From The Editor. Issue 05: Commodities: temporary pullback or a shift in the sup...

The massive climb in industrial metal prices that has been in place since 2003, and the more recent oil price appreciation, has pulled back due to changes in behaviour from commodity speculators after growth numbers in emerging economies and anticipated demand have slowed, albeit moderately. Is this a temporary pullback or a shift in the commodities super cycle?

With commodity prices plummeting and global equity markets seemingly facing Armageddon, it is all too easy to assume that the mining boom that we have experienced over the past five years on the back of the industrialisation and urbanisation of China and other emerging nations is all but over. But to determine whether we have seen the end of this theme, one must ignore the alarming newspaper headlines, because commodity prices are not currently being driven by fundamental demand and supply shifts, but the unwinding of leveraged speculative positions that had pushed prices to bubble levels.

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