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

Despite power supply issues involving intermittent blackouts for the first three weeks of the month, concentrate production in October amounted to 16,211 tonnes, just shy of the phase one production target of 16,666t.The strong performance prompted Ivanhoe to narrow guidance higher to 90,000-95,000t, up from the previous range of 85,000-95,000t.The TSX-listed miner said the phase two expansion was...Read More

Updating comments from last week, now armed with more production numbers from companies which had since reported, Jefferies said copper supply was only slowly increasing and all recent changes to production guidance had been downward revisions, citing Antofagasta, Anglo American, Freeport-McMoRan, MMG, Rio Tinto, Vale and Southern Copper.Analyst Christopher LaFemina said yesterday the majors...Read More

Base metals prices on the London Metal Exchange and Shanghai Futures Exchange were mainly weaker on the morning of Tuesday November 2, with concerns about headwinds affecting the Chinese economy denting sentiment.* A 9.9% price drop in the January iron ore futures contract on the Dalian Commodity Exchange is weighing on sentiment.* Iron ore prices were recently at 567 yuan ($89) per tonne, down fr...Read More

Turkish steel scrap import prices fell sharply on Tuesday November 2, in line with the the latest bookings and amid increasing freight costs and limited finished steel sales to Turkey's key export outlets, market participants told Fastmarkets. On Tuesday, a steel mill in the Marmara region booked a deep-sea cargo from Puerto Rico, comprising HMS 1&2 (80:20) at $494 per tonne and shredded scrap at...Read More

Seaborne coking coal prices were relatively stable on Tuesday November 2, with no trades heard in the market, although Chinese domestic coke prices in certain provinces started to fall due to rising inventories and reduced costs.Fastmarkets indicesPremium hard coking coal, cfr Jingtang: $600.25 per tonne, unchangedHard coking coal, cfr Jingtang: $525.23 per tonne, unchangedPremium hard coking coal...Read More

Prices for steel scrap imported into China decreased sharply due to the continued drop in both spot and futures prices for finished steel products in the country on Tuesday November 2, sources told Fastmarkets.China import price tumbles amid bearish sentiment dominating the steel marketsChinese mills cut domestic scrap buy prices againTaiwan secures containerized scrap cargoes at $475 per tonne cf...Read More

U.S. equity index futures were higher this morning. S&P 500 futures were up 2 points in pre-opening trade. Nutrien advanced $1.45 to US$73.00 after reporting higher than consensus third quarter revenues. The company also raised guidance.Mosaic dropped $1.13 to US$40.33 after reporting less than consensus third quarter revenues and earnings. Clorox added $9.50 to $172.90 after reporting higher...Read More

Seaborne iron ore prices fell on Tuesday November 2 due to weak demand outlook caused by narrowing steel margins and ongoing sintering restrictions, sources told Fastmarkets.Fastmarkets iron ore indices 62% Fe fines, cfr Qingdao: $95.77 per tonne, down $7.66 per tonne 62% Fe low-alumina fines, cfr Qingdao: $96.67 per tonne, down $7.99 per tonne 58% Fe fines high-grade premium, cfr Qingdao: $67....Read More

The north China steel production hub of Handan city in Hebei province has implemented stricter production cuts at steel mills from Monday November 1 to November 7.The move has been made is to mitigate weather-influenced air pollution over the period and comes just after the city finished implmenting steel production curbs in September and October to limit the crude steel output in line with China'...Read More

China's domestic rebar prices fell below $800 per tonne on Tuesday November 2 after the most-traded January futures contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange fell to its lower limit for the day. Domestic Eastern China (Shanghai): 5,080-5,110 yuan ($794-799) per tonne, down by 40 yuan per tonneRebar futures tracked the movements of the January iron ore futures contract on the Dalian Commodity Excha...Read More

Brownwood, Texas, today is bustling like never before. The old hotel downtown is being renovated after sitting in decay for decades.The restaurants are packed. Houses are selling for 20% more than their Zillow values. The banks are experiencing a big influx of funds. New residents are pouring in from around the country. Everyone is making money. It's a charming and happy place, except that everyon...Read More

The United States Bureau of Economic Analysis issued its third-quarter gross domestic product estimate this morning.Consensus guessing had come in at 2.8% annualized growth. What is the actual figure?It's 2.0% - a "miss" - yet not a cataclysmic miss.It nonetheless represents the poorest quarterly progress since last year's second quarter... when the gross domestic product took a 31% whaling.Mr. Pa...Read More

Spot prices for hot-rolled coil in China fell plunged to their lowest in eight months on Tuesday November 2 amid falling futures.DomesticEastern China (Shanghai): 5,000-5,050 yuan ($782-789) per tonne, down by 230-250 yuan per tonneSharp losses knocked spot HRC prices in eastern China below the trough of 5,170-5,220 yuan per tonne last seen on May 26. Spot prices are now at their lowest since Marc...Read More

The effective federal funds rate - the official federal funds rate - gutters along at a scarcely registering 0.08%.But is the official rate the true rate? A leading question, to be certain. We would not otherwise raise it.What then is the true federal funds rate? Why does it matter?Today we hunt our answers in the "shadows"... drive a penetrating light through the murk... and illuminate our findin...Read More

We know we’re close to the moment when Everything Solid Melts Into Air when extraordinary breakdowns are treated as ordinary and the “news” quickly reverts to gossip.So over 4 million American workers up and quit every month, month after month after month, and the reaction is ho-hum, labor shortage, blah, blah, blah, toy shortage for Christmas, oh, the horror, blah, blah, blah.Th...Read More

Here is reader Jason M., in response to yesterday's Reckoning:Today's article really got my blood boiling. This Micheline Maynard is the epitome of what's wrong with the elites and our federal government today. We are in this mess because the elites shut the economy down for a virus that has a 99.8% survival rate. Shelves are going bare because the government has pursued policies that destroyed ou...Read More

It was a very strange moment when this week the spokesperson for the president defended inflation as a high-class problem. She explained that higher prices are merely a sign that economic activity is picking up. People are buying things and that's good. Of course that pushes up prices, she said. Just deal with it.At this point, the White House will say anything. Truth, facts, morality - these thin...Read More

The Cobalt alloy grade, in-whs Rotterdam, $/lbtrade log including business, bids and offers reported to Fastmarkets.Fastmarkets publishes trades logs for its key price assessments and indices to bring more transparencyinto the markets it covers and the pricing process it applies.Fastmarkets...Read More

Let them munch cake...The White House chief of staff - a certain Ron Klain - recently blessed a statement by Harvard economics instructor Jason Furman.This statement declared inflation and supply chain delinkings “high class problems”:Incidentally... this is the identical Ronald Klain who objected to Trump tax cuts this way:Will [they] hold up a Campbell Soup can and argue that price i...Read More

The Cobalt standard grade, in-whs Rotterdam, $/lb trade log including business, bids and offers reported to Fastmarkets.Fastmarkets publishes trades logs for its key price assessments and indices to bring more transparencyinto the markets it covers and the pricing process it applies.Fastmarkets assessed Cobalt standard grade,...Read More