NEW YORK (Dow Jones)--Money managers added to their bullish bets on Comex copper futures and options by 5% during the week ended Tuesday, according to data released Friday by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. Managed money funds added 1,947 long positions, which benefit from higher copper prices, and 1,573 short positions. This kept their net position in positive territory for the third consecutive week. Money managers in January held a bullish copper bet for the first time since the week ended Sept. 20.
Friday, February 3, 2012
CFTC COT: Funds Add To Copper Positions
Softs Report - Asian Demand For Chocolate Products To Grow Over 10% In 2012
Asian demand for chocolate products will likely grow 10% in 2012, the International Cocoa Organization told Dow Jones Newswires Thursday, citing higher real disposable incomes and heavy advertising campaigns by chocolatiers in the region.
Treasury's Biggest Selloff Since October
NEW YORK (Dow Jones)--Uplifting U.S. economic releases on Friday drove investors out of safe-harbor Treasury bonds, fueling the biggest one-day selloff for the benchmark 10-year note since late October. The 10-year note's yield, a key rate for the U.S. government to borrow in capital markets, rose by 11 basis points for the session and hit a one-week peak of 1.956%. Still, the yield remains low--less than 30 basis points from a historic trough set in September.
Commodites Being Shipped For Free
D/S Norden A/S (DNORD) (DNORD), Europe’s biggest publicly trading commodity shipping company, hired a Supramax vessel at no cost other than fuel charges, its first such transaction in a quarter century. The carrier is currently off the Spanish coast, Jens Peter Skaarup, a spokesman for the Hellerup, Denmark-based shipowner, said in an e-mail today. It will haul a cargo of gypsum, used to make plasterboard, to the U.S. East Coast.
January 31, 2012 Commitments of Traders Charts
Based on CFTC weekly report.
(Weekly as of October 2000.)
01 Feb 11 - 31 Jan 12
(Weekly as of October 2000.)
01 Feb 11 - 31 Jan 12
Is it constitutional for individual states to go to their own gold standard? Stay tuned.
NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- A growing number of states are seeking shiny new currencies made of silver and gold. Worried that the Federal Reserve and the U.S. dollar are on the brink of collapse, lawmakers from 13 states, including Minnesota, Tennessee, Iowa, South Carolina and Georgia, are seeking approval from their state governments to either issue their own alternative currency or explore it as an option. Just three years ago, only three states had similar proposals in place.
How far would Israel go to stop Iran? 985.1 miles!
U.S. officials concerned by Israel statements on Iran threat, possible strike - The Washington Post
TOTAL DISTANCE
| Tel Aviv, IS | 34.7667 32.0667 |
| Teheran, IR | 51.4244 35.6719 |
| Miles: | 985.51 |
| Kilometers: | 1585.98 |
| Bearing: | NE |
JERUSALEM — Israeli leaders on Thursday delivered one of the bluntest warnings to date of possible airstrikes against Iranian nuclear sites, adding to the anxiety in Western capitals that a surprise attack by Israel could spark a broader military conflict in the Middle East
U.S. Added 243,000 Jobs
The United States economy gained momentum in January, as employers added 243,000 jobs, the second straight month of better-than-expected gains.
MF Global Risk Dept. Defends Trades - RIGHT! They were too busy hammering on me to be paying attention to the boss!
WASHINGTON — MF Global’s internal watchdogs defended their tumultuous tenures at the brokerage firm, telling Congress on Thursday that they sufficiently sounded the alarms about risky wagers on the European sovereign debt that toppled the firm.
Corn is in EVERYTHING you buy at the supermarket
Corn grows in more places than any other grain, and produces more energy, quicker. "Anything made from a barrel of petroleum can be made from a bushel of corn." It hybridizes so easily that there are thousands of varieties, yet it can't reproduce without human help.
Gold Prices Off After Jobs Data - No duh!
Gold for February delivery was down $12.80 to $1,746.50 an ounce at the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. The gold price has traded as high as $1,765.90 and as low as $1,735.50, while the spot gold price was sinking $16, according to Kitco's gold index.
