bhp and rio upgraded to buy by citi, page-12

citi also tip gold to go to $2000. I was with citi, they were pushing bbp, bnb, bbi all the way down. They were also pushing oxr all the way down. You can pretty much do the oppisite to what they recommend.

Metals prices plunge
By Nick Gardner
The Daily Telegraph
December 04, 2008 07:40am
Text size
+ - Print Email Share Add to MySpace Add to Digg Add to del.icio.us Add to Fark Post to Facebook Add to Kwoff What are these? INDUSTRIAL metals prices have fallen further in this global slowdown than they did in the Great Depression, according to research by UK bank Barclays Capital.
Barclays commodities strategist Kevin Norrish said the average fall in the price of copper, lead and zinc had been about 60 per cent since the peak in July this year, based on traded prices on the London Metals Exchange.

That compares with falls in prices for the three metals of 40 per cent from their highs in 1929 before bottoming out in 1933.

"Lead and zinc have already lost more than they did in the 1930s,'' Mr Norrish said.

Copper was hit hardest during the Depression, despite the growth of electricity in the US and the then Soviet Union, falling 70 per cent. The reason was an 85 per cent fall in US construction, then the biggest user of the metal.

Meanwhile, the price of gold has been tipped to rise to $2000 by Citigroup. In an internal client note, the bank outlined a gloomy economic future caused by the unprecedented steps being taken by authorities around the world.

The banks said this was likely to end in one of two ways - with either a return of rampant inflation or a downward spiral into depression, civil disorder and possibly wars. Both outcomes would cause a rush for gold.

"They are throwing the kitchen sink at this,'' Citigroup chief technical strategist Tom Fitzpatrick said.

"The world is not going back to normal after the magnitude of what they have done.

"When the dust settles this will either work - and the money they have pushed into the system will feed though into an inflation shock - or it will not work because too much damage has already been done and we will see continued financial deterioration, causing further economic deterioration with the risk of a feedback loop.

"We don't think this is the more likely outcome but, as each week and month passes, there is a growing danger of a vicious circle as confidence erodes,'' he said.

Citigroup said the price surge would probably happen in the next two years, possibly as soon as 2009.

Gold was trading yesterday at $812 an ounce. It is well off its peak of $1030 in February but has held up much better than other commodities in the past few months, reverting to its role as a safe haven.