1.1.2008 - McGuire of CWA Says Gold May Reach $1000 By 2009  Video news
Patrice Conxicoeur, chief executive officer of Sinopia Asset Management (Asia Pacific) Ltd., talks with Bloomberg's Paul Gordon in Hong Kong about the outlook for U.S., European ...

1.1.2008 - Verghese Calls Africa `Next Frontier' in Agriculture  Video news
Sunny Verghese, chief executive officer of Olam International Ltd., talks with Bloomberg's Susan Li from Singapore about the outlook for soybean prices, Africa's agricultural potential ...

1.1.2008 - Cyprus and Malta make the switch to euros
EU newcomers Cyprus and Malta adopted the euro on Tuesday, bringing to 15 the number of countries using the currency with increasing clout over the slumping U.S. dollar.

1.1.2008 - Battery demand galvanises price of cobalt
The price of cobalt, a rare metal used in products such as batteries for mobile phones and hybrid cars, has surged to record levels amid booming demand and supply ...

3.1.2008 - Japan, India to announce $6 bln currency swap pact: report
Japan and India reached an agreement Thursday for a currency swap totaling up to $6 billion, to be used in the event of a crisis, according to a published report.

3.1.2008 - Canadian Futures Shop Launches Two New Programs
Toronto-based Integrated Managed Futures Corp. today unveiled two new trading programs. The IMFC Multi Strategy Program will invest the bulk of its assets in the firm’s existing IMFC Global Investment Program, and 10% in its new IMFC FxVol Program.

3.1.2008 - CME growth exceeds 20% for seventh consecutive year
The volume of contracts traded on CME Group, the world's largest derivatives exchange, increased by more than 20% for the seventh consecutive year in 2007, in the company's first annual volume report since the July merger between the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and Chicago Board of Trade.

4.1.2008 - Commodities enjoy record breaking start to new year
Commodity markets enjoyed an extraordinary start to 2008 with prices for gold, platinum, crude oil, heating oil, gasoline, palm oil, rapeseed and rice all reaching record levels this week, helped by new investment flows at the start of the new year.

4.1.2008 - Nymex to list crude oil, natural gas options on CME Globex
The New York Mercantile Exchange Inc., a subsidiary of Nymex Holdings Inc. will list European-style crude oil and natural gas options contracts on the CME Globex electronic trading platform on Jan. 20 for trade on Jan 22, Nymex said late Friday.

7.1.2008 - Meir of MFGlobal Sees Oil Up to $120 a Barrel in 2008  Video news
Edward Meir, an analyst at MF Global in Darien, Connecticut, talks with Bloomberg's Carol Massar about near- and long-term oil prices, and the outlook for gold, tin and aluminum prices.

7.1.2008 - Jim Rogers Favors Agricultural Commodities, Sells Dollar  Video news
Jim Rogers, chairman of Rogers Holdings, talks with Bloomberg's Mark Barton from Singapore about the risk of recession in the U.S., the outlook for commodities and currencies, and his investment strategy. Rogers said he has sold the dollar and British pound as global currencies "come under stress."

7.1.2008 - BlackSquare Makes Global Macro Offering, Preps L/S Commodity FoFs
U.K-based BlackSquare Capital launched the BlackSquare Capital Global Macro Fund of Funds on Jan. 1 with some US$30 million in assets. The Global Macro Fund, a concentrated multi-manager portfolio, launched with 11 discretionary and systematic macro hedge fund managers, many of whom are closed to new investment.

7.1.2008 - New records for Eurex as 1.9 billion contracts are traded in 2007
The international derivatives exchange Eurex ended 2007 with record turnover of more than 1.9 billion contracts, a year-on-year increase of some 25 per cent from 1.5 billion in 2006 and corresponding to a daily average trading volume of 7.5 million contracts, compared with 6 million the previous year.

7.1.2008 - Global Commodities stays bullish on oil
Index-based investment fund Global Commodities remains bullish on oil prices even after they hit the USD100 mark, trebling in just four years. Fund manager Justin Wilks said strong demand from emerging economies could offset the impact of lower US demand in the event of a recession, cushioning the impact for prices.

8.1.2008 - Meeting the challenges of trading growth - report
The past few years have seen a substantial increase in programme trading on exchanges and an increase in the role played by high-frequency algorithmic traders. Today, an estimated 50 per cent of turnover in some Eurex flagship products is driven by automated trading including hedge funds...

