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While the number of articles calling for a major top in the commodities increases
with the fears of recession, the charts tell a different story.
Of course, it is natural to expect hard asset prices to take a knock if recession
does come and consumers tighten their discretionary spending. However, though
the fundamentals may be slowly brewing for a recession, as ever it is a matter
of timing rather than merely calling up the fundamentals as expert witnesses.
Indeed, economists are notorious for failing to see recessions coming in advance
so one may also argue that no recession is forthcoming if economists say it
is coming! With that I want to show two charts courtesy of Reuters and the
Commodity Research Bureau who have wisely collated the data on various commodities
since 1947 onwards.
The first is their chart for the CRB Precious Metals Sub Index. I show it
below with a clear Elliott wave in progress.

A very nice and clear impulse wave is in progress and has been so since 2001.
Waves 1 and 3 have dutifully completed and now as this index makes new all
time high from their peak in 1980 we anticipate wave 5 to be at least as strong
as the preceding waves as investors pile in for one final fling. Since waves
1 and 3 covered nearly 200 points each, we can see wave 5 at least hitting
900 if not 1000. Moreover, waves 1 and 3 lasted about a year and a half each
so we anticipate this wave will ride well into next year. As if to give its
vote of sympathy to this pattern, the CRB Energy Index is also indicating this
bullish pattern as we show below.

The impulse wave for this energy bull market is I would say even clearer with
more marked counter moves for waves 2 and 4 (I think "counter" is a better
word than "correction"). The textbook strength of wave 3 is clearly evident
here but we suspect wave 5 could be just as bullish as a final blow off ensues.
Wave 5 is well underway for energy commodities and again the relative size
of the waves suggests a run well into 2008 again.
So despite fears of recessions or irrational exuberance in the commodity markets,
we envisage one final profitable leg up for precious metals and energy before
we enter a rather protracted period of counter moves.
Further analysis of silver can be had by going to our silver blog at http://silveranalyst.blogspot.com where
readers can obtain a free issue of The Silver Analyst and learn about subscription
details. Comments and questions are also invited via email to silveranalysis@yahoo.co.uk.
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