Gold News

Gartman on the Turmoil

Dennis Gartman shares his views on commodities...

FINANCIAL MARKETS are experiencing their worst turmoil since 2008.  Hard Assets Investor is conducting a virtual roundtable with commodity experts, asking them a series of questions facing investors during these tumultuous times. 

In this interview we speak with Dennis Gartman, founder of The Gartman Letter and respected commodity commentator. 

Hard Assets Investor: How will the US downgrade affect demand on commodities?

Dennis Gartman: Hardly at all. Six months from now, we will look back and try to find what the date was that the downgrade occurred in order to correlate it to demand for grain, rubber, copper, crude oil. You won't be able to find the date.

HAI: Will the current low inflation environment persist? And will commodities be a good hedge should it not?

Dennis Gartman: Commodities define inflation. If inflation rises, commodity prices will have been the reason for it. If inflation falters, declining commodity prices will have been the reason for it. So therefore, by definition, they will be both a hedge for inflation if inflation occurs, and deflation if deflation occurs.

HAI: Do you think the Fed will initiate QE3? And what impact will that have on commodities?

Dennis Gartman: I suspect that they won't. If they did, it would probably spur commodity prices higher in US Dollar terms. And if they don't, the impact will be nonexistent.

HAI: Where do you see gold heading? And is there a price that is too high, given the current environment?

Dennis Gartman: The Gold Price has been moving from the lower left to the upper right for a decade on the charts. It'll probably continue to move from the lower left to the upper right in broad terms. And you can write this down: The price will be too high when it gets too high.

HAI: Where do you see oil heading? And will the spread between Brent and WTI ever revert?

Dennis Gartman: The spread between Brent and WTI will revert sometime in my lifetime. But that's all I'm willing to say. Probably between now and the next two years it will continue to widen out because of real fundamental differences between transportation into various types of crude. So if the question is, "Will it narrow any time in the future?" The answer is, of course it will. Is it going to narrow in the very near future? Probably not. Where are oil prices going generally? Probably higher, but not dramatically so.

HAI: What's the best positioned commodity for the current environment, and why?

Dennis Gartman: The best positioned commodity? Boy, that's a tough question. I guess that if you forced me to buy anything, I'd probably buy rice. But my enthusiasm for buying anything at this point is relatively minimal. And so, too, is my enthusiasm for being short of anything. I think there's enough confusion out there regarding economic circumstances to keep the price of things gyrating, but not moving much in either direction after the course of a month or so.

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Hardassetsinvestor.com is a research-oriented website devoted to sharing ideas about investing in the natural resources sector. Published by Van Eck Associates Corporation, the site offers an educational resource for both individual and institutional investors interested in learning more about commodity equities, commodity futures, and gold – the three major components of the hard assets marketplace.

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