Gold has big year in 2020 and outlook for this year robust. Learn about monetary expansion and gold future prices.Read More
The gold futures price reached US$1,767/ounce this week before retreating, which was the second time it has surpassed US$1,760 in the past two months, marking some of gold's highest levels in several years.Read More
Oct 20 (Reuters) - The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation said on Wednesday it would spend up to $120 million to kick-start development of generic versions of Merck & Co's (MRK.N) oral COVID-19 treatment to help ensure lower-income countries have equal access to the drug.The aim is to reduce the gap between when wealthy countries have access to the antiviral medicine, molnupiravir, and when the res...Read More
* Credit Suisse fined over corrupt Mozambique loans* Swiss regulator said spying more widespread than thought* Scandals reignite Swiss push for banking reformZURICH/FRANKFURT, Oct 20 (Reuters) - Credit Suisse misled authorities over spying on its staff and lied to investors about a corrupt loan to Mozambique, regulators said, painting a bleak picture of the cultural decay at the global bank.The he...Read More
What’s the price level exit for theblack gold?The new front month contract (as weswitched now to Dec’21) for WTI Crude Oil futures closed the week at $82 perbarrel on Friday (Oct. 15th).Fundamentally, nothing seems to be able to stop, in the short term, the surge incrude oil prices which continued to rise on Friday amid concerns over supply,since the WTI hit a new high in almost seven...Read More
LONDON (Reuters) -Nearly half of the 100 biggest companies listed on Britain's FTSE Index have no net-zero target at all and just 23 have a scientifically approved plan, according to ESG investment research and asset manager Arabesque.Britain wants to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the economy to net-zero by 2050 while Prime Minister Boris Johnson has expressed enthusiasm for leading a green...Read More
LONDON (Reuters) - Britain looks set to become the first big economy to undergo a two-pronged withdrawal of COVID-19 stimulus as finance minister Rishi Sunak sets out tighter budget plans next week and the Bank of England prepares to raise interest rates.The British economy has rebounded more quickly than expected this year after suffering a nearly 10% crash in 2020.But many analysts think the rec...Read More
FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Bundesbank chief Jens Weidmann, who on Wednesday announced his decision to stand down more than five years early, led a decade-long fight inside the European Central Bank against the easy-money policies espoused by successive ECB presidents.Back in 2012, the German central bank chief was the lone dissenter when the ECB unveiled plans to help countries in distress after the gl...Read More
A summary of BHP's operational review for iron ore and metallurgical coal for the quarter ended September 30, 2021, as released on Tuesday October 19.In brief Total production of iron ore for the three months ended September 30 was 63.3 million tonnes (70.6 million tonnes on 100 % basis), down by 4% year on year.Iron ore production was down by 3% quarter on quarter over July-September. The dip in...Read More
BEIJING (Reuters) -China's new home prices stalled for the first time since February 2020 in September, as the chill in the property market intensified amid tightening credit due to an ongoing crackdown on speculative investment.The average new home price in 70 major Chinese cities was unchanged in September month-on-month, compared with 0.2% growth in August, according to Reuters calculations bas...Read More
ROME (Reuters) - Italy plans to set aside at least 8 billion euros for tax cuts ($9.33 billion) in its 2022 budget and to spend another 1 billion to reduce household energy bills, two political sources said.To help boost the country's chronically weak economic growth, the government wants to reduce the so-called tax wedge, the difference between the salary an employer pays and what a worker takes...Read More
A summary of Brazilian miner Vale's iron ore results for the third quarter of 2021, as stated in its latest production and sales report published on Tuesday October 19.In brief?EUR? Vale produced 89.4 million tonnes of iron ore fines in July-September, up by 0.8% year on year and 18.1% higher compared with April-June. ?EUR? It attributed the increases to high production at its Serra Norte and S11D...Read More
Oct 20 (Reuters) - Australian shares rose on Wednesday asmetal-centric stocks jumped on firm commodity prices, whileglobal miner BHP hit a one-month high after topping billionaireAndrew Forrest's bid for nickel miner Noront Resources.The S&P/ASX 200 index rose about 1% to 7,447.3 by0022 GMT.Miners were the biggest boosts on the local bourse,climbing 1.6%, after benchmark iron ore prices recove...Read More
Vietnam's Hoa Phat Steel is close to obtaining certification from the United Kingdom Certification Authority for Reinforcing Steels (Cares), which would allow it to sell its rebar to the key markets of Singapore and Hong Kong, sources told Fastmarkets this week.Obtaining the certification means that a mill is able to produce construction steel to certain standards. For instance, in Singapore, reba...Read More
Here are five Fastmarkets stories you might have missed on Wednesday October 20 that are worth another look.Workers at steelmaker ArcelorMittal's plant in Ghent, Belgium, might go on strike from Thursday next week in a dispute over salaries, Fastmarkets heard on October 20.Trafigura has been drawing...Read More
Domestic prices for hot-rolled coil in northern Europe and Italy continued to slide on Wednesday October 20 due to reduced automotive demand and higher availability of material, sources told Fastmarkets.A bearish mood in the market made buyers cautious about making new purchases, sources said, although demand has started to pick up due to distributor restocking for the first quarter of next year....Read More
An overview of the specialty steel raw materials markets in Europe and their latest price moves.Janie Davies, Alex Cook...Read More
Japanese local and export buyers have been locked in a fight for steel scrap in the week to Wednesday October 20, pushing up prices across the board, sources told Fastmarkets.Major electric arc furnace (EAF) mill Tokyo Steel on Wednesday announced it would raise its scrap buy prices by ?500-1,000 ($4.38-8.75) per tonne at some of its works starting Thursday October 21. This marks the second price...Read More
Here are five Fastmarkets stories you might have missed on Wednesday October 20 that are worth another look.Workers at steelmaker ArcelorMittal's plant in Ghent, Belgium, might go on strike from Thursday next week in a dispute over salaries, Fastmarkets heard on October 20.Trafigura has been drawing...Read More
The three-month copper contract is trading near record highs on the London Metal Exchange, cash prices are rising even faster, and inventories are descending toward zero. Try running a hedge book in those conditions.It's been a very real quandary facing the physical trade and industry, which awoke on Tuesday October 19 to find copper's cash to November spread had flared to a backwardation of more...Read More
Lead's three-month price set a new year-to-date peak of $2,427 per tonne on the afternoon of Wednesday October 20, together with nickel, which rose by almost 6% to more than $21,000 per tonne, with sentiment on the London Metal Exchange still bullish.Lead's three-month price closed at $2,417 per tonne on Wednesday, a 1.7% increase from its Tuesday closing price of $2,376 per tonne. "We envisage a...Read More
"...may not immediately extend to its own new all-time highs, but if...silver's not going to be at $23. I can assure you of that." by Craig Hemke via Sprott Money NewsMany of the base/industrial metals have been surging of late, and copper appears to be next. What impact, if any, can we eventually expect this to have on the price of COMEX silver?Let's start by recognizing that the ongoing bull ma...Read More