Consumption, speculation and growing demand by emerging economies add up to a rather rosy outlook for copper, says Steve Parsons, Senior Research Analyst for Wellington West Capital Markets. In this exclusive Gold Report interview, Steve explains how investors might capitalize on a theme that's picking up momentum on the copper concentrate side of the industry. He also sheds some light on a great copper story that's unfolding on the northern shore of Lake Superior in northeastern Minnesota, not far from the Ontario border.

The Gold Report: Steve, it's often said that copper is a great way to play a period of economic growth. Do you agree with that?

Steve Parsons: I absolutely agree. Copper is an essential metal for developing nations. Generally speaking, an increase in GDP/person coincides with an increase in copper usage. The story here is that China and India are still coming from a low base. If you look at where copper usage is in developed nations, it is upwards of 9 kilograms of consumption per person annually. China's consumption currently weighs in at approximately 3.5 kilograms per person. So China is still at an early stage of development. The move to urbanization should keep upward pressure on copper usage. By 2025, it is projected that China will have 221 cities with a population of more than one million. At present, Europe only has 35.

Encompass Fund managers Malcolm Gissen and Marshall Berol sat down with The Energy Report to share their views on energy investing and what they believe are the strongest subsectors in the mix. While bullish on coal and natural gas, both are strong advocates of uranium, citing a "definite supply-demand imbalance."

The Energy Report: Malcolm and Marshall, you started the Encompass Fund in June of '06 with the intent of investing in a wide array of sectors, "to minimize or avoid sharp declines in the market," as it says on your site. However, according to your stock chart, you had a fairly dramatic decline in Q4 '08 with a pretty dramatic recovery since then. Tell us a bit about what happened there.

After years of delays, Ivanhoe Mines Ltd. (IVN) finally appears to be on the cusp of an investment agreement for its Oyu Tolgoi project in Mongolia.

Needless to say, analysts view this as a very positive development.

by David Russell

Stock and options trading exploded in Ivanhoe Mines (IVN) Tuesday after the Mongolian Parliament changed a tax law that will let the company develop a copper and gold complex in the country profitably.

Sentiment

Stocks opened steady on news Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke was reappointed to a second term and the early advance gathered additional momentum on upbeat consumer confidence data. While the reappointment of Bernanke wasn't a huge surprise, it does remove some uncertainty about future US monetary policy moving forward.

Meanwhile, the day's economic data was again benign. A report from Case Shiller released an hour before the opening bell on Wall Street showed home prices falling 15.44 percent in June, which was better than the -17.02 percent in May and also better than 16.4 percent economist forecast. An hour later, the Conference Board reported that its index of consumer confidence rose to 54.1 in August, up from 46.6 in July and better than the 47.9 economists forecast.

I believe a pull back [7%-15%] on the major indices is not only inevitable but necessary for a healthy market recovery.

Let's face it: we've come too far too fast, and as we were oversold on the downside until early March, I believe we are currently overbought.

Peter Campbell: Cheerful Prognosis for Dr. Copper
Source: The Gold Report 08/11/2009

http://www.theaureport.com/pub/na/2915

Ivanhoe Mines Ltd.

Ticker IVN

Position: Open
Signal: Long Date: 22nd July 2009
Entry Price: $7.87
Target Price: $8.60

Ivanhoe Mines Ltd. (IVN) has verbally confirmed that an investment agreement between the company and the government of Mongolia has received approval from the heads of the country’s two major political parties in Mongolia, according to Desjardins Securities analyst John Redstone.

While shares of most copper companies have done well in recent weeks, Ivanhoe Mines Ltd. (IVN) is a notable exception. It has fallen from above C$8.50 a share to the C$6.00-C$7.00 range, and BMO Capital Markets analyst John Hayes upgraded the stock to "outperform" (from "market perform") based on the improved relative valuation.

Ivanhoe is unique, because there is still so much uncertainty about when its agreement to develop the giant Oyu Tolgoi project in Mongolia will get approved. But Mr. Hayes simply believes it is cheap at these levels.

Sentiment

Stocks struggled at the open, but found a floor in morning trading and bounced higher after the latest data on consumer confidence surprised to the upside. According to data released 30 minutes into the trading session, the Conference Board's Index of consumer confidence jumped to 54.9 in May, up from 40.8 the month before and much better than economist estimates of 42.6.

The news triggered a reaction across a number of different asset classes. Bonds, which were showing modest gains ahead of the news, sank into the red. Crude oil had fallen below $60 a barrel, but battled back to close up 64 cents to $62.32 a barrel. Meanwhile, stocks surged and never looked back.

