Many analysts expect silver to outperform gold this year. It’s possible, but investors shouldn’t count on improving economic conditions and industrial demand.Silver has recently become a hot investment theme. For months, if not years, some analysts claimed that silver is undervalued relative to gold. Then, at the beginning of 2021, Reddit revolutionaries tried to trigger a short squeez...Read More

While everyone was paying attention to the FOMC, Gold & Silver, and the Treasury Yields, it appears the recent commodity rally trend took a big hit on Thursday, March 18, 2021.  Our guess is that the FOMC statement did nothing to support the continued commodity price rally as the US Fed continued with near-zero interest rates and economic support through 2023.  The rally in commoditi...Read More

Peter Krauth, editor of Gold Resource Investor, looks at the Fed's actions and what they augur for gold. This week Fed Reserve Chair Jerome Powell spoke at the "Innovation Summit" hosted by the Bank for International Settlements.During his talk, he dissed Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies saying they were "…highly volatile and therefore not really useful stores of value, and they're not backed b...Read More

Both Powell and Yellen testified before Congress. They sounded upbeat on the U.S. economy, but gold’s reaction was weak.What a combo! Both Fed Chair Jerome Powell and the U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen testified before Congress this week. They spoke about the economic response to the economic crisis caused by the Covid-19 pandemic and the Great Lockdown .In his prepared remarks , Powel...Read More

The residential construction and home improvement sectors are set to drive long steel consumption in Mexico this year, Gerdau Corsa chief executive office Fernando Pessanha said on Tuesday March 30.The infrastructure segment may also benefit from both state-level projects and the United States' spending plan, the executive said during Fastmarkets' virtual Mexican Steel Forum 2021. He did not, howe...Read More

 The mining ETFs (the GDX and GDXJ) have hitresistance and look tired. After their corrective rally, a slide lookspromising.  The miners are done correcting and if theywere at a water amusement park, would they head for the lazy river? How aboutthe wave pool? Nah… they’d be headed straight for the slides.  If you’ve been waiting for a high-qualitysign that the nex...Read More

The price of finished steel was not expected to drop dramatically in Mexico after new capacity expansions come online in the country, executives with Mexican steel end-users said on Tuesday March 30.On the other hand, the recent phenomenon of Mexican steel prices rising much higher than the US market could come to an end when the tightness in steel supply starts to be resolved, they added."With Te...Read More

The globalist push for central bank digital currency is ramping up.On Monday, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell spoke at a virtual "Innovation Summit" hosted by the Bank for International Settlements, the central bank for central banks around the world.Powell aimed his remarks specifically at digital currencies. And he made it clear that Bitcoin and other privately circulating crypt...Read More

Cadence Minerals has started the shipment of iron ore from stockpiles at its joint venture Dev Minera????o's, in Brazil's northern Amap?? state, the company said on Monday March 29.The shipment, which is the first since the site was closed in 2015, is for 45,000 tonnes of iron ore that due to sail this week. Fastmarkets' index for iron ore 65% Fe Brazil-origin fines, cfr Qingdao was calculate...Read More

Despite everyone saying the bottom isin, and that gold and miners are set for takeoff, the signs still point south.The real question: how low can they go?Let’s take a look at some price targetsfor where the GDX and GDXJ mining ETFs might land up.With the miners attempting to reclaimPride Rock, it won’t be long until the GDX ETF is singing Hakuna Matata.Rising U.S. Treasury yields? No p...Read More

Peter Krauth, editor of Gold Resource Investor, examines the commodity supercycle and the role recency bias plays in investment decisions. Recency bias is a funny thing. It's human nature to expect the near future to look like the recent past.But we all know that's not how things always play out. And that can be costly, even dangerous, for investors.Take long term bonds, for example. Ten-year Trea...Read More

TheFed’s Open Markets Committee met last week and left policy unchanged – at leastfor the moment.Noone expected central banking officials to make rate adjustments last week withequity prices rubbing up against all-time highs and the economic recoverynarrative still dominant.Centralbankers are likely getting nervous, however. Treasury yields are surging, andit is only a matter of time b...Read More

Gold’s volatile little brother had aninteresting run thus far, with internet forums buoying its price. But willfundamentals prevail? Where is silver headed?“The Ides of March are come,” saidCaesar. “Aye Caesar; but not gone,” replied the soothsayer. The Ides of Marchquotation is often bandied about in financial articles midway through themonth. Caesar was assassinated...Read More

A year ago this past week marked the onset of the Covid-19 Pandemic. It also was the last full week of trading in the financial markets preceding crashes in all markets and a near-complete, albeit temporary, shutdown of economic activity.Subsequent rebounds in stocks, bonds and real estate took valuations to levels as high  or higher (much higher for stocks and gold) than before the turbulenc...Read More

Here are five Fastmarkets stories you might have missed on Tuesday March 30 that are worth another look....Read More

Sector expert Michael Ballanger considers how recent market moves have influenced investment in the precious metals markets. I had not intended to hit the keyboard today, having worked all week to prepare the Special Situations Report on my top-performing Norseman Silver Ltd. (NOC:TSX.V) (whose 65% year-to-date advance and 869% advance since the March 2020 lows has been a pleasant surprise), but F...Read More

Tight regional supply boosted aluminium premiums in Rotterdam and the United States to multi-year highs on Tuesday March 30, while the quarterly premium in Japan settled at its highest level for six years.Rotterdam duty-unpaid highest since April 2015US Midwest premium climbs to April 2018 levelMJP premium at six-year high.European shortage drives premiums higherA lack of aluminium flowing into Eu...Read More

The ECB accelerated its asset purchases, but unless the Fed follows suit, gold may continue its bearish trend.On Thursday (Mar. 11), the European Central Bankdecided to accelerate its asset buying under the Pandemic Emergency Purchase Program :Based on a joint assessment of financing conditions and the inflation outlook, the Governing Council expects purchases under the PEPP over the next quarter...Read More

Mexican ferrous scrap prices were little changed in the week ended Friday March 26, with most grades remaining at high levels and market participants waiting for the next developments in the United States' market. Most market participants indicated stability in prices last week while the market digests recent price increases that particularly affected the prime grades of scrap....Read More

It seems fitting that the year we are expecting to see an unprecedented rise in US government spending and money-printing to spur an economic recovery, marks the 50th anniversary of the end of the gold standard.Done at the time to fight an economic crisis, we are still feeling the effects of this disastrous decision, five decades on.In this article, we explain why President Nixon did what he did,...Read More