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Andrew Bell

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“We have paid for our success with the lives of many of our brave comrades.”  - General John J Pershing

On this day in 1918, the Germans launched their final major attack of the First World War, despite the Spanish flu ravaging their troops. The so-called Second Battle of the Marne, in the Champagne region of France, was a resounding defeat for the Germans. The newly-arrived American Expeditionary Force suffered 30,000 killed and wounded, the first time the U.S. posted the enormous level of casualties that marked the conflict.

Mini-houses a solution for Canada’s housing crunch?

On BNN this year, we have been totting up the potential costs of a housing crash, especially for investors in the nation’s mortgage lenders. At 12:30 p.m. ET today, we’ll hear from David LePoidevin, a B.C. advisor at National Bank Financial and long-time bear on the housing market. He told the Vancouver Sun that “it’s your classic bubble… once it begins to turn, it could get nasty.” 

One solution to a housing supply shortage is building laneway housing, which the Toronto Star says “could help bring new life, and even green space, to some of the 250 kilometres of largely neglected and unsightly laneways across” the country’s largest city. 

At 10:30 a.m. ET, we’ll be joined by Mark McLean, past president of the Toronto Real Estate Board, who will give us his take on the mini-houses and also “micro-condos,” another method of squashing more people into tight spaces.

Mind you, segment producer Sarah Traynor notes that last week Ryerson University urban planning researcher Frank Clayton told BNN that back-alley homes offer only a limited solution to the problem of supply. 

Returning to B.C. for a moment, the provincial government is being mocked for a research finding that only three per cent of the province’s residential sales are made to foreign buyers.  "I would say 50 per cent of house buyers, maybe 60 per cent [are foreigners],” Eve Chuang of Macdonald Realty told Business in Vancouver. 

Part of a sucker rally?

Investors in this year’s commodity bounce – which has seen the iShares S&P GSCI Commodity-Indexed ETF (GSG.N) jump 21 per cent from its January low – are hoping they’re not in for a sucker rally.

“Last year at this time returns were also exceptional, but a relentless sell-off started in July,” Citi analysts say.  

But they reckon that this time it’ll be different: “Fundamentals have improved across many commodity markets, led by supply-side rebalancing as falling prices over the last two years have prompted sharp capex cuts across energy, metals and agriculture.”

They reckon battered wheat prices are set for a 10 per cent bounce in the second half of the year with coking coal, another bombed-out category, not far behind.

Wheat markets have been glutted for more than three years. One Kansas silo operator told the Financial Times that for the first time, he’s been forced to store wheat on the ground: In a mountain 20 feet tall, 80 feet wide and 200 feet long. 

Cocoa soars to near four-decade high

On Commodities at 11:30am ET, we'll look at the grains with Jack Scoville, senior market analyst at Price Futures Group. We’ll also ask him how he’s playing cocoa. The chocolate ingredient has soared to its highest level in almost four decades in pounds, as the British currency flags. That’s rough on U.K. chocolate lovers, who may see their favourite candy bars rise in price.

Finally, mother’s milk remains the commodity that separates us from the reptiles. A mom shopping in London was reportedly told not to breastfeed in a London store during National Breastfeeding Week by staff who wanted her to use a back room. The twist: It happened at a branch of Mothercare which claims a half-century of “ experience in all baby related products.”

The company said “mothers can nurse their children anywhere on the ­premises.” It said construction workers were renovating the store and staff thought she would be more comfortable using the private “comfortable feeding ­facilities.” 

Sounds like everyone needs a nap. 

Every morning Commodities host Andrew Bell writes a ‘chase note’ to BNN's editorial staff listing the stories and events that will be in the spotlight that day. Have it delivered to your inbox before the trading day begins by heading to www.bnn.ca/subscribe.