Archive for the ‘Political’ Category

Since June of this year, oil prices have fallen about 20 percent, what’s behind this downward trend is said to be OPEC, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, and their choice not to reduce its range and availability. The international organization has the objective to coordinate and unite the organization-members oil policies. The idea is to keep the oil market stable so that consumers have a regular supply of oil, and that the oil-producers receives a steady income while the oil industry investors receive a fair return. (more…)

Much of the recent online trading news has centred around the falls that both gold and oil have taken in recent weeks. For commodity investors, it seems that the bears have indeed taken the stage. Gold has fallen to less than $1,100 dollars an ounce; the first time that this level has been seen since March of 2010. From an even more drastic perspective, this signals that it is no less than 40 per cent below its all-time peak that was reached in August of 2011. As historically always occurs, this dip has been seen to reflect more positive economic data emerging from the United States. Additionally, Federal Reserve chairman Janet Yellen hinted that interest rates are likely to rise during the remainder of 2015. (more…)

During the past week, headlines have centred on the crisis in Greece and its default on Eur 1.6 billion (£1.1 billion) of loan repayments to the IMF. Euro zone ministers refused to extend its bailout, having failed to agree on some of the terms and conditions. The group chairperson (Dutch Finance Minister, Jeroen Dijsselbloem) had previously said it would be “crazy” to extend the Greek bailout beyond its Tuesday deadline. Nonetheless, judging from reports after a conference telephone call with other Euro zone ministers, this position may have ameliorated as a fresh Greek application for an aid programme of some €29.1bn was to be considered today (Wednesday).
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This week an important development in the financial world took place with President Obama experiencing defeat at home while trying to push through the deal between the US and 11 other Pacific nations. Obama had hoped to fast-track the deal through Congress to make progress more quickly to try and get the deal completed well before he hands over to his successor in less than two years. President Obama’s failure to advance this crucial deal through Congress has important ramifications for anyone actively involved with online commodity trading.

A Waiting Game for Gold?

In recent online commodity trading news, caution still seems to be the name of the game in terms of gold.

Indeed, its prices have still remained sluggish during the past week; holding firm between $1,800 dollars and $2,000 dollars per ounce.

Despite disappointing data emerging from the United States, gold has not yet experienced a significant rally. Some have cited this rather dull performance as being a result of rising bond yields.
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Europe could be facing a return to recession, according to IMF boss Christine Lagarde, with even the German economy, usually considered to be the powerhouse of the Eurozone, falling short of expectations. British Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne, also added a note of caution that the UK economy could also be affected by another downturn in Europe.

Stock and commodity markets responded negatively during early October, with oil being particularly hard hit as the Brent benchmark dropped to a four-year low during early trading on the 10th, hitting $88.40 before rebounding slightly.

Although partly driven by declining demand from a moribund Europe, increases on the supply side are also causing some disruption.
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Current unrest in the Ukrainian – or Russian? – province of Crimea continues to reverberate around the commodity markets.

The global oil benchmark, Brent crude, has seen its price tumble throughout the week after opening above $108 following the Crimean secession vote.

By Thursday it had lost nearly three dollars, although the US WTI price has risen. Such moves appear to be driven by US calls to release oil to the markets to sidestep Russian supplies.

With the UK government also urging its European neighbours to cut energy imports from the East, energy is trading more on policy moves than fundamentals, something that agile online traders may be able to turn to some advantage.
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In the latest round of commodity news, both oil and natural gas futures are forecast to trade throughout the day with a notable amount of volatility while trending towards a moderately bearish outlook.

This is partially caused by the June 11th release that showed a rise in WTI inventories. This is naturally coupled with fears of a stagnation in economic growth in China and the continuing sluggish situation in the European economy.
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In the latest roundup of commodity trading news, oil and gold have once again attracted the attention of many traditional and online traders. One newsworthy story is the rebounding of global oil prices after last week’s sharp knee-jerk reaction over the release of rather poor United States employment data.

Despite the fact that crude futures dropped sharply last Wednesday and Thursday, we have seen many investors buy on the dip and therefore prices have become more buoyant during the first half of this week. Whether this upward momentum continues is uncertain, for one of the factors affecting the weaker prices previously seen is the fact that a strong supply of crude in the States has helped push prices downward.
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This week’s commodity trading news serves not only to underpin the continued weakness of the European state of affairs but once again ties together the intimate relationship of commodities based on the strength of the dollar.

Ben Bernanke

Comments by Ben Bernanke at the latest conference in Jackson Hole seemed to hint that a further round of quantitative easing may be in the books for the near future; possibly as early as September’s FOMC meeting.

This has resulted in a substantially bullish outlook on the gold markets and the yellow metal’s price has hit a five-month high and many see gold testing 1700 dollars an ounce shortly.

These increased expectations for another round of quantitative easing (QE3) are seen as a bullish upside for most commodity traders while conversely the action is bearish for the US dollar.
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