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Metals Thoughts: Home on the range
Brad Yates Natural ResourcesWe've had an incredibly quiet last few sessions since last week's FOMC/BoJ shenanigans, and the resistance of the 50 DMA seems to have held for now around $1,333. As you would expect, implied volatility has pretty well collapsed and 1M gold vols are the lowest since July 2015.
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Green utopias: What happened to the ‘cities of the future’?
Lucy Wallwork Waste Management & EnvironmentalUtopias have always had a strong hold on the imagination. Given the exponential growth and development in renewable technologies, we have seen cities trying to transform their infrastructure and built environment to accommodate new ways of making, accessing and using energy. Others have decided to break loose and design grand "green city" utopic visions, setting a new standard for the "cities of the future."
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Metals Thoughts: Bank doubleheader
Brad Yates Natural ResourcesThe next 36 hours or so are likely to have an outsized effect on capital markets the world over as we get the Bank of Japan (BoJ) statement tonight and the Federal Open Market Commitee (FOMC) announcement and presser tomorrow afternoon.
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Challenges of oil and gas investment in West Africa with low oil prices
Stefanie Heerwig Natural ResourcesWhen oil prices were up to $100 per barrel (WTI), development and exploration investments were booming — even in high-risk areas. From Arctic oil to deepwater drilling, oil and gas majors were not afraid to invest despite production costs of $95 per barrel and above.
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Metals Thoughts: Failure to yield
Brad Yates Natural ResourcesThe broad commodities indices have seen decent selling so far today, with generally all risk assets getting some to some extent or another. The tone flipped last week when the ECB failed to meet extremely dovish expectations, and bond crowned prince Jeffery Gundlach made broad prognostications (again) for the case for going to cash amid some mild hawkishness.
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Metals Thoughts: The almighty dollar
Brad Yates Natural ResourcesWelcome back from the long weekend (or perhaps even the long summer). We are basically flat to prices from the first of July, and volatility has been coming off accordingly. As the new school year begins, we have new opportunities, but the low volatility regime is likely to persist for a couple more weeks as of yet — with the Sep. 20-21 FOMC meeting as an interesting potential catalyst.
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Palace drama in Uzbekistan leaves questions about energy stability
Lucy Wallwork Natural ResourcesUzbekistan — if known at all — is known as one of the most repressive of the "-stans," stretching across the Central Asian land mass. Earlier this week, local news outlets reported that longtime President Islam Karimov had died.
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Metals Thoughts: Tight lines
Brad Yates Natural ResourcesGold — along with most every other asset class — has pretty much been a dollar story of late. Dollar weakness means higher asset prices. Last week's brief experiment with yen strengthening through the 100 USDJPY level seems to be held at bay for now, but barely and is probably the single biggest number to watch right now. It's not uncommon to test a level, sell off and then break through after consolidation, and we have witnessed the same thing through the 110 and 105 levels already this year.
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The missing revolution in solar infrastructure
Lucy Wallwork Waste Management & EnvironmentalReading the solar industry news, industry watchers can be found giddily talking about transformations in how we fuel our households and industries. As the cost of solar power nears what is known as "grid parity" — when solar can generate power at a lower or equal cost to that purchased from the grid — forecasters are predicting that solar is set to grow exponentially over the next five years.
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Metals Thoughts: Yen roars against dollar
Brad Yates Natural ResourcesIn last week's article, I noted that one of the requirements for another leg higher in gold would be for the USDJPY to break below 100 — and that has now happened. The next level to watch will be the 99.02 low tick from the Brexit shenanigans. If we hold 100 and then 99, it will encourage metals bulls, especially as they have now had six weeks since the most recent highs.
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