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
The U.S. dollar rally has resumed in the wake of last week’s meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee, says Brown Brothers Harriman. “U.S. rates are headed higher, while event risk in the euro zone and the U.K. remain in place,” BBH says. Analysts say the news flow this week is expected to be dollar-supportive. Consensus estimates call for the October U.S. Consumer Pric...Read More
As the ferro-alloys community prepares to gather in Lisbon for a busy few days of meetings and contract negotiations, Fastmarkets outlines some of the key topics likely to dominate discussions at this year's International Ferro-alloys Conference, on November 11-13.Is the ferro-vanadium mating season nearing completion?What promises to be a busy few days in Lisbon for purveyors of ferro-alloys may...Read More
As the ferro-alloys community prepares to gather in Lisbon for a busy few days of meetings and contract negotiations, Fastmarkets outlines some of the key topics likely to dominate discussions at this year's International Ferro-alloys Conference, on November 11-13.Is the ferro-vanadium mating season nearing completion?What promises to be a busy few days in Lisbon for purveyors of ferro-alloys may...Read More
Prices for steel billet showed mixed trends in the various global trading regions in the week ended Friday November 9, increasing in the CIS, Turkey and Egypt, while falling in Iran and China.The current high level of scrap prices in Turkey led to higher procurement of billet and improved sentiment among steelmakers in the Commonwealth of Independent States.Fastmarkets' daily index for Northern Eu...Read More
European stainless steel market participants were losing confidence that the market will recover early in the New Year, they told Fastmarkets on Friday November 9, with transaction prices falling further this week.Transaction prices for grade-304 cold-rolled (CR) stainless sheets were assessed at ?,?2,150-2,200 ($2,454-2,511) per tonne delivered on Friday, down by ?,?30-60 per tonne from ?,?2,180-...Read More
China's finished steel exports were up by more than 10% year on year in October, but fell when compared with September's volumes, according to preliminary Chinese customs data published on Thursday November 8.The country exported 5.5 million tonnes of finished steel in last month, up 10.4% from the 4.98 million tonnes shipped out in October 2017, according to the customs data. October shipmen...Read More
Latin American steel association Alacero has appointed M??ximo Vedoya as its new president on Wednesday November 7.Vedoya, who is the chief executive officer of Latin American steel group Ternium, will lead the association...Read More
Prices for steel billet showed mixed trends in the various global trading regions in the week ended Friday November 9, increasing in the CIS, Turkey and Egypt, while falling in Iran and China.The current high level of scrap prices in Turkey led to higher procurement of billet and improved sentiment among steelmakers in the Commonwealth of Independent States.Fastmarkets' daily index for Northern Eu...Read More
London Metal Exchange members are considering a multitude of ways to continue to service their EU clients in the event that a financial services deal is either not forthcoming or does not go far enough when the UK finally leaves the European Union. Some companies have even told their LME sales teams they need to be prepared to move to another major European city to be able to legally service their...Read More
If Brexit - the departure of the United Kingdom from the European Union on March 29, 2019 - isn't on your radar, it should be. With the annual London Metal Exchange Week now in full swing, the exchange, its members and their customers need to have contingency plans in place if they are expecting to be affected in any way by Brexit. And as with anything political, an element of brinkmanship will na...Read More
When the London Metal Exchange finished its 12-step warehouse reform package, it proved once more that you cannot please all of the people all of the time. It faced some inevitable criticism of the rules, in particular that the LME went too far in certain areas and should consider tweaking or rolling back some of its reforms. In particular, the focus of attention was on the load-in, load-out (LILO...Read More
The steel scrap sector in the United States still depends on exports to Turkey, a member of the Fastmarkets research team said during the ferrous session at the Bureau of International Recycling (BIR) conference in London.This dependence persists despite the changes in the international markets created by the US' imposition of its Section 232 tariffs on imports of steel products, metals analyst Le...Read More
As the ferro-alloys community prepares to gather in Lisbon for a busy few days of meetings and contract negotiations, Fastmarkets outlines some of the key topics likely to dominate discussions at this year's International Ferro-alloys Conference, on November 11-13.Is the ferro-vanadium mating season nearing completion?What promises to be a busy few days in Lisbon for purveyors of ferro-alloys may...Read More
U.S. equity index futures were lower this morning. S&P 500 futures were down 7 points in pre-opening trade. Altria (MO $63.42) is expected to open lower following a Wall Street Journal report that the FDA plans to propose a ban on menthol cigarettes. L Brands added $1.10 to $37.60 after Wells Fargo upgraded the stock to Outperform from Market Perform. Target was raised to $55 from $30.Yelp ((Y...Read More
Base metals on the London Metal Exchange were mostly lower at the close of trading on Friday November 9, with broad price weakness coming amid a fresh surge in the dollar index while investors heed caution over hawkish US-Sino trade relations. "Base metals are working against the strong dollar and the tightening Fed policy," SP Angel commodities analyst Sergey Raevskiy told Fastmarkets. "All the f...Read More
An overview of the battery raw materials markets and their price moves from the past week. Read More
The London Metal Exchange has addressed a series of proposals put forward to market participants in a consultation period that began in early August, introducing key rulebook and procedural amendments in conjunction with its Strategic Pathway initiatives first introduced in 2017.Structured around key initiatives set out in 2017 to drive market growth, market feedback from the consultation has prom...Read More
An overview of the battery raw materials markets and their price moves from the past week. Read More
Key data for the pricing session for the week ended Friday November 9. China Domestic ferro-chrome spot prices continued to soften slightly amid ongoing weak market sentiment. The UG2 chrome ore index dropped amid low liquidity, with buyers and sellers failing to agree a price in a falling market. The imported charge chrome...Read More