Monday’s record stocks surge seems so long ago. Today, the stock markets are painted a familiar red again. J. Christoph Amberger says this crash will last weeks…and then the real depression will set in. That means commodity prices are heading down further in the short term. And mining stocks will be right behind them.

This from Today’s Financial News:

The reality of the 2008 crash is that it will drag on for weeks.

In all likelihood, there will be chance for a quick burst after Election Day (November 4th). (That’s independent of the outcome: No matter who wins, investors will be so glad to see an end to the empty campaign claptrap, they simply have to buy.)

Then depression will set in again.

I believe we won’t see a flattening of the day-to-day buying and selling excesses until the second week of December.

By then, only those with iron stomachs and leaden constitutions will be left in the market.

******Oil at $70 a Barrel — Gold at $500 by Christmas?******

With stocks are as volatile as nitroglycerin, gold should be trading above $2,000 an ounce! But the dollar insurrection has shaken up the commodities markets. Some experts now put gold’s downside at $500… even $400.

What if they’re right? TFN’s options strategist Andrew Snyder has developed a gold hedge strategy that insures you will make money on your gold position either way. Find his Special Report on the Members Only Reports section of HotStockConfidential.com. To become an instant member, click here…

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But unstable, volatile, bottom-bound markets are bad omens for economic growth.

People who review their retirement account statement and see that their six-figure fund manager has managed to lost them a third of their nest egg are unlikely to go on shopping benders.

Accordingly, the IMF and national governments are falling over each other reducing growth forecasts for both global and national economies.

Oil prices are sliding in anticipation of hard times: Crude oil for future delivery dropped more than 4 percent today to less than $75 a barrel during electronic trading in New York. One year of price increases have been lobbed off:

When Russian president Medvedev predicted $500 oil in July, oil was about to hit $147. Oil prices have now fallen 48 percent since July. OPEC has slashed its 2009 demand forecast for a second consecutive month. Three weeks ago, their functionaries still saw gold “fairly priced” at $100.

Their sense of fairness has’t changed. But life — which reportedly is “unfair” — will probably knock them down to $50 a barrel before the market turns around.

Which has horrendous implications for those one-trick ponies whose economies depend on oil exports. We may see the gargantuan building projects of the Arab emirates be reduced in scale and execution… at worst resemble the abandoned Tower of Babel (to stay with Old Testament metaphors). We’ll see Hugo Chavez’ star decline as his nationalized economy withers and crude oil revenues dry up.

And we’ll see Russia increasingly get protective about its natural gas monopoly in Europe.

Meanwhile, however, other commodities producers will be hammered. Mines will be shuttered. Mining companies will go bankrupt.

Source: The Bear is Back! How Long Will it Last?