Out Fox The $treet

While signs existed last week that Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold ( NYSE: FCX     ) was close to a resolution in Indonesia, the stock is going to have a much harder time overcoming the plunging copper prices due to China. As with most commodities, China is the engine that drives demand and ultimately pricing of copper. In the last few years, the Asian power has grown to account for roughly 40% of copper demand worldwide. Freeport-McMoRan is a leading global mining company with interests in copper, gold, and oil. The miner has a mix of mines throughout North America, South America, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Indonesia. The mix of commodities and geographic locations helps it overcome political issues in any particular country, but the one thing the company won't overcome is plunging copper prices due to weak demand in China. Read the full article here . Disclosure: No positions mentioned. Please review the disclaimer page for more details....

Last week, BHP Billiton (BHP) officially announced the delay of the major expansion project at Olympic Dam. While not a complete surprise due to falling commodity prices and escalating costs in Australia, a prime beneficiary in Freeport McMoRan Copper & Gold (FCX) hasn't gained much from the announcement. Freeport-McMoRan is a leading international mining company with geographically diverse assets with significant proven and probable reserves of copper, gold and molybdenum. The portfolio of assets includes the Grasberg minerals district in Indonesia, the world's largest copper and gold mine in terms of recoverable reserves; significant mining operations in North America and the Cerro Verde and El Abra operations in South America; and the Tenke Fungurume minerals district in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Read the full article at Seeking Alpha. Disclosure: Long FCX. Please review the disclaimer page for more details. 

After an amazing decade run, Gold (GLD) has finally run out of steam. Nobody seems to know why gold would collapse now if Europe still a disaster area. Probably more that the trade became too crowded. Never was a fan of owning the physical commodity, but clearly it was a profitable trade. Anybody still owning gold should be careful as the GLD has broken solidly below the 200ema. No reason for Gold to remain in the $1,500 level. Update: Interesting post from Seeking Alpha. Note the huge difference in performance for Gold versus the Dow would make me concerned about owning last decades winner and this decades loser. 12:38 PM  A nice late-year run by stocks combined with the fall in gold prices has allowed the DJIA (with dividends included)  to pull ahead of the yellow metal's performance for 2011 - a massive turnaround from late summer, when gold was in the lead by 26%. Goldbugs retain a big advantage over the last decade though, +465% vs. a 54% total return for the D...

Not much talk today about the stunnng reversal in gold for the second time in the last month. Gold has now made two attempts in overnight markets to break above $1,900 and more specifically the $1,915 to $1,920 range. Both times the move has failed miserably. Interesting to see the home page of Seeking Alpha this morning featuring the potential move of gold going to $2,000. Ominous sign of a peak? Read the full article on Seeking Alpha.  Disclosure: Long FCX. Please review the disclaimer page for more details. 

Interesting news from our prime copper investment. Freeport-McMoRan Copper (FCX) announced a $1 supplemental dividend to be paid to shareholders of record on December 20. This is on top of the increase to the annual dividend from $1.20 to $2 announced back in October. All of a sudden this volatile copper and gold play is becoming a nice yielding stock. On top of the dividend news, FCX also announced a 2-1 stock split on February 1, 2011. In general this news shouldn't do that much for the stock as I don't think one time dividends do much for shareholders and a stock split should naturally have no impact. It is good though for companies to split when stock prices soar into triple digits. For small accounts like those on Covestor, it can be difficult to make a position in stocks like FCX or Apple (AAPL) because of the high stock price. Somebody wanting to invest $500 would either have to buy 4 shares for $440 or 5 for $550. Not ideal for a diversified portfolio. Ultimately t...

As the CRB Index grabs more and more headlines attention, an investor needs to understand the commodities that make up the index. For more then 50 years, the CRB Index as served as the most widely recognized measure of the commodities markets. The index is comprised of 19 commodities with agriculture comprising 41% of the index followed by energy at 39%. Crude oil is by far the largest individual component at 23% followed by numerous commodities at 6% such as Copper, Corn, and Live Cattle. Yes, that's correct. Live Cattle ties for the 2nd biggest component in the index. The index likely does an exceptional job of capturing the cost changes to the market. Crude oil is by far the largest commodity used and hence the largest expense to the US economy. For investors though, this index doesn't exactly capture the investment environment. Precious metals such as Gold make up only 7% of the index. From an investment standpoint, most of the commodities offer equal opportunities for in...