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China Forecast: Cloudy With A Chance Of Rain By Chris Mayer 09/06/11 Gaithersburg, Maryland – Remember the phrase “Buy what China needs to buy”? It was a good thesis for us for years. I dipped the ladle into this idea bowl often. And the stocks of producers of potash, oil, iron ore and other stuff from the earth did well. But the tides of fortune ebb and flow. Will these commodities be good investments from here? First, let me state again what every investor in commodities everywhere should know by now: China is your biggest buyer. Take a look at...

Why Food For Fuel Is A Terrible Idea By Jonathan Chen Benzinga Staff Writer September 02, 2011 12:17 PM Pretty soon, corn will be more valuable than a barrel of oil. There is an article on Bloomberg Government from last month that still holds true today. (Gasp! Something written more than 30 seconds ago still holds true?) It is a sad fact that the U.S. is using corn almost as much as Saudi oil as fuel in this country. The "food for fuel" idea has been around for a long time, and it has been seen as a bailout of...

Gold Jumps To Highest Level In 9 Days Gus Lubin | Sep. 2, 2011, 5:32 AM Remember gold $1900? Gold took a $20 jump this morning on its way to the highest level since Aug. 24. The metal was at record levels as recently as Aug. 22 before slipping.

August 27 2011: Et tu, Commodities?August 27,2011 Detroit Publishing Co. Apocalypse Then April 18, 1906 "Looking up Market Street from near Ferry", San Francisco in the aftermath of the earthquake and fire Stoneleigh: Our most consistent theme here at The Automatic Earth has been the developing deflationary environment and the knock-on effects that will follow as a result. Now that the rally from March 2009 appears to be well and truly over, it is time to revisit aspects of the bigger picture, in order for people to prepare for a full-blown liquidity crunch. October 2007-March 2009 was merely a taster....

Hedge Higher Food Prices By Investing In Corn Commodities / Agricultural Commodities Aug 25, 2011 - 06:55 AM By: Money Morning David Zeiler writes: A smaller-than-expected U.S. fall harvest, combined with strong demand, has sown the seeds of higher corn market prices. That will inflate your grocery bill, but it's also an investing opportunity that should persist into next year according to some experts. The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) recently reduced its forecast for the fall corn crop to 12.9 billion bushels from 13.5 billion based on damage from spring flooding and summer drought in several key corn-producing...

Gold Tumbles Back To $1,825 Mamta Badkar Aug. 23, 2011, 4:27 PM Gold futures are down just over 3.22% ending a rally that saw gold prices soar to $1,900 an ounce. The drop was attributed in part to a bounce back in equities and profit-booking.

GOLD $1900 Gus Lubin Aug. 22, 2011, 5:16 PM Update: Gold hit the new record at $1,900.75. Now read why Wells Fargo say this stunning rise does not look like a bubble.

Think Gold Price Is Not Manipulated? Think Again! Commodities / Gold and Silver 2011 Aug 12, 2011 - 07:27 AM By: George Maniere On Wednesday August 17th the CME came out with an announcement that they would be raising margin rates on the purchase of future contracts on gold. They reported that this was an effort on their part to cool off the price of gold which has enjoyed a parabolic run since August 1st. They said that there would be more rate hikes to protect gold from becoming a bubble. When I read this I laughed at the arrogance...

First, the bad news - China's constrained rare earth supplies will be an "irreversible trend" and prices will remain at high levels, according to Zhang Zhong, general manager of Inner Mongolia Baotou Steel Rare-Earth Hi-Tech Co. Zhang should know, as his concern is China’s leading rare earths producer – the Baatou mine produces more than 95 percent of China’s production, while Chinese mines currently account for 97 percent of global supplies. The increase in global demand for rare earth metals has sent prices soaring in world markets. According to the China Nonferrous Metals Industry Association, since January rare earth metal...

As I type this, the Dow is down over 600 points. Gold shot from $1,660 on Sunday to $1,717 currently, while silver dropped last Friday to $38.32, then up to above $40 on Sunday, and has dropped today down to $38.94 currently. What's driving the whipsaw pricing on silver? Thoughts were Friday's downturn was driven by forced sales of silver investors needing to cover other positions, then Sunday saw overseas markets drive price back above $40. Is today's market slide causing more forced silver sales to cover other positions today, or are there other dynamics at work? I read earlier...

