Today's report begins with an abominable horror: The world's most valuable commodity has soared to its highest price in a generation.
Fields of Dreams
August 5, 2010 By Leave a Comment
Imagine yourself standing in fields of soy and sugar cane that carpet the land out to the horizon as far as you can see and sweeping blue skies overhead. Only an occasional tree or silo gives you any sense of distance.
You are standing on a vast savannah that is one of the most productive farming regions in Brazil. Called the cerrado, it produces 54% of Brazil's soybeans, 28% of its corn and 59% of its coffee. It also supports 55% of Brazil's beef industry.
[Read more...]Sweet Profits in Sugar?
August 4, 2010 By Leave a Comment
August, the eighth month of the year, is the last month before the traditional harvest time in the Northern Hemisphere. Thus, the old saying was “If the 24th of August be fair and clear, then hope for a prosperous Autumn that year.�
So far, the month of August has been very fair and clear for the stock market…and for the commodities markets. These buoyant trading days of early August continue last month's bullish action in both the stock and commodities markets.
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The Best Way to Bet on America
There is lots of ugly economic news out there, but one key bright spot is world trade. In the US, one particular industry will enjoy windfall profits from exports this year. That industry is agriculture.
In 2009, world trade took a big hit in the wake of the financial crisis. Global exports fell 12%. Governments tried to protect their home teams and a wave of tariffs and other protectionist measures followed. This was what happened during the Great Depression, too, as the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act raised tariffs on more than 900 goods.
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