After a recent commentary (“Fiscal Follies: Greece versus the U.S.”), a reader disputed my contention that the media were exaggerating the weaknesses of other economies, while ignoring the more serious problems of the U.S. and U.K. economies. The anecdote he used as ammunition was a statement from a member of Germany's government that Germany was anticipating significant economic problems in 2010, while for officials of the U.S. government, the operative buzzword is still “recovery”.

The short form of my rebuttal was that both the U.S. and the EU want the U.S. dollar to get a little firmer versus the euro, so that the next “surprise” to upset the market concerning the U.S. economy is not enough to send the greenback into an immediate nosedive. Thus the various officials of EU governments – and even the European media – have very little incentive to counter U.S. propaganda of this nature.

Below we highlight our trading range charts for ten major commodities. For each chart, the green shading represents between two standard deviations above and below the commodity's 50-day moving average. Moves above or below the green zone are considered overbought or oversold.

As you'll see, prices have come down across the board in recent days. Gold, silver, copper, corn, wheat, and coffee are all trading at extreme oversold territory. For the metals, many are trading at their most oversold levels in at least a year. Long-term uptrends have now been broken for gold, silver, copper, and coffee. Energy has held up relatively well recently, with oil and natural gas both trading right in the middle of their trading ranges. Orange juice is the only commodity that really hasn't struggled a bit.

The showdown over the future of the financial industry continued in Washington on Tuesday, as former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker continued to push for restrictions on commercial banks engaging in proprietary trading and private investing activity. Earnings reports continued to give domestic equity markets a boost, as did favorable news for the U.S. auto industry out of Detroit: Ford and GM posted sales increases of 25% and 14%, respectively, in January. Toyota results were hammered by the carmaker’s biggest-ever recall.

The ETFdb 60 Index, a benchmark measuring the performance of asset classes available through ETFs, gained 8.25 points, or 0.8%, to close at 1,018.36. The index has already added nearly 2% in February after slipping more than 3% in January.