8.1.2008 - Commodity prices poised to remain strong in 2008
Investors disillusioned by sluggish U.S. stocks and bonds appear ready to increase their exposure to commodities this year even more than they did in 2007, when money in the sector swelled by about 20 percent.

8.1.2008 - Commodities climb to record, led by metals, as equities slump
Commodities jumped to a record on speculation that metals, energy and grains will outperform equity and bond markets this year. The UBS Bloomberg Constant Maturity Commodity Index rose as much as 2.5 per cent to 1,334.71, the highest ever. Copper surged to a seven-week high, gold soared to a record and energy prices rebounded. The commodity gauge climbed 22 percent last year, while the Standard & Poor's 500 Index rose 3.5 percent.

9.1.2008 - Houston Firm Launches Energy Hedge Fund
After six months of marketing its energy hedge fund to institutional investors, Houston-based ETG Capital this week launched its ETG Capital Master Fund. The cross-commodity, relative-value energy hedge fund, with between $25 million to $50 million, has exposure to the U.S. power, natural gas, crude oil and refined products sectors.

10.1.2008 - Commodities in consolidation mode
Rocketing prices for agricultural commodities have generated widespread concerns about food supplies and rising inflationary pressures. The latest updates on supply/demand and stocks from the US Department of Agriculture, due on Friday, are expected to be hugely important for agricultual markets and could pave the way for new records for corn, wheat and soyabean prices.

10.1.2008 - Man Group funds under management reach $71.7 bln
U.K. hedge fund manager Man Group said Thursday that its funds under management reached $71.7 billion at the end of December, up from $68.6 billion at the end of September.

10.1.2008 - UBS to launch global warming derivatives index
The first derivatives index designed to track the greenhouse effect is set to be launched in coming days by UBS, allowing investors to bet on the combined impact of carbon emissions and rising global temperatures.

10.1.2008 - FXall trading volumes reach USD13.4trn in 2007
Leading global foreign exchange platform FXall has set a new mark for annual trading volumes of more than USD13.4trn in 2007, a 37 per cent year-on-year increase, while daily volume exceeded USD98bn in the fourth quarter.

10.1.2008 - $2.8 Billion CTA Closes Out ‘Phenomenal’ Year
Quantitative Investment Management last year enjoyed success on both the fundraising and performance fronts. The Charlottesville, Va.-based firm’s Global Program, a systematic, diversified futures strategy, made gains in 11 out of 12 months as its assets ballooned from just $527 million to over $2.7 billion.

10.1.2008 - CME upgrades systems in defence of new upstart exchange
The CME Group has put a system upgrade and a new trading facility at the centre of a two-pronged defence strategy against an upstart derivatives exchange that has claimed it can successfully break the CME's 'monopoly' on US treasury bond futures market. The CME Group has tried to offset future competition from the unnamed exchange by launching an upgrade to its existing CME Globex electronic trading platform, which intends to slash the time it takes to trade a futures transaction.

11.1.2008 - DEC Gives Futures Fund A Facelift
After 13 years, DEC Capital is making a few changes to its Futures Fund. The Lincoln, Neb.-based commodity trading advisor is renaming its agriculture-focused fund the World Grain & Oilseeds Fund and handing over the reigns to new sub-advisor Dicken Commodities.

11.1.2008 - Haar Offers Agriculture Program
Haar Capital Management believes that further success in the managed futures industry can be had by sticking to its knitting. The Boca Raton, Fla.-based commodity trading adviser last month launched the Discretionary Ag Trading program, a discretionary agricultural-only futures strategy.

11.1.2008 - Renaissance Hit By $4 Billion Outflow
Investors yanked $4 billion from Renaissance Technologies’ largest hedge fund over the past several months, as the quantitative offering suffered—like fellow quants—from the market volatility set off by the subprime slide.

11.1.2008 - Surging gold ETF holds more metal than some governments
That's been the high-class challenge confronting the folks at StreetTracks Gold Shares, a wildly popular exchange-traded fund so awash in investor cash that its backers recently scrambled to find a bigger vault to accommodate their ever-growing horde of the precious metal, now valued at $18 billion.

11.1.2008 - Renaissance makes first loss in 20 years
US firm Renaissance Technologies, regarded as the world's most successful hedge fund manager, recorded its first annual loss on a hedge fund since 1988 as its Renaissance Institutional Equities Fund fell almost 1% last year. The fund, which the firm launched in 2005 saying it had a capacity of USD100bn (EUR68bn), five times larger than any other hedge fund, lost 0.95% in the 12 months to the end of December, according to a person who has seen the fund's results. It was brought down by an eight-month run of losses totalling 6.27% to the end of last month. Its annual return since launch is 9.7% with a volatility of 6.7%.

