New York, April 23, 2012
By John Stephenson

For commodity investors, it's been a dreary season. Despite a slate of strong corporate earnings from Alcoa and others, commodity prices have slumped, dragging down the fortunes of commodity producers. Markets have been in a tizzy lately as worries about the health of the U.S. recovery, a slowdown in China and the euro-zone's continuing debt woes have sent stocks lower. After months of defying gravity and a first quarter that ranked among the best since the heydey of the Internet bubble years, global stocks are showing signs of fatigue. For the shares of commodity producers, the bloom is decidedly off the rose despite a gusher of profits for resource companies.

It was bound to happen. After more than three decades of staggerng growth, China is slowing, causing the market bears to come out of their lairs and sending resource stocks tumbling. Fears of a possible hard landing for the Chinese economy have rattled markets for months, driving down commodity prices and shaking investor confidence.

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