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Coffee’s been one of the hottest commodities on the board to date in 2010 (remember, the broader CRB Index peaked in early January) – can everyone’s favorite pick-me-up continue it’s run? The supply/demand fundamentals are very intriguing, writes Julian Murdoch for our friends at Hard Assets Investor. Coffee demand has doubled in the past 10 […]
This is turning into “Commodity Short Alert” day here at Contrary Investing! We just warned you about the ailments of copper, which looks like it may have eaten some bad chow mein for lunch. Also “down” on this “up” day for the markets was cotton – which has been breaking down in a major way […]
Soon after stocks bottomed on March 6, 2009, we noticed that commodity prices – most notably agriculture prices – were starting to rally. In early May, we wrote about the rally in soft commodities, and what it implied for the inflation/deflation outlook: A few weeks ago (April ’09), we noticed that not only had commodities appeared […]
Despite record harvests last year, corn and wheat stocks are still sitting near 30-year lows. Which means, anything short of a bumper crop could send the grains skywards once again. Here are some very cool charts, courtesy of Chris Mayer at DailyWealth, that depict the stocks-to-use ratios of of wheat and corn since 1970, versus […]
A recent piece in The Economist highlighted the recent strength of agriculture prices in the face of the downturn, and the reason for it. Though prices of the meats, grains, and softs are still off their 2008 highs – they’re not off by much anymore – as commodities such as cotton, soybeans, and sugar are […]
Milton Friedman said that inflation is “always and everywhere a monetary phenomenon.” Judging by the recent price action in many of the soft and agricultural commodities, they appear to agree. Ben Bernanke, a student of the Great Depression, is making a bet the Friedman was wrong. Bernanke believes that because Friedman did much of his […]
Sugar Futures Surge to a 6-Month High Sugar futures rallied nearly 4% on Friday, over half a cent, to close the week at 14.18. Looks like we’ve got a new breakout to the upside! Sugar futures continue their steady climb. (Source: Barchart.com) The market continued to focus on the news that India may turn into […]
Corn farmers could be in some trouble this year reports the Batavia News, an upstate New York newspaper. The (corn) price has been hovering near $4. That could be trouble for farmers if there is an average or below average crop.Many of his customers have ordered more soybean seed. That crop requires less fertilizer. New […]
Chris Mayer writes in Agora Financial’s Rude Awakening that the global food supply problem is more acute than ever before, as a result of the current financial crisis. This is something we’ve been discussing here of late. Farmers cannot get basic loans for fertilizer. Forget about new capital investments. And this all happening with world […]
Remember when the grains and softs were doing moonshots, and every other column here was about bullish news for food prices? Seems like just yesterday I was imploring a much smaller readership base to sugar me sweet. While my favorite soft commodities (sugar, coffee, cotton) remain parked on my wish list as we wait for […]
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