The commodity markets have sent two strong, early signals to the marketplace the past couple weeks that traders and investors need to heed. Crude oil, gold, copper, silver, the grains, coffee, cotton and other markets have posted very sharp losses. Those two signals are one, that price inflation overall has very likely peaked, and two, that the U.S. and other major economies are on the verge of recession, if not already there. See on the weekly Goldman Sachs Commodity Index chart that prices have backed well down from this year’s high and just recently produced a big downside price gap, to further suggest the raw commodity sector has peaked. The smart money in the marketplace will not be making trades counter to these two strong aforementioned signals. Stay tuned! —Jim Wyckoff