11.1.2008 - Commodity Opportunities  Video news
How the HNW individual can invest in commodities, with Joe Terranova, MBF Clearing Corp. director of trading.

12.1.2008 - Gold price touches $900 an ounce
The price of gold futures rose to a record $900.10 an ounce Friday on speculation that the Federal Reserve would cut U.S. interest rates further, weakening the dollar and lifting the investment appeal of the precious metal. Silver also gained.

14.1.2008 - Investing in Uranium  Video news
The UK government last week gave the go-ahead for a new generation of nuclear power stations. Andrew Ferguson from New City Investment Managers talks about the supply and price of uranium.

14.1.2008 - Greenbriar Launches Diversified Program
Chappaqua, N.Y.-based Greenbriar Forecast is looking to give its investors exposure to more than just currencies. The $50 million commodity trading adviser last month launched the Global Diversified program, which ended its first month of trading up 2.66%.

14.1.2008 - New derivatives exchange seeks more shareholders
A derivatives exchange that claims it can break the CME Group's monopoly on US Treasury futures trading is seeking up to five more shareholders for its consortium, according to a source close to the deal. Broker eSpeed, owned by Cantor Fitzgerald, has a 25% equity stake in the platform. It is understood that other consortium members have a total 5% shareholding, leaving scope for others to join. The consortium of 12 asset managers, technology providers and investment banks, including Credit Suisse and Deutsche Bank, intend to establish an electronic futures exchange with an integrated clearing house. A spokesman for the exchange declined to comment.

15.1.2008 - Commodities’ Relentless Surge
The price of copper has tripled in five years. Zinc has doubled. Wheat and soybeans rose 70 percent in 2007. Futures prices of crude oil, gold, silver, lead, uranium, cattle, cocoa and corn are all at or near records.

15.1.2008 - Cotton jumps to almost four-year high, catching up to soy, corn
Cotton futures rallied as much as 4% Monday, triggering maximum electronic-trading limits, as traders bet that the textile crop is poised to follow the heady increases of soybean and corn futures.

15.1.2008 - Hedge funds jumping into physical agriculture markets
Strong prices are drawing giant hedge funds into agricultural markets like corn, wheat and soybeans as demand for biofuels continues to soar, an agricultural analyst said on Tuesday. Gary Blumenthal, president and chief executive officer of World Perspectives, told the Reuters Agriculture and Biofuels Summit that hedge funds are raising their allocations for commodities and investing more in physical agricultural assets.

16.1.2008 - Investing in Commodities  Video news
Commodities remain a good investment and offer a good hedge against inflation, says Uwe Parpart, chief economist and strategist, Asia at Cantor Fitzgerald, speaking to CNBC's Amanda Drury.

17.1.2008 - Armajaro Reopens $800M Commodities Fund
U.K.-based Armajaro Asset Management next month is reopening its US$800 million Commodities Fund for additional capacity of some US$250 million. The fund, which trades in soft commodities, metals, energy finished up just over 20% last year.

17.1.2008 - INOKS Launches Multi-Strat Fund
Geneva-based INOKS Capital has launched a multi-strategy fund investing in three major asset classes. In its first two months of trading, the US$13 million Trium fund, which invests in commodities, debt and equities, using both discretionary and systematic approaches, returned 3.34% in November and 10 basis points in December.

17.1.2008 - U.S. recession could slow gold's rally
A full-blown U.S. recession would intensify gold's perfect storm, so the theory goes. It may also present scenarios that cool the metal's scorching rally to record highs, including a recovery in the dollar as stimulative rate cuts take effect in the biggest economy in the world.

17.1.2008 - CFTC Charges Argentine Trader With Fraud
The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission yesterday filed a federal lawsuit against Diego Mariano Rolando of Buenos Aires, Argentina, charging him with defrauding hundreds of customers from around the world in a US$43.8 million investment scheme.

18.1.2008 - Rogers Sees Potential Gains in Cotton, Coffee and Sugar  Video news
Jim Rogers, chairman of Rogers Holdings, talks with Bloomberg's Susan Li from Shanghai about China's decision to impose price curbs on meat, eggs and cooking oil, the outlook for agricultural commodities and the yuan. The Chinese currency posted a sixth weekly gain, the longest stretch in seven months, on speculation the government is allowing it to appreciate to cool the economic expansion and bring inflation down from an 11-year high.

