This whole week did not feel right to me.

We were too bearish as I had expected a bogus commodity rally in last weekend’s wrap-up but I didn’t expect it to persist for a week, even as the dollar held it’s ground above 80, a 10% pullback off the top, when oil was $40, copper was $1.50 and gold was $850.  Now oil is $80 (up 100%), copper is $3.35 (up 123%) and gold is $1,135 (up 33%).  Let’s say gold is a true indicator of dollar weakness - that means that only 33% of oil and copper’s move up can be attributed to the 10% drop in the dollar (not that even that makes sense but we’ll give it to them).  Can the rest be attributed to demand?

Certainly not with copper.  Global copper consumption was down 1.9% in 2009 and Q1 2010 is lower than any quarter since Q1 2009 and even Barclays’ very aggressive targets for China growth only bring global demand up 2.5% this year - whch would just about bring us back to 2007 levels of consumption.  That, of course, also assumes a rebound in housing construction - something we are not seeing at the moment.   Also, China spent $700Bn last year stimulating their economy and one of the ways they did this was to stockpile copper.  As you can see from the chart - that too appears to be winding down and even Goldman Sachs has abandoned the bullish side of copper at this point.

Oil is just as silly.  According to the EIA, global oil consumption is not expected to return to 2007 levels until late 2011 - and that is with some very rosey estimates of a global econonomic recovery - exactly the type of thing that can be derailed by high oil prices!  Mighty China’s consumption is projected to go from 8.66Mbd this year to 9.13Mbd in 2011, a 500,000 barrel increase.  Last week, the US had a build in inventories of 4Mb - we just send those over to China and everyone is happy!  I’ve already had my say on oil demand this this weekend, so let’s just move on…

Let’s just say I’m a little skeptical about any market moves that are lead by commodity pushers at this very early stage in a recovery.  Prices are not going up based on demand but on expectations of demand in the future and that’s a very dangerous game to play…