The egg recalls keep pouring up, with one of the latest coming out of Sparboe Farms in Litchfield, Minnesota. The farm came forward voluntarily through the Egg Safety Media Hotline.
[Read more...]The Best Way to Bet on America
August 31, 2010 By Leave a Comment
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.
[Read more...]Food and Drink Prices to Soar
August 30, 2010 By Leave a Comment
Today's report begins with an abominable horror: The world's most valuable commodity has soared to its highest price in a generation.
PotashCorp (NYSE:POT) — Soars 27% on BHP Buyout Offer, so Now What?
August 18, 2010 By Leave a Comment
PotashCorp (NYSE:POT), the Canadian integrated fertilizer and feed products company with operations in Saskatchewan and New Brunswick, was just offered a roughly $38 billion cash buyout by mega-miner BHP Billiton… nothing to sneeze at.
[Read more...]The Great Grain Robbery
August 9, 2010 By Leave a Comment
In 1972, Russia's wheat crop failed. Russia had to dip into the global grain markets to meet demand. Before Washington knew the plight of its Cold War adversary, Russia bought up all of the surplus wheat in the US. Dubbed “The Great Grain Robbery,? Russia's purchases sent grain prices soaring around the world.
[Read more...]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...]The Return of the Commodity Crisis?
August 5, 2010 By Leave a Comment
We did a double take this morning. We know it's not 2008. And yet a look at this chart of the wheat price over the last month…
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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Green Mountain Coffee Roasters (NYSE:GMCR) — CFRA Roasts Vermont’s Green Mountain
Green Mountain Coffee Roasters Inc. (NYSE:GMCR), the Vermont-based specialty coffee and coffee maker company, last week received a fairly negative research opinion from the Center for Financial Research and Analysis. How it’s impacted the stock is the issue that Dan Amoss, Agora Financial's editor of the Strategic Short Report, has investigated.
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