A Hedge Fund Hunts for Greece's Hidden Gems

A Hedge Fund Hunts for Greece's Hidden Gems - Businessweek

George Elliott is used to being treated as a curiosity. As founder of Naftilia Asset Management, the financier is raising money for a hedge fund that plans to buy nothing but Greek stocks. In March he met in London with an investment manager who within seconds of sitting down made it clear that he had no interest in wagering on Greece. He just wanted to hear about the hedge fund’s strategy, Elliott says.

Corn, wheat markets end strong on weather worries

Corn, wheat markets end strong on weather worries Markets - Cattle & Grain Prices, Quotes, Charts
Corn futures settled 15 to 28 cents higher on Tuesday. Corn prices continue to climb on dry weather concerns. Afternoon weather forecasts indicate that some rain is likely across portions of the Midwest this weekend, but may not be enough for the quickly deteriorating corn crop. USDA reported corn condition ratings at 56 percent good to excellent, down 7 percentage points from the previous week.

Sell or leave it: Wheat straw demand prompts debate

Sell or leave it: Wheat straw demand prompts debate Markets - Cattle & Grain Prices, Quotes, Charts
Wheat growers may have lower yields this year because of extreme weather and planting delays, but strong demand for quality wheat straw could offset some of the income loss, an Ohio State University Extension educator says.  Because of the wet fall and wheat planting delays, combined with the early and unusually warm spring, harvest acres and straw yield per acre are far less than previous years, creating potentially high demand for wheat straw, said Ed Lentz, an associate professor who specializes in crop production and agronomy.  The unusual weather patterns also have reduced forage yields. In years of tight hay supplies, livestock producers not only use straw for animal bedding, but also to supplement forage diets.  “There are reports of people contacting wheat growers and offering to buy straw directly off their land and offering to bale the straw themselves,” Lentz said. “That’s how strong the demand is now.”

Corn Futures Jump as U.S. Harvest Faces Damage

Corn Futures Jump as U.S. Harvest Faces Damage: Chart of the Day - Businessweek

The price spread between U.S. corn futures for July and December deliveries has plunged to a 20- month low, as traders bet the biggest annual planting in 75 years will be crimped by drought in Iowa and Illinois.

Wholesale beef now works lower

Inside Futures: Relevant trading-focused information authored by key players in the futures, options and forex industries

Cattle traders know June and July are the two worst demand months for wholesale beef. This year, with choice beef just 1% under late February highs, this thinking has a strong fundamental basis. The one offset to this belief that the market will trend lower into late July is that gasoline has managed a 50 cent/gallon correction in the past 12 weeks. How much consumer beef buying will result from this price decline remains to be seen.

Gold futures trade a choppy $20 range

Inside Futures: Relevant trading-focused information authored by key players in the futures, options and forex industries

Today’s August Gold futures traded a choppy $20.20 range as Spanish and Italian borrowing costs rose as concerns that this week’s European Union summit will fail to solve the regions debt crisis. This situation has pressured the Euro currency, made the U. S Dollar the favored investment choice, and therefore has lessened the appeal for precious metals. However, these price levels are apparently appealing to Central Banks recently as the International Monetary Fund’s website has produced data showing that Russia, Turkey, Ukraine, and Kazakhstan have increased their gold reserves. Gold has also not been able to maintain recent rally momentum as the price of Crude Oil continues to trade under $80.00 per barrel. Today’s August Crude Oil futures traded as low as $78.33 per barrel. These lower Crude prices are anti- inflationary and therefore “bearish” precious metals…

Is Corn on Fire or Will it Cool Off

Inside Futures: Relevant trading-focused information authored by key players in the futures, options and forex industries

It is easy to get caught up in talk of heat destroying corn and soybeans especially when I live in Kansas City where temperatures this past weekend had heat indexes well over 100 and with forecasts this week of actual temperatures soaring over 110. There is no doubt about it, it is hot and with so little rain over the past month I certainly understand how a farmer must feel looking at the crops shriveling up tighter than a cheap cigar. At the same time I have to remind myself how years ago an agronomist warned me not to put the way heat affects me and compare it to a plant.  Above all, the surveys aren't scientifically measuring a plant's condition; most are eyeballed from a car traveling down a lane with the ac blasting and the outside thermometer reading 105.

