commodities

Sugar Games: A Peek Inside the Elite, High-Stakes Gamble of Sugar Futures

Every few weeks, a handful of the world's biggest merchants play a high-stakes game, and a well-connected newcomer from Asia, Wilmar International, just sat down at the table. The stakes are in sugar often worth hundreds of millions of dollars; the occasion is the expiry of futures contracts.

Gold Tops the List of the Fourth Quarter's Likely Winners

Most commodities rallied in the third quarter, but can they hold on to their advance? Read on, and find out which ones still have legs to dance their way higher, and which are poised to take a tumble. The short answer to that from analysts is that gold and oil are likely to advance, while grains and sugar are among those that probably won't, but there will be a lot of different factors to consider.

Spike in Orange Juice Prices? It's Pulp Fiction

Orange juice drinkers can relax. Fears of a spike in the price of the breakfast favorite appear overblown. The specter was raised of a January OJ shortage in the U.S., which could have translated into sharply higher prices on store shelves. But there should be plenty of oranges, and juice, to go around.

Investing Error: Don't Use Stocks as an Inflation Hedge

You%u2019ve heard it so often you can probably repeat it in your sleep: Equities are the best protection against inflation. But academic research establishes clearly that it just isn't so: Stocks aren't a good hedge against inflation at all, particularly high inflation.

Thanksgiving Dinner's Pricetag Rises 13 Percent

Nothing is sacred when it comes to the whims of the global economy -- not even your holiday bird. The cost of a traditional Thanksgiving dinner -- turkey, stuffing, cranberries, pumpkin pie and all the trimmings -- will increase about 13% this year, the biggest jump since 1990.

Investment Tips: How to Tame the Wall Street Beast

Amid plenty of uncertainty, investors are looking for strategies that will make them wealthy. But you should forget about the idea of getting rich quick and focus on diversity, according to Larry Light, author of the new book, Taming the Beast: Wall Street's Imperfect Answers to Making Money.

Earnings Season: Harbinger to Next Round of Layoffs?

Wall Street will watch second quarter earnings for telltale signs that the economy has slowed or that corporate margins are even tighter than is feared. But the ones reporting negative outlooks are likely to go back to the same old solution they used so often in recent years: layoffs.

Chick-fil-A's CEO on Rising Costs, Family Values

For its Cow Appreciation Day Friday, Chick-fil-A gave away free sandwiches to customers who come in wearing cow costumes. We talked with CEO Dan Cathy about a herd of other issues including rising food costs, industry trends, the economy and how his values affect the company's bottom line.

Gas Prices: Down Lately, But Up 30% From 2010

Most of the media coverage about gas prices lately is focused on the fact that they've fallen from an average of $3.98 to $3.58 in about two months. What's rarely mentioned is that the cost per gallon is still 30% higher than it was this time last year, when a gallon cost $2.75.

Chipotle's Growth Plan May Fall Prey to High Food Costs

While Chipotle's fresh Mexican fare has many fans in the U.S., the company has also been adding new restaurants in Europe and is looking at further expansion worldwide. It reported impressive first quarter numbers -- but will higher food costs put the brakes on its expansion plans?

Could the S&P 500 Fall Another 20% in 2011?

After the losses of the past week, it seems hard to imagine that the S&P 500 has much further to decline. But the index took a fall to near 1,000 as recently as last July, and the issues that punished the markets then are looming over the economy again -- or perhaps, still.

Reading the Tea Leaves of the Shanghai Composite

The Shanghai Composite is as close to a proxy for public firms in China as investors can get, and indexes are believed to reflect where markets think a nation's economy is headed. So what does it mean that, despite China's white-hot growth, the Shanghai Composite has been seriously lagging the S&P 500?

Rising Food Costs Will Eat Into McDonald's Profits

McDonald's expects food costs to rise between 4% and 4.5% in the U.S. and Europe this year, which puts the fast food leader between a rock and a hard place: Leave prices the same, and profit margins suffer. Raise them, and cash-strapped customers may start foregoing their Big Macs.

Why Beer Costs More: A Sudsy Economics Lesson

It feels like the price of a case of beer is higher than it has been since the Babylonians first started fermenting barley 6,000 years ago. But what's behind the rising prices? Turns out, the explanation requires a tour across the economic landscape -- and around the world.

Stocks Fall as European Financial Crisis Deepens

Signs that Europe's debt troubles are larger than previously thought upended financial markets Friday, sending the dollar up nearly 1% and erasing the week's stock gains. Fears of a deepening financial crisis overshadowed reports that consumers are feeling more confident in the U.S. economy and that inflation remains in check.

Good News on Gas Prices: A Sharp Drop Is Just Ahead

With security concerns in the Middle East receding and the commodities bubble deflating, oil prices are headed sharply lower. Gas prices should follow suit: Analysts say that prices will get 25 cents a gallon cheaper in the next few days, and drop even further as the summer rolls on.

The Motley Fool's Secret to Investing in Commodities

Investing is prone to manias and panics. Investors get excited as prices rise, and end up buying today what they should have bought years ago. The recent commodities sell-off reminded me of the rule I follow for commodities investing. Had you followed it, you'd have saved loads of money in 2008 and 2009 and made tons recently.

Six Things That Have Changed for Investors

Friday's employment report has created an even hazier backdrop for stocks. Recent data showed an economy starting to cool, but with 244,000 jobs created in April, this expansion may have legs after all. But the economy's areas of support aren't what you'd have expected a few months ago.

Food, Clothing Prices Should Fall As Commodities Tumble

Over the past year, the prices of many commodities have risen at record paces to record highs. But recently, those prices have begun to plunge, and consumers should begin to see the effects of those declines fairly soon, in the form of less-expensive groceries and clothing.

Three Reasons to Still Own Gold (or Finally Buy Some)

Gold has had a magnificent run during the past 10 years, doubling in value since 2008 alone, and gold mania is seemingly still at full strength. But is profit taking the next move? What if you are among the majority of investors who have yet to dip a toe into the water? Is it safe to dive in?

Hedge Funds Hit New Record with $2T in Assets

Hedge funds, which experienced sharp drops in assets during the credit crisis, now hold an all-time high of more than $2 trillion in capital, according to a new survey by Hedge Fund Research Inc. The figure is 50% higher than crisis-driven lows reached in the first quarter of 2009.

For Gold Prices, Is the Bull Run Over?

After a decade-long bull run in the price of gold, the bears are beginning to come out of hibernation. While investors have piled into the precious metal in recent years, one expert predicts that gold prices could "suffer major blows starting possibly this summer."

10 Things You'll Be Paying More for This Year

Expect to pay more this year for many consumer goods -- from diapers to toothpaste to Big Macs. Just as the typical American family will finally have a few more dollars to spend, inflation will take a chunk of that extra cash.