Bloomberg News -

The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission found no evidence of trader misconduct in a 48 percent rally in natural gas prices during a three-week period at the end of last year, the agency said in a news release.

In January, the commission said it was reviewing trading data after natural gas futures prices on the New York Mercantile Exchange jumped $2.36 to $7.221 per million British thermal units between Nov. 18 and Dec. 12.

By Amey Stone -

Surging prices in staples such as oil, gold, and corn are catching investors' eyes. The rewards can be great, if you know how to play

Although commodities investing is pretty much the same as it always has been, you sure wouldn't know it from the buzz these days. It's suddenly one of the hottest areas on Wall Street, thanks to the surge in crude-oil prices, as well as continued gains in the likes of gold, copper, corn, and soybeans.

By Aaron Pressman -

Research released this week by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York puts in stark terms just how far consumers extended themselves to keep the American economy afloat over the past few years.

The data, rather than rising energy prices, may help explain why consumer spending has weakened over the past few months. Wal-Mart (MWT:NYSE) this week said its August sales would be flat to up 2% from last year, and the trade group International Council of Shopping Centers cut its industrywide forecast for the month to a 2.5% gain from the 3% to 4% rise previously expected.

By Colleen Schreiber -

FORT WORTH — “Markets are right. Traders are wrong.”

That message was repeated numerous times during a presentation by technical commodity analyst Tony Wolfskill.

Wolfskill was one of two keynote speakers engaged by TCU’s Institute of Ranch Management for a two-day advanced ranch management course on management and marketing. The purpose of the course was to give participants a better understanding of the difference between fundamental and technical traders and the basics that each looks at in making marketing decisions.

How can anyone serve two masters? It's hard enough when the two want the same thing. But when the masters' interests conflict, the servant's position is untenable.

That's the view of the mutual fund industry's harshest critics. Fund managers, they say, cannot properly serve fund investors when they must also serve their own bosses, the management companies' owners, public or private. Fund company owners make bigger profits when investors are charged high fees; investors get higher returns when fees are low.

"The question is: whom are they serving?" asks Wharton management professor Nicolaj Siggelkow. "Which boss are they serving more, and what influences this balance?"

By Matthew Lynn -

We always knew the financial markets were subject to violent, often neurotic, mood swings. Even so, the speed at which hedge funds have turned from the stars to the dogs of the investment universe has been startling.

A few months ago, everybody was starting a hedge fund. Now, it seems, nobody wants to go near them. The quoted funds have come up with disappointing results. Hedge-fund indexes are dropping. In London, analysts say the bubble is popping.

By Bill Cara -

In the first three parts of this series, I organized the 34 Brazilian stocks that trade on the New York Stock Exchange, first in order of their market capitalization, then in their industry sector group. Then I gave you some brief comments to say that the stock cycle in Brazil was topping out as in New York.

Since then, crude oil prices have risen sharply to $47 so the commodity price sensitive Brazilian market has continued to rally. The market has gone higher, higher and higher. I am now waiting for a sharp correction, linked to a pullback in the Brazilian Real versus the U.S. Dollar. Put options are favored at this point.

By David Wells -

Passengers on United Airlines flight 904 from Los Angeles to New York this morning have Morgan Stanley to thank for keeping them aloft.

The investment bank provides UAL Corporation, United's parent, with all its jet fuel at 35 airports as well as financing all third-party fuel sales and handling UAL's fuel trades.

This arrangement, agreed in late 2003, will run for three years and represents a good deal for both parties: UAL's 2002 fuel bill was $2.8bn and the bankrupt airline estimated the deal would save $5m a year.

By Jake Bernstein -

Great traders are created, not born. Those who lack discipline, persistence and self-confidence lose the never-ending challenge of trading profits. But those who survive the battle by using the tools of the masters enjoy the fruits of consistent success. Here is an opportunity to learn from some of the best-known international traders ever. . . this time from Bruce Babcock,

Bruce Babcock, received his bachelor’s degree in Business Administration as well as a law degree in 1979, at the age of 35. Bruce left his law office to concentrate on Commodity trading. He has written six commodity trading books. He has had numerous articles published in Futures magazine and Technical Analysis of Stocks and Commodities. In 1983 Bruce started publishing Commodity Traders Consumer Report, a bimonthly news-letter that tracks the performance of top commodity advisory services and makes a significant impact on the industry. He also publishes Major Moves, a long-term, special situation advisory letter. Bruce has designed numerous computer software programs for traders, including optimizable trading system programs, trading tools and a data management program for using continuous contracts.

