JPM Natural resources & Merriyll Lynch Gold & General

Browntrout_2

In commodities you can see the ultimate supply and demand market forces at work.

Supply can be limited at a moments notice due to politics.
Supply can be increased over the long term by investment.
Demand is subject to emotional swings, hoarding/dumping and increasing/decreasing usage.

So if we take the supply of gold, their is only so much of the stuff actually exists it is mined in some of the most instable regions of the world, canada and australia excepted.

Demand for gold is impacted by central bank reserves, jewellery, speculation, electronics and dentistry (maybe others?).

As the US$ falls the demand for gold seems to increase indicating central banks buying?

purch

how does the commodity market look at the moment?

..of interest to you may be a look at the DJ AIG Commodity Index ( probably the most balanced commodity index out there ) which includes 20 commodities ranging from West Texas Crude to Lean Hogs plus precious and non precious metals ( 33% Energy, 26% Metals, 41% Agriculture )

Over the last year the Index has been quite volatile, but real return wise it was hovering around 170 a year ago, and is at 177 now which goes to show that commodities is not the huge one way bet sector it is sometimes made out to be.

hyposmurf

meinnit wrote: »

Which site will give me an up to date price for funds? The Share Centre seem to update the daily prices at 5pm daily (before any other site)

Thats been bugging me to I've noticed trustnet sometimes update earlier than H&L but trustnet is about 8pm.You got link to the daily prices on the share centre?