Kerviel trial: “An old lady was assaulted”

Kerviel trial: “An old lady was assaulted”

Now that the hearings are over for former trader Jerome Kerviel's appeal trial in Paris, it was time today for the lawyers to take the floor. The first ones to plead were Société Générale's counsels, Jean Reinhart and Jean Veil.  “Four years, five months and one day after the earthquake that shook the towers of the bank building, it is time to make sense of all these excesses,” Reinhart started, with some gratuitous theatricality.  “This is the trial of an old lady (Société Générale) who was assaulted by a man, not a wild boy, but a man,” he continued, a wee bit too emotional, this time.

Speculation debate: part 100

Speculation debate: part 100

The debate on speculators’ role in the price of commodities has been going on for decades, but was reignited by spikes in commodities, particularly crude oil, in 2008. This has led to wave of calls for restrictions on speculators across the globe. France’s EDHEC-Risk Institute took a critical look at the position paper, “Investing not betting” published by Finance Watch, a Belgian-based public advocacy group, which is advocating for more active restriction on speculators.

Comex Gold Ends Down on Technical and Options-Related Selling

Comex Gold Ends Down on Technical and Options-Related Selling - Forbes

Comex gold futures prices closed the U.S. day session lower Tuesday, on some technical selling and options-related selling pressure. Tuesday is the last trading day for the July Comex gold options. August gold last traded down $14.80 at $1,573.60 an ounce. Spot gold was last quoted down $11.90 an ounce at $1,573.75.  July Comex silver last traded down $0.51 at $27.01 an ounce.

Euro recovers to trade little changed vs dollar

Euro recovers to trade little changed vs dollar | Reuters

The euro recovered from a more than two-week low against the dollar to trade little changed in late New York trade on Tuesday as some investors made small changes to positions ahead of an EU summit later this week.  The euro was last at $1.2502 closer to the session peak of $1.2530 than the session low of $1.2440 with a few hours of trading left before the New York close.

US Oil Futures Rally on Strong Brent Oil Increase

OIL FUTURES: US Oil Futures Rally on Strong Brent Oil Increase - WSJ.com
U.S. light, sweet crude futures for August delivery got a boost Tuesday from their European oil counterpart, recovering from earlier losses and settling at $79.36 a barrel, up 15 cents.  The jump followed choppy trading throughout the day in U.S. futures, even as Brent futures rose substantially. Brent settled at $93.02 a barrel, up $2.01, or 2.2%, after earlier hitting $93.17.

Gold falls on deflation fears, euro debt worries

PRECIOUS-Gold falls on deflation fears, euro debt worries | Reuters
Gold retreated in quiet trade on Tuesday after the previous session's gains, dragged lower by fears of deflation amid disappointing U.S. consumer confidence data and signs of a worsening European debt crisis. Also hurting the metal's inflation-hedge appeal was a tepid Spanish bill auction which sent its borrowing costs soaring, a day after Cyprus requested for a bailout from the European Union. A five-month low in U.S. consumer confidence also weighed.

CME Group Fights Commodity Traders Over Rule Change

CME Group Fights Commodity Traders Over Rule Change - Bloomberg
CME Group Inc. (CME) attorneys told a U.S. judge that a lawsuit by Chicago Board of Trade traders and brokers seeking to preserve open-outcry price settlement belongs in a federal court, not a state court.  Twenty-four agricultural traders and brokers filed a state court lawsuit on June 22 seeking an order blocking the world’s biggest futures market from changing their traditional method of price settlement to a blended method incorporating electronic trading activity. The new procedures went into effect yesterday.  The traders filed their suit in an Illinois state court in Chicago, seeking an injunction. CME Group attorneys had the case moved to federal court in Chicago, saying the case involved the U.S. Commodities Exchange Act provisions and that the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission should be added as a party.  “There’s clear preemption” of state court jurisdiction, CME Group attorney Jerrold Salzman told U.S. District Judge John Darrah at a hearing today.
More than 90 percent of agricultural futures contract trading is already done electronically, Salzman said, adding that the traders weren’t entitled to an injunction.  The traders say in their complaint that the new procedures are reducing the volume of orders they process and threatening their livelihood.

