Bloodbath In Commodities
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The commodity sector was absolutely destroyed today with worries about the upcoming end of QE2 and other concerning data pointing to general economic malaise.
The aggressive selling seen in the commodity complex started a few days ago in silver, but has now pushed to nearly every other commodity.
Over the course of a week, silver is down roughly 30 percent - from $50 to $35.
In addition to concerns about the end of the Fed bond buying program at the end of June, initial jobless claim numbers soared higher last week.
Initial jobless claims for the week ending April 30 rose sharply to 474,000, an increase of 43,000 from the previous week's revised figure of 431,000. The number of new jobless claims was well above the 410,000 economists were expecting. Auto-plant shutdowns related to the earthquake in Japan and other unusual events drove the surprise jump, the Labor Department said.
Today, selling pressure hit crude early and continued throughout the day with black gold falling more than $10 to $99 per barrel and below the psychologically important $100 per barrel level, something unthinkable a few short days ago.
Gold was down more than $50 per ounce, before recovering slightly. The precious metal last traded down $43 at $1472.
The aggressive selling seen in the commodity complex started a few days ago in silver, but has now pushed to nearly every other commodity.
Over the course of a week, silver is down roughly 30 percent - from $50 to $35.
In addition to concerns about the end of the Fed bond buying program at the end of June, initial jobless claim numbers soared higher last week.
Initial jobless claims for the week ending April 30 rose sharply to 474,000, an increase of 43,000 from the previous week's revised figure of 431,000. The number of new jobless claims was well above the 410,000 economists were expecting. Auto-plant shutdowns related to the earthquake in Japan and other unusual events drove the surprise jump, the Labor Department said.
Today, selling pressure hit crude early and continued throughout the day with black gold falling more than $10 to $99 per barrel and below the psychologically important $100 per barrel level, something unthinkable a few short days ago.
Gold was down more than $50 per ounce, before recovering slightly. The precious metal last traded down $43 at $1472.
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