| Feds looking into alleged metro Ponzi scheme
Federal agents are investigating several people suspected of running a fraudulent investment scheme that helped pay for stock market day trading and gambling trips to Las Vegas. The alleged scheme used a number of Twin Cities business entities and is believed to have tapped more than 200 investors nationwide for at least $10.9 million, according to a sworn statement filed this month in Minneapolis federal court to obtain three search warrants. U.S. Postal Inspector Rob Strande, who filed the statement, said the losses have not been determined, but that they could be substantial. Strande said in the affidavit that the suspects solicited investors by promising returns of 20 to 2,200 percent over the course of one to 18 months. Potential investors were told that their money would go to unspecified ventures -- including gold, diamonds and oil commodities -- he said.
'MAD' JIM CRAMER LOSES GOLDEN $50K BET
The host of CNBC's "Mad Money" now owes $50,000 after losing one of the worst wagers of his entire career to rival trading wiz Eric Bolling. Cramer, who favors the phrase "Boo Ya," made an on-air bet with Bolling about a year ago that financial services would be the hottest sector of 2007. Bolling, a former trader at the New York Mercantile Exchange, placed his money on oil and gold. Investors who took Cramer's advice would have taken a 30 percent hit to their portfolios as the stocks of financial titans such as Citigroup and Merrill Lynch got hammered by the mortgage crisis. On the other hand, investors savvy enough to follow Bolling's bet on gold and oil would have hit the jackpot, as the hot commodities jumped over 60 percent in the same period. Cramer, through a spokesman, blamed his loss on Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke's failure to cut interest rates more aggressively.
CME bid spurs fears of merger monster
THE commodities boom is intensifying the merger mania among the world's financial exchanges. But the $US11 billion ($12.4 billion) bid by CME Group to acquire Nymex Holdings may fuel worries that consolidation is leaving the survivors with too much power. A purchase of the 135-year-old New York Mercantile Exchange's owner by CME, parent of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, would create the largest exchange in the world, with a stock market value of about $US45 billion. And acquiring Nymex's crude oil futures, one of the largest commodity contracts in the world, would fill the last major hole in the 110-year-old Chicago exchange's product line-up, while squeezing remaining rivals in the energy market. The deal also highlights some unsettling consequences of the global scramble for alliances and market share in trading financial securities.
London robusta coffee hits 9-year high
London robusta coffee futures hit a nine-and-a-half-year high and cocoa reached a four-year peak on Friday on a wave of enthusiasm among investment funds for all sorts of commodities. Reallocation of investments for the New Year has already seen several basic resource prices, including gold and oil, hit record highs this month and soft commodities such as coffee and cocoa have been tipped as a good bet for the year ahead. "Funds are increasing their holding in both commodities at the moment. It is not an overnight thing, I think it has been building for some time," soft commodities trader Jeff Cooper of Ambrian Commodities said. .
Aluminium gains, agris spike, crude witnesses profit-taking
MUMBAI: The commodity markets were volatile last week as the surprise Fed move on interest rates caused short-term turbulence. The immediate reaction was a short-term upmove on select base metals as the industrial outlook (at least as a perception) improved and shorts were squeezed. The bullion outlook, too, improved as hedge fund activity was seen driving prices higher. Select agri-commodities spiked higher and the outlook was slightly more upbeat compared with the previous week. MCX volumes fell 2% and open interest tripped by a similar amount on a week-on-week basis. Turnover gainers were copper, mentha oil, potato, zinc and aluminium. Open interest gainers were natural gas, zinc, refined soya oil and chana. Agri-commodities
Chana has established Rs 2,100 level as a critical support and as long as this threshold is not violated downwards, the outlook remains optimistic.
Oil slips as Opec gathers in Saudi Arabia
Commodities came under pressure on Monday as a wave of risk aversion swept across markets, dragging energy, metals and agricultural prices lower. Oil fell sharply at the start of a crucial week with crude prices in sight of the key $100 level as delegates began to gather for a historic meeting of the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries. .
Asian stocks up on rate cut hopes; commodities hot
SINGAPORE: Stocks rallied on Thursday as solid earnings and expectations of further US interest rate cuts outweighed worries about inflation even as oil hit a record high above $101 a barrel. Gold also hit a record above $945 an ounce, and silver touched a 27-year high, as funds poured into a wide range of commodities, betting they will outperform in an environment where growth is slowing and prices are rising.
Data on Wednesday showed a faster-than-expected rise in US consumer prices last month and further weakness in the housing market there.
"The US is entirely focused on the economic data that is coming out and we're getting revised forecasts for their economic growth in the downward trend," said Savanth Sebastian, equities economist at CommSec in Sydney.
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