Coffee soars to 4-week high, raw sugar climbs

SOFTS-Coffee soars to 4-week high, raw sugar climbs | Agricultural Commodities | Reuters
Arabica coffee futures jumped on Tuesday, hitting a key chart level that ignited a wave of short-covering and pushed prices to one-month highs, while raw sugar rose on harvest delays in top producer Brazil. Cocoa futures were also firm as the softs complex took support from the firm Thomson Reuters-CRB index and ignored the U.S. dollar which rose on investor doubt that a European summit would help resolve the region's debt crisis. Arabica coffee futures rallied in relatively light volume, continuing the volatility that has characterized its wild moves last week, after short-covering was triggered above last week's high of $1.6150, basis September.

Trading grains through the drought of 2012

Trading grains through the drought of 2012

Last week July Soybeans opened at $13.83 per bu. and closed the week at $14.42½. In July Corn we saw an open of $5.84¾ per bu. and a close of $5.91.   I will tell you that I am shocked by the weather, but not surprised. Why? Back in 1999 I was speaking to a customer in Ottawa, Canada who was a professor at a university there. Here is the shocking part. While on the telephone with this person, he told me to watch out and be prepared for 2012. He said I would see an unusually warm dry winter, which already happened, and America will see a drought like it saw back in the 1930s; he said heard of the “dust bowl.” His reasoning for this was planetary alignment. Alignment we have not seen since the 1930s and the “dust bowl.” I always had that in the back of my mind, and all I have to say is thank goodness for that.

Grain markets gear up for report-driven volatility

Grain markets gear up for report-driven volatility

Corn: This market has enjoyed its largest runs early in the week recently with consolidation expected to follow. This could very well be the same case this week.  Looking ahead, we will need to keep a close eye on weather forecast updates. Next, we will have to start preparing for the acreage and quarterly stocks reports on Friday. These two reports have caused four limit moves in the last four years, three of them were lower with one being higher.

Sugar firms, buoyed by harvest delays, coffee up

SOFTS-Sugar firms, buoyed by harvest delays, coffee up | Agricultural Commodities | Reuters
Arabica coffee, raw sugar and cocoa futures on ICE rose on Tuesday, supported by firmer financial markets, with sugar also buoyed by delays in harvesting in top producer Brazil.   U.S. stocks rose at the open on Tuesday, but caution prevailed as a Spanish bill auction met with falling demand and investors kept their focus on the euro zone debt crisis ahead of a summit later in the week.

U.S. futures higher ahead of confidence data

U.S. futures higher ahead of confidence data - Indications - MarketWatch
U.S. stock-market futures indicated a slight Tuesday rebound on Wall Street after the prior day’s rout, with consumer-confidence still ahead and data showing home prices rose more than forecast in April.

Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average DJU2 -0.17%  rose 19 points to 12,450, while those for the Standard & Poor’s 500 index SPU2 +0.18%  rose 2.4 points to 1,309.  Futures for the Nasdaq 100 index NDU2 +0.34%  gained 5 points to 2,531.5. Investors seemingly bypassed an index showing U.S. home prices rose in April for the first monthly gain since last autumn.

Cattle-Hide Economy Slumping While Goldman Sees Rally

Cattle-Hide Economy Slumping While Goldman Sees Rally - Bloomberg

At a time when Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) and Credit Suisse Group AG are predicting the bear market in commodities will end, a gauge of prices for raw materials from cow hides to steel is extending the longest slump since it presaged the global recession in 2008.  Credit Suisse said June 21 that an economic recovery will spur a 9.3 percent gain in commodities in 12 months and Goldman forecast a 29 percent return on June 11. A measure of industrial commodities from the Journal of Commerce that includes rubber, plywood and burlap is signaling contraction for an 11th month, the longest stretch since a retreat of the same duration that began in August 2008.

Grain markets gear up for report-driven volatility

Grain markets gear up for report-driven volatility
This market has enjoyed its largest runs early in the week recently with consolidation expected to follow. This could very well be the same case this week.  Looking ahead, we will need to keep a close eye on weather forecast updates. Next, we will have to start preparing for the acreage and quarterly stocks reports on Friday. These two reports have caused four limit moves in the last four years, three of them were lower with one being higher...