The world's biggest miners are cranking up spending for the first time in half a decade as well as pursuing more takeovers - and investors are flashing hazard lights as commodities prices slide and as doubts swirl over the outlook.Capital expenditure among the 10 largest metals and mining companies is forecast to advance to about $35 billion this year, the first annual rise since 2013, according t...Read More
Good morning from Fastmarkets' offices in Asia, bringing the latest news and pricing stories on Monday October 29. Base metals prices on the Shanghai Futures Exchange were predominantly higher during Asian morning trading, with zinc showing the biggest gains on depleting inventories; meanwhile tin and...Read More
The price for import merchant bar shot up due to confirmed sales of Mexican material into the southern and southwestern United States, while that for domestic material was steady due to calm market conditions. Fastmarket AMM's latest assessment for imported merchant bar rose to $770-800 per short ton ($38.50-40 per hundredweight) ddp port of Houston on Friday October 26 from $640-680 per ton...Read More
Prices for steel plate have inched up in the United States, due to a round of price increases from domestic mills gaining at least partial traction in the market.Fastmarkets AMM's price assessment for cut-to-length plate stands at $48.50 per hundredweight ($970 per short ton), up 1% from $48 per cwt ($960 per ton) previously, where the price had remained since October 5. Lead times were in a...Read More
It was another wild roller coaster ride today with U.S. equities going through tremendous price swings and closing dramatically lower on the day. Officially, today’s closing price in the Dow puts that index into corrective territory. The Dow Jones Industrial Average traded to a high with gains of 352 points. It also traded to a low, which resulted in a 566-point drop only to recover slightly...Read More
The latest bids, offers and deals in the global markets for steel billet, slab and bloom. Latest transaction: billetBilletRussia, billet, export, traded...Read More
(Kitco News) - Gold prices are moderately lower in early-afternoon U.S. trading Monday. Some profit taking from the shorter-term futures traders is featured. The stronger U.S. dollar index today that is hovering near last week’s nine-week high also worked against the precious metals market bulls today. There is also less risk aversion in the marketplace early this week as world stock markets...Read More
French tube and pipe maker Vallourec said last week that it would not subsidise a takeover bid for its joint-venture Ascoval steel mill in France, which may now have to close.Ascoval said in March that it was searching for a new majority shareholder that would allow it to continue steelmaking operations beyond 2019, after Swiss special steels maker Schmolz & Bickenbach acquired Ascoval's majority...Read More
(Kitco News) - The consultancy Metals Focus says gold’s recent “relief rally” has more room to run and could carry the metal over $1,300 an ounce in the months ahead, yet analysts also do not project a sustained rally over the next year due to a number of potential headwinds.Spot gold hit a three-month high just below $1,242 an ounce Friday, continuing a rally from a series of da...Read More
I started scrolling through the pieces and they are edgy cool and current. (Kitco News) - I vividly remember during a summer vacation when I swapped with a best friend of the moment, my gold bracelet for a silver one. I thought a bracelet, was a bracelet - a gesture of friendship. Only until I got home and shared the news, did I learn (or more like, I was scolded) -- on how in the world could I...Read More
Brazilian flat steel producer Usiminas is analyzing whether to request an investigation into possible dumping of imported cold-rolled coil (CRC), chief executive officer Sergio Leite told Fastmarkets on Friday October 26.Steelmakers and other market participants in Brazil suspect that CRC and also coated steel imports, mainly from China, have entered the country at dumped prices. A potential compl...Read More
Vietnam's Southern Steel Sheet Co (SSSC) is targeting a larger share of the coated coil market by adding a third galvanizing line to its Nhon Trach operations in the country's Dong Nai province.Italian equipment supplier Tenova will supply the company - a joint venture of Vietnam Steel Corp, Japan's Sumitomo Corp and Malaysia's FIW Steel - with a galvanized coil line with capacity of 150,000 tonne...Read More
(Kitco News) - Large speculators have continued to exit from their one-time large net-bearish post in gold futures, trimming this by roughly two-thirds over the course of the last two reporting weeks for data compiled by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.“The gold price continued to recover accordingly in the period under review,” said analysts with Commerzbank. The move has occ...Read More
(Kitco News) - Gold prices remained slightly softer, moving little after the government reported U.S. personal spending rose 0.4% in September, while the core personal consumption price index rose 0.2%. Spot gold was last down $2.60 to $1,230.20 an ounce. The government also reported that income also rose by 0.2% in September. Ahead of time, most consensus forecasts compiled by news organizations...Read More
China's hot-rolled coil prices dropped on Monday October 29 amid weak demand, with trading activity being described as "very sparse." DomesticEastern China (Shanghai): 4,150-4,170 yuan ($597-600) per tonne, down 10-20 yuan per tonneNorthern China (Tianjin): 4,080-4,090 yuan per tonne, narrowing downward by 10 yuan per tonneTrading today was very thin during the day, with traders in both the northe...Read More
Goldcorp Inc. (TSX: G, NYSE: GG) announces plans to buy back shares for cancellation. The company says it has received approval from the Toronto Stock Exchange for its “notice of intention to make a normal course issuer bid." This would allow Goldcorp to purchase for cancellation up to 43.5 million common shares, representing 5% of its 869.5 million outstanding shares as of Oct. 26 over...Read More
Rio Tinto Group, the world's second-biggest miner, said a pact to offload its stake in the $20 billion Simandou iron ore project in Guinea to its Chinese partner, Aluminum Corp. of China, has lapsed. Rio holds about 45% of the project, while Chinalco has about 40 percent and Guinea's government owns a 15 percent stakeThe parties had struck a non-binding agreement two years ago, when Rio said it c...Read More
Gold’s near-term fortunes may well hinge on U.S. equities, says INTL FCStone. The metal closed higher last week for the fourth straight week for the longest such winning streak since January, the firm points out. Meanwhile, stocks were on pace for their worst monthly decline in October in eight years, although the futures market is pointing to a higher open for equities on Wall Street Monday...Read More
Editor's Note: Welcome to Kitco's new Bitcoin Daily Technical Alert. Every trading day veteran Kitco technical analyst Jim Wyckoff will provide you with a concise and easy-to-understand near-term technical brief on Bitcoin. Importantly, Jim will glean the short-term charts and technical studies, and then alert you to the signals he sees regarding upcoming potential bigger price moves or price tren...Read More
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Global stocks pared their gains Monday as investors remained cautious despite IBM’s $34 billion deal to purchase Red Hat Inc and Standard & Poor’s decision to keep Italy’s credit rating unchanged.The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI rose 133.78 points, or 0.54 percent, to 24,822.09, the S&P 500 .SPX gained 19.91 points, or 0.75 percent, to 2,678....Read More