devaluation………………………………………..Full Article: Source

America’s chokehold on Iran’s oil trade is tightening. New sanctions that come into force on June 28th attempt to turn off Iran’s $95 billion-a-year oil trade, and stop the flow of funds into its nuclear programme.
The way the rules work shows how controlling the dollar strengthens America’s grip. The way China has responded shows the limits of these efforts………………………………………..Full Article: Source