China's crude steel, hot metal and finished steel output rose to new highs in August, according to data released by the country's National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Tuesday September 15.August outputCrude steel: 94.85 million tonnes, up by 8.4% from a year earlier, up by 1.6% from JulyHot metal: 78.55 million tonnes, up 5% year on year, up by 0.5% month on month Finished steel: 119.13 million...Read More

China's auto output and sales have posted annual increases over the past five consecutive months, which points to a steady recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic, the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM) says.The country produced 2.12 million units of vehicles in August, up by 6.3% from a year earlier, while sales rose 11.6% year on year to 2.19 million units, CAAM reported last Thurs...Read More

Here are five Fastmarkets stories you might have missed on Tuesday September 15 that are worth another look.BHP has flagged inconsistent profits caused by volatile commodity prices as a key risk to its business.Rio Tinto is to launch its first closed-loop recycling program, offering customers in North...Read More

$2,000. Think about this number. Theoretically, it’s just a number, one of many. But… somehow we feel that jumping above this level was a big event in the gold market. After all, gold surpassed this psychologically important point for the first time in history, reaching record high, as the chart below shows. How did gold manage to achieve it? The obvious reason is the coronavirus cris...Read More

Here are five Fastmarkets stories you might have missed on Tuesday September 15 that are worth another look.BHP has flagged inconsistent profits caused by volatile commodity prices as a key risk to its business.Rio Tinto is to launch its first closed-loop recycling program, offering customers in North...Read More

The Section 232 tariffs applied to US aluminium imports from Canada have again been removed - just 40 days after the reintroduction of those duties was announced, the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) said on Tuesday September 15."The United States will resume duty-free treatment of non-alloyed, unwrought aluminium, retrospective to September 1," the Office of the USTR said.T...Read More

Domestic prices for hot-rolled coil in Northern Europe were fairly stable day on day on Tuesday September 15, with sentiment in the market remaining positive, sources have told Fastmarkets.Fastmarkets' daily steel hot-rolled coil index, domestic, exw Northern Europe, was calculated at ?,?476.98 ($565.72) per tonne on Tuesday, up by ?,?0.53 per tonne from ?,?476.45 per tonne on Monday.The index was...Read More

Recent gains in London Metal Exchange three-month base metals prices stalled at the close on Tuesday September 15 after consumer jitters set in ahead of the following day's United States Federal Reserve meeting. A slew of better industrial data from China failed to offer price support while a stronger dollar index, trading up 0.19% at around $93.12 during the afternoon session was an effective hea...Read More

Here are five Fastmarkets stories you might have missed on Tuesday September 15 that are worth another look.BHP has flagged inconsistent profits caused by volatile commodity prices as a key risk to its business.Rio Tinto is to launch its first closed-loop recycling program, offering customers in North...Read More

Recent gains in London Metal Exchange three-month base metals prices stalled at the close on Tuesday September 15 after consumer jitters set in ahead of the following day's United States Federal Reserve meeting. A slew of better industrial data from China failed to offer price support while a stronger dollar index, trading up 0.19% at around $93.12 during the afternoon session was an effective hea...Read More

I want to try to answer a subscriber’s question as clearly as I can because it really does seem to be more confusing than it actually is. It’s always made sense to me but I understand there is a promotion machine out there selling viewpoints and in the gold sector especially, it is often wrong-headed, lazy analysis using tired assumptions.“I do have a couple of questions that rel...Read More

Seaborne iron ore prices eased on Tuesday September 15 amid a market-driven price correction from the previous day's sky-high prices, according to trade sources.Fastmarkets iron ore indices62% Fe fines, cfr Qingdao: $128.52 per tonne, down by $1.65 per tonne.62% Fe low-alumina fines, cfr Qingdao: $128.90 per tonne, down by $1.32 per tonne.58% Fe fines high-grade premium, cfr Qingdao: $118.02 per t...Read More

Gold bugs may finally be taking their summer (stay)vacation. Aftermonths of frenetic activity in the bullion markets, physical buying and sellingslowed a bit last week. Therespite, if it persists, could be welcome news for investors who have beenfrustrated by product scarcity and higher premiums.TheCOVID-19-associated economic troubles have not been resolved, but those storiesaren’t commandi...Read More

The seaborne premium hard coking coal fob index jumped on Tuesday September 15 following a transaction of premium mid-volatility hard coking coal in the fob market, sources said.Fastmarkets indicesPremium hard coking coal, fob DBCT: $119.54 per tonne, up $6.31 per tonne Premium hard coking coal, cfr Jingtang: $126.60 per tonne, up $0.12 per tonneHard coking coal, fob DBCT: $95.26 per tonne, up $2....Read More

Independent financial analyst Matt Badiali presents the investment case for copper.Copper will be the next metal to break out in 2020, and it's all about demand.The price of copper just broke through $3.00 per pound. The red metal's price rose 45% so far in 2020. But that is still well below its 2011 high of $4.50 per pound.That could change in the second half of this year. The reason for copper's...Read More

The 1987 stock market crash occurred after aperiod with a similar build up to the 2020 crash. After being stuck in a rangefor a number of years in the 1970s and the 2000s, the Dow managed to breakhigher after a significant gold peak in 1980 as well as 2011 respectively. Seethe chart below: In both cases, prices more than doubled overa period of at least 90 months from the level it was at the gold...Read More

Predictions for gold’s price are based on seemingly sound fundamentals and logic; but the fundamentals are incorrect and presented in unrealistic context. Here are some things to keep in mind when you see any predictions for the price of gold.   GOLD IS NOT AN INVESTMENT Gold, itself, is not an investment. Gold is real money and the original measure of value for everything else.A h...Read More

Earlier this week, precious metals markets got a surprising Buffettbounce. Legendary investor Warren Buffett isn’t often associated with gold– at least not in a positive way. In the past Buffett has made derisivecomments about the monetary metal. He once quipped that gold “has no utility.” A perpetual optimist on the U.S. economy, Buffett by nature doesn’tlike the mes...Read More

In a response to the coronavirus crisis, the Fed has already cut interest rates to zero and implemented quantitative easing. But that’s not enough and the U.S. central bankers are now talking about “yield curve control”. What is it and how it could affect the gold market?Normally, the central banks lower the short-term interest rate to stimulate the economy. But the federal funds...Read More

Research Highlights:With Gold trading above $2,000 for the first time and Silver trading near $27.50, you need to understand the risks in the markets that precious metals are warning of.If Gold breaks above $2,400, then there is a very real concern that the global markets could be close to some type of decline/collapse event.We believe the upside potential in precious metals could drive a very wid...Read More