Steel billet prices were largely stable in most regions in the week ended Friday March 22, with high raw materials costs affecting offer prices while buyers remained resistant, but demand was starting to improve at the end of the week.Scrap prices in Turkey remained high, with producers continuing to book material on Friday.Fastmarkets' daily index of North Europe-origin ferrous scrap HMS 1&2 (80:...Read More

Ukraine steelmaker Metinvest will redirect some of its merchant pig iron output to steel production, increasing slab and hot-rolled coil exports, chief executive officer Yuriy Ryzhenkov told Fastmarkets in an interview."This year we expect the increase of steel production at Ilyich [Iron & Steel Works] by 800,000 tonnes - that will lead to a reduction of our merchant pig iron sales," Ryzhenkov sai...Read More

"The time to buy gold is when sentiment is low and people hate it." Jim Rickards is a lawyer, investment banker and economist with over thirty years' experience in capital markets. He is currently Senior Managing Director at Tangent Capital Partners LLC. He advises the Department of Defense, the U.S. intelligence community, and major hedge funds on global finance, and served as a facilitator of t...Read More

Jim, Evan and Phil break down the watershed FOMC meeting this past week. Jim provides his updated reading list.1:00 A startling announcement5:15 2003 redux10:08 E-Z money in the economy15:30 "Tools" and "frameworks" and "challenges"James "Jim" Grant is an American writer and publisher and the founder of Grant's Interest Rate Observer, a twice-monthly journal of the financial markets. He is the aut...Read More

The next financial bubble burst could be so massive, it even takes out gold. One economist is making a very bold prediction.This man says that the colossal financial bubble that exists in today's economy is stretching closer and closer to its breaking point.And when it does pop -- soon, very soon -- it's not only going to take out the entire stock market... it'll absolutely crush other assets too....Read More

How you can transform lagging indicators into leading indicators.For hundreds of years, since the first stock exchange opened its doors, every trader has been looking for an edge... Some way to predict what will happen next... And hopefully collect a fat "paycheck" at the end of the road.From Bollinger bands to momentum oscillators, technical indicators have been at the forefront of this constant...Read More

Steel billet prices were largely stable in most regions in the week ended Friday March 22, with high raw materials costs affecting offer prices while buyers remained resistant, but demand was starting to improve at the end of the week.Scrap prices in Turkey remained high, with producers continuing to book material on Friday.Fastmarkets' daily index of North Europe-origin ferrous scrap HMS 1&2 (80:...Read More

Ukraine steelmaker Metinvest will redirect some of its merchant pig iron output to steel production, increasing slab and hot-rolled coil exports, chief executive officer Yuriy Ryzhenkov told Fastmarkets in an interview."This year we expect the increase of steel production at Ilyich [Iron & Steel Works] by 800,000 tonnes - that will lead to a reduction of our merchant pig iron sales," Ryzhenkov sai...Read More

Here are five Fastmarkets MB stories you might have missed on Friday March 22 that are worth another look.As of March 23, it has been a full year since US President Donald Trump's administration imposed tariffs against imported steel and aluminium under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962, which allows the president to place restrictions on imports on national security grounds. On the f...Read More

Gold & silver should have responded to the Fed's reversal in a much more bullish way, yet the metals are looking pretty cheap right now. Matt explains...by Matt from Silver Fortune via Silver FortuneAfter the predictable dovish turn from the Fed, silver and gold should have responded in a much more bullish way. Read More

Key data from the Friday March 22 pricing session in London.Key drivers - Some sellers continued to offer aggressively to get stock off their books, but others took a step back and held their offers within range. - Consumers were emboldened to bid aggressively after...Read More

   •  The precious metal struggled to capitalize on the early positive move to three-week tops and started retreating from a resistance marked by 61.8% Fibonacci retracement level of the $1347-$1281 recent slide.    •  However, given the overnight sustained break through 200-period SMA on the 4-hourly chart, bullish technical indicators on hourly/daily chart...Read More

Peru's Minister of Energy and Mines, Francisco ??smodes, and the Vice-Minister of Territorial Governance, Ra??l Molina, held a meeting this weekend with the Cusco Regional Governor, Jean Paul Benavente, where they addressed the situation regarding a blockade affecting Las Bambas copper mine.For 48 days now, the Indigenous community of Nueva Fuerabamba has blocked Chinese miner MMG Ltd from using a...Read More

Here are five Fastmarkets MB stories you might have missed on Friday March 22 that are worth another look.As of March 23, it has been a full year since US President Donald Trump's administration imposed tariffs against imported steel and aluminium under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962, which allows the president to place restrictions on imports on national security grounds. On the f...Read More

RAPAPORT... Jeweler Coronet has achieved a new Guinness World Record for themost diamonds set on a watch, it said Friday. The watch, named Mudan, which is Chinese for peony -the "king of flowers" in Chinese culture - features 15,858 diamonds,weighing a combined 50.01 carats. The piece is set in 18-karat gold, and has a 3-D dial painted by jeweler and artist Reena Ahluwalia to look like a diam...Read More

RAPAPORT... The devaluation of the Canadian dollar pushed Mountain Province to a loss in 2018, even as sales grew strongly in the first full year of commercial operations at the Gahcho Ku?(C) mine.The miner reported a net loss of CAD 18.9 million ($14.1million), compared with a profit of CAD 17.2 million ($12.8 million) in 2017,it said last week. The miner sells rough in US dollars, but...Read More

RAPAPORT... Tiffany & Co. reported its best ever annual sales in 2018, despite the challenging economic environment that caused a slowdown in the fourth quarter. "In 2018...net sales surpassed levels not seen since 2014," said Tiffany CEO Alessandro Bogliolo. "Softer trends in the second half of the year reflected, in part, what we believe were external challenges and uncertaint...Read More

The world's top diamond producer by output, Alrosa (MCX:ALRS), ran an experiment at its Zapolyarnaya pipe, which is a part of the Verkhne-Munskoye deposit in the west of Yakutia, and found that the area has the potential to become one of its richest in large diamonds deposits.The test, which took place from March 11 to March 15, 2019, consisted in feeding the processing plant N12 in the town of Ud...Read More

RAPAPORT... A twin-stone blue diamond ring will be the top lot at nextmonth's Christie's New York auction, with a presale estimate of $6 million to $8million. The piece, bearing two pear modified brilliant-cut, fancy-vivid-blue, VS2-clarity diamonds weighing 3.06 and 2.61 carats, will go underthe hammer at the Magnificent Jewels sale on April 16, the auction house saidlast week. Christie's w...Read More

Alrosa predicts that the Zapolyarnaya pipe in its Verkhne-Munskoye diamond deposit in west Yakutia may become one of its richest sources for large diamonds. During a week-long experiment conducted earlier this month, about 100,000 tons of ore from the Zapolyarnaya pipe was processed with the goal to establish the quality, color and clarity grades of the diamonds samples and to assess the cost per...Read More