We Are Very Close To A Buy Signal In Precious Metals Sector

In June last year I published an article on an easy play in Precious Metals Market. Here is the link.

Today, despite falling PM share prices we are very close to another LONG trade. Please, look at the chart below:

In the upper section you will find the chart showing the relative strength of Junior sector of PM market (GDXJ) against the big gold producers (GDX). Every time Juniors start showing strength against Big gold the rally in the whole sector begins.
Keep a close eye on the behaviour of PM shares in the coming days.

Fundamentals of Corn and Wheat Look Better Now

A few days ago I published a post on agriculture commodities - link is here. Today let me take a closer look at two grain commodities: wheat and corn.
Both commodities are in their medium term downtrends. But these days corn and wheat prices look like they are ahead of some correction to the upside or even ahead of starting a new uptrend.

Corn

According to USDA (United States Department of Agriculture) the world production in 2015/2014 season will outnumber the world consumption by 16.9 million metric tons. Simply put, the supply of corn will be higher than demand. The table below shows the difference between corn production and consumption  since the season 2009 / 2010. As you see, since 2011 / 2012 we have seen an overproduction of corn - this is not a good situation for those going long this commodity. In effect, the prices of corn have been trading in a range or trending down since 2011.

                                                                  source: USDA and Simple Digressions

In the ongoing season once again the USDA forecasts that there is going to be an oversupply of corn with the world production of 988.1 million metric tons and consumption of  971.2 million metric tons. It means supply outnumbering demand by 17.0 million metric tons.

But for the first time since the season 2010 / 2011 the demand for corn will grow by 2.07% while production should grow by only 0.38% - please, look at the table below:

                                                                  source: USDA and Simple Digressions

Let me picture these relations once again, this time with a chart below:

                                          source: USDA and Simple Digressions

This should suport the bull case of corn - despite the forecast that in the season 2014 / 2015 the supply should be still higher than demand, there are positive changes in corn fundamentals. Together with the probable bottoming process for a majority of commodities, in my opinion, the above numbers may be of some help for corn bulls.

Wheat

It is a similar story to corn. In the season 2015 / 2014 the world wheat production is forecasted to outnumber the world wheat consumption by 10.2 million metric tons (production standing at 723.4 million metric tons  and consumption at 713.2 million metric tons).  But, similarly to corn,  demand for wheat will grow by 1.31% while production should grow by 1.12%. The difference is not big so wheat seems to be a worse bull play than corn but anyway the fundamentals for wheat are a little bit better for those going long this commodity.

                                                                       source: USDA and Simple Digressions

Gold Is Still In Its Downtrend

Despite having gained some life most recently, gold (and silver as well) is still in its downtrend.
The chart below clears the long term technical situation of gold:

As the chart shows, in the beginning of 2015 gold bulls tried to break above the descending long term trend line. As usually, they failed.

For those thinking the classical technical analysis makes sense, I have drawn an emerging technical pattern called "Head and Shoulders". Presently gold is bouncing back towards the pink line, which is a crucial element for this formation. In the coming days the battle between bulls and bears seems to be conducted between $1,225 - $1,300 per ounce of gold.

In the short term, the Head&Shoulders pattern looks as below:

Prices of Agriculture Commodities Are At Their Multi - Year Support

It looks like the agriculture commodities are forming their bottoms. These days their prices are near the long-term support. Please, look at the charts below:

The chart shows two investment vehicles replicating the prices of agriculture commodities:

1. the first one is DBA, which tracks the price and yield performance of the Deutsche Bank Liquid Commodity Index - Optimum Yield Agriculture Excess Return. The table below lists the commodities tracked by DBA:

                                                source: Deutsche Asset and Wealth Management

2. the second one is RJA, which replicates the Rogers International Commodity Index – Agriculture Total Return index. The table below lists the commodities tracked by RJA:

                                                                                 source: elementsetn.com

Going back to the chart, it can be spotted that both vehicles are at their multi-year supports (the blue area). In my opinion, the majority of agriculture commodities should start forming their bottoms.