The AOCE and WB have moderate overall forecasts for the metals in 2025 inline with IMF forecasts for a decline in economic growth and inflation, although we see the probability of a stagflationary scenario as still reasonably high.Read More

The past year was a difficult one overall for the metals, with the main standouts to the upside being a geopolitical risk-driven gain in gold, a China-driven rise in iron ore and a surge in uranium on broadening global support for nuclear power (Figure 1). A jump in global interest rates to near two-decade highs saw recession fears persist all year, and while one still did not actually eru...Read More

This year the post-global health crisis boom was brought to an end by a surge in inflation to forty-year highs, a major rise in global interest rates in an attempt to curb the rising prices and surging geopolitical risk after Russia's invasion of Ukraine. While precious metals held up reasonably well as markets turned to them as a risk hedge, by Q2/22 the higher interest rates put an end t...Read More

Chile is the world leader in copper production, at 28.5% of the total in 2020, and this looks set to continue, with the country having the largest global reserves, at 23.0% of total. It is also the global leader for molybdenum, which is often found along with copper, and is a major lithium player, holding 51.1% of global reserves. Read More

Newfoundland has become a gold exploration hotspot over the past few years, with the sector seeing some of its strongest activity ever. While the province remains a small contributor to Canadian gold production, it has a substantial mineral industry well supported by the government, focused on iron ore, copper and nickel, and the surge in exploration suggests that gold output from the...Read More

Nevada is the core of the U.S. gold output, accounting for by far the majority, at 75.4% on average for the past year. The state looks set to remain a dominant player in U.S. gold, as it accounts for 49% of total U.S. reserves, with Alaska slightly ahead with 51% of reserves, but just 8.6% of current production. The U.S. accounts for 6.1% of global gold output, making Nevada one of the largest gol...Read More

The Golden Triangle in northwestern British Columbia has historically been a major site of Canadian gold production, beginning as early as the mid 1800s. There was a wave of production in the 1990s which cooled as the gold price declined, but larger scale production resumed in 2017, and the area has seen surging exploration interest over the past year, given that the region has some of the largest...Read More

In this report we outline the Quebec gold mining industry, including its major producers, and a survey of many of the junior miners focused on the province. Quebec accounts for 34% of Canadian gold production (second to Ontario, with 44%) and remains a major focus for both producers and junior miners.Read More

Red Lake has been one of the most prolific gold mining districts in Canada and the world, with exploration having started in the 1920s, and production, which began in the 1930s, continuing to the present day. The district is known for the high grade of its gold, its infrastructure, and strong institutional support, given the long history of mining in the area.Read More

Railroad stock Kansas City Southern (NYSE:KSU) has been a steady climber over the past two years, with the shares recently enjoying support from their 20-week moving average. KSU was last seen trading at $111.57, not far from its nearly three-year high of $114.85 from early December. Options activity has picked up in recent weeks, too, ahead of the company's early morning earnings tomorrow, as to...Read More

Gold prices finished lower on Thursday, suffering from their largest one-day decline in more than a month. Traders grew wary after the precious metal's rise to multi-month highs despite an overall rise in Treasury yields and a climb in key U.S. benchmark stock indexes to record levels. "Rising bond yields and record-high equities don't usually go with surging gold prices," said Adrian Ash, directo...Read More

Subscribers to Schaeffer's Option Advisor service recently doubled their money on our Century Aluminum Co (NASDAQ:CENX) March 16, 2018 16-strike call recommendation. Here's a closer look at why we became bullish on CENX stock, and how the winning options trade unfolded.When we recommended the call option in late December, shares of the aluminum services name had recently pulled back to their 320-d...Read More

China's top nickel supplier aims to boost output of a material used in car batteries by 40 percent this year, joining the ranks of global producers ramping up operations to meet demand from electric vehicles.Read full newsRead More

Jeff Desjardins on January 18, 2018If for some reason, you still think that the commodity markets are predictable, today's chart provides a nice piece of humble pie.The Periodic Table of Commodity Returns, which comes to us annually from our friends at U.S. Global Investors, shows the returns of commodities over each year of the past decade.As you may have guessed, commodities are a volatile ass...Read More

Jeff Desjardins on January 18, 2018If for some reason, you still think that the commodity markets are predictable, today's chart provides a nice piece of humble pie.The Periodic Table of Commodity Returns, which comes to us annually from our friends at U.S. Global Investors, shows the returns of commodities over each year of the past decade.As you may have guessed, commodities are a volatile ass...Read More

