BHP Billiton Ltd. (NYSE:BHP) is getting stronger, says Horacio Marquez, even as commodity prices slump. With its low costs and diversified operations, the natural resources producer is well positioned to ride out the credit crisis. And when commodity prices rebound next year, Horacio says BHP will lead the recovery. He recommends buying shares at today’s distressed prices, and holding for big long-term profits.

This from Money Morning:

With BHP Billiton Ltd. (NYSE:BHP), it’s a case of the strong getting stronger and possibly even running away from the pack.

Back in 2001, BHP Ltd. and Billiton PLC merged to form BHP Billiton Ltd., the world’s leading diversified resources group. And it never looked back.

Now, the lowest-cost natural-resources producer with the broadest portfolio of offerings, BHP superbly positioned itself to weather the current global downturn. Indeed, back in June the company reported its seventh-consecutive

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The base metals were mixed on Monday. Copper was up during the pre-dawn hours, peaking at $1.47, but declined all through the day, barely coming off its lows to finish at $1.3912/lb., down 3 cents from Friday.

Nickel slumped straight through, closing at its intraday low of $4.4913/lb., down more than 18 cents. Zinc edged higher, ending at $0.4807/lb., up two-thirds of a cent. Aluminum fell off, giving up a penny and a quarter, to $0.6506/lb., while lead was little changed, adding a tenth of a cent, to $0.4574/lb.

Copper slipped lower on a day of lackluster trading in the industrial metals, as falling oil and equities beat down whatever optimism existed in the early hours.

Also factoring in were the manufacturing slump in New York state, sagging U.S. industrial production, and serious weakness in China’s factory output growth.

“The economy is bad, and we’re not seeing any light at the end of the

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Between September 2007 and June 2008, oil prices doubled, gold rose 30% and commodities, in general, advanced by a similar percentage. So why, six months later, when prices have fallen back below last year’s levels, does everybody think they won’t rise again? The difficulties of extraction haven’t gone away, nor have the prospects of increasing consumption in the faster-growing emerging markets such as China. Yes, the prices of commodities are severely affected by marginal moves in supply and demand, but this is ridiculous! Rest assured, commodities prices will rebound in the New Year. The reasons will soon become quite clear. The decline in commodities prices since the summer is broad-based. The Reuters Continuous Commodities Index traded recently at 341, down 25% from a year earlier and off about 45% from its June high. At $48 a barrel, oil is trading at less ...

The base metals were all flashing red again on Wednesday. Copper hit the skids in the late pre-dawn hours and fell through to mid-morning, after which it caught some buying, but not enough to return it to break-even as it finished at $1.5409/lb., down 4 1/3 cents.

Nickel declined pretty steadily straight through, closing at its intraday low of $4.0574/lb., down 14¾ cents. Zinc had a series of sharp ups and downs, ending with a loss of over three-quarters of a cent, at $0.5102/lb. Aluminum sagged continuously for a second straight day, settling at its intraday low of $0.7064/lb., down 3½ cents, while lead also plunged to its intraday low of $0.4368/lb., down 4½ cents.

Copper slipped to its lowest level since July 2005 on, no surprise, global economic concerns.

For a change, inventories monitored by the LME were off, but not by much. Stockpiles fell 250 metric tons on Wednesday, to

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The three ETFs have initial portfolios totaling about (U.S.) $41 million in assets.

 

Barclays PLC launched three exchange-traded funds in Brazil on Dec. 2, the first ETFs from the world's biggest ETF manager for the Brazilian market. 

The Brazilian iShares tracks three indexes: 1) the Bovespa Index, which holds the 66 most-traded stocks on the main Brazilian stock exchange; 2) the BM&F Bovespa Mid-Large Cap Index, which holds 69 stocks representing the top 85% of the market capitalization on the Sao Paolo exchange (adjusted for liquidity); and 3) the BM&F Small Cap index, which holds 71 companies representing the bottom 15% of the exchange's market cap.

Brazil is one of Latin America's biggest fund markets, and the Bovespa's profile as a major global exchange, the largest in South America, has been raised in recent years. Barclays Global Investors has plans to significantly expand its ETF staff in its Sao Paolo

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HIDDEN VALUE

Dear Value Seeker,

Today the world honors its military veterans.

Veterans Day falls on Armistice Day, the day World War I officially ended.

The 40 million casualties of the “war to end all wars” is perhaps still the rawest example of humankind’s ability to screw up.

Ninety years on, we are still screwing up.

Fortunately, today’s losses are focused on corporate balance sheets and stock indexes rather than on the battlefield.

At least we have the Fed and the U.S Treasury looking out for our best interests.

Americans can sleep tight knowing Ben Bernanke and Hank Paulson are unloading their heavy artillery at the credit crisis.

Of course, the effect so far has been minimal. And their ammunition is depleting rapidly.

Already, the government has spent all but $60 billion of the first $350 billion tranche of Hank Paulson’s $700 TARP (Trash Asset

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The $585 billion (RMB4 trillion) stimulus package that China announced Sunday may or may not help China’s economy. But with investments in low-income housing, water and energy projects, airports, disaster relief – and $100 billion for new railroads – over the next two years, this financial package provides oodles of opportunities for investors. There is no doubt China needs infrastructure. Now the world’s fourth-largest economy, China has grown so rapidly that many of its services are stretched beyond belief. Equally, it is not so certain that the government knows what infrastructure to build, or that it can be built, without hopeless corruption. For instance, the Three Gorges Dam became a global watchword for waste and environmental destruction, while the fancy toll roads built between major cities are still very underutilized, because the tolls are too high for all but the ...

The base metals were mostly in the green on Friday. Copper rallied during the pre-dawn hours, sank back below break-even after New York opened, but then rallied again to achieve a rare positive day, finishing at $2.2099/lb., up 9½ cents.

Nickel plunged from over $5 in the pre-dawn hours through to mid-morning, and a subsequent rally left it still with a loss of 15 1/3 cents, at $4.731/lb. Zinc fell below 50 cents early on, but showed great resilience, pushing back to close at $0.5347/lb., up nearly a penny. Aluminum had a modestly positive day, ending up two-thirds of a cent at $0.9743/lb., while lead was sharply higher for a change, adding more than 3½ cents, to $0.652/lb.

Copper led the industrial metals mostly higher as central bankers around the world moved to shore up the financial system.

However, most analysts are not viewing this as a trend reversal.

“The bailout measures, as

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Brazilian metals and mining company Vale (NYSE:RIO) has canceled its iron ore shipments to China until the country’s steelmakers cough up more dough. But China has other ideas. Vale may find its products aren’t as vital as it originally thought, says Stephanie Grimmett.

Iron ore giant Vale has stopped shipping to China over a pricing dispute. Vale knows that China desperately needs iron ore, but Vale is making the mistake that they can't be replaced. BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto will be happy to take their place.