Gov. Nikki Haley signed a new bill known as the Copper Theft Bill that makes several changes to the current law regarding the sale and purchase of copper. Under the new law, anyone who intends to transport and sell any non-ferrous metal, including copper and catalytic converters, to a scrap metal dealer must first obtain a free permit from the sheriff in the county where the seller lives. There are two types of permits available to the public: one is a one-year permit and the other is a 48-hour permit. To obtain the one-year permit, a person must submit an...

$1600 Joe Weisenthal Jul. 18, 2011, 4:34 AM Congratulations to gold, which has broken over $1600, for a new, nominal all-time high. Meanwhile, silver is back above $40, as the world races out of paper money ahead of looming disasters in the US or Europe.

Barack Obama is today preparing to re-enter talks with Republicans as the two sides battle to reach an agreement in the ongoing debt ceiling crisis. Fuming lawmakers pointed fingers at one another and Obama on Thursday as negotiations over raising the national debt limit entered a perilous endgame. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke warned of economic damage, and an anxious Wall Street envisioned catastrophe if the U.S. defaulted on its obligations. In the build up to today's meeting, Moody's ratings agency yesterday said that the U.S. could lose its top credit rating in coming weeks if a stand-off between the...

Felix Zulauf: The Secular Bear Market Will Last Another 5 Years Cullen Roche, Pragmatic Capitalism Jul. 11, 2011, 7:29 AM Good thoughts here by Felix Zulauf of Zulauf Asset Management (thanks to Barry Ritholtz). Zulauf believes the global economy remains in a deep contraction that has been only papered over by government spending. But he sees austerity setting in now and now contributing to the decline in growth. He predicts another 5 years in the secular bear market with the S&P 500 dropping to 500 by the middle of the decade. Additional summary: * Austerity measures cannot work in a...

Gary Shilling: Commodities "Show Every Sign" Of Being A Bursting BubbleJoe Weisenthal July 3, 2011, 7:36 AM The final segment of Gary Shilling's big essay on Chinese hard landing argues that the inevitable bust will end in tears for the global commodity industry. Already, he says, commodities "show every sign" of being in a bubble zooming towards burst. His points are as follows: Every global commodity has been on a tear, but much of that has been driven by speculators, firm in their belief of inexhaustible demand from China. But already, despite warnings about supply tightness, there are reports of...

Gold And Oil Getting Killed Right Now, As Oil Falls Over 4% Since Bernanke Declared Deflation Dead Joe Weisenthal Jun. 23, 2011, 8:41 AMThe latest: The IEA just announced that they are releasing oil stocks due to continued instability in Libya. Read about it here> Earlier: Yesterday at around 2, Bernanke declared deflation dead. Today oil is getting killed following those weak Jobless claims. It's now fallen over 4% since then. Gold is also getting killed: It's off $30/oz! Things were already negative, and that was before that bad initial claims report. From FinViz, a chart of oil:

The Associated Press in a story posted on Yahoo News today headlined “Bernanke urges GOP to support raising debt ceiling” Look this is not that complicated for those who have and are willing to use just a little of the common sense that GOD has given them. Raising the debt ceiling will do nothing without cutting and I mean real cutting. If all we do is raise the limits all we are doing is kicking the can down the road and putting our children’s future at more risk. If I was irresponsible and continually over spent and kept going to...

Small business owners have a grim outlook on the economy, with a gathering number planning to reduce jobs over the next three months, according to survey results from an industry group. The percentage of independent businesses planning to increase employment in the next three months fell to 13% in May, compared to 16% in April and 18% in March, according to the National Federation of Independent Business. At the same time, the percentage of small businesses planning to reduce their work force has increased to 8% in May, compared to 6% in the month before, the group said. The group...

Back in November, when gold was priced $200 lower and the Federal Reserve was about to embark on a second round of asset purchases, Capital Hill dubbed the policy “cash for spelunkers.” Now, as the Fed printing press winds down its current run and the economy finds itself back in a soft patch, the moniker and the prediction behind it seem on target: Like “cash for clunkers,” the housing tax credit and other attempts to provide short-term fuel, the Federal Reserve’s second round of quantitative easing can only buy a little time to fix what ails the economy.