Nickel's three-month price on the London Metal Exchange recovered at the close of trading on Wednesday May 15, climbing back above $12,000 per tonne while the metal's cash/three-month spread moved into backwardation for the first time since 2015.The metal's cash/three-month spread differential was recently seen in a backwardation of $9 per tonne, while its nearby June-July spread was now trading i...Read More
Garry Jones, former chief executive officer of the London Metal Exchange, has been appointed as independent non-executive director and remuneration committee chair at ICBC Standard Bank, Fastmarkets understands. Jones was appointed as CEO of the LME after its acquisition by the Hong Kong Exchanges & Clearing (HKEX) in 2012 and fulfilled the role until 2017, when current CEO Matthew Chamberlain...Read More
Here are five Fastmarkets MB stories you might have missed on Wednesday May 15 that are worth another look.Rising inventories of manganese ore at Chinese ports amid soaring import volumes were being fueled by changes to alloy smelters' purchasing habits, offset by low stocks at plants, market participants told Fastmarkets.Trafigura has consolidated its leadership team in the non-ferrous...Read More
Perhaps the perma-bullish Wall Street analysts should contribute to retail sales by stocking up on Depends - like the Merrill Lynch analyst who forecast retail sales to climb 0.7% ex-autos. Retail sales, preliminarily, were said to have declined 0.2% from March. The "core" retail sales group - retail sales not including autos and gasoline - were flat. Wall Street's finest expected a consensus...Read More
Bob Moriarty ArchivesMay 15, 2019I’vewritten about Nevada Copper in the past. The world has onlya ten-day supplyof copper on hand and that all by itself should move the price of both copper and Nevada Copper higher. Alas, in the short-term the price of copper has declined.The company maintains thatthey remain on trackto actual production in Q4 of 2019. Arecent article in mining.comrevealed a...Read More
Market futures were pointing to an upbeat start around the world today amid hopes further US-China trade talks would be successful.There was also anticipation of further economic stimulus measures in China, after data out today showed industrial output, retail sales and investment all slowed in April, Bloomberg reported.The gold price is a little softer than this time yesterday but is still a...Read More
Here are five Fastmarkets MB stories you might have missed on Wednesday May 15 that are worth another look.Rising inventories of manganese ore at Chinese ports amid soaring import volumes were being fueled by changes to alloy smelters' purchasing habits, offset by low stocks at plants, market participants told Fastmarkets.Trafigura has consolidated its leadership team in the non-ferrous...Read More
Gold futures settled below the psychologically significant price of $1,300 an ounce on Tuesday, as equity benchmarks rebounded from a period of trade-related uncertainty. June gold GCM9, -0.06% receded by $5.50, or 0.4%, to end at $1,296.30 an ounce, giving back part of the 1.1% gain on Monday. The settlement a day earlier was the first above $1,300 and highest most-active contract finish since A...Read More
By: Ira EpsteinGold trend in up-thrust and is staying bullish. Hits 100 day moving average, running out of steam. The stock market rally relieved some of the safe-haven buying:Read More
The on-again, off-again trade deal with China has put some life into the stock market, all of it vicious. It has also invigorated an otherwise moribund discussion concerning weather tariffs are good or bad. Popular wisdom has it that the mere discussion of Smoot-Hawley tariff legislation caused the stock market to gyrate wildly in 1929 and eventually to crash. Pat Buchanan does a good job debunk...Read More
Cash will be the king now. Low risk traders and investors will prefer to sit on cash rather than invest in uncertain times. Fundamentals will be the key to investing now. Now a days it is very rare to see rallies in any investment dictated by fundamentals. Gold, Indian stocks and even Indonesian stocks have a long term fundamentally strong story. Only risk to the world growth is energy prices be...Read More
An overview of the minor metals markets and the reasons for any price moves.Read More
* GRAPHIC-2019 asset returns: (Updates with closing prices)By Eric OnstadLONDON, May 15 (Reuters) - Copper extended its rebound onWednesday as hopes the United States and China would forge atrade deal overshadowed largely disappointing economic data fromtop metals consumer China.Aluminium, however, slipped after Chinese output gained,fanning fears of oversupply.U.S. President Donald Trump called t...Read More
The possibility of another auction of indium stock held by the defunct Fanya Metal Exchange has weakened the buying appetite of consumers both in China and abroad. Word had circulated in the market since last week that around 20-100 tonnes of indium held in Fanya's warehouses could be auctioned by the end of May, market sources told Fastmarkets MB. Officials from the Alibaba online platform, where...Read More
The UK ferrous scrap market for deliveries to domestic consumers in May has settled at prices lower than a month earlier, matching losses reported in the export market, trade sources told Fastmarkets on Wednesday May 15.Export prices have fallen in line with weaker sales into the key destination of Turkey, they added.Most UK deals for May deliveries to domestic consumers have been settled at ?15...Read More
Turkish steel producers have continued to book deep-sea scrap cargoes this week, with prices falling further, sources said on Wednesday May 15.The mills were trying to keep their deep-sea scrap purchases as slow as possible, to put downward pressure on prices, because demand for long steel products was sluggish and values were falling, Fastmarkets was told.But two steel mills came to the market...Read More
Prices for mesh-quality wire rod in Europe fell this week following a drop in finished mesh product prices and due to buyer hesitance, sources told Fastmarkets on Wednesday May 15. Fastmarkets' weekly domestic price assessment for mesh-quality wire rod in Northern Europe fell to ?,?515-535 ($578-600) per tonne delivered on Wednesday, down ?,?10-15 week on week from ?,?525-550 per tonne delive...Read More
The Wednesday Market Minute Global stocks add to gains, taking Asia markets from a three-and-a-half month low, amid signs of progress in the U.S.-China trade war that could lead to a resumption in talks.President Donald Trump suggests the "little squabble" with China can be resolved with a deal, while Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin is set to travel to Beijing soon to resume dialogue with Chine...Read More
Markets were looking brighter on the morning of Wednesday May 15, with the equities and metals firmer, this despite some further poor economic data in China and the uncertainty about which direction US-China trade talks will go.China's CSI 300 up by 2.6%; LME base metals up an average of 0.4%, after a 1.2% gain on TuesdayChina's fixed asset investment, industrial production and retail sales, all c...Read More
Ontario's government is working for the people by investing in Manitoulin's local aquaculture industry, creating four full-time jobs."We're helping local businesses create good jobs and do work that supports Manitoulin's growing aquaculture industry," said Greg Rickford, Minister of Energy, Northern Development and Mines. Ontario is investing more than $1.2 million in three businesses: John O Food...Read More