An exciting opportunity just came up: I'm on my way to check out a new gold mining project south of the border. So stay tuned, andnbsp;I will fill you in on what I dig up as soon as possible.brbrRegards,brbrSean

Just a few days ago, OPEC President Chakib Khelil told a French television station the awful truth that U.S. consumers don't want to hear. "I foresee prices probably between $150 and $170 this summer," Khelil said. At the same time, Libya announced it may cut production because the market is "oversupplied." Oil Minister Shokri Ghanem said: "We don't see any need for more oil. There is plenty of oil in the market." Libya pumps about 1.71 million barrels per day (bpd) of oil, out of total OPEC output of 32.12 million bpd. That means Libya could easily take away the 300,000 barrels in new production that the Saudis promised just a week ago. The Libyans, along with the rest of OPEC, want prices where they are now ... or higher. Why? Because they want ...

Paul Kedrosky over at Infectious Greed has one of those graphs where truly the saying “a picture is a worth a thousand words” speaks volumes. It truly is amazing how China dwarfs everyone - they are doing 10x more than any peer. In fact if I eyeball it, if you add every other country in the world together as one entity; it appears China would be consuming more. As I keep repeating, this economy is like an out of control Ferrari racing on oil slick mountain roads. How to keep control of the steering while is not something I’d wish on anyone.

(click to enlarge)

One name I’ve followed for a long time, is Mexican cement maker Cemex (CX) which is one of the world’s giants (#3 in the world). Unfortunately they are so intertwined with the US market, the …

By Jason Simpkins Associate Editor Mexico’s central bank unexpectedly raised its benchmark interest rate by a quarter percentage point to 7.75% Friday, warning that the rate of inflation may exceed its previous forecast. “The recent inflation dynamic is worrying,” Banco de Mexico’s five-member board said in a statement. “The balance of risks for inflation has worsened.” Consumer prices in Mexico jumped nearly 5% in May from a year earlier, the biggest jump since 2004, according to Bloomberg News. The government has issued a price freeze on tortillas, cooking oils, beans and roughly 150 other items this year to ensure its population is adequately fed. The decision surprised many analysts as it flouted the country’s president, Felipe Calderon, who has hinted that borrowing costs are already too high. Still, inflation demanded Mexico’s attention as soaring food and energy costs have resulted in ...

Country equity funds differ in a number of ways. They vary in sector weights, currency exposures, political risks, stock market liquidity risks, interest rate and inflation risks, and other factors.

To illustrate the point, let’s look at the different sector weights in six passive country index ETFs from Barclays for the Americas.

ILF (Latin America)
EWZ (Brazil)
ECH (Chile)
EWW (Mexico)
EWC (Canada)
ISI (USA)

You can see from the chart that the sector weights vary considerably from country-to-country.

Canada and Brazil with a heavy energy weight will tend to do well when oil is high, but less well or poorly when oil declines. However, Canada also has a large financial company exposure to the current global credit crisis. That has dulled the advantage of being heavy in energy compared to Brazil which has less financial company exposure.

Mexico is heavy in telecommunications which did and may create strength when major new …