David LawderWASHINGTON (Reuters) - The new Democrat majority in the U.S. House of Representatives is likely to back President Donald Trump’s trade war with China and could even egg him on, but will offer tougher scrutiny of his negotiations with allies, trade experts and lawmakers say.Trump has imposed tariffs on $250 billion of Chinese goods to pressure Beijing to stop intellectual property...Read More
PARIS (Reuters) - French prosecutors argued in a Paris court on Thursday for Swiss bank UBS AG (UBSG.S) to be fined 3.7 billion euros for helping wealthy French people evade taxes.After a seven-year investigation and aborted settlement negotiations, UBS faces accusations of laundering the proceeds of tax fraud and illegally soliciting clients in France.“Tax evasion is nothing more than theft...Read More
Cobalt demand from the consumer electronics industry will continue to grow, with no shift away from lithium-cobalt-oxide (LCO) batteries on the cards, according to battery manufacturer ATL's procurement director, Xu Shihui. "The price of cobalt has been fluctuating and there have been questions about whether cobalt can be substituted by nickel, but for consumer electronics the direction is LCO bat...Read More
For months I've been telling you...Something big is going to happen in Michigan on November 6th.And it did.Two nights ago, the good people of Michigan voted to legalize the adult use of cannabis.This means any adult over the age of 21 will soon be able to purchase, grow, or consume cannabis without a prescription from a doctor.Although the Michigan legalization vote didn't create as much of a buzz...Read More
DUBLIN (Reuters) - Nominal wage growth, the best predictor of inflation in the euro zone, is gradually improving and increasing so as a result of permanent features, the head of the European Central Bank said on Thursday.“Recent data, the last say six to 12 months’ data, shows that wages are gradually going up. They’re going up now because of temporary effects but more and more b...Read More
First Cobalt Corp has started testing cobalt hydroxide material as feedstock for its refinery in Ontario, Canada, with the goal of producing cobalt sulfate or metallic cobalt products for sale into the North American market. The company has retained inspection and certification firm SGS Canada to test the suitability of different cobalt feed material using the refinery's current flowsheet and is a...Read More
Chinese nickel demand from stainless steel and battery materials producers will continue to rise in near future, although extensive investments in nickel projects will cap higher nickel prices, Fastmarkets learned from Antaike's Nickel & Cobalt Conference in Xiamen on November 6-8. Much of the apparent Chinese demand for nickel over the next couple of years will come from the country's s...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
Coral Gold shareholders may be keeping a close eye on drilling activity at the Renaissance Gold (REN) Ecru project which is located just to the north east of the Barrick Gold (Sunny; ABX) Robertson project. As John Kaiser explains in his November 7th Discovery Watch broadcast, Renaissance has optioned up to 70% of the project to Australia-listed S2 Resources which has a drilling program underway...Read More
Insiders can help make sense of short selling data when it is released in the middle and at the end of every month. There are three general scenarios that can arise. First, if a stock is seeing both short covering and insider buying, we have two positive pieces of information leading to a bullish consensus. 1. Bullish ConsensusInsiders typically buy when they have a positive outlook about a stoc...Read More
(This Nov. 7 story corrects paragraph 8 to read “Brian Nick, chief investment strategist for Nuveen in New York,” instead of “Nuveen Asset Management”)By Sin?(C)ad CarewNEW YORK (Reuters) - Wall Street rose 2 percent on Wednesday, led by the technology and healthcare sectors as investors breathed a sigh of relief following the U.S. midterm elections and made bets that a div...Read More
China's finished steel exports were up by more than 10% year on year in October, but fell when compared with September's volumes, according to preliminary Chinese customs data published on Thursday November 8.The country exported 5.5 million tonnes of finished steel in last month, up 10.4% from the 4.98 million tonnes shipped out in October 2017, according to the customs data. October shipmen...Read More
BEIJING (Reuters) - China wants to resolve problems with the United States through talks but it must respect China’s choice of development path and interests, President Xi Jinping said on Thursday ahead of a meeting with the U.S. leader in Argentina.China and the United States have put tariffs on hundreds of billions of dollars of each other’s goods and U.S. President Donald Trump has...Read More
China's hot-rolled coil prices tumbled to nearly a seven-month low on Thursday November 8, with participants remaining bearish about the market despite declining inventory levels.DomesticEastern China (Shanghai): 3,920-3,940 yuan ($566-569) per tonne, down 70-80 yuan per tonneNorthern China (Tianjin): 3,940-3,950 yuan per tonne, down 50 yuan per tonneHRC inventory levels nationwide fell by 166,300...Read More
DUBLIN (Reuters) - European Central Bank President Mario Draghi downplayed a recent string is weak economic data, arguing on Thursday that the euro zone’s broad-based expansion is set to continue.“While some sector-specific data and selected survey results have been somewhat weaker than expected, the latest incoming information overall suggests that the broad-based expansion in the eur...Read More
China's ferrous futures fell during morning trading on Thursday November 8 after prices in most of physical markets weakened a day earlier.Futures closing prices - morning session Shanghai Futures Exchange January rebar: 3,913 yuan ($565) per tonne, down 38 yuan per tonne January hot-rolled coil: 3,657 yuan per tonne, down 41 yuan per tonne Dalian Commodity Exchange January iron ore: 512 yuan per...Read More
NEW YORK (Reuters) - The U.S. dollar pulled out of its post-election slump, rising modestly on Thursday morning ahead of a Federal Reserve policy meeting at which it is widely expected to hold interest rates steady.Against a basket of six rival currencies, the dollar index was up 0.15 percent from late Wednesday .DXY. The index had fallen in the wake of the U.S. midterm elections, which split powe...Read More
While US rebar prices remain stable, rising raw material costs and a tightening supply outlook in the colder months could provoke a price increase before the end of the year, according to market participants.Fastmarkets AMM's price assessment for domestic rebar held at $35-36 per hundredweight ($700-720 per short ton) fob Midwest mill on Wednesday November 7, unchanged since mid-April. Meanwh...Read More
Steel billet import prices in Egypt increased in the week to Thursday November 8, but demand for rebar was still weak in the country.Fastmarkets' weekly price assessment for steel billet imported into Egypt was $480-490 per tonne cfr on Thursday, compared with $477-480 per tonne cfr last week.Billet producers in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) increased their prices because of the hig...Read More
CloseGain/LossGold $1223.90-$2.40Silver$14.43-$0.13XAU65.39-0.30%HUI145.76-0.07%GDM536.92-0.35%JSE Gold1121.61+7.77USD96.68+0.56Euro113.61-0.81Yen87.97+0.70Oil$60.67-$1.0010-Year3.240%+0.018T-Bond137.25-0.125Dow26191.22+0.04%Nasdaq7530.88-0.53%S&P2806.83-0.25% The Metals: Gold dropped $6.10 to $1220.20 at about 8:45AM EST before it popped up to $1226.90 shortly after the...Read More