The Shanghai Futures Exchange's plans to list ferro-chrome futures, potentially this year, will bring welcomed hedging opportunities and may weaken the dominance of China's stainless steel mills in the ore and alloy markets, participants told Fastmarkets.While no definite date or specifications of the ferro-chrome futures have been announced, Fastmarkets asked participants what changes these contr...Read More

Usually after a London Metal Exchange discussion paper there is a decent idea of what the outcome is likely to be. But this time around, it seems much harder to tell which path the LME will take. The proposals under debate include the permanent closure of the exchange's open outcry trading floor, known as the ring, which dates back to 1877. They also include the incentivization of electronic trade...Read More

When considering the prospects for the new Shanghai International Energy Exchange (INE) copper contract, a senior executive at one of the world's largest metals trading companies quoted Hamlet's soliloquy in the Shakespearian play of the same name."In terms of promotion of the internationalization of the renminbi and weakening of the pricing power of the [London Metal Exchange] and CME: 'To be or...Read More

Glencore's succession process continues to make its way through board level.John Mack, an non-executive director and former chief executive officer of Morgan Stanley, will not seek re-election during the company's April 29 annual general meeting...Read More

The economy seems to be recovering, while bond yields are increasing again, sending gold prices down.Not good. Gold bulls can be truly upset. The yellow metal continued its bearish trend last week. As the chart below shows, the price of gold has declined from $1,807 on Monday (Feb. 22) to $1,743 on Friday (Feb. 26). What happened? Well, last week was full of positive economic news. In particular,...Read More

Best case scenario is for silver and gold to rally next week, but you can see...by Michael Ballanger via Streetwise Reports"Man, Powell is such a hitter. He is relentless in his desire to help the underclass of this country. More than anyone. It's truly incredible. . .and joyous!" -March 17 tweet from CNBC "Mad Money" host Jim CramerSince the mid-1990s, I have been forced to observe the antics of...Read More

After gold came down hard last week, it might be in a for a short pause and corrective upswing. What will the yellow metal’s next chapter bring for the miners? How high can they go if gold rallies from here?As gold recently moved very close to my approximate target of $1,700, the senior miners (GDX) ended Friday’s (Feb. 26) session $0.13 above my initial downside target of $31 . And wh...Read More

Feasible? Or inevitable?By Matt from Silver Fortune via Silver FortuneFeasible? Or inevitable?FULL SHOW NOTES AND LINKS HERE Read More

Gold has been taking a beating in recent weeks, the sell-off prompted by rising bond yields which are taking the shine off the yellow metal. Higher interest rates diminish the argument for owning gold, which offers no yield.On Wednesday, Feb. 24, spot gold dropped to $1,784.60 an ounce, just shy of $1,783.10 reached on Feb. 21, its lowest since July, 2020. The gold price climbed $342, or 22% last...Read More

China released its 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-2025) for National Economic and Social Development and the Long-Range Objectives Through the Year 2035 on March 12 following the annual meetings of the National People's Congress (NPC) and the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC).Fastmarkets summarizes five key targets under the new five-year plan that are likely to underpin corres...Read More

It's the perfect storm! Are we sitting on a powder keg ready to explode?by David Morgan of The Morgan ReportIs THE BIG SHORT Moment In Silver Just Days Away... COMEX Under Seige! | https://www.themorganreport.comIn this down to earth interview, Darryl and Brian Panes from As Good As Gold Australia interview David Morgan from the Morgan Report, who shares his views on the concerning shortages of s...Read More

The silver price is setting up the same fundamentals that pushed the palladium price up by five times over the past several years. While... by Steve St Angelo of SRSrocco ReportThe silver price is setting up the same fundamentals that pushed the palladium price up by five times over the past several years. While industrial demand was the overwhelming factor that caused the palladium price to sk...Read More

There is a sense that we are close to asignificant move in silver. The current season since August 2020 till now, isshaping up in a similar manner to the season of August 2019 to February/March2020.Silver as well as the stock market peaked inFebruary 2020, and crashed significantly into March.Below, is a chart of silver (top) and theDow (bottom): On the silver chart, I have indicated howthe curren...Read More

Following a necessary correction,the gold miners’ stocks have spent much of recent months bottoming.  This healthy basing process is rebalancingsentiment, preparing the way for this sector’s next bull-market upleg.  That is looking to coincide with gold stocks’spring rally, one of their strongest times of the year seasonally.  That stiff tailwind blowing behind bul...Read More

All base-metals futures prices on the London Metal Exchange except for tin were down on the afternoon of Tuesday March 23, with the US Dollar Index at its highest in two weeks and some metals-related news pushing down prices - aluminium, in particular.Aluminium's price fell by the most in the complex on Tuesday, by 2.3% to $2,219 per tonne. This followed news that the Chinese government could rele...Read More

The three-month nickel price on the London Metal Exchange was up by 1% during morning trading on Tuesday March 23, while aluminium fell to $2,227.50 per tonne, with a combination of macroeconomic factors and fundamentals issues resulting in mixed price movements.Aluminium's price was down by by 1.95% on Tuesday at 9am, nevertheless still above the $2,200 per tonne mark. The light metal hit a year-...Read More

Base metals prices on both the London Metal Exchange and the Shanghai Futures Exchange, as well as spot precious metals prices, were mainly weaker this morning, Tuesday March 23, as were broader markets.Markets looking more nervous after concerted Western government sanctions on China have raised geopolitical tension.Europe braces for further Covid-19 lockdownsBase metals LME three-month base meta...Read More

The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of base metals analysts are ready to view.Aluminium: SHFE tailwind for LME pricesAs we are entering the traditional strong demand season, we expect Chinese aluminium demand to show further recovery, and we expect demand from existing end-user sectors, new infrastructure projects and the export sector to show some increases. As a result, we believe that S...Read More

The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of base metals analysts are ready to view, including an upgrade to our aluminium price forecasts.Aluminium: Price forecasts raisedWe correctly expected the macro reflationary theme to raise the prices for all base metals but, with it being the base metal with by far the weakest fundamentals, we had expected the price of aluminium to underperform relative...Read More

The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.These include an increase in our copper mine disruption estimates, upgrades to our production outlook for Indonesian nickel pig iron (NPI), a smaller refined zinc surplus, and an upgrade to our zinc price forecasts.Aluminium: Big disconnect between price and fundamentalsAluminium has extended its uptrend on the London Metal...Read More