Why the doom and gloom merchants are wrong about crude oil

The stock market is not the only thing that is up. Crude oil prices have jumped as well rising faster than the S&P for the past month.

West Texas Intermediate (WTI) next month futures contract prices for crude oil on the NYMEX increased again last week. That marked the seventh consecutive week oil prices have gained, the first time that has happened since 2009. Overall, WTI pricing level has risen 11% since mid-December.

London Commodity Markets - Rare earth mineral firm waiting for data from Alaskan mine

Ucore Rare Metals Inc. hopes to soon have a better measure of its rare earth mineral resource in Alaska.
“It should lift our level of assuredness from inferred (resources) to indicated and measured,” Mark MacDonald, the Bedford company’s vice-president of business development, said Tuesday in an interview.
The company expects the resource update in about a month, MacDonald said.

Rare Earth Elements - News from China and Japan

China announced a stated 2012 export quota of 30,996 metric tons of rare earth elements but actually only exported 16,266 tons according to a report issued by the Government on January 21 2013,  revealing that its exports of rare earth metals in 2012 were only 53% of the quantity it had planned to release.

Precious Metals - Gold stalls as U.S. debt talks make progress

Gold was stuck below a one-month high on Wednesday as progress in talks about the U.S. debt limit reduced gold's appeal as a safe-haven, offsetting monetary easing this week.

U.S. debt ceiling talks, seen as a potential threat to recovery of the world's leading economy, have made some progress. The House of Representatives plans to pass a bill on a nearly four-month extension of the borrowing limit.

China’s Actual Rare Earths Shipments in 2012 Down By 3.5%

Actual shipments of rare earths in 2012 by China reached only 16,265 metric tonnes, declining by 3.5 per cent versus a year ago, official data released by the China Customs Statistics Information Center Tuesday showed.

London Commodity Markets - Top 40 investors turning to alternative investments

Most advisors will tell you that they’re not market timers,” says Thomas Kane. “In my opinion, if you’re not a market timer you should not be getting paid.”

London Commodity Markets - Experts predicting increasing commodity prices for 2013

As much as things change, they stay the same. The agricultural industry has been dealing with price volatility for centuries, but even with modern financial market tools in play, wide fluctuations can still take place at a moment's notice. Markets suddenly gyrate to find a new equilibrium after either an external shock or a new supply-and-demand dynamic has rippled through the industry.

Precious Metals Strong on Chinese Trade Data ahead of ECB

Precious metals are constrained in an uneventful trading range with gold trading at 1656.75 moving under 1 dollar as market participants await for cues from the ECB rate decision and policy statement. Markets are also seeking clarity from US Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and possibly clarify the speculation surrounding the Federal Reserve’s asset buying program, wherein the recent minutes revealed that some officials intend to end the monetary expansion before this year.