China has stopped stockpiling metals, according to reports in the Chinese media. Will this put the cap on the recent strength in base metals prices? The AFP reports that, “China has been building its inventories of metals, including 235,000 tonnes of copper, over recent months, Caijing magazine reported on its website over the weekend, citing Yu Dongming, an official with the state economic planner.”

Chinese regulators rejected Coca-Cola Co.’s (KO) $2.3 billion bid for China Huiyuan Juice Group Ltd., China’s largest juice company.

Not much. The world keeps turning. And the world economy keeps falling apart. Here in Australia, shares of port and rail outfit Asciano (AIO) fell off the table after a Citigroup analyst changed his valuation of the company and moved it from “buy” to “sell.” Asciano is down 93% from its all time high and was down nearly 60% yesterday before going into a trading halt.

Editor’s Note: Australia is well positioned to ride the commodity boom, says Dan Denning in The Daily Reckoning Australia. That is unless the government interferes too much…

Now, here’s something a little different. The high oil price is driving up the price of shares mineral sands companies.

Riding a bicycle in Melbourne’s autumn is like playing with fire, reader. The weather changes a lot quicker than we can ride.

We have set ourselves a mighty task in today’s Daily Reckoning, dear reader. We aim to prove to you how short-sighted, smug, and shallow the mainstream press is. This may not be as big a task as it first sounds, given the quality of a lot of journalism. But we take on one of the central myths of the modern economy today: that consumption leads to prosperity.

Are you getting dizzy yet trying to keep track of all the takeover activity in the Aussie market? From the big fish to the little fish, all of fishes in Australia’s resource ocean are on the Chinese menu.

There are lots of reasons why a small company share can go up in price quickly. Usually it’s an innovative new product, a new market, or, in some cases, a sudden change in the market value of a good, product, or service.

It seems like just another Monday. But the world always changes a little over the weekend. And this weekend, we reckon it changed a lot. The Opes story dominates the headlines. But the collapse of margin lending and leverage probably isn’t the biggest story this week. It’s the increase in food and energy prices we have our eye on this week.