China's ferrous futures, particularly the steel and coke contracts, tumbled during morning trading on Thursday November 15 on profit-taking after across-the-board gains a day earlier.Futures closing prices - morning session Shanghai Futures Exchange January rebar: 3,874 ($557) yuan per tonne, down 53 yuan per tonneJanuary hot-rolled coil: 3,577 yuan per tonne, down 30 yuan per tonneDalian Commodit...Read More
China's presence and influence in the copper futures market is growing, reflected in the significant increase in the number of copper transactions conducted by Chinese participants across major exchanges over the past two years, representatives of major bourses told delegates at Asia Copper Week in Shanghai.Around 25% of copper transactions on the London Metal Exchange are either done by Chinese p...Read More
Arbitrage for copper, aluminium, zinc and nickel imported into China on Thursday November 15 * Copper -$192.98 (-1,341.20 yuan) Aluminium -$432.34 (-3,004.69 yuan) Zinc -$94.99 (-660.14 yuan) Nickel $609.10 (4,233.09 yuan) *Fastmarkets calculates the physical arbitrage for import into China daily by using SHFE front-month and LME three-month...Read More
Base metals prices on the London Metal Exchange rallied against a high dollar index during morning trading on Thursday November 15, recovering losses made at Wednesday's close and topped by strong gains in zinc and nickel futures.Climbing by 3%, the three-month zinc price reached an intraday high of $2,595 per tonne over the morning after more than 11,000 tonnes was freshly canceled across LME-lis...Read More
The cobalt metal price in China edged lower mid-week, pressured by the overall bearish sentiment toward the cobalt market's outlook following an industry event last week.Fastmarkets assessed the Chinese cobalt metal price at 410,000-430,000 yuan per tonne ($23.10-24.22) per lb, China VAT-free, on Wednesday November 14, down 4.5% from 430,000-450,000 yuan per tonne previously. "Following the event...Read More
Three-month base metals prices on the London Metal Exchange were up across the board by an average of 0.7% on the morning of Thursday November 15. Zinc and nickel prices were up by the most with gains of 1.2% and 1.1% respectively, while copper was up by 0.8% at $6,149 per tonne. The others were up by between 0.2% for aluminium and 0.8% for lead. Volume has been below average with 4,583 lots trade...Read More
The European Commission (EC) has decided that flat stainless steel products originating from South Africa should be excluded from the scope of its provisional safeguard measures on steel product imports, it said on Tuesday November 13.The decision will be enacted retroactively and the quotas for stainless hot-rolled (HR) and cold-rolled (CR) sheets and strips should be adjusted.The products concer...Read More
Import prices for stainless steel in East Asia weakened again during the past week, with exporters continuing to lower their offers amid intense competition in the region.Fastmarkets MB's import price assessment for 304 stainless 2mm trimmed cold-rolled coil in East Asia was $1,950-2,070 per tonne cif East Asia for the week ended Wednesday November 14, down $30-80 per tonne from a week earlier.Fas...Read More
China's domestic stainless steel prices moved down over the past week due to decreasing demand. Fastmarkets MB's price assessment for benchmark 304 stainless cold-rolled coil in the major market of Wuxi was 15,100-15,600 yuan ($2,171-2,243) per tonne including VAT for the week ended Wednesday November 14, down 100-300 yuan per tonne from a week earlier.Demand from...Read More
Key data from the Wednesday November 14 pricing session in Asia. Key drivers: The strong performance of the downstream vehicle sector in Japan in the fourth quarter was not enough to stoke greater buying interest from Japanese consumers due to the...Read More
Secondary aluminium producers in the UK are considering production cuts following a nine-week slide in ingot prices, which is cutting into profit margins.The low ingot price combined with scrap prices not falling at a fast enough rate could prompt production cuts in the coming months, UK producers said.LM24 pressure diecasting ingot on a delivered consumer works basis fell to ?1,390-1,440 ($1,776...Read More
Three-month base metals prices on the London Metal Exchange were either little changed or stronger on the morning of Friday November 16.Zinc and aluminium prices were up by the most with gains of 0.6% and 0.4%% respectively, while the rest were little changed with copper down by 0.1% at $6,195 per tonne. Volume has been above average with 6,330 lots traded as at 07.10am London time. This morn...Read More
U.S. equity index futures were lower this morning. S&P 500 futures were down 22 points in pre-opening trade. The Shanghai Composite added 10.94 to 2,679.01 completing a short term bottoming pattern on a move above $2,676.01.NVIDIA plunged $35.37 to $167.02 after reporting lower than consensus third quarter revenues. The company also lowered its guidance. Target on the stock was lowered by JP M...Read More
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer has told some industry executives that another round of tariffs on Chinese imports has been put on hold as the two nations pursue talks, the Financial Times reported on Thursday, citing an unnamed person familiar with the situation.U.S. President Donald Trump has already imposed tariffs on $250 billion of Chinese imports into the U...Read More
(Kitco News) - The digital currency market is attracting new attention of the wrong kind as market analysts warn that they see further declines in the near-term as the new downtrend picks up momentum.Bitcoin, the leader in the cryptocurrency sector, has fallen further below the $6,000 level as it trades near its lowest level in 13 months. According to Kitco.com aggregated charts, bitcoin last trad...Read More
(Reuters) - The U.S. Federal Reserve should hold off on raising interest rates to allow more workers to get jobs, adding that the central bank can always raise rates to head off inflation if it starts to rise too fast, Minneapolis Fed President Neel Kashkari said on Thursday.Speaking at the Minnesota Ag and Food Summit, Kashkari said he sees no signs of overheating yet, or of inflation taking off....Read More
(Kitco News) - Gold and silver prices are modestly higher in early-afternoon U.S. trading Thursday. Some worries about the health of the U.S. stock market, following the recent sell-offs and increased volatility, are supporting the safe-haven metals. The precious metals bulls are impressed their markets are able to post modest gains today in the face of a stronger U.S. dollar index. December gold...Read More
Exchange-traded fund investors have returned to the gold market, says Standard Chartered. Most precious-metals ETFs trade like a stock but track the price of the commodity, with metal put into storage to back the shares. Both central banks and ETF investors tend to be “resilient holders” of gold, Standard says. ETF buying of 23 tonnes in October and 13 so far in November, as a Wednesda...Read More
Editor's Note: Welcome to Kitco's new Bitcoin Daily Technical Alert. Every trading day veteran Kitco technical analyst Jim Wyckoff will provide you with a concise and easy-to-understand near-term technical brief on Bitcoin. Importantly, Jim will glean the short-term charts and technical studies, and then alert you to the signals he sees regarding upcoming potential bigger price moves or price tren...Read More
Primary aluminium stocks at the three main Japanese ports (MJP) of Osaka, Nagoya and Yokohama slipped 1% month on month in October, according to the latest data from major Japanese trading house Marubeni Corp. The data, which was published on Wednesday November 14, also shows that total aluminium stocks at the three ports came to 317,300 tonnes at the end of last month. On a y...Read More