Good morning, Resource Investors.

After staging a recovery over the past several trading days, gold bears won on Tuesday when China unexpectedly tightened its monetary policy, raising reserve interest rates by 50 basis points starting Jan. 18. This led to a late-session sell-off in the yellow metal with gold ending down $22 an ounce.

The move by China also affected other economies, which reacted to the anticipated economic slowdown that higher Chinese interest rates could cause. For the second day in a row, crude oil futures slipped, this time dropping below $81 a barrel. The slide was accelerated by forecasts of milder temperatures, analysts say.

Although copper would recover slightly, it fell earlier this week on both concerns over Chinese economic development data as well as lower-than-expected returns from Alcoa. Zinc and nickel also fell to their lowest levels in three weeks. Particularly bearish was Alcoa's report that demand from many manufacturing customers was weak and not expected to recover soon.

For more on the reasons behind these moves, see these headlines, where you can catch up on what happened in the resource markets this past week -- and prepare for the next.

James Holter
Resource Investor

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