By Jay Taylor -

We Americans are such simpleminded folks. We think in terms of black or white, never in terms of gray, as if everything has to be either good or bad, on or off, or up or down. This leaves us utterly prone to totalitarian slogans and simple answers to problems. So we have this debate going on—do we have inflation or do we have deflation?

Clearly we have both. We have horrendous inflation in commodity prices. But we also have huge deflationary pressures at the same time that are keeping the consumer price index from coming even close to what we experienced in the 1970s, even though the Fed keeps printing money like mad.

By Lisa Kallal -

CHICAGO (Dow Jones)--Traders on the Chicago Board of Trade floor found
Thursday's U.S. Department of Agriculture data to be bullish for soybean
futures, but bearish corn and wheat.

Traders called CBOT soybean futures mostly up 10-20 cents per bushel,
after seeing a much lower-than-expected U.S. 2004-05 soybean crop. "If everyone believes that figure, soybeans could be as much as 30 cents higher,"
said one CBOT trader. But on the other end of the spectrum, corn and wheat futures were called to open mostly 3-5 cents lower based on larger crops.

By Peter McKay -

The Chicago Board of Trade is planning to launch online gold and silver futures that will compete directly with the long-established ones listed on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange.

People familiar with the move say the CBOT is trying to capitalise on the spate of high prices for metals and, more importantly, its customers' complaints about the lack of electronic trading at Comex, where gold and silver are only available online after the trading floor closes.

IBA net surges

International Bank of Asia (IBA), one of Hong Kong's smallest listed lenders, said yesterday its first-half profit nearly quadrupled as it set aside less money for bad loans amid the city's economic recovery.

IBA, which is 75-per-cent owned by Taiwan's Fubon Financial Holding Co, reported net profit of HK$198.84 million (US$25.5 million), compared with HK$52.39 million a year ago.

Bad or doubtful debt provisions fell to HK$24.5 million from HK$101.7 million a year ago, with executives citing fewer personal bankruptcies and rising property costs.

LONDON, Aug 9 (Reuters) - Gold prices kept to tight ranges on Monday in Europe as the market digested Friday's run up to two-week highs above $400/oz following much weaker-than-expected U.S. jobs data.

Traders and analysts felt the market had potential for further gains, although volatility would remain high given the low liquidity levels.

"It was fairly significant what happened on Friday. I believe more buying is going to come in soon," one trader said.

By Bill Cara -

The head of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, called OPEC, gave us the quote of the Day: “It’s Unreal!”

We beg to differ. It is real, and if, as and when crude oil prices go higher, so too does our cost at the fuel pumps.

Analysts widely believe that for every one-cent increase at the filling station, consumers in the U.S. are spending an extra US$1 billion more per year for gasoline. That translates, for the United States alone, into an additional $50 billion revenues annually for the energy sector and a corresponding deficit in consumer spending and investment in other sectors.

Aug. 3 (Bloomberg) -- Canadian two-year bonds rose after the country's biggest trading partner, the U.S., reported spending by consumers fell in June for the first time in nine months and a measure of inflation slowed. The currency rose.

Canada has no economic reports until Thursday and was celebrating the Civic Holiday yesterday. Bonds gained this week as investors sought the perceived safety of government debt following warnings of terrorist attacks in the U.S.

``The markets are settling back down after the terrorism alerts and focusing on the usual event risks,'' including economic data, said David Ebata, a managing analyst in Boston at Thomson Financial, a unit of Toronto-based Thomson Corp. ``Main risks'' in Canada include details released Thursday on the 10- year bond auction next week and Friday's jobs reports, he said.

By Gold-Authentic Money -

Gold Investors, Traders and long time gold supporters are watching the Gold price fall below $390, looking as though it is heading, even lower. Morale for this sector is low among many of the Bulls. The media hype has the U.S. economy in the ascendancy, implying that confidence is solid and the $ on a roll. Many feel the gold market has had its day and the $ is set to ride high. Do you believe that? Do the facts tell that story? Or is that another dramatic daily picture set to change to an equally dramatic different view tomorrow? We think that this is nowhere near the end. Quite the contrary, we are close to the time when perhaps, we are seeing the bottom of the decline. If this is true, it presents solid opportunities that may well become a happy memory for those who act soon and a point of deep regret for those who sit on their hands and mope!