Commodity Online – Gold prices had an excellent run last week, led by the extensive fall in the US dollar and strong rally in the equity markets. The rise in crude oil prices also resulted in lifting bullion.

The US currency showcased the biggest decline in a month against euro last week as US data showed that the world’s largest economy contracted lesser than forecasts, which hinted that the recession is fading and gave rise to investor demand in riskier counters such as commodities and equities.

The outlook is bright – the most active benchmark contract at the Comex has pulled off a strong recovery, ending at $953.70 near the resistance at $960, a break and close of which will take prices towards new highs of $966.70/oz and $970.40/oz, state traders.

Read Complete Article

Tags: bullion, comex, commodities, commodity, crude oil prices, decline, economy, gold prices, investor-demand, new-highs, oz, rally, recession, resistance, us currency

AllAboutAlpha.com – Several pundits have recently pronounced the so-called “hedge fund model” to be dead (or at least “upended“).  But is the patient clinically dead, or is it just having an out-of-body experience?  After the recent trauma experienced by the sector, hedge fund administrators will likely play a central role in bringing the industry back from the other side.

Hans Hufschmid, the CEO of GlobeOp, one of the world’s biggest hedge fund administrators, recently told the FT that:

“There will be tremendous trading opportunities. We are seeing opportunities that we haven’t seen in our lifetime, just in terms of relative trading let alone directional…

“Convertible bonds are extremely cheap, there are mortgages that are extremely cheap and distressed assets that are extremely cheap. There are lots of opportunities that are ideal for hedge funds to take advantage of.

“Further, hedge funds will face less competition with investment bank proprietary trading desks largely disappearing from the market.”

Read Complete Article

Tags: bad-credit, board-of-directors, chief-executive, diamond-retailer, eberts, goldman-sachs, june-14, nutmeg, political-views, resistance, scion-capital, valuation-practices