Crude oil may tumble to $80 a barrel within 12 months as supplies of alternative energy increase

Aug. 22 (Bloombergc) -- Crude oil may tumble to $80 a barrel within 12 months as supplies of alternative energy increase, while grain prices may climb on emerging-market demand, said Renee Haugerud, whose hedge fund gained 18 percent this year.

Natural gas Futures fell to $7.843 today, tumbling 43 percent from $13.694 on July 2. That had marked the highest since December 2005.

Gold may rise to $1,000 an ounce on investor demand for a haven should equity prices tumble, Haugerud said. The precious metal fell $5.50 to $833.50 today in New York and has dropped 19 percent from a record $1,033.90 on March 17.


Aug. 22 (Bloomberg) -- Crude oil may tumble to $80 a barrel within 12 months as supplies of alternative energy increase, while grain prices may climb on emerging-market demand, said Renee Haugerud, whose hedge fund gained 18 percent this year.

The surge in oil has been ``overdone'' by investors seeking holdings in raw materials through the Standard & Poor's GSCI Index, a commodity gauge weighted toward energy, she said. Industrial metals also rose too high, she said.

``They were the sexy commodities,'' Haugerud, founder of the $2.5 billion commodities hedge-fund firm Galtere Ltd., said in an Aug. 19 interview in her New York office. ``Everyone wanted to get long an asset class via the GSCI, and let's face it, the GSCI is crude.''