Splicing with Gene & Thom: Two Outsiders Getting Inside Numbers
Source: Gene Arensberg & Thom Calandra 05/07/2009

Thom Calandra of Ticker Trax™ and Gene Arensberg of Got Gold Report go way back as friends, colleagues and students of natural resources. They’re talking about tracking the people worth their salt in metals and mining.

Evaluating Ivanhoe Mines Ltd. (IVN) is always a tricky thing to do, as the company still does not have an investment agreement for its flagship Oyu Tolgoi copper-gold deposit in Mongolia. But BMO Capital Markets analyst John Hayes did his best in new coverage.

He rated the stock a "market perform" (with no price target). He noted that the shares are trading at a 51% discount to his 10% net asset value of $12.45 a share.

Raymond James analyst Tom Meyer has been famously bearish on Robert Friedland's Ivanhoe Mines Ltd. (IVN) for years. So it makes sense that he would be the one to throw cold water on Mr. Friedland's latest big announcement.

Yesterday, Mr. Freidland unveiled a major copper discovery in the Democratic Republic of Congo by private company Ivanhoe Nickel and Platinum Ltd. (Ivanplats). Ivanhoe Mines shares also jumped 10% on the day, and Mr. Meyer thinks that is irrational given that it only owns 1.9% of Ivanplats.

Major progress is being made on talks between Ivanhoe Mines Ltd. (IVN) and the Mongolian government to finalize an investment agreement on the giant Oyu Tolgoi copper-gold project. Desjardins Securities analyst John Redstone likes what he sees and has boosted his target on the stock 57% to C$9.40 a share.

"We expect an agreement between the two parties by the end of this month; we still assume that the Mongolian government will take a 51% interest in the project," he wrote in a note to clients.

At the end of each trading week, Hillbent scans for the equity market for potential anomalies which exhibit extremely oversold and overbought conditions. Past observations have revealed that such candidates may experience reversal corrections to the upside or downside once the market reconfirms that their fundamentals remain solidly intact or relatively poor. From a contrarian perspective, these lists may also serve as a precursor to changes in institutional sentiment and underlying fundamentals.

(The purpose of this report is not to provide specific recommendations, but instead serve as a time-saving reference tool and starting point for investment ideas as the upcoming trading week unfolds. Of course, the results generated are not always perfect and users are strongly encouraged to perform their own due diligence on these names. Note that overbought and oversold conditions are based upon proprietary algorithms and quantitative models instead of conventional technical analysis indicators. As a supplement to this report, please refer to our Market Condition Summary to determine if market direction trends support a bullish or bearish investment bias over short-term, intermediate, and long-term timeframes.)

I believe that the policies governments are pursuing all over the world and especially in the United States are highly inflationary. They are running the printing presses as hard as they can. The result of these actions has to end in inflation. Furthermore, the United States government won`t be able to pay the debt unless it monetizes it via the printing presses once again.

This environment is very bullish for gold and hard assets. I urge you to consider buying gold and gold related assets like gold miners.

Play the Short Squeezes: Wells Fargo (WFC), Vale (RIO), Miners ETF (GDX), Gold ETF (GLD, Ivanhoe (IVN)

Sentiment

Stocks are showing some resilience Wednesday. After falling to a low of 7,157 early in the day, the Dow Jones Industrial Average is moving back to 7,355 and up almost 200 points from its worst levels of the session. The Dow is up a few points and trying to build on the 234-point rally the day before.

General Motors (GM) is helping. GM is the best gainer in the industrial average after President Obama vowed to help the auto industry in his speech to Congress Tuesday night. GM is up 15.3 percent. Meanwhile, Citi (C) and BofA (BAC) shook off early weakness and are heading higher late in the day. Citi found some midday strength after Fed Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said not to expect nationalization of the bank. The financials also seemed to get a lift from the details of the Treasury Department's Capital Assistance Program, which are still emerging late in the day.

Planet Bizarro and Merrill Lynch Predicts a Depression

Seinfeld fans will remember the episode where Jerry refers to people that appear to be the exact opposites of George and Kramer as being from "Planet Bizarro". Planet Bizarro comes from a comic book featuring Superman and Batman. On Planet Bizarro, everything happens exactly opposite to what we are accustomed seeing on Earth. They see bad as good and good as bad. Superman and Batman are villains instead of heroes, and morality is upside down. Sound vaguely familiar to the daily news we're getting?