Precious Metals

Stocks rallied strongly on little volume to close the week on a high note following some surprising data.

Despite the credit crunch, commodity investment instruments are holding their own.

Country wide shares traded as much as 20% higher in Wednesday’s aftermarket on news of the BA stake. However both Countrywide and the market closed flat last night.

Stocks went up and bonds went down last night as a seized credit market began to see the first signs of movement.

GFMS has released its second quarter report into gold market dehedging.

Panic gave way to simple anxiety on Wall Street last night as the only news of any consequence was a fall in the oil price.

Mixed, with a lack of conviction, is the way last night’s trading US stock markets could be described as the Dow recovered early losses to finish higher. We are now playing a waiting game.

According to Scotia Capital it is again time to be bullish on commodities, with preferred exposures being iron ore, coking coal, zinc, copper and aluminium.

The US Fed back-flipped on Friday, declaring an appreciable downside risk to the US economy. In cutting its discount rate, the Fed sparked a 233 point rally in the Dow.

In an extraordinary night that followed an extraordinary day, commodity prices collapsed, US bond yields were clipped, the yen accelerated its buyback and Wall Street found a bottom.