One point I want to address. Several of you asked about the effect of the U.S.-Russia "START" Treaty on the uranium market.

START calls for the dismantling of up to 30% of nuclear warheads in America and Russia. Presumably, the highly-enriched uranium from these weapons will be recovered and down-blended into low-enriched uranium that can be used in nuclear reactors.

How much uranium will this yield? Estimates are the U.S. currently holds about 5,000 nukes, with Russia holding somewhere between 2,000 (the official government number) and 5,000 (a more likely assessment from independent scientists).

If we assume the high case, this means about 3,000 total bombs to be decommissioned under START. Based on figures from uranium enrichment firm USEC, who have been processing uranium from weapons for years, 3,000 nukes would likely yield the equivalent of about 60 million pounds of uranium oxide (the stuff mines produce).

This supply would likely come over several years, so we're probably looking at something like 10 million pounds uranium oxide equivalent yearly. This is about 5% of total yearly demand, which is running around 175 million pounds.

The added supply from nukes would likely take a little of the edge off the market. But not enough to crush the price, by any means.

And now, on with our regular program. Specifically, some odd happenings in the T-Bill space.

Security yields can tell you a lot about what's happening in a market. And sometimes, what's about to happen.

Back at the beginning of April, an upward breakout in U.S. commercial paper yields suggested traders were sensing trouble and dumping these securities. A few weeks later, the Greek sovereign debt problem broke full force, pulling down stock markets.

In a perhaps similar signal of "something wicked this way coming", T-Bill yields have been plunging the last two weeks.

The shortest-dated bills have been falling fastest. The 4-week security yield was down as much as 88% since the end of May. The 13-week bill dropped 59%. And the 26-week bill is down 35%.

This is a sudden and rapid fall. During the financial troubles late in 2008, short-dated T-Bills were in high demand as nervous investors cashed out of a risky assets and looked for somewhere safe to park their money.

T-Bills gave them the ability to earn a little interest without locking up their money for a long time. Just in case things turned around and better investment opportunities presented.

The drop in yields over the last two weeks suggests investors are once again heading for safety. Not totally surprising, given the still-lingering concerns over European debt.

But the interesting thing is the timing. Europe's problems came to light six weeks ago. And most of the panic selling seems to be behind us. In fact, over the last week the Dow is up 5%.

So why are investors jumping ship into T-Bills even as stock markets seem to be recovering? Are they seeing something else on the horizon? Here's to scanning for danger,

Dave Forest