One of the most troubling questions to non-owners of gold is what gold’s value should be. They have watched the price climb in puzzlement. It just traded at $1,460. Last year at this time it was $1,140. In 2009, it was $880. Investors hear that gold is an inflation hedge. But that 65% increase over the past two years is over twenty times higher than actual inflation.

Gold’s two consecutive days of nominal record highs have seen some profit taking as oil is flat, the dollar is marginally higher and the euro has fallen. The ECB’s 0.25 % interest rate hike may lead to further profit taking today but rising interest rates in an increasingly inflationary environment will be positive for gold as it was from 1965 to 1981

Contrary to firms like Minmetals Resources and Equinox Minerals (EQMIF.PK), which are bidding for takeovers in 2011, Goldcorp (GG) was a player in the mergers and acquisitions game last year. That activity is starting to pay off.Goldcorp has announced that the resource estimate at its newly-acquired Cerro Negro project in Argentina has doubled. Proven and probable reserves jumped from 2.1 million to 4.3 million ounces of gold and 20.5 million to 36.2 million ounces of silver. That’s more than double the gold and about 75 per cent more silver.

The Chinese are buying gold in a hurry. I will start with some numbers and facts synthesized from recent media articles including this Bloomberg report and this China Daily article.China is the world’s biggest producer of gold, with Chinese mine output reaching a record 340 tons last year.

Palladium has given traders and investors quite a ride over the past year — mostly on the long side. The launch of the ETFS Physical Palladium Shares (PALL) put a bid on the white metal's already-tight supplies last year. Palladium prices have risen 53 percent in the last 12 months, but that counts a month-long slump that dragged prices down to the $730 level from an $862 peak. The sell-off in PALL shares started at $85 and recently ended at $72.

Investors looking to play the recent boom in metallurgical coke, used in steel production, will soon have a new, pure-play name to trade. Last week Sunoco (SUN) filed a registration statement for the planned divestiture of SunCoke Energy, the firm's coke division. Sunoco will originally sell 20% of SunCoke in an IPO, and then undertake a tax-free spinoff of the remaining 80% stake to Sunoco shareholders.

Not too long ago in our national history, mining for rare earths (Market Vectors Rare Earth/Strategic Metals (REMX) was an American enterprise. […]

News out of Peru gave traders a reason to pause and rethink on Monday and Tuesday as reports say leftist political candidate […]

Over two weeks ago a 8.9 earthquake hit off the coast of Japan, sending tsunamis to destroy the mainland. Once the tsunami hit, Japan had a new problem, nuclear reactors were failing and radiation was pouring out. Japan is still have trouble calming down those reactors and it looks like the worst may be over but it has caused the world to rethink nuclear energy as a good source of energy.

Ok, if you've listened to Pickens and the Ratigan show, you know that they seem to think that we can fix things with natural gas and perhaps with some renewables. That will never work. Nor will drilling here - we can replace some of our demand, but not all of it. Further, the amount of oil we have is finite.

We decided to take a look at coal sector. Here are the six names we like right now, plus some commentary on each.

The Statue of Liberty is one of the most recognizable American icons in the world. And as she towers 305 feet above Ellis Island, what's Lady Liberty wearing? Copper - 60,000 pounds of it. Clearly, copper's big in art. It's also a key metal that keeps the world economy humming. Copper consumption has grown at an average annual rate of 4% since 1900.