OTTAWA — Commodities entered 2012 on more positive footing after the eurozone debt crisis sent resource prices into sharp retreat in the latter half of 2011, Scotiabank said Tuesday.“Sentiment has improved in early 2012,” said Patricia Mohr, author of Scotiabank’s Commodity Price Index, “with some investment and hedge funds shifting from short to long positions in bas...Read More
Commodity markets are looking up this year with a strong start to 2012, after prices were a mixed bag in 2011.But as the Aesop Fable shows, it takes more than a strong start to win the race, according to CIBC senior economist Peter Buchanan.While diminished risk aversion helped reduce prices for commodities and other volatile assets, Mr. Buchanan says they have better traction in 2012.Commodity ma...Read More
By Andy HomeSupply shortfall has defined the copper market for several years now.Many of the world’s biggest copper mines are aging and ore grades have been falling accordingly.Mine capacity utilization fell steadily from over 90 percent at the start of the last decade to 80.4 percent last year, according to the International Copper Study Group (ICSG). This year has been even worse. Capacity...Read More
The period of seasonal strength in the metals and mining sector is approaching. What are prospects this year?Thackray’s 2012 Investor’s Guide notes that the metals and mining sector has two periods of seasonal strength: From November 19th to January 5th and from January 23rd to May 5th. The combined periods have recorded an average return per period during the past 22 periods of 16.1%....Read More
Investors can expect a dividend increase of approximately 20% when Barrick Gold Corp. reports third quarter results before markets open on Thursday, October 27.That’s the forecast from Stephen D. Walker, analyst at RBC Capital Markets, who noted that Barrick last hiked its dividend in July 2010. He also pointed out that the company’s payout ratio is 10% of 2011 estimated earnings, comp...Read More
Shares of North American base metal miners tumbled on Monday along with the price of copper, zinc, and nickel after the downgrade of the U.S. credit rating by S&P amplified fears of a global economic slowdown.Shares of U.S. miner Freeport McMoRan and Canada’s First Quantum and Teck Resources, among others, fell sharply in New York and Toronto.Copper, used in the power and construction in...Read More
Copper slipped on Monday in thin trading as signs that the property market was cooling in top metals consumer China worsened the outlook for industrial metals demand and weighed on market sentiment.Three-month copper closed at $7,260 a tonne, down more than 1 percent from a close at $7,345 a tonne on Friday. Traders said business was being pared back ahead of the end of the year.Prices have shed o...Read More
Copper posted its first weekly gain in five weeks on Friday as it pushed near $8,000 per tonne on the back of persistent inventory tightness and a move this week by central banks to boost liquidity.With the exception of tin futures, which lost nearly 4 percent this week, investment demand for the base metals was up sharply. One standout performer was aluminium, which surged nearly 7 percent after...Read More
Industrial metals rose for a second day in London, extending the biggest rally in two years, as figures showed manufacturing may swell in top global consumer China. Chinese manufacturing might expand in October for the first month in four after a preliminary purchasing managers’ index released by HSBC Holdings Plc and Markit Economics today climbed to 51.1 from September’s final readin...Read More
Shares of Quadra FNX rose more than 7 percent on Monday morning after the Canadian base metal miner reported a large increase in quarterly copper production.Vancouver-based Quadra said its second-quarter production rose 20 percent from the previous quarter at its mines in the United States, Canada and Chile.The company, which is expected to report quarterly financial results on Aug. 10, said coppe...Read More
Copper fell on Monday as risk aversion swept through the markets due to the worsening euro zone debt crisis and the threat of a U.S. default, while the fight against inflation in top metals consumer China looked set to intensify.Benchmark copper on the London Metal Exchange was down 0.3 percent at $9,644 a tonne at 1427 GMT from $9,672 at the close on Friday.The metal used in power and constructio...Read More
By Andy HomeAssuming, like the investment bank community, you are still keeping the faith with the overall bull narrative, the coming period will be all about divergence between both commodities in general and the LME metals in particular.Or as researchers at Barclays Capital put it in the company’s most recent weekly research report, “the supply side is shaping a more diverse fundamen...Read More
Copper inched higher on Tuesday as the euro steadied against the dollar ahead of a series of U.S. economic reports, while signals that Chinese consumers are buying provided a floor for prices.Benchmark copper on the London Metal Exchange traded at $8,880.50 a tonne in official rings, up from $8,840 at Monday’s close.The metal used in power and construction hit its lowest in more than five mo...Read More
By Andy HomeIndustrial users of the London Metal Exchange have greeted the launch of physical exchange traded funds for base metals with a mixture of fear and loathing.By removing metal from the supply chain during a period of expected market deficit, could they become a price driver in their own right? Or will they prove to be a damp squib, a purely temporary by-product of “loose” mon...Read More
As investment flows and increased risk appetite driven by U.S. quantitative easing and the emergence of ETFs have pushed copper prices higher than the fundamentals suggest in the near term, RBC Capital Markets is warning that a correction is possible in the near term. However, copper remains the firm’s preferred base metal and it raised its price forecasts to reflect an improving supply-dema...Read More
With all the noise and uncertainty floating around these days in the global economy, it’s no surprise everyone is looking for a unique way to profit from gold, the generally acknowledged safe haven in times of strife.John Redstone, analyst with Desjardins Securities, has come up with a list of six base metals companies that are also well-leveraged for a rising gold price. Interestingly enoug...Read More
Analysts and strategists at UBS share their views on commoditiesQ: What is your take on recent developments in base metals?A: We were concerned over the base metals in early April, because of the potential for a global synchronised slowdown over the summer and into Q4, and because of the potential for risk capital to exit positions. We now believe that the slowdown is priced in, and we anticipate...Read More
Lundin Mining said on Wednesday that it expects to be able to update shareholders by the end of this month on discussions to sell all or part of the company, but cautioned that a deal is not a certainty.“I think we should be in a position to give a pretty good update come the end of this month and give some indication in terms of which direction we’re heading and whether a transaction...Read More
Copper fell to within a few cents of its year-to-date lows early Monday morning, hit by cooling demand concerns in China following data that showed the country’s vast manufacturing sector slow down in April.But prices managed to recover from their losses at the New York open, supported by a firmer tone on Wall Street following the confirmation that Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden had been ki...Read More