Aluminium prices up 30%

Financial journalist Bernard Hickey from interest.co.nz has blogged about the how the price of aluminium has risen 30% this year: Here’s another commodity market that is rapidly heating up: aluminium. This is good news for Rio Tinto and the people at Bluff, although it may help keep the pressure up on power prices. The [Financial [...]

Bernstein: CFTC’s plans won’t stop wild speculation

Richard Bernstein, the former Chief Investment Strategist and Head of the Investment Strategy Group at Merrill Lynch and CEO of Richard Bernstein Capital Management, believes plans by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission to regulate speculation on the exchange won’t work because it will merely push speculators to the non-regulated over-the-counter markets. Bernstein also argues that it was hedge [...]

CFTC considers measures aimed at speculation

An interesting story from the Washington Post about the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) chairman Gary Gensler considering implementing  policies that will reduce the price volatility caused by speculation on the commodity exchange. The CFTC also has plans to regulate derivatives (financial contracts whose prices are derived from the price of something else. CLICK HERE for more [...]

Senate probe finds excessive speculation in wheat markets

A story by Reuters about a U.S. Senate report finding excessive speculation in wheat markets: Commodity index traders had snapped up more than 200,000 wheat contracts by mid-2008 that helped fuel last year’s record jump in prices, which ended up raising costs for both industry and consumers, according to a  year-long bipartisan Senate probe. The [...]