18.1.2008 - Dutch Forex Manager Joins Deutsche Platform
The New Year is looking bright for Navica Capital Management. The Amsterdam-based firm's Currency Alpha Strategy was recently added to the Deutsche Bank Global FX-Select Currency Managers platform, which currently makes more than 70 currency managers available for institutional investors.

21.1.2008 - Managed futures in December 0.3%, for the year 2007 6.0%
In December the credit crunch continued to affect financial markets and global indexes ended the last month of 2007 relatively flat. Because the US economy shows signs of recession, the Federal Reserve cut rates for the fhird straight time.

21.1.2008 - Long period of rising food prices forecast
Scarcity of water and arable land means that the boom in food prices could last longer than most expect, a new study has warned. The report, to be published on Tuesday by the UK-based consultants Bidwells Agribusiness, said the boom – until now fuelled by rising demand from emerging countries and the biofuels industry – would be exacerbated by supply constraints.

22.1.2008 - Outlook for sugar looks brighter
The bitter taste left in 2006 and 2007 when sugar prices collapsed is fast becoming a distant memory. The mood among investors has been transformed in recent weeks, with prices jumping to 17-month highs and banks betting on further gains.

24.1.2008 - Gold leads rally for commodities
Commodity markets rallied on Thursday with the advance led by gold surging above the $900 level as investors absorbed the news of the massive trading scandal at Société Générale.

24.1.2008 - Ermitage’s Resources Fund Breaks $100M
U.K.-based Ermitage Group said its specialist Resources Fund, a commodities-focused fund of hedge funds, has surpassed $100 million in assets under management.

24.1.2008 - Societe Generale says trader's fraud led to $7.1 billion loss
Societe Generale, France's second-largest bank, stunned financial markets Thursday when it announced a single trader had cost it 4.9 billion euros ($7.1 billion) in one of the largest ever frauds by a rogue employee.

24.1.2008 - Bullish on Gold  Video news
Francois Moute, fund manager at ABN AMRO is bullish on the price of gold. He explains why to CNBC's Martin Soong and Amanda Drury.

23.1.2008 - Roy Niederhoffer Closes Out Profitable Year
While Victor Niederhoffer suffered another implosion last year, his younger brother Roy continued to rack up profits in the face of a challenging environment for hedge funds.

23.1.2008 - Make It Eight Years In A Row For Managed Futures
Managed futures gained 7.54% in 2007, making it eight straight years of positive performance for the strategy, according to year-end data compiled by BarclayHedge. In fact, over the past 28 years, the Barclay CTA Index has had only three losing years–in 1992, 1999 and 1999, with minor losses of 0.91%, 0.65%, and 1.19%, respectively.

25.1.2008 - Smart Money: Commodities  Video news
A look at the best plays in the ever-rising metals market, with Jeffrey Christian, managing director of the CPM Group.

25.1.2008 - San Bernardino Allocates $130M To Commodities
San Bernardino County this month wrapped up its search for commodities managers. The $6.4 billion Employees Retirement Association has committed a total of $130 million to internally managed commodity structured notes and two external managers.

25.1.2008 - Donohue Says CME Has `Long Way to Go' on Nymex Talks  Video news
Craig Donohue, chief executive officer of CME Group Inc., talks with Bloomberg's Michael McKee and Deirdre Bolton from Chicago about the exchange's preliminary talks to acquire Nymex Holdings Inc. for about $11.1 billion to gain the biggest energy-trading market. CME is the world's largest futures exchange.

29.1.2008 - Commodities Markets in New York and Chicago Discuss Merger
The CME Group, which owns the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, and Nymex Holdings, the owner of the New York Mercantile Exchange, said Monday that they were in talks about an $11 billion merger.

30.1.2008 - Dollar could become carry-trade funding currency
The U.S. Federal Reserve's 50-basis point interest rate cut "has pushed the U.S. dollar lower against every major currency as it quickly becomes a carry-trade funding currency," said Kathy Lien, chief strategist at Forex Capital Markets.

31.1.2008 - Russia's metals billionaires move into gold
Russia's metals billionaires are moving into gold, attracted by record prices and the prospect of carving a share of production that is forecast to rise 40 percent by 2015.