COMMODITIES

We were on RT television. The pretty interviewer, Lauren Lyster, wanted to know what would happen after the election.

A photograph of a large gold nugget allegedly found near Kalgoorlio-Boulder is stirring Australia's gold mining community. However, because of the lack of ownership and unknown origin of the photograph, there are doubts that the gold find is just a hoax.

Air Fuel Syndication, a company located in the UK, claims that it has developed a revolutionary technology that enables production of "petrol from air". "Petrol from air" is produced by using technology that captures water vapor and carbon dioxide present in air. By using this method the company produces a synthetic version of the fossil fuel.

Arguably the most romantic line from 2004's The Notebook, starring Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams, comes on the pier in a driving rainstorm. The star crossed lovers discover their relationship has been thwarted by a meddling mother. But love saves the day.

The Australian sharemarket is gaining for the fourth straight day, with the All Ordinaries Index (XAO) up 0.2 pct or 8.7 pts to 4341.6. Some better than expected employment numbers have helped lift the market, while economic news in China so far today has been largely in-line with forecasts.

Kingsgate Consolidated (ASX: KCN) Chief Executive Gavin Thomas is perplexed by the continuous fall in gold prices despite the high demand for the yellow metal. He opined that the decline by prices by about 16 per cent since September 2011 may be caused by the paper market, including the derivative gold futures markets.

From a $128 per barrel in March, a breath taking four year high hit in the crude oil prices, the NYMEX Crude oil prices today lingers a little below $100 a barrel.

Shares in Paladin Energy slid yesterday after the uranium miner again disappointed the market with a shortfall on guidance.

China's Rare Earths Limits Challenged

Between February and March this year, petrol costs have risen by 3%, causing a downward drift in the Westpac-Melbourne Institute consumer sentiment index. This has many economists worrying, as the fear of recession looms and unemployment figures do not look too uplifting either.

Your editor went to a university financed by and named after Alan Bond. And received a scholarship from an infamous investment bank to do it.

Forget all the noise and protests about coal seam gas and fracking in the US, there's a much more important development at work, one that could change the world as we know it.

Is it really the falling prices of rare earths in the global market that might push China to reconsider its export policies, or the threat that the U.S. and Australia might overtake it as the world's rare earths hub?

A high rise in the oil market shot the crude oil prices above $ 102 a barrel in Asia. The rise in the crude oil prices come as Iran decided to increase threats to cut the supply of crude oil to many of the European countries from the region after sanctions were imposed by the European Union against the Iranian energy and banking sectors.

The two sides of the resources boom were clearly on display yesterday in the interim figures from iron ore exporter Fortescue Metals Group and the full year result from copper-gold group OZ Minerals.

U.S. stocks pared losses to inch higher as investors digested headlines over a Greek debt-restructuring deal that would allow the euro-zone country to avoid a default.

Could the gold boom of the past 10 years be about to peak?

Chesapeake Energy, the second-largest producer of natural gas in North Texas' Barnett Shale, has plans of selling off one of its pipeline units, Appalachia Midstream Services, L.L.C., to Chesapeake Midstream Partners LP. Chesapeake Midstream Partners LP is the entirely owned Chesapeake Midstream Development, L.P. subsidiary of that holds its Marcellus Shale midstream assets.

From Morrison Securities Pty. Ltd.U.S. stocks gained after investors took heart from stronger U.S. economic data, but fell off session highs after the head of the International Monetary Fund stoked fears that Europe's sovereign-debt crisis is worsening.

Gold output from small-scale producers in Zimbabwe has helped the African country's overall deliveries to rise for November by contributing over 50 percent to total output, according to a recent report by the African Development Bank (AfDB).

From Stan Shamu, Markets Strategist, IG MarketsGlobal markets extended their losses overnight on deepening concerns about the European debt crisis, after a poorly-received German debt sale. Germany failed to find buyers for 35% of the bonds it offered at an auction. There was also a swathe of disappointing economic data, with European services and manufacturing output shrinking for a third month, US durable goods orders falling and unemployment claims topping forecasts.

Oil grabbed the attention last week in New York with the first move above the $US100 a barrel mark for the first time in four months.

For economic and strategic reasons, the U.S. must rebuild its rare earth minerals supply chain, Senate staffers were told by the United States Magnetic Materials Association.

A new proposal would expand offshore drilling in U.S. waters, but it's drawing fire from supporters as well as critics of the oil and gas industry.

Wood could become a commercially viable biofuel and serve as a substitute for corn and sugar cane by 2020 if efforts are made to develop it, a study by University of British Columbia says.

Florida-based asset management firm Stonehenge Capital Management (SCM) announced Monday that its new direction-neutral hedge fund strategy called Forward Curve Realignment (FCR) resulted in strong returns one month after its launching.

Victorian-based Rex Minerals has upgraded its plans for its low grade but huge Hillside copper prospect on Yorke Peninsula in South Australia, potentially doubling the original production forecasts.

Fueled by fears over the continuing and escalating global financial meltdown, prices of gold are projected to increase by end of this year and way into 2012 as investors turn to the metal commodity to assure their financial capabilities. Mining companies said the precious commodity may hit $2,000 an ounce by end 2011, and further hike to $2,300 an ounce by the close of 2012.

China aims to contribute to ending world hunger and malnutrition by cultivating a super grain capable of yielding an output of 15 tons per hectare come 2020.