Tim Treadgold

It might seem unimportant to know exactly why copper has been added to the list of sick commodities, but if it is more than a fright over excess supply and slack demand then we could be on the verge of a rerun of the GFC.

In theory, and it is a theory backed by some high-powered research, shares in Australian oil and gas companies such as Woodside Petroleum and Santos have much further to fall, a fact which prompts a question: why haven’t they already fallen further?

There’s cautious optimism things could start to head in the right direction next year after a shocker in 2014.

Apart from a few brilliant authors and composers, not much good has ever come out of Russia; and unless there is a sharp improvement in the outlook for that country it could drag the rest of the world, including Australia, into a crisis to rival that of 2008.

Small iron ore miners operating in a $70/t environment are struggling, but in a different way so are the majors battling to satisfy investor expectations.

Until a few weeks ago, Australia’s 20,000 investment advisers and their associates in stock broking firms and banks probably thought they had jobs for life; but that was before the Commonwealth Bank advisers’ scandal and the latest threat – internet-powered advice.

London may seem like an odd place to be picking over the entrails of the world’s resources industries, but the title of the Mines and Money conference says it all, really.

It is probably foolish to suggest that some of Australia’s richest people are making a mistake by investing in the latest banking fad – peer-to-peer lending.

The stubbornly high currency is widely expected to slide below US70 cents, with upside for some sectors and pain for others.

The Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries may not be dead, but it is on life support – a status that contains a mixed message for Western Australia, as part of the state’s economy will benefit from potentially lower fuel prices while another part will likely be damaged.

The iron ore majors’ move to flood the market may see off their small rivals, but a bigger opponent looms large.

It’s not easy to feel sympathy for Perth’s super-rich as they watch their fortunes shrink, but the problems of Gina Rinehart, Andrew Forrest, Kerry Stokes, Angela Bennett and Stan Perron are a powerful pointer to the problems facing everyone in Western Australia.

The US is leading the charge to cheaper oil and gas, and its industries are taming the internet to turn a buck in the digital world.

For the best ringside seat at a bruising encounter don’t buy a ticket to a boxing event, sign up for an iron ore forecasting conference which will, for the first time since prices crashed, put the big boys of the industry on the same podium as the small producers.

The South West may be the scene of a political and environmental battle over bauxite mining not seen for 30 years.

Psst … looking for a bargain? Here’s a way to buy $1 for less than $1 by acquiring a fistful of shares in Mt Gibson Iron.

China’s maturing economy, not a conspiracy of collusion, is behind the actions of WA’s two biggest iron ore miners.

Money is moving out of iron ore but where it goes next is the more interesting question, because it seems that some investors are developing a taste for agriculture – a shift that might prove to be a case of leaving the frying pan to land in the fire.

Seven Group Holding’s performance may be more accurate barometer of the state’s finances than treasury calculations.

The big get bigger and the small get crushed.

Against expectations, the nickel sector appears set for a rebound in 2015.

Verbal and financial volatility is the best way to describe what’s happening in Western Australia today.

A recent study of world LNG supply and demand has some positive news for WA.

Karl Simich and Mark Bennett are justifiably annoyed at having the companies they run added to an investment blacklist; but behind their frustration there is an enormously serious issue for every member of a superannuation fund – and that, in theory, is every working and recently retired Australian.

The big commodities exporter has stolen a march on Australia with a China deal to use giant ships at cheaper rates.

If Western Australia’s small iron ore miners thought all the bad news about falling prices was in the open, they got a shock this week when the two biggest producers, BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto, launched a war of words, complete with threats of fresh expansion programs.

It is always hard to pin a stock market correction on a single event, but when investors look back at what’s happened over the past few weeks as the stock market has dropped by 5 per cent (half way to an official correction) they will focus on the float of a single company, the giant Chinese trading house, Alibaba.

The next move in US interest rates will be up, which will have an effect worldwide – including on Australia’s residential property market.

China’s new coal-quality rules have ruffled feathers in the Australian coal industry.

Investor interest in base metals stocks is rising, as iron ore process continue to slide south.

Would you wear wearable technology, such as the soon-to-be released Apple Watch?

Uranium mining is a challenging business at the best of times, but the current abundance of oil and gas is making life even harder for companies such as Paladin Energy.