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On a percentage basis, the price of silver can easily outpace gold over the next few years as both metals hit record highs after adjusting for inflation since 1980. Silver might achieve that goal far more quickly than gold.

But as gold reaches over $1,145 this week (+10% in November) there's...

Today's extraordinary loose monetary conditions are "benefiting hard assets," according to James Passin, co-founder and manager of Firebird Global Fund and Firebird Global Fund II. Surplus liquidity is flowing into ETFs that buy commodity futures and physical commodities, which James says, is "creating a feedback loop" that is driving up the price of resources. James discusses gold's momentum, as ...

LDK Solar (LDK), a well known Chinese Solar Company, invested (since summer 2007) in a very ambitious plan that almost cost them their future: Build an in-house Poly Plant to build the polysilicon needs for their Wafer Production.

Why that plan? Well, Polysilicon is a major cost component of a Wafer and at the time of the project decision (that the market warmly welcomed), the price of polysilicon ...

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If you take a look at my recent post on the CBOE equity put/call ratio, you'll get a sense for what an average ratio has looked like lately. Those ratios, however, can also be informative on an intraday basis.

The top 3 Singapore banks based on assets held as of December 2008 are listed below:

Source: BankScope...

Introduction

In the Gold mining world as in life, Darwin’s law of survival of the fittest holds true. The large Gold mining companies (which we shall refer to as “Big Gold” hereinafter) need to continue growth in order to survive. Big Gold needs to replace their mined out resources in order to continue their existence and to grow. ...

By Jeff St. John

The South Korean government has declared its intention to help its home industries win 30 percent of the global smart grid market, Reuters reported Friday.

Canadians observed the sub-prime crises and consequent financial meltdown with morbid fascination, all the while congratulating themselves that it would not happen to them. After all, the laws forbade anyone from walking away from an underwater mortgage and strict rules were in place to even qualify for a mortgage.

The fact is, over 90% of existing mortgages in Canada are "securitized" - that's th...

I stand by my basic premise that Barney Frank, like other members of Congress does not understand finance. He lacks the skill set to write a bill that by definition must be technically intensive if it is to create the architecture for sound regulation of all U.S. financial markets. Still, he has a better understanding than most. We should all be encouraged that he, along with agriculture commit...

The most recent major SEC appointment is worrying. In general, Obama's appointments in finance have been uninspiring. Geithner was touted as the only choice for Treasury -- causing many to conjecture that Congress looked the other way regarding his obvious tax dodge. Indeed, those questioning him during confirmation hearings looked at everything but the thinly veiled truth about the Secretary t...

Market Generalities

When reading Seeking Alpha Friday, I couldn’t help notice that the most popular article was: Why the Stock Market Should Crash, by Charles Hugh Smith. With all due respect to Mr. Smith, and all the other doomsayers out there, I frankly just don’t get it. In my opinion, fear is a negative emotion that causes more harm than good. My favorite acronym for FEAR is: False Evidence Ap...

By Michael Kanellos

Johnson Controls (JCI) will informally refer to itself as the IBM of green building and in many ways the analogy is apt. Both companies have extensive histories. The Milwaukee-based company just announced another quarterly dividend, the latest in a streak that stretches back to 1887....

By Ucilia Wang

Solar company executives have often talked about India as a potentially huge market. Now they can count on the government's help to make that a reality.

China’s economic recovery, powered by its own stimulus package, shows no signs of letting up. The world's fastest growing economy has picked up over the course of the year, with third-quarter GDP growth expanding to an annual 8.9 percent from 7.9 percent in the second quarter and 6.1 percent in the first, virtually assuring China of reaching its 8 percent full-year target.

PetroChina (PTR), the l...

The New York Times has a news article running under the headline "New Consensus Views Stimulus as Worthy Step" that is ridiculous even by New York Times standards.

Says the Times:

by Jeff St. John

The South Korean government has declared its intention to help its home industries win 30 percent of the global smart grid market, Reuters reported Friday. But to start, the government will spend a relatively small 37 billion won ($32 million) to test smart grid systems from a consortium including SK Telecom (SKM), LG Electronics (LGERF.PK), Hyundai Heavy Industries (HYHZF.PK) and...

by Michael Kanellos

Nearly two months after its successful initial public offering, A123 Systems (AONE) seems headed back to its roots.

by Michael Kanellos

Tesla Motors is preparing to move forward with an IPO, according to unidentified sources at Reuters.

Platts, the highly respected energy consulting company, released its Platts Top 250 Global Energy Company Rankings for 2009 this week. One of the sub-sectors of this ranking is the Fastest Growing Energy Companies in Asia.

The Top 20 Fastest Growing Energy Companies in Asia:

On November 13, Spectrum Pharmaceuticals (SPPI) reported some positive Q3 results. Sales of their non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma (NHL) drug, Zevalin®, which made up more than half of the revenue generated during the quarter, continue to improve significantly.

Over the past several months, many have argued that a Zevalin comeback was impossible. The drug has been ignored by doctors for several years. For th...

by Paul Amery

There’s been a lengthy discussion on other blogs this week about how ETF Securities’ new currency ETCs work. In my view, the blogs’ authors, Felix Salmon of Reuters and Izabella Kaminska of FT Alphaville, have missed one key subject – collateral costs.

China’s economy appears to have pulled itself out of the global recession at a steady clip, but will related shares and ETFs be able to maintain the gains?

The Year of the Ox may be the Year of the Bull instead. Among the reasons to like China as an investment opportunity include:

Actively managed ETFs are still a relatively new player on the market, but already some providers and investors may have already written them off. Is it premature to do so?

Actively managed ETFs are still in their infancy, and the segment is still growing. Last week’s launch of two actively managed funds – one apiece from PIMCO and iShares – is proof of that. On top of that, there are several more ...

As a follow-up to my last article, here are some interesting facts about Brazil gleaned from this week's The Economist magazine's special report on the country:

• Brazil is the world's fourth largest democracy.
• Brazil has the world's largest freshwater supplies, the largest tropical forests, and land so fertile that some farmers can harvest three crops a year.
• Brazil is the world's larg...

As billions go into updating and fixing the nation’s aging infrastructure, investors now have the opportunity to capitalize on the ambitious “smart grid” revolution with the use of a new sector-specific ETF.

A new “smart grid” industry is coming about and First Trust/Clean Edge Smart Grid ETF (NasdaqGM: GRID) aims to be the first to target the emerging sector, according to Maureen Brody for Ignites. GRID seeks to reflect the NASDAQ OMX Clean Edge Smart Grid Infrastructure Index, which includes companies engaged in all components of the smart grid.