Thursday, January 12, 2006

 

Commodities Pulled By Supply Issues

MarketWatch has this report on todays metals action. "Gold futures edged lower Thursday as traders chose to lock in profits after closing above the $550-an-ounce level in the previous session. 'The strong close in New York [Wednesday] has again prompted profit taking from Asian traders...and again signals the market may need to consolidate back towards $525 before pushing through $550 and setting a new high for the year,' James Moore."

"Gold for February delivery fell $3.10 to $547 an ounce on the New York Mercantile Exchange after climbing more than $4 on Wednesday. 'The market is now in a highly overbought condition, which would lead me to believe that some short-term weakness may ensue,' said Dale Doelling."

"March silver traded down 6 cents at $9.005 an ounce. April platinum was up $2.60 at $1,027.90 an ounce, trading at its highest level since mid-December, while March palladium shed $2.50 to $275."

"Credit Suisse warned investors to expect severe price spikes for metals over the next two years and said the market had ignored supply issues, the big theme for 2006, as it was apparent the mining industry was not responding fast enough in bringing on new capacity."

"Nymex February West Texas Intermediate traded 76 cents higher at $64.70 a barrel after spiking to $65.10, the highest level since the start of October. IPE February Brent added 90 cents at $63.07 a barrel amid concerns over possible disruptions to Iran’s exports of 2.6m barrels of oil a day if the US and its allies ask the UN’s Security Council to impose sanctions."

"Traders were also concerned that Iran could suspend oil exports as a protest against any actions by the UN. Kevin Norrish of Barclays Capital said: 'What might have been a more minor issue for the oil market a few years ago, when there was 6m barrels a day or more of spare capacity, is a very major issue in a world with less than 2m barrels a day of spare capacity.'"

Comments:
wmbz2

I totally agree.

Although the reallly, really big question is: Does the "Iran Oil Bourse" (Google it people) and the downstream impact on the strength of US currency have anything to do with this? I'd love to say "no", but the more I see of this crazy administration, the more I'm not so sure.

March 23 is the date the IOB is set to launch. *If* we have some secondary objective up our sleeves (ie: saving the value of US currency because of a proposed PetroEuro market) then we're probably going to see military activity of some kind sometime in late February / early March.

If WMD's are really our concern here, then we'll probably see this go to the security council for a year before we see military activity. (The security council resolution IMHO will be a joke. There's no way in hell Germany and Russia are going to come down hard on Iran.).

Bottom line though -- I don't think sactions against corrupt, repressive regimes ever work. By definition a repressive regime doesn't give a crap about its people. And Condi's idea of a "sanction that targets the leadership directly" is just plain silly.
 
I would not be surprised if the Bush administration targets Iran on non-existent WMDs. However, we all know it is to stop PetroEuros (Iraq II). I'm getting some Euros in hopes Iran's plans go through. Though the shadow government loves upsetting me.
 
Does anyone agree with the gold dip down to $525 before going back up?
 
Also, if its "apparent the mining industry was not responding fast enough in bringing on new capacity"...

I'd call that a "Strong Buy" for metals.
 
There it goes again!!! $555 and climbing...
 
thejdog,

Now that's the spirit! If something costs too much, it's not a problem, it's an opportunity!
 
Post a Comment

<< Home

This page is powered by Blogger. Isn't yours?