It's time to be cautious on commodities

Oil cartel Opec is meeting up tomorrow to discuss oil production quotas. It promises to be a fractious session. One member, Libya, is in the midst of a civil war. That makes things complicated enough, as no one is sure who will be representing the country. But on top of that, some of Libya’s fellow members, including Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, are backing the Libyan rebel contingent. So the debate promises to be heated. And beyond the chaos of the ‘Arab Spring’, Opec has longer-term worries. With oil prices still sitting above $100 a barrel, it may seem that the cartel is sitting pretty in financial terms. But in fact, Opec may be facing the biggest threat to its influence on the global energy market it has yet seen.