Commodities in Bull Market Mode
In the last month or so, commodities have been on a bull run. The Standard and Poor's GSCI gauge of 24 raw materials has jumped about 24 percent from this year's lowest close of 559 on June 21. A gain of more than 20 percent is the commonly recognized definition of a bull market. There have been several reasons for the broad surge in commodity prices. One is the monetary stimulus launched by both the United States and Europe. The Federal Reserve has announced QE3, where it will begin an open-ended program of purchasing $40 billion of mortgage-backed securities every…