Fed Funds Traders Bet In Thin Volume On Interest Rate Hike In 1st Half 2014
CHICAGO (Dow Jones)--Traders of federal funds futures expect the Federal Reserve to move up their projected time frame for a rate increase to the first half of 2014, based on data showing a strong recovery in the jobs sector.
On the dinner menu: Glenstrata
A low-key dinner at a hotel in the West End of London in early December served as the backdrop. Ivan Glasenberg, the billionaire entrepreneur behind commodities group Glencore had flown to London to meet his long-term industry counterpart and sparring partner, Mick Davis, chief executive of Xstrata.
Job Growth Bullish For Softs
LONDON, Feb 3 (Reuters) - Raw sugar, coffee and cocoa futures gained on Friday along with other financial markets on a bigger-than-expected jump in U.S. jobs.
Harbinger Fund Down 47% - OUCH!
Feb. 3 (Bloomberg) -- Phil Falcone's Harbinger Capital Partners LLC lost 47 percent for investors in his main hedge fund last year as he was forced to slash the value of his troubled wireless venture by more than half, according to a person familiar with the results.
Portugal Desperately Needs The ECB To Act NOW
Portugal will follow Greece into debt restructuring unless the European Central Bank steps up purchases of its distressed bonds, said Paul De Grauwe, a professor at the Catholic University of Leuven in Belgium. “The Portuguese problem is a problem of panic and fear and you have to stop it,” De Grauwe said in an interview in Oslo. “The only one who can do it is the ECB.”
The clock is running down for Ireland, Portugal and Greece
The primary objective of the European Central Bank is to maintain price stability. However, as a compliment to its primary objective, the Eurosystem “shall also ‘support the general economic policies in the Union with a view to contributing to the achievement of the objectives of the Union’. These include inter alia ‘full employment’ and ‘balanced economic growth’”. These objectives are laid out in Articles 3 and 127 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union. I wonder whether or not the objectives related to ‘balanced economic growth’ and ‘full employment’ are indeed being achieved? One could argue that they are not.
Is Portugal the next Greece?
Feb. 3 (Bloomberg) -- Portugal's bond-market rout suggests investors aren't rewarding the nation's austerity efforts and are concerned about a Greek-style reduction in debt repayments.
Colombia Drug Lords’ Are Rustling Cattle Now! Get A Rope!
Latin America’s oldest guerrilla group’s penchant for cattle rustling is robbing Colombian ranchers of the benefits of the highest U.S.-traded futures prices since the 1960s. The cash-strapped Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia is selling livestock at below-market prices after a military crackdown on cocaine production made the fighters “desperate for financing,” Juan Manuel Santos, the nation’s president, said last month. The group, known as FARC, may be Colombia’s biggest cattle owner, according to a ranchers federation.
"Glenxstra" Eyes More Takeover Bait
Already one of the cheapest major mining companies, Anglo American Plc (AAL) is becoming an even more likely takeover target with Xstrata Plc and Glencore International Plc’s potential merger threatening to leave it dwarfed by three of its closest rivals.
Univ. of Texas Fund Urged to Hang On To Gold
Kyle Bass, the Dallas hedge-fund manager, urged overseers of Texas (STOTX1)’s state university endowment, the second-largest U.S. college fund, to stick with a $1 billion investment in gold bullion even as the fund’s assets decline. “I’m against selling any of the gold,” Bass said today at a meeting of fund directors in Austin, citing the need for a hedge against mounting risks driven by government deficits in the U.S. and Europe. “As every day goes by, I see deflation in the things you own and inflation in the things you need.” The $19.1 billion in endowment funds overseen by the University of Texas Investment Management Co., or Utimco, lost almost 3.8 percent on invested assets in the four months through December, preliminary figures distributed today show. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index of shares gained almost 4 percent over the same period, including reinvested dividends. In 2011, the Texas fund’s allocations rose in real estate, natural resources and hedges to protect against slumping equities.
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