Tag: Commodities

U.S. federal agents seized 1 million pounds (454 metric tons) of pork smuggled from China to a port in New Jersey amid fears the meat could contain traces of the African swine fever virus that has ravaged the Asian country’s hog herd.

Humans can’t be infected, but pig populations can be wiped out by African swine fever. China’s hog herd — the biggest in the world — has plummeted as farmers cull inflicted animals.

The U.S. has never had African swine fever, and officials are stepping up efforts to keep the disease out. Any sign of illness stateside could mean that

Venezuela has the world’s largest proven oil reserves, but the country is in turmoil and has been for years. With little to no investments and US sanctions, analysts think their output will dwindle to less than 1 million / day.

Source

However, that didn’t stop oil from extended its weekly rally to a fresh 4-month high. Oil did eventually cool of a bit after prices hit a 4 hr supply zone on Friday.

The oil prices remain a supply and demand equation. Oil use in China, the world’s biggest importer, in the first two months of 2019 rose 6% from a year

Last month I wrote a post about Soybeans,

All Eyes This Weekend On…..Soybean Prices – Part 2

But China counter at the beginning of the trade war last year was to reduce dependence on American soybeans.

However, China doesn’t have the means to increase their domestic production of Soybeans and had to result to South America. South American filled in the balance momentarily, but they couldn’t keep up with China’s appetite. Regardless of whether the resumed purchase of soybeans was part of the negotiation or China’s relentless appetite for soybeans, it’s a win for American farmers.

Today, I want to pay a little homage

The amount of available copper stored in the London Metal Exchange’s (LME) warehouse system fell to 21,600 tonnes last week, the lowest level since 2005.

The year 2005 marked the start of an extraordinary six-year rally that was only briefly interrupted by the Global Financial Crisis. The copper price more than tripled over the period, topping out early 2011 at $10,190 per tonne.

What are super-low LME stocks telling us this time around? Is the world really running short of copper to the point there are just over 20,000 tonnes left in LME warehouses? The answer is clearly no.

There is plenty of

Gold prices rose more than $20 and hit a 10-month highs yesterday.  Some are saying the catalyst was the World Trade Organization’s quarterly outlook indicator, a composite of seven drivers of trade, reported a reading of 96.3 (a reading below 100 signals below-trend growth in trade).

On the news price breached the daily supply at $1330.

Speculators aren’t the only ones making money/hoarding gold in fear of turbulent times ahead.  The central banks are also buying gold.

For some time, global central banks have also been hoarding gold. As a matter of fact, they are one of the world’s largest gold investors,

The term Doctor Copper is market lingo for the copper’s ability to predict turning points in the global economy. Copper has many uses…from homes, electronics and transmission, etc., its used as a leading indicator of the economic. Rising copper prices imply demand or a growing global economy and declining copper prices imply lack of demand or a slowing global economy.

I read an article this past weekend talking about what I prefer to as the supply and demand equation for copper.

The global copper market is expected to witness an undersupply scenario ahead as the pace of new mine supply is expected

OPEC reported that output fell by almost 800,000 bpd in January to 30.81 million bpd.  On Tuesday, Saudi Energy minister Khalid al-Falih said production would fall below 10 million bpd in March, more than half a million bpd below the target it agreed to.

Meanwhile, two weeks ago the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) said Record-breaking U.S. oil production is expected to continue for decades.  For example, Texas’s oil production hit a record level not seen since 1973. Texas oil wells produced more than 1.54 billion barrels of crude in 2018.  If Texas was a country production it would be the