Today President Clinton announced more aid for folks struggling to pay their winter heating bills. Oil prices are high. But they pale in comparison to palladium. And no, we're not talking about the famous concert hall in London. Here with a closer look at a metal you haven't thought of since high school chemistry is Marketplace's Rachael Myrow.
Palladium is used in everything from cell phones to dental work, but auto makers dominate demand.
It's the metal of choice for the catalysts that clean car-exhaust fumes, and new Environmental Protection Agency clean air laws ensure palladium will be valuable for years to come. Russia supplies two-thirds of the world's palladium. Jeffrey Christian is managing director at CPM Group, which does commodities research and consulting in New York. And people were actually stealing catalytic converters off of cars parked on the street. Russian suppliers and bureaucrats won't say what's causing the hold up, but palladium prices are likely to go higher until they let loose more metal on the markets.