As the politicians in America play chicken with our prized Triple-A debt rating and as Europe is succumbing to its PIIGS, gold has eclipsed $1600 per ounce and now it has helped to pull…
Since the beginning of July gold prices have risen nearly 7%, from around $1,500/ounce to today’s record high over $1,600/ounce. Risk is off the table in the equities markets as concerns over Congressional wrangling…
China’s Ministry of Commerce has released a statement saying that the government has raised export quotas for rare earth elements to over 30,000 metric tons for 2011, virtually identical with shipments of the minerals…
The price of gold topped 1,100 euros/ounce yesterday, its highest point ever against the single currency. The yellow metal is also threatening its US dollar peak, having risen to more than $1,550/ounce today. Europe’s…
Alcoa, Inc. (NYSE: AA) has just unofficially kicked off the summer earnings season. Shares were weak in the last two trading sessions ahead of the earnings report, but that is more tied to the…
Copper prices have been on a steady upward march for about two weeks now, from around $4.06/pound to close at around $4.43/pound yesterday. China, the world’s top consumer of copper, gets credit for the…
24/7 Wall St. has been conducting a search for value stocks for investors. Our review today is around the base metals and industrial metals segment, a very cyclical segment compared to other segments we…
It was surprising not see many silver and gold companies try to come public in initial public offerings during the great moves seen in the shiny metals. We now have a silver company filing…
Gold has held up rather well compared to many metals, yet the mining stocks and the underlying gold stocks are in many cases performing as though they will not benefit from high gold prices.…
Over the past 15 years, the federal government paid nearly $150 billion in subsidies to U.S. farmers. It paid $77 billion to plant corn in the U.S. between 1995 and 2010; $32.4 billion to…
The announcement that Japanese scientists have found high concentrations of rare earth minerals on the Pacific Ocean sea bed could be far less than meets the eye. The report estimates that the total amount…
The largest deposit of rare earth metals have been found underneath the Pacific Ocean. Its presence could eventually break China’s grip on inventories which have worried industrialists worldwide. The Nikkei writes: Deep in the…
Analysts at Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (NYSE: GS) have reversed a forecast from just two weeks ago suggesting that corn, wheat and soybean prices would be higher due to reduced harvests this fall. Following…
Since the beginning of this year, the price of gold has gained about 6%. Three large precious metals funds, however, are down between -5% and -10% during the same period. The mutual funds though…
For the past couple of weeks the price of corn has risen above the price of wheat, a market condition that has occurred just twice before in the last 27 years. The reversal typically…