Category Archives: Commodities

Gold’s Perfect Storm? Nears All-time Closing High

Posted on July 12, 2011 by macromon

Gold is creeping higher as many believe it is the only place to hide.  Cash gold is near its all-time closing high of 1563.20 on April 29th and closing in on its May 2nd intraday high of 1575.10.   We find … Continue reading →

Posted in Commodities, Dollar, Euro, Gold, Sovereign Risk | Tagged , , , | 4 Comments

Food Fight

Posted on July 4, 2011 by macromon

Check out the BLS Foodstuffs sub-index which is now right at key support.  The better than expected USDA report hammered the grains last week and traders now have to decide either to stay with the Ag trade or dump their … Continue reading →

Posted in Charts, Commodities, Food Prices | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Jimmy (the Trader) Crack(s) Corn and Says Adios to QE2

Posted on June 30, 2011 by macromon

Wow!  December Corn futures finally opens with a 13.4 percent loss from Wednesday’s high to the opening low.  Wheat has also been hammered. The WSJ reports, As recently as June 9, USDA officials had guessed that excessive rain and widespread … Continue reading →

Posted in Commodities, Food Prices | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Have Policymakers Discovered the “Splendid Arbitrage”?

Posted on June 26, 2011 by macromon

How ’bout a little summer Sunday humor (albeit a little nerdy) before getting back to the daily grind.   Last week saw a global coordinated response to shaft specs in crude oil as many, including us, think the rise in … Continue reading →

Posted in Commodities, Crude Oil, General Interest, Uncategorized | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Support of the Masses

Posted on June 24, 2011 by macromon

Just a quick little chart for the weekend to show how the major indices are at or near key support levels.   Here we have the CRB Index breaking short-term support yesterday and just barely closing through its 200-day moving average.   … Continue reading →

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The New Perfect Storm?

Posted on June 19, 2011 by macromon

We received the latest Bubble Bulletin newsletter from the Society of Actuaries (SOA) last week and it was, to say the least, “hair raising.”   According to the report, Actuary Shaun Wang, a leader in enterprise risk management, and founder and … Continue reading →

Posted in Black Swan Watch, Bonds, Commodities | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

McSwan Watch: Soros – China Risks ‘Hard Landing’

Posted on June 15, 2011 by macromon

George Soros was on the tape warning China is losing its grip on inflation.  Bloomberg reports, China has missed its opportunity to stem inflation and may now risk a hard landing, billionaire investor George Soros said. The world’s second-largest economy … Continue reading →

Posted in Black Swan Watch, BRICs, China, Commodities, Crude Oil | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Lumber Prices: Leading Indicator for Private Nonfarm Payrolls?

Posted on June 2, 2011 by macromon

In the chart below we take a look at the relationship between lumber prices and private nonfarm payrolls.   Clearly they tend to move together on a monthly basis.  One of the transmission mechanisms of monetary policy is the impact … Continue reading →

Posted in Charts, Commodities, Employment, Housing | Tagged , | 4 Comments

Global Trend Indicators

Posted on May 29, 2011 by macromon

(click here if table is not observable)

Posted in Commodities, Currency, Global Stock Performance | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

China’s Ghost Cities

Posted on May 16, 2011 by macromon

The following video is the first of the great series on China’s ghost cities that Bloomberg is running this week.  Getting China right is key to your P&L and the direction of many markets, including emerging equities and commodities.   We’re … Continue reading →

Posted in Black Swan Watch, Charts, Commodities, Equities | Tagged , , | Leave a comment