Trading and Investing

Japan got word Friday that prices fell again in October, just as a surging yen threatens to worsen the deflation that is undermining the country's fragile economy. The core consumer price index, which excludes volatile fresh food, retreated at a near-record pace of 2.2 percent from a year earlier, the government said. Prices have now fallen for eight straight months — a trend that the government highlighted last week for the first time in three years. The news came amid heightened concern... Read Full Story

UC Rusal, the world's biggest aluminium producer, has yet to gain the approval of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange for its planned listing here, a source said on Friday. The listing committee of the city's bourse operator decided in a meeting late Thursday to postpone making a decision on the metal manufacturing giant's application for a 2.5-billion-dollar initial public offering, the source told AFP. The committee wanted to wait for the completion of the company's 7.4-billion-dollar debt... Read Full Story

Crude oil closed lower on Friday as investors traded positions in commodities for more safe haven investments. A short covering rally tempered early session losses and the mid range close sets the stage for a steady to higher opening on Monday. If January extends this week's decline, the 75% retracement level of this fall's rally crossing at 70.23 is the next downside target. Closes above Monday's high crossing at 79.92 would confirm that a short term low has been posted. First resistance is... Read Full Story

The Chinese stock market has all but collapsed the past several weeks, falling off nearly 25% in a six week span overall capped by a 6.7% drop yesterday. The causes for concern in the Forex world relate specifically to the Dollar.  As you might recall from several weeks ago, I spoke of the Chinese selling off some of their US treasuries and diverting that money to support their commodity purchases.  This tactic is proving to be detrimental to the short term stability of the Chinese... Read Full Story

It has been another fantastic week for precious metals as the US dollar continues to slide lower. Energy commodities like oil and natural gas, however, are having some difficulty finding buyers. When commodities start to trend they become very profitable for those riding them up or down. But when a short term trend starts to go virtually straight up (parabolic) then we must be prepared for a sharp pullback. Once the price starts to slide I figure a lot of short term traders will begin... Read Full Story

One thing should be clear to you. Energy markets will be a major focal point in the global financial makers and the global economy for many years to come. The key to understanding energy trading is to understand oil, natural gas, gasoline and heating oil futures. Trading in energy futures is centralized at the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX), the world’s largest physical commodity futures exchange. NYMEX trades futures and options contracts for crude oil, natural gas... Read Full Story

Crude inventories and gasoline supplies rose last week, the government said Wednesday. Crude inventories rose by 1 million barrels, or 0.3 percent, to 337.8 million barrels, which is 6.1 percent above year-ago levels, the Energy Department's Energy Information Administration said in its weekly report. Analysts had expected a build of 1.4 million barrels for the week ended Nov. 20, according to a survey by Platts, the energy information arm of McGraw-Hill Cos. Gasoline inventories rose by 1... Read Full Story

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Americans are paying slightly higher prices this Thanksgiving to warm their homes with heating oil than they did last year, the Energy Department said on Wednesday. The nationwide heating oil price of $2.75 a gallon was up 3.4 cents a gallon from a year ago and up 0.3 cent from the previous week, according to the Energy Information Administration's weekly survey of U.S. heating fuel costs. EIA, the Energy Department's analytical arm, said District of Columbia residents... Read Full Story

Nymex Crude Oil (CL) Crude oil fall sharply to as low as 72.39 today and the development is inline with our bearish view that fall fro 82.00 is still in progress. Intraday bias remains on the downside for 61.8% retracement of 65.05 to 82 at 71.52. Sustained break there will pave the way for even deeper decline to 65.05 support next. On the upside, while some recovery might be seen, upside should be limited by 75.57 support turned resistance and bring fall resumption. In the bigger picture... Read Full Story

U.S. equity indices have been trading higher today ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday as a better-than-expected jobless claims (466K vs. Street 500K) and new home sales (430K vs. Street 404K) reports outweighed a worse-than-expected durable goods report (0.6% vs. Street 0.5%). As is normal, upward momentum has slowed a bit heading into the afternoon as market participants leave early to travel home for the holiday, and it appears that we may see markets consolidate through the rest of the... Read Full Story