Wednesday, July 31, 2013

How Important Is The Spot Price of Uranium?

Though the spot price of uranium has fallen to US$34.50/lb.—a far cry from the US$140/lb it fetched a few years prior—how important is the spot price of uranium? The answer: not as important as the long-term price. In fact, over six times more uranium is traded in long-term market prices than in the spot market price. Most investors in the commodity universe understand the spot price for metals. A simplified definition of the spot price is what the metal costs to buy or sell right now, minus the commissions and fees. Oil, for example, trades billions of dollars a day on a spot price. For copper producers, unless they are hedged, the spot price is the price that matters to them when they sell their production.
The Dubious Uranium Spot Market
I say dubious because less than 15% of the metal is actually traded on spot prices. In the uranium sector, there are two types of markets: the spot price (less than 15% of the market—and as low as 5%); and the long-term price (over 85%). Currently, the long-term price for uranium is over 50% higher than the spot price. The long-term uranium price is currently set at US$57 per pound, whereas the spot price as of this writing is US$34.50.
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China’s Coming Credit Crisis – James Corbett on RT



After years of China’s rapid growth and development, the world’s second largest economy appears to be slowing down. The government is expecting the lowest rate of economic expansion in more than two decades. James Corbett, editor of The Corbett Report news website, joins RT to talk more on China and its place in the global economy.
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2 Stocks to Profit Most From the ‘Texas Oil Boom’ : PXD, PER

As I wrote up this analysis of the best investments in oil, a familiar saying came to mind: “Everything old is new again.”

A truer statement could not be said about the Permian Basin, which is a geological formation roughly 300 miles long and 250 miles across that stretches across west Texas and eastern New Mexico.

It has been producing oil (29 billion barrels worth) since 1921. But even as recently as a decade ago, it was thought to be played out.

That was before new drilling technologies such as fracking were considered for use in the region.

Nearly 48% of all drilling rigs in the country are drilling right now in Texas, with over 400 drilling rigs in the Permian Basin alone. (more)

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Bullish at the Bottom: Why Now is the Time to Buy Commodities

by Frank Holmes
Daily Reckoning

It was a challenging first half of the year for most commodities, with only two resources we track on our Periodic Table of Commodities Returns rising in value. Natural gas and oil rose 6.5% and 5%, respectively, while silver lost a third of its value and gold lost a quarter of its price from the beginning of the year.
[...] At first glance, the correction seems to support naysayers who believe the supercycle in commodities has ended, such as Credit Suisse analysts who had declared that the “era is over” in its digital magazine The Financialist.
We disagree. Instead, we see severe price declines as possible buying opportunities during this ongoing commodity supercycle.
Continue Reading at DailyReckoning.com…
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Tibco Software Inc. (NASDAQ: TIBX)

TIBCO Software Inc. provides middleware and infrastructure software worldwide. It offers products in the areas of service-oriented architecture (SOA) and core infrastructure; business optimization; and process automation and collaboration. Its SOA and core infrastructure product line helps organizations integrate their disparate systems and move towards flexible infrastructure comprising services or discrete data components that can be assembled, orchestrated, and reused. The company's business optimization software tracks large volumes of real-time events as they occur and applies rules in order to identify patterns that signify problems, threats, and opportunities, as well as automatically initiate appropriate notifications or adaptations of processes. Its process automation and collaboration software helps organizations coordinate manual and automated process flows that span their business and enables employees to collaborate in real-time using social media. The company also provides professional services, which include consulting services that comprise systems planning and design, installation, and systems integration; maintenance and support; training; and hosted services.
Please take a look at the 1-year chart of TIBX (TIBCO Software, Inc.) below with my added notations:
TIBX holds above resistance TIBCO's stock had been trading in a large, sideways range since December. Over those last (9) months, the stock has also formed a key level at $24 (navy), which had most recently been acting as resistance. Late last week the stock finally broke back above that $24 level. So, assuming TIBX holds $24, the stock should be moving overall higher from here.
The Tale of the Tape: TIBX had a key level of resistance at $24 that should now act as support on any pullbacks. A long trade could be entered on a pullback to $24 with a stop placed below that level. However, if the stock were to break back below $24, a short trade could be made instead.
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US Rents Hit Record Highs As Homeownership Plunges To 18 Year Lows

The American Homeownership Dream is officially dead. Long live the New Normal American dream: Renting.
According to the latest quarterly homeownership data released by the Census Bureau, the raw homeownership rate of 65.0% was unchanged from last quarter and 0.4% lower than a year ago. And on a seasonally adjusted basis (not sure why homeownership is adjusted for seasons: people who live in a house in the winter generally live under a bridge in the summer?), the percentage of Americans who have a house declined from 65.2% to 65.1%: the lowest since 1995.
Obviously the flipside to most “children” in their mid-30s still living in their parents’ basements is that those wishing to brave the New Normal world will have to spend a lot for rent. A record lot in fact, as the median asking rent for vacant housing units just hit an all time high of $735 per month.
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