Sector expert Michael Ballanger critiques the latest news and moves in the stock and precious metals markets. As I was watching the pompom news channel (CNBC), they went into full damage control over Thursday's massacre, and I thought to myself, "What markets or media bullet points do 'the boys' need to control today in order to avoid a weekly sell signal and ensuing panic?"In order of urgency, h...Read More
Saudi Arabia General Customs Authority has postponed its planned increase in duties on steel imports, it said on Thursday June 11. Import duties on several steel products were scheduled to increase on June 10, Saudi Arabian market sources told Fastmarkets on May 29. The customs authority now says the...Read More
China's crude steel, hot metal and finished steel output all rose to historical highs in May, according to data released by the country's National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Monday June 15.These exceeded the previous highs set in May 2019.May outputCrude steel: 92.27 million tonnes, up by 4.2% from a year earlier, up by 8.5% from April Hot metal: 77.32 million tonnes, up 2.4% year on year, up b...Read More
- Dave Kranzler, Mining Stock Journal"No one ever loses equity in a bankruptcy case," U.S. Bankruptcy Judge David Jones said during a status conference in the J.C. Penney case last month. "Equity gets lost long before the case is filed."Hertz filed Chapter 11 under the U.S. Bankruptcy Code after the market closed on May 22nd. The filing was well telegraphed. The next day the stock took a cliff...Read More
Watching out for sentiment extremes helps you avoid getting "caught up with the crowd"Simply put, a market sentiment extreme is a situation when most everyone has already taken a bullish or bearish position in a financial asset, leaving almost no one left to buy or sell.Silver provides an excellent case study.Let's briefly go back to April 18, 2011, when Elliott Wave International's U.S. Short Te...Read More
Jaguar-Land Rover (JLR) will cut up to 1,100 employees in the UK, while posting a pre-tax loss amid the coronavirus pandemic, it announced on Monday June 15 in its financial results.The company took the decision to reduce the number of contract-agency employees in its manufacturing plants over the coming months against the backdrop of the Covid-19 pandemic, it said.A company spokesperson expects u...Read More
China's crude steel, hot metal and finished steel output all rose to historical highs in May, according to data released by the country's National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Monday June 15.These exceeded the previous highs set in May 2019.May outputCrude steel: 92.27 million tonnes, up by 4.2% from a year earlier, up by 8.5% from April Hot metal: 77.32 million tonnes, up 2.4% year on year, up b...Read More
Strengths? The best performing precious metal for the week was gold, up 2.78 percent. After its 1.7 percent drop last Friday, gold rose back above $1,700 an ounce this week as investors took advantage of buying the dip. Commerzbank AG analyst Carsten Fritsch told Bloomberg that gold price declines are still seen as a buying opportunity. "Central banks are not expected to revers...Read More
- Dave Kranzler, Mining Stock Journal"No one ever loses equity in a bankruptcy case," U.S. Bankruptcy Judge David Jones said during a status conference in the J.C. Penney case last month. "Equity gets lost long before the case is filed."Hertz filed Chapter 11 under the U.S. Bankruptcy Code after the market closed on May 22nd. The filing was well telegraphed. The next day the stock took a cliff...Read More
Investment manias are nothing new on Wall Street, but this time the heavy betting is on the mania itself. Speculating on volatility is the latest fad, and it is metastasizing so quickly that in just two short months wagers that the stock market will grow even crazier have become the actual cause of its craziness. The bets mainly involve derivatives, including options and ETFs that are ti...Read More
Steve St. Angelo, SRSrocco Report The U.S. Shale Oil Industry is in serious trouble, even without the negative impacts of the global contagion. While it's no secret that shale oil wells suffer high decline rates, what is taking place in the country's largest oil field is quite alarming. The rate at which shale oil production is declining in the Permian should worry investors. In just three...Read More
We are on the horns of a dilemma, caught between the Scylla and Charybdis, a rock and a hard place, the devil and the deep blue sea, the anvil and the hammer. The walls are closing in. We're in a tight spot.All those metaphors (I could list more but will spare you) fit the present economic situation (some are now calling the omni-crisis) and I think will also describe the 2020s.Thanks to forces...Read More
Workers at Tata Steel IJmuiden in the Netherlands will continue industrial action after negotiations with the company's management fell through, the trade union FNV Metaal said on Sunday June 14.A strike on the night shift started on Sunday June 14 at 22:00 local time and affected pickling, cold rolling, an annealing furnace, continuous annealing lines 11 & 12 and tinning lines."The entire pr...Read More
Saudi Arabia General Customs Authority has postponed its planned increase in duties on steel imports, it said on Thursday June 11. Import duties on several steel products were scheduled to increase on June 10, Saudi Arabian market sources told Fastmarkets on May 29. The customs authority now says the...Read More
China's crude steel, hot metal and finished steel output all rose to historical highs in May, according to data released by the country's National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Monday June 15.These exceeded the previous highs set in May 2019.May outputCrude steel: 92.27 million tonnes, up by 4.2% from a year earlier, up by 8.5% from April Hot metal: 77.32 million tonnes, up 2.4% year on year, up b...Read More
Here are five Fastmarkets stories you might have missed on Monday June 15 that are worth another look.Jaguar-Land Rover will cut up to 1,100 employees in the UK, while posting a pre-tax loss amid the coronavirus pandemic, it announced on June 15 in its financial results.Latin American steelmakers were operating at 42% capacity in April after at least seven blast furnaces were halted to balance sup...Read More
The European Investment Bank (EIB) has granted a ?,?125 million ($140 million) loan to Belgium-based global material technologies and recycling group Umicore to partially finance the construction of a battery cathode material manufacturing facility in Poland.The EIB loan will cover approximately half of the project costs in the initial phase, with cathode materials produced supplying battery manuf...Read More
Workers at Tata Steel IJmuiden in the Netherlands will continue industrial action after negotiations with the company's management fell through, the trade union FNV Metaal said on Sunday June 14.A strike on the night shift started on Sunday June 14 at 22:00 local time and affected pickling, cold rolling, an annealing furnace, continuous annealing lines 11 & 12 and tinning lines."The entire pr...Read More
Saudi Arabia General Customs Authority has postponed its planned increase in duties on steel imports, it said on Thursday June 11. Import duties on several steel products were scheduled to increase on June 10, Saudi Arabian market sources told Fastmarkets on May 29. The customs authority now says the...Read More