The 20 stocks listed in the table below have attracted the highest total weekly options volume during the past 10 days. Stocks highlighted in yellow are new entries to the list. Data is courtesy of Schaeffer's Senior Quantitative Analyst Rocky White. One of the names to note is Snapchat parent Snap Inc. (NYSE:SNAP). Below, we'll break down recent options trading activity on SNAP.Snap stock has b...Read More

An Italian professor at the Politecnico di Milano says that there could be an iron throne right below the apex of the Pyramid of Cheops, located in the Giza pyramid complex, Egypt.If there is such an artifact, says Professor of Archaeoastronomy Giulio Magli, it would not be melted iron but meteoritic iron, that is, fallen from the sky in the form of iron meteorites. Such mineral is distinguishable...Read More

BHP Billiton Ltd., the world's biggest mining company, said quarterly iron ore output rose 3 percent on improved rail and plant performance, putting the exporter on target for record annual production.Read full newsRead More

Chilean development agency Corfo said on Wednesday that it had struck a deal with lithium company SQM, putting an end to a long-running dispute over royalties in Chile's Salar de Atacama, home to one of the world's richest lithium deposits.Read full newsRead More

BEIRUT, LEBANON (12:10 P.M.) - The Turkish Foreign Minister, Mevl? 1/4 t ??avu??o??lu, stated on Thursday that Ankara demands the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) immediatelRead full newsRead More

Syrian Foreign Ministry has warned Turkey against taking hostile action in Afrin, saying that Damascus will consider it an act of aggression and undermineRead full newsRead More

When OPEC and Russia meet this weekend to review their strategy for clearing a global oil glut, they'll face an unusual problem: it could be working just a bit too well.Read full newsRead More

The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJI) tapped a record high at the open, but it would appear stocks are now being hit by a round of profit-taking, with the blue-chip index last seen trading back below 26,000. In fact, some of the year's top sectors -- namely, healthcare and finance -- are the primary reasons the S&P 500 Index (SPX) and Nasdaq Composite (IXIC) have joined the Dow in the red. Invest...Read More

China bond yields rose ahead of the macro data avalanche tonight (following a leaked upside surprise print for GDP). GDP, Industrial Production, and Fixed Asset Investment all beat expectations but Retail Sales missed dramatically - growing at its slowest since Feb 2004.Read full newsRead More

Coffee concern Starbucks Corporation (NASDAQ:SBUX) is on the radar today, after the Seattle-based beverage chain received positive analyst attention ahead of its fiscal first-quarter earnings report, which is expected to drop a week from today, after the stock market closes. The note came from Credit Suisse, after the brokerage firm raised its price target to $57 from $54 on SBUX -- though this s...Read More

Cybersecurity stocks had a strong start to the year amid news of security flaws in Intel chips. And while Next-Generation Firewall parent Palo Alto Networks Inc (NYSE:PANW) has extended this momentum, Norton antivirus maker Symantec Corporation (NASDAQ:SYMC) has faltered. These trends are continuing today following a fresh round of analyst attention. Here's a closer look at how shares of PANW and...Read More

Health and wellness retailer GNC Holdings Inc (NYSE:GNC) is up 41.8% this morning at $4.89, after the company said it's expecting an increase in same-store sales for the fourth quarter. It also forecast earnings-per-share for the period at 24 cents to 25 cents, compared to the 7 cents per share it posted last year in the same period. This is a much-needed boost for GNC stock, which had been flound...Read More

Waxing optimistic on higher consumer spending and wage growth following the Republican tax bill, Goldman Sachs this morning added Wal-Mart Stores Inc (NYSE:WMT) stock to its "Conviction Buy" list. In fact, Walmart just recently announced plans to lift its own minimum wage for hourly employees in the wake of tax reform. In light of the upgrade from "neutral" to "buy," WMT stock is flirting with rec...Read More

After barreling to new record highs on Wednesday, the U.S. stock market looks set for a slow start. Blue chips appear ready to continue this week's outperformance, though, with futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJI) trading above fair value. And while the S&P 500 Index (SPX) is modestly higher in pre-market trading on a positive earnings reaction for Morgan Stanley (MS), the tech sector...Read More