Brazilian steelmaker Companhia Sider??rgica Nacional (CSN) sees no likelihood of discounts on steel prices to the domestic market in the near term, commercial director Luis Martinez told analysts on Thursday November 8.Chinese prices were a beacon to other markets and still had upside potential, he believed.CSN has increased its prices by an average of 27.00% so far in 2018, Martinez said during a...Read More
(Kitco News) - Gold and silver prices are just modestly lower in early-afternoon U.S. trading Thursday. A rebound in the U.S. dollar index today, following selling pressure this week, worked against the precious metals market bulls. The metals markets showed no significant reactions to the just-released FOMC minutes that show no change in U.S. monetary policy. December gold futures were last down...Read More
(Kitco News) - The gold market, while down on the day, is seeing little reaction to the Federal Reserve leaving interest rates unchanged and setting the stage for another interest rate hike in December.Following its two-day monetary policy meeting, the U.S. central bank left interest rates unchanged within a range between 2.00% and 2.25% as expected. However, in its statement, the committee reiter...Read More
(Kitco News) - The Bank of England (BoE) is reportedly refusing to release gold bars worth just over $550 million to President Nicolas Maduro, who fears that U.S. sanctions against Venezuela would restrict access to that gold in the future, according to media reports.Maduro is attempting to repatriate at least 14 tonnes of gold the BoE is currently storing, the British newspaper The Times and Reut...Read More
Output of steel slab by Brazilian steelmaker Companhia Sider??rgica Nacional (CSN) went down during the July-September quarter of 2018 because of a short outage for maintenance work, according to an earnings report published on Wednesday November 7.The company produced 937,000 tonnes of slabs in the quarter, down by 12.30% from 1.07 million tonnes in the corresponding months of 2017. There were on...Read More
(Kitco News) - Merger-and-acquisition activity in the mining sector is likely to pick up in the next year, said the consultancy EY in a report Thursday. The firm’s 19th Capital Confidence Barometer shows that 58% of global mining executives say they intend to pursue mergers and acquisitions in the next 12 months, compared with 46% across all sectors. Third-quarter deal value rose 25% from th...Read More
Turkish billet prices have increased over the past week, amid rising imported scrap values, but demand has remained limited due to high prices, sources said on Thursday November 8.Suppliers in the CIS region were offering billet into Turkey at around $485-490 per tonne cfr, but customers in Turkey were not bidding any higher than $475 per tonne.Fastmarkets' weekly price assessment for billet impor...Read More
Turkish domestic long steel prices have continued to soften because of the strengthening of the country's lira against the US dollar over the past week, sources said on Thursday November 8.Fastmarkets' weekly price assessment for domestic rebar on Thursday was TRY3,200-3,350 ($596-624) per tonne ex-works including 18% VAT, down from last week's TRY3,300-3,450 per tonne.The domestic rebar price in...Read More
Editor's Note: Updating earlier story with more details from report.(Kitco News) - Gold remained modestly softer after Labor Department data Thursday showed that initial weekly U.S. jobless claims fell by 1,000 to a seasonally adjusted 214,000 in the week to Saturday.Consensus expectations compiled by various news organizations had called for initial claims to be around 210,000 to 213,000. Th...Read More
The latest bids, offers and deals in the global markets for steel billet, slab and bloom.Latest transaction: billetBilletCIS, export,...Read More
Asanko Gold Inc. (TSX, NYSE American: AKG) reports a third-quarter loss but also lists record output. The loss was $0.3 million, or zero cents per share, compared to net income of $4.2 million, or 2 cents, in the year-ago period. The reduction was mainly due to lower mine operating earnings on the Asanko Gold Mine joint venture and the start of equity accounting for Asanko’s interest in the...Read More
U.S. equity index futures were lower this morning. S&P 500 futures were down 9 points in pre-opening trade.Investors are awaiting interest rate news from the FOMC meeting at 2:00 PM EST. Consensus calls for no change in the Fed Fund rate including indications of a likely increase following the next meeting in December. Index futures were virtually unchanged following release of the Weekly Jobl...Read More
Major steel mills in China have concluded their ferro-silicon tenders for November, which show little change from October prices, sources in China said. Hebei Steel's latest tender price is 7,010 yuan ($1,013.04) per tonne for November, for 5,400 tonnes of ferro-silicon. The parcel size is about 700 tonnes more than for October.For October, the mill's tender price was at 7,000 yuan per tonne.Meanw...Read More
Another 65,000 tonnes of US-origin ferrous scrap were booked for export to Turkey in two fresh East Coast deals reported on Thursday November 8 - with one of the cargoes priced up to $4.50 per tonne higher compared with earlier bookings.One sale was heard concluded at $338 per tonne cfr for 12,000 tonnes of an 80:20 mix of No1 and...Read More
This midterm election season seems like it lasted forever. There was certainly no shortage of ads, media dissections of every sound bite they could get their hands on and more than enough negativity to go around.We all know the outcome. The Democrats took the House, while Republicans kept control of the Senate and even expanded their majority.That means even though the Democrats won the House, the...Read More
A lot of people seem to have already forgotten about last month's big market sell-off. But if you're still worried about October's market sell-off, you should know that the largest bank in the U.S., JPMorgan Chase, isn't.In fact, strategists at the mega-bank believe October's market correction was driven mostly by technical factors and should reverse as earnings season progresses. Earnings season...Read More
Brazil's Companhia Sider??rgica Nacional (CSN) is still trying to sell assets in order to reduce its high debt loading, chief financial officer Marcelo Ribeiro told analysts on Thursday November 8.The company's mining division could secure a streaming deal or pre-payment contracts, and the trend for rising prices for iron ore would support this decision, Ribeiro said. There will be news on that be...Read More
According to retail experts, November is now the new retail boom month as more people start to do their Christmas shopping online.The shift happened in 2016 when, for the first time ever, November retail sales outpaced December. The trend continued last year with November sales climbing 1.3%, while December was down 0.6%.Shopping events like Black Friday, Singles Day and Cyber Monday are big drive...Read More
Early gains on Wall Street fizzled and sent global stocks lower last week after reports that the U.S. is planning an additional $257 billion worth of tariffs on Chinese goods if upcoming talks between Presidents Donald Trump and Xi Jinping fail to end a trade war between two of the world's largest economies.Many stock indexes are already in official correction territory-meaning down 10% from recen...Read More
Are you considering hiring a financial advisor? The reasons for doing so can include:You no longer have time to manage your investmentsYour returns fall far short of what you had hopedYou want a knowledgeable person who will provide a detached unemotional perspectiveThere's no shortage of financial planners, insurance agents, and stock brokers who are more than happy to assume the role.Where do yo...Read More