COPPER

The BSE Sensex nudged up 0.2 percent on Wednesday powered by metal producers on firm world metal prices, but trading was choppy reflecting investor concern about inflation and a looming rate rise.

South African stocks fell on Monday, snapping a four-day advance, with paint company Freeworld Coatings sliding 4 percent after saying a proposed takeover bid by Japan's Kansai Paint was unfair to shareholders.

Uganda's shilling looks set to plumb new record lows against the dollar over the next week due to soaring foreign exchange demand from the oil sector, while Kenya's unit should strengthen slightly.

The Gold Price in Dollars slid to a near 6-week low in early London trading on Friday, dropping below $1360 an ounce, but then bounced back to $1369 as New York trading began and Non-Farm Payrolls showed a rise of 103,000 - below analyst forecasts - and the labor-force participation rate slipped further below two-in-three.

The top pre-market NASDAQ stock market gainers are: Qiao Xing Universal Resources, Glu Mobile, Ku6 Media, NVIDIA, Microvision, and Atheros Communications. The top pre-market NASDAQ stock market losers are: Tekelec, Logitech International, ASML Holding, Siliconware Precision Industries, and Sinovac Biotech.

With the growth in the number of plants being built and the increasing cost competitiveness, 2011 looks like solar energy could start to come into its own in the U.S.

The top pre-market NASDAQ stock market gainers are: VisionChina Media, Qiao Xing Universal Resources, Endo Pharmaceuticals Holdings, XOMA, Akorn, Ossen Innovation, ASML Holding, Teva Pharmaceutical Industries, Aixtron, and DryShips.

The top after-market NASDAQ stock market gainers are: Qiao Xing Universal Resources, Ossen Innovation, Rediff.com India, AgFeed Industries, Ener1, Endo Pharmaceuticals Holdings, Nanosphere, iGo, Sify Technologies, and East West Bancorp.

A federal jury in the Eastern District of Virginia has convicted three members and the national president of a violent motorcycle gang known as the American Outlaw Association (Outlaws) of running a highly organized criminal enterprise, participating in racketeering activities and conspiring to commit violence in aid of racketeering.

Copper's climb to all-time records will spur substitution in some applications, but the metal's unrivalled conductivity and a dearth of alternative technologies will ultimately limit this trend.

China intends to boost its economic ties with Africa, which is already worth about $100 billion, according to a report by the government.

The world's No. 3 copper mine, Collahuasi, scrambled on Tuesday to find a new way to ship metal and generate cash after an accident shut its Patache port terminal, strangling its exports as copper prices hit new highs.

The Gold Price touched a 4-session high at $1390 per ounce in early London trade on Tuesday, rising for Euro and UK investors as world stock markets hit new two-year highs.

China has been on a commodity price-control overdrive in the past few months in a bid to tame inflation, allay fears of shortages and crack down on hoarding and price-gouging. However, the Chinese commodity boom may not last forever and the prices could likely fall, an analyst has said.

Edward Yardeni thinks copper prices can double in 2011 because there will be a shortage of it.

U.S. investment bank JPMorgan said it does not hold more than 90 percent of copper stock warrants in London Metal Exchange warehouses, but declined on Tuesday to comment on whether it had a smaller position.

Outside the US and UK - where today's no change decision from the Bank of England left interest rates near 33-year lows beneath inflation - emerging economies are also flirting with sub-zero real rates of interest, Japanese investment bank Nomura's London office notes.

Having just touched an all-time high in price, demand for copper is expected to be very strong in the coming years, driven primarily by China’s insatiable hunger for commodities of all kinds to support its relentless program of mass urbanization.

The top pre-market NASDAQ stock market gainers are: Verigy, Radware, Rambus, Nova Measuring Instruments, ASM International, VIVUS, optionsXpress Holdings, Ariad Pharmaceuticals, Geron, and DryShips.

IBM unveiled a technology that uses pulses of light instead of electrical signals to transfer data between chips, advancing its plans to create a supercomputer capable of one million trillion calculations per second.

The financialization of commodities threatens to divert capital from economically useful purposes and use it instead to drive up the cost of essential commodities for end users.