Turkish steel mills made no moves in the deep-sea scrap markets on Monday August 3 due to the Eid al-Adha religious holiday in the country.Turkey has been out of the market for the eid since Thursday of last week, when the latest known purchases were heard on the market. The holiday will...Read More

Bangladesh is one of the world's fastest-growing import markets for steel scrap. The country's rapid industrialization in recent years and its lack of natural steelmaking raw material resources mean that scrap imports - in addition to domestic material - are of high importance to the country's steelmakers.But why has 2020 been a particularly important year for the Bangladesh market? And how is Ban...Read More

Export billet prices from the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) region continued to increase in early August in line with higher offers from mills, which were supported by rising import scrap costs globally.Fresh billet offers from both Ukrainian and Russian suppliers were heard within the range of $395-400 per tonne fob Black Sea, while some producers asked for as much as $405 per tonne fo...Read More

No matter what shape the recovery is, the epidemic will likely have lasting, positive effects on the gold market.During the most acute phase of the pandemic and the following economic crisis, there was no time to analyze various WGC’s reports on the gold market. Let’s make up for it!I’ll start with the report “Recovery paths and impact on performance” about the gold m...Read More

The latest forecast from Fastmarkets' team of analysts is ready to view.As we enter the summer season across the northern hemisphere, almost half a year has passed since the Covid-19 pandemic began to seriously affect Europe and the United States.One would not really be able to tell that such a dramatic event had occurred by looking at stainless steel prices, however, because they are more or less...Read More

Our trading team witnessed a big drop in Platinum and Palladium prices early this morning while Gold and Silver continued to push moderately higher.  We began to question this move and investigate any historical relevance to previous patterns.  Our research team pointed out that both Platinum and Palladium rolled lower just 3 to 4 days before the breakdown in the US stock markets on Febr...Read More

Yesterday’s session was indeed volatile around theFOMC, just like we warned,and gold even moved to its previous high, likely forming a double-top pattern.Even though gold moved higher on an intraday basis, it didn’t invalidate itsprevious breakdown, which was a bearish sign. Gold was likely to decline, andit is declining so far in today’s pre-market trading. The above chart show...Read More

It is said that a picture is worth 1000words, and thus two pictures are worth 2000 words. The entire financial systemis fracturing and imploding, no exaggeration. The entire monetary system is beingundermined in a true Weimar sense, in reality. Such a situation almost neverhas come about without a world war. Since 2001 in the Jackass opinion, theworld financial war has been in progress with the im...Read More

The following is an update of a previousarticle: During the 2008 financial crisis the Fedsignificantly increased the US monetary base to keep the system from collapse.They are currently in a similar situation, and have done (is doing) the exactsame thing.Here is a chart of the US monetary base toillustrate the similarity: With the 2008 actions they were able to avoidthe collapse until now. Will th...Read More

The US automotive industry's recovery is a tale of two trends - production and sales - and while a strong rebound in production has a more immediate impact on demand for steel, so far the bounce back has been greater in sales.This has translated into a slower rebound in steel demand, American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI) chief economist Timothy Gill said. "The auto market situation has certainl...Read More

Last week, I put out an article outlining my expectation for a pullback in GLD before we head to the 200+ region. Within the comments section, I outlined my plan as to how I am going to play for a potential pullback. However, that pullback has not yet materialized.For those that have followed me closely for years, you know that I have been heavily long physical metals and mining stocks since I sta...Read More

Technical analyst Clive Maund charts oil and discusses what he sees ahead for the commodity. Compared to the wild volatility that we witnessed back in the spring, trading in oil has become very light and subdued, with volatility in it dropping to a very low level, and as a result many traders are losing interest in it. It is quiet—too quiet—and complacency towards it is now rife, but a...Read More

Most Italian steel producers plan to stop production for summer maintenance in August, but some have changed their schedule this year and plan shorter stoppages due to demand recovering from the Covid-19-related lockdown in March-April, sources told Fastmarkets. Long steel Major steelmakers in Italy are expected to stop all operations during the second week of August for the usual summer maintenan...Read More

Gold has jumped above $1,850 amid expectations of new stimulus, worries about the pace of economic recovery, and concerns about rising tensions between the U.S. and China. Houston, we have a problem! Please take a look at the chart below that presents the U.S. initial jobless claims. What do you see? Yes, you are right! The number of people claiming unemployment benefits has recently risen. To be...Read More

With silver breaking out decisively to the upside, bears are running for cover.We had noted in our July 13th News Alert, “We are paying especially close attention to the bull vs. bear tug-of-war in the silver market around $19/oz. If the bulls yank prices decisively above that level on a strong close, short covering by capitulating bears could help drive a powerful breakout rally.”That...Read More

The gold price made a new all-time nominal high today at $1,945 per ounce. This move should not come as a surprise to anyone paying attention to the current financial landscape. The FED has injected an unprecedented amount of new money/debt into the economy since March in efforts to avoid a collapse from the impact of the Covid-19 virus and subsequent restrictions of business activity globally. Ov...Read More

As shown in the graph below, the firsthalf of 2020 produced an unusual change in the relationship between goldprices, stock prices and recessions, something that has only happened twicebefore in the last fifty years. Each of the two previous times this hasoccurred after a long run up in stock prices, it has been part of acyclical change to a cycle favoring gold over stocks for a decade or morether...Read More

During the bull market years between 2000 and 2011 the US dollar and currencies played a key role in the PM complex bull market. Tonight I would like to go back and visit some of these old charts and see how they pertain to our current bull market.Lets start with a simple GOLD:USD ratio chart that goes back to the 2011 all time high in gold. The bottom for the ratio came in toward the end of 2015...Read More

The move we saw in Silver early this week to new 6-year high price levels, above $22.60, is quite likely the biggest upside move in Silver since the bottom in March 2020 – after the US stock market collapsed because of the COVID-19 virus event. This new rally in Silver is likely the move we’ve been suggesting to our followers relating to a series of measured upside price moves totaling...Read More

Here are five Fastmarkets stories you might have missed on Monday August 3 that are worth another look.The year 2020 has been the ultimate stress test for commodity market participants and will stay challenging amid significantly impaired consumer demand trends due to the Covid-19 pandemic, according to the chief executive officer of Concord Resources. Mark Hansen said the economy is operatin...Read More