With the demand for oil continuing to increase every year from 1 to 2 percent, the price is destined to rebound higher within the next couple of years. Supply has fallen due to a lack of new production with the current price suppressed. We have seen trading around $30 with prices moving around a little bit, a general trend upward over the past 3 months. This price increase has been noticed at retail gasoline stations across the country.

Some view a yearly target of $45/barrel as being reasonable with a two to three year target of $60.

There are a couple of caveats to the price discussion. Derivatives are largely responsible for the price of the commodity. So supply and demand are often obscured from the current prices by these trading instruments. And their price is more volatile than a straight commodity traded on an exchange would be. A world event could cause the price to fall or jump quickly.

Alpha Natural Resources Inc., is one of the biggest coal companies in America, and recently the company has decided to file for bankruptcy. The company's filing comes just as the president of the United States is about to unveil new measures that are aimed at cutting greenhouse gas emissions that are produced from coal-fired power plants.

The company has blamed regulatory standards that favor renewable energy as the reason why it has decided to file. Not only that, but the price for its coal has been tumbling, and that too has contributed to the decision to file bankruptcy.

When it comes to metallurgical coal that is used to create steel, Alpha is the third largest supplier of it. However, a slowdown in China has also affected Alpha's business.

Fear of China Growth Crush Oil & Commodities

US oil prices remained on their downhill slide Monday. In the U.S. a barrel of crude hit a 52-week low coming in at $47.20 a barrel. This launched investors into reeling and reacting to China's largest 1-day stock sell-off since 2007. Worries over an oil glut continued to gain momentum as the fears of economic slowdown in China swept the world.

Today China is the world's second-largest economy. It is, however, no longer growing at its old double-digit pace like it was only a few short years ago. This is causing investors worldwide to question its reported 7% growth during the second quarter, and to wonder if that figure truly reflects China's economy to date.

The trade deficit in March reached a 6 year high which makes many feel the economy contracted in the first quarter of the year. Yet the general feeling is that the economy rebounded in April with stronger service sector activity. The issues faced in the first quarter are not present in the second quarter, giving people a positive perspective on GDP.

The trade deficit moved higher by 43% to over $53 billion in March of 2015. The jump was 9 year high with the number itself being a 6 year high. West Coast ports were stalled with trade talks until just recently, creating the surge. US Stocks, Treasuries, and the Dollar all fell today.

A report from Cushing Oklahoma showed slow growth in oil demand while the glut of oil supply remained high. The EIA (Energy Information Assoc.) reported that crude supply decreased but that Cushing showed a large build up at the same time. This created a bearish tone in trading and oil stocks declined along with the price of oil in open trading. Also noted was a small increase in the demand for gasoline which spooked traders.

Crude oil dropped 4 percent on the day as investors got reports that oil stocks will remain high into the first quarter of next year. On the NYME January futures for oil fell to $63.05 a barrel or –4.2%. This is the lowest point in 5 years. Oil futures in London also fell at a similar pace. Analysts remain very bearish on crude oil as US drilling reports show large supply and the Japan economy continues to struggle.

Traders were hoping that the price declines would lead to less drilling rigs being established in the US but reports showed a continual increase in rigs. Meanwhile, Japan revised its GDP growth estimates lower and other countries were viewed to follow in the near future.

Gold Futures Prices On The Rise

Men have always been willing to go for broke to get their hands on gold and silver. In many cases it didn't come easy. For others, being in the right place at the right time paid off.

There have been many times that the word got out of a gold strike and families packed up and headed across country to find their fortunes as gold futures prices skyrocketed.

This time line takes you through the history of many such times. The eras of miners risking it all to get gold. After everything they did to get there, no matter how minute the amount, it was all they had to hold on to.

Jin Hua Gong Mine, Datong, Shanxi, China (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

KOL- What We Should Know?

According the recent reports, Coal exchange traded funds or coal ETF (KOL) has experienced a better growth than expected by the market experts. The expected theatrical forecast for KOL by market vectors KOL is reported as positive, especially in the thermal coal. This rise is purposely noticed because of the rising demand of thermal coal in the future. And this rise is demand is directly proportional to the coal ETF.

The high graph helped to raise the coal focused fund in a quicker way. But, the investors must learn some tips before they jump into the coal ETF market.

English: A graph showing the historical price of gold from 2000 through 12/19/2008. The graph is highly generalized from data garnered at kitco.com (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Keeping track of the price movements of commodity futures in the gold sector is definitely one of your top priorities if you are an investor in this commodity. Now the best approach in tracking the prices has to be a real time approach that gives the prices as they change every time. So why do you need to keep track of gold prices if you are an investor in the commodities futures?  Well price movements are the single most influential signals that can allow you to know whether you are making loss or profit. Furthermore they give a very good picture of the trends in the market allowing you the chance to trade accordingly. There are quite a number of ways that you can keep track of gold commodity prices - here are some of the best ones.

Did you know that all of the gold in the world has a value of 8.5 trillion dollars? This precious metal is one of the most sought after in the entire world, but there are some 165,000 metric tons of it available on this planet.

With about 7 billion people on the planet, there is less than one ounce of gold per person available. That being said, gold production has increased by 210% from 1959 to 2010. In that same period of time human population increased by 220%. Thus, we are just barely outpacing the amount of gold available, and this means that the less than one ounce figure remains true.

Nearly 52% of the gold in the world is used in jewelry while 34% remains in holdings and investments. Only 12% gets used for industrial purposes. We obviously value wearing and trading gold far more than we value actually using it.