Today, I want to focus on specific markets that heat up during the summer thanks to the less-than-reliable nature of weather.

Riddle me this: When is it good news when an analyst slashes his price target for a stock by 55%? Answer: When that “reduced” target price still represents a 59% gain. That’s precisely the scenario facing Companhia Vale do Rio Doce (ADR: RIO), the world’s biggest iron-ore producer.

The US consumer confidence index plunged to an all-time low of 38 in October, down sharply from 61.4 in September. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg anticipated a reading of 52.

More from Bloomberg:

The dimming outlook signals consumer spending, which accounts for more than two-thirds of the economy, will deteriorate further, deepening the U.S. slump.

“The economy feels like it is contracting at a rapid pace,” Lewis Alexander, chief economist at Citigroup Global Markets Inc. in New York, said in a Bloomberg Television interview. “It’s clear that consumers have really been affected by the volatility we’ve seen in the last six weeks.”

The report underscores voter discontent with the country’s direction heading into the Nov. 4 presidential election. A majority of voters think Illinois Senator Barack…

If this critical resource disappears, it could send the commodities market spiraling into a catastrophic domino effect.

Today’s Whiskey is a special excerpt from legendary financial mind Jim Rogers’ book, Hot Commodities. In this essay, Jim explains away some of the myths many people associate with commodity markets.

Recently, at a party in New York, I mentioned that I had been talking to various groups in the United States and Europe about investment opportunities in the commodities market. Before I could get out one more word, a woman interrupted me. “Commodities!” she exclaimed, with the kind of incredulity in her voice that Manhattanites reserve for people moving to Los Angeles. “But my brother invested in pork bellies and lost his shirt. And he’s an economist!”

Is the U.S. Fed done cutting rates? The commodities market seems to think so. Gold, platinum, palladium and silver all fell by the end of New York trading. Even oil was off its all-time highs though still above US$115.