Inflation in Argentina is approaching 50% annually. "The issue with beef prices clearly got out of control," Fernandez told a local radio station on Tuesday morning. International beef demand "created distortions with domestic prices that can't be tolerated anymore. We can't keep watching beef prices rise month by month without any justification."Continue...Read More

Peter Krauth of Silver Stock Investor explains why he thinks precious metals-backed cryptos could become serious contenders in the digital currency revolution. Despite its recent selloff, Bitcoin remains the king of crypto currencies.Its market recently exceeded $1 trillion. That's a long way from its humble beginnings shortly after the 2008-2009 financial crisis. Bitcoin will keep facing challen...Read More

Sales of passenger cars in the European Union rocketed by 218.57% year on year in April 2021, the European Automotive Manufacturers Association (ACEA) said on Wednesday May 19. New car sales in the region totaled 862,226 vehicles in April 2021, up from 270,651 units sold in the corresponding month of 2020. The massive rise is explained by a drop in car manufacturing a year earlier due to...Read More

Export prices for Chinese cold-rolled coil and hot-dipped galvanized coil were mixed in the past week amid a volatile market affected by fluctuating steel futures.Cold-rolled coilFastmarkets' weekly price assessment for steel cold-rolled coil, export, fob China main port was $970-1,000 per tonne on Tuesday May 18, narrowing by $30-45 per tonne from $925-1,030 per tonne a week earlier.Some Chinese...Read More

A strategy to cool down commodity price spikes was top of the agenda China's weekly State Cabinet meeting on Wednesday May 19. Chaired by China's second most powerful politician, Premier Li Keqiang, the cabinet meeting discussed control measures to rein in the "unreasonable price rally", including ensuring sufficient supplies of main commodities. The aim is to prevent the rising costs pa...Read More

 Easy choices lead to a hard life (or atleast losses), and because gold’s downside move is delayed, it’s extremely easyto be bullish on gold right now.It’s easy to get carried away by theday-to-day price action, and it’s even easier to feel the emotions that othermarket participants are feeling while looking at the same short-term priceaction. Right now, it’s tem...Read More

First Quantum Minerals has entered into a binding agreement to sell a 30% equity interest in the Ravensthorpe nickel-cobalt operation in Western Australia to South Korean steelmaker Posco for $240 million in cash, the company said on May 19.The Vancouver, Canada-headquartered company will retain a 70% interest in Ravensthorpe and continue to be the operator.Posco and First Quantum have also agreed...Read More

In the first portion of this research article, I highlighted the correlation between Gold and the US Dollar as well as the correlation between the US Dollar and the EURUSD and JPYUSD.  The purpose of this example was to highlight the different phases of US Dollar appreciation vs depreciation compared to the EURUSD/JPYUSD.  The EURUSD and JPYUSD are often compared to the US Dollar as majo...Read More

Although Gold has continued to drift downward after reaching a peak near $2089.20 in early August 2020, our Custom Gold Inverse Trending Index suggests this weakness has actually built a very strong momentum base – preparing for a big move higher.The relationship of Gold to the US Dollar is a fairly widely known correlation.  When the US Dollar is weaker, Gold tends to rally.  When...Read More

Here are five Fastmarkets stories you might have missed on Wednesday May 19 that are worth another look.ArcelorMittal has told some customers that it will be adding another ?,?50 ($73) per tonne to its coil product offer prices in Europe this week, sources told Fastmarkets on Wednesday May 19.Tax...Read More

An overview of the consumer electronics markets and their latest price moves.Ewa Manthey and Dalila Ouerghi...Read More

The gold miners’ stockshave powered higher in recent months, solidifying a strong young upleg.  But the extended-correction low leading intothis latest rally has left sector psychology fairly bearish.  Traders are skeptical about gold stocks’upside potential, wary of another serious selloff.  The gold miners’ just-reported Q1’21operating and financial results...Read More

Manganese ore stocks at major Chinese ports have declined to a seven-month low amid continuously increased ore consumption among manganese alloy smelters in recent months. Fastmarkets assessed manganese ore inventories at the main Chinese ports of Tianjin and Qinzhou at 5.76 million-5.87 million tonnes on Monday May 17, down by 2.84% from 5.93 million-6.04 million tonnes the previous week and the...Read More

Junior miners may soon suffer abreakdown of the short-term support line. So, what’s responsible for theirunderperformance of gold and stocks?Today’s technical part of the analysis isgoing to be brief, as I have discussed multiple things this week and mycomments remain up-to-date. There’s not much to add today, and we’ll go overonly one technical chart – the one where...Read More

The Alumar aluminium smelter in Brazil's Maranh??o state could be a future target for a restart, Alcoa Corp chief financial officer Bill Oplinger said. Alcoa operates around one-quarter of currently curtailed aluminium smelting operations in the Western world and is eying various dynamics when considering restarts, including local currency, local workforce and energy availability, he said. "When I...Read More

Gold scored some victories over thepast days, but it’s playing a risky game. One misstep and the yellow metalmight lose the war.Sometimes, a good strategist needs togive up a few battles to eventually win the war. Or, at least, convince theirenemy that they’re defeated while preparing a counterattack. Just the same, achess player may need to sacrifice a piece in order to checkmate a ki...Read More

Gold bugs are closely watching what happens with Treasuries. Last year, the gold price hit a record high of $2,034/oz, largely due to the fact that investors were piling into bonds as a safe haven against pandemic-related uncertainty. A descending US dollar and negative real rates (when bond yields minus the inflation rate fall below 0%) were also important antecedents. Over the past several weeks...Read More

Here are five Fastmarkets stories you might have missed on Wednesday May 19 that are worth another look.ArcelorMittal has told some customers that it will be adding another ?,?50 ($73) per tonne to its coil product offer prices in Europe this week, sources told Fastmarkets on Wednesday May 19.Tax...Read More

We recently completed some interesting research related to one of our newest Custom Indexes – the Commodities to Smart Cash Index (C2SC Heat Index) – weighted by the US Dollar and VIX.  We’ve been reviewing this new index for months watching it to see how it reacts to various trends in Lumber, Gold, Treasury Yields, the Smart Cash Index, and other weighted values.  Rece...Read More

Let’s start by defining hyperinflation… “Hyperinflation is a term to describe rapid, excessive, and out-of-control general price increases in an economy. While inflation is a measure of the pace of rising prices for goods and services, hyperinflation is rapidly rising inflation, typically measuring more than 50% per month.”  (source)In addition, hyperin...Read More