The latest metal markets news and price moves to start the North American day on Thursday October 25.Base metals prices on the London Metal Exchange were mixed during morning trading on Thursday October 25, with bearish third-quarter earnings reports prompting sharp sell-offs in the Asian and European equity markets, while global trade tensions are deterring commodity investment.Edging lower over...Read More
Good morning from Fastmarkets MB's offices in Asia as we bring you the latest news and pricing stories on Thursday October 25.Base metals prices on the Shanghai Futures Exchange were mostly down during Asian morning trading on Thursday after the dollar strengthened once more, with only lead prices rising due to continued supply tightness in China.Check Fastmarket MB's live futures report here. The...Read More
Barrick Gold's (TSX, NYSE:ABX) executive chairman John Thornton said Thursday the company could sell its non-core assets, particularly copper ones, as a result of the merger with Randgold Resources (LON:RRS), a deal which is expected to happen in the first three months of 2019.Barrick and Randgold will focus on Tier 1 assets which produce 500,000 ounces of gold annually, have a mine life of more...Read More
A month after announcing it had acquired full ownership of its Idaho-based Iron Creek project and eliminated its royalty, Canada's First Cobalt (TSX-V: FCC) released a video today aimed at selling high the product of its flagship asset."As federal agencies seek ways to reduce U.S dependency on foreign sources of cobalt, projects such as Iron Creek in mining-friendly Idaho support a strategy to red...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
Gold futures settled with a modest gain Thursday, finding support in the wake of sizable losses a day earlier as data showed that orders for core capital goods in the U.S. fell in September. "The U.S. core durable number was soft and this took the shine of the durable good order data," said Naeem Aslam, chief market analyst at Think Markets UK. "Hence, there is still a strong demand for gold and i...Read More
600 points. Dow plunged so much yesterday. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq also suffered. The persistence of losses is disturbing. Should, then, gold shine? Bears Are Back in Town The stock market sell-off continues. Yesterday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped more than 600 points. It means that the index erased all of its 2018 gains, as one can see in the chart below. Similarly, the S&a...Read More
Ted Butler is back, expounding on the rapid velocity and physical ounce turnover within the COMEX silver warehouse complex. Since the internet's early days, Ted has covered various answered and still unanswered mysteries surrounding silver. Why has JP Morgan amassed perhaps the largest silver bullion hoard since the Hunt Brothers and Warren Buffet?The hit movie from 1996, "A Time to Kill", based...Read More
David says there could be another $1 decline in the silver price from here, but silver is more likely to go to $140 than down a buck. Here's more...David Morgan interviewed on SBTVWe spoke with David Morgan of the Morgan Report(https://www.themorganreport.com) on SBTV to get his take on the silver market at this moment. Is the bear market already priced in the silver price? Being 'gut honest', Dav...Read More
Supply disruption, strong demand, multi-year prices highs and subsequent supply responses have meant for another year of price swings and volatility across many of the minors metals, ores and ferro-alloys markets. And now, with LME Week and contract negotiating season coming around again, players must contend with Trump administration tariffs on imports of a number of China produced goods, includi...Read More
Christopher Lewis20 hours agoSilver markets continue to be very jittery, just as the global markets have been. Looking at this chart, I believe that it’s obvious that there are buyers on dips and that’s exactly what we have seen during early Wednesday trading. The $14.70 level has offered enough support to turn the market right back around and crashing into the $14.80 level. Silver i...Read More
Christopher Lewis20 hours agoGold markets fell initially during the day on Wednesday, finding support just below the $1230 level. Ultimately, this is a market that I think continues to find buyers on these dips as gold is a bit of a safe haven trade as of late. I believe that the market continues to be very skittish about global trade and of course rhetoric coming out of the mouths of politicians,...Read More
The production cost of rebar will increase from November 1 with the implementation of China's revised rebar standard GB-T 1499.2-2018, but spot prices are not expected to rise accordingly.Production cost risesThe revised standards prohibits steel mills from using a water-quenching process in rebar production to meet the new yield and strength requirements. "This kind of rebar rusts easily and is n...Read More
Base metals prices on the London Metal Exchange were mixed at the close of trading on Thursday October 25, with continued strength in the US dollar index capping gains, while stronger earnings reports and a broadly positive European Central Bank outlook safeguarded commodity investments. Over the afternoon, the three-month nickel price largely under-performed amid slight downticks in aluminium and...Read More
Comex copper prices were little changed Thursday morning in the US with a stronger dollar capping any positive momentum. The copper price for December settlement on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange inched up 0.10 cents to $2.7585 lb. "While we forecast a stronger copper price by the end of the year, the fragile macro backdrop poses downside risks to our outlook," Fastmar...Read More
Tight supply of Australian iron ore continued to support the market for the steelmaking raw material on Thursday October 25, with the benchmark 62% Fe index rising above $76 per tonne cfr China.MB 62% Fe Iron Ore Index: $76.04 per tonne cfr Qingdao, up by $1.31 per tonne.MB 62% Fe Pilbara Blend Fines Index: $75.07 per tonne cfr Qingdao, up by $1.31 per tonne.MB 62% Fe Iron Ore Index-Low Alumina: $...Read More
Gold futures finished lower Wednesday, as strength in the U.S. dollar helped prices give up a portion of the gains from a day earlier that had lifted prices to a three-month high. December gold GCZ8, +0.07% fell by $5.70, or 0.5%, to settle at $1,231.10 an ounce. It climbed Tuesday by 1%, to close at $1,236.80 an ounce-the highest for a most-active contract since July 16, according to FactSet dat...Read More
Following LME Week, Mr Benedikt Sobotka, CEO of Eurasian Resources Group (ERG), one of the world's leading diversified natural resources groups, predicts a strong metals recovery ahead.Our view that commodities have fallen foul of wider macroeconomic concerns and the changing geopolitical landscape was confirmed at this year's LME Week. One of the issues that came up repeatedly was the fact that g...Read More
Newmont Mining, (NYSE:NEM), the world's second largest gold miner by output, reported Thursday lower third-quarter profit and revenue as a result of weak prices for the precious metal and copper in the period.The Greenwood Village, Colorado-based company logged an adjusted profit of $175 million, or 33 cents per share, for the three months leading to September, compared with a profit of $184 mi...Read More