Crude is testing the $70 a barrel mark. Gold has fallen below $800 an ounce. Most metals are now selling close to cost price…any lower and mines will be forced to shut down. This means commodity prices are hitting a bottom, says Keith Fitz-Gerald. And there are three strong reasons why prices are about to kick off once again.

Financial news on the economy speeds toward us with black and white sureness. No subtleties, no grays or maybes come with the sharp, short announcements in the popular press: initial unemployment claims rose precisely so much last week. Producer prices fell exactly a certain percent last quarter.

In this weekend’s Thoughts from the Frontlines, I quoted from part of a very thoughtful, right-on-target analysis by David A. Rosenberg entitled “The Elusive Bottom.” Over the weekend, I decided that you should read the whole piece, as Rosenberg makes some very solid points about how the markets and the economy may play out over the next few years.

Nothing much important happened over the weekend. G8 finance ministers in Japan talked up the U.S. dollar. But they didn’t agree that anything like an intervention was necessary.

The big New York newspaper is at it again. Instead of the usual full frontal praise, Mark Hulbert gave yet another subtle pat on the back to index funds this month.

Trichet talks tough! Kohn sends warnings… The currencies bounce back! Will the BLS create ghost jobs?

It is easy to think about the credit crunch in terms of banks. The banks made these weird structured products, the banks are responsible for the borrowing rate, the banks falling market cap is dragging on the FTSE, etc.

It’s a quick task to keep an eye on large-cap gold mining. Just a handful of companies sport market values above $10 billion. Near the top is Goldcorp.

The latest is in from Sadia: It’s a bull market in food. Sadia is one of the largest food companies in the world, and Brazil’s largest meat exporter. Its operations sit in the world capital of cheap labor, abundant water, and fertile soil.

You’ve likely heard of being “bushwhacked.” Well, yesterday the market got Fed-whacked. Notes from the Federal Reserve’s April 29-30 meeting were released and, boy, did they make for some unpleasant reading.