Gold prices are slipping as talk of a “taper tantrum” has investors thinking that the US Federal Reserve’s bond-buying program could be scaled back.Over the last three days spot gold has dropped $18, peak to trough, on news of US jobless claims falling sharply to 348,000, and the US dollar scaling over a nine-month peak. The dollar’s rise makes gold expensive for holders of...Read More

The rise and fall of gold stocks is a story of hurt and disappointment. That is because most of the time gold stocks are in decline.Below are four charts which depict the sad story. Following each chart I will make some brief comments… HUI – 1 Year ChartNYSE Arca Gold BUGS Index (INDEX)The HUI is back to its low reached earlier this year in March, at just under 255. Where it goes fr...Read More

Ladies and gentlemen, we have abreakdown! Gold stocks underperformed the yellow metal so much that theyreached the lowest levels seen this year…The HUI Index (goldstocks) broke to new 2021 lows while the USD Index broke to new 2021 highs.Just as I’ve been warning you.Mining stocks’ extremeweakness relative to gold continued yesterday, and while it may seem likethe weakness has t...Read More

Technical analyst Clive Maund charts silver and explains why he believes the metal is in the “perfect” buy spot. Silver is now regarded as the best value hard asset around, and it really doesn’t matter in the long-term whether J. P. Morgan and the other banks try to suppress the price or not. Like gold, it has intrinsic value and, in the situation of high inflation that we are mo...Read More

Inflation softened slightly in July and gold prices rose, but the bullish joy may be premature. How should we respond?Inflation eased a bit in July, but it remained disturbingly high. According to the latest BLS report on inflation, the CPI increased 0.5% in July after rising 0.9% in June. The core CPI, which excludes food and energy, also softened, as it rose 0.3% in July after increasing 0.9% in...Read More

What do the portents say? Well, we’vebeen looking for connections between gold and bitcoin, and we see a chance tofatten the coffers. Read on.But first, let’s talk about gold and theminers. Yesterday’s session provided us with a perfect confirmation of thebearish case in the precious metals sector for the short term.The reason is that what happened wasbearish in two ways:Nothing...Read More

The US economy added almost 1 million jobs in July, building solid ground for tapering. Meanwhile, the PMs’ sandy foundations crumbled spectacularly.Another blow to gold! July’s nonfarm payrolls came in strong. As the chart below shows, the US labor market added 943,000 jobs last month, following 938,000 additions in June (after an upward revision). More than one-third of all gains occ...Read More

Another day, another decline in juniorminers – and another increase in profits from short positions in them.Shouldn’t we expect a rebound though?Well, no. The rebound already happened inlate July and early August, and what we see now is the trend being resumed.Consequently, even if it wasn’t for all the long-term analogies to the2012-2013 declines in gold and goldstocks (HUI Inde...Read More

Overnight, on Sunday and early Monday, Precious Metals and Oil started a fairly big collapse which quickly bottomed and recovered – at least in the Precious Metals markets.  Crude Oil is still moving lower in early trading on Monday, August 9, 2021.  Can we learn anything from the pre-COVID market trends and extrapolate any real-world analysis from this?Precious Metals “Mini...Read More

The precious metals futures markets launched shortly after Richard Nixon closed the gold window and removed the last vestige of gold backing from the Federal Reserve Note. Officials introduced paper gold and silver contracts specifically to increase price volatility and discourage physical ownership of metals.After nearly 50 years, it is safe to say their strategy was a success.It is often excruci...Read More

Again, today’s report will be way shorter than usual, andfocus only on select charts so as to drive position details of all the fivepublications. Let‘s move right into the charts (all courtesy of www.stockcharts.com). S&P 500 and Nasdaq Outlook The tightly tracking each other indices – S&P 500 andNasdaq – are likely to part ways to a degree soon. As Treasury yields...Read More

The US economy added over 900,000 jobs in July, the most in 11 months and well above the market expectations. Part of the reason is the rapid pace of the COVID-19 vaccinations allowing the country to continue to re-open and promote businesses to hire more workers. This action has driven down the US Unemployment Rate to 5.40%, the lowest level since March 2020.In response to the bullish employment...Read More

Here are five Fastmarkets stories you might have missed on Friday September 3 that are worth another look.South American flat-rolled steel import prices decreased during the week ended Friday September 3, with material from countries other than China dominating the market and ahead of November-shipment negotiations.The global aluminium industry...Read More

Total nonfarm payroll employment rose by 235,000 in August, well below reported expectations of 720,000, dimming the likelihood of stimulus tapering.Gold has risen to almost US$1,830 an ounce on the spot market.There were mixed moves among base metals on the London Metal Exchange on Friday.Nickel rose 1.6%, taking it close to the $20,000 mark at $19,829.25 per tonne.In Australia, Alumina added 6.6...Read More

Here are five Fastmarkets stories you might have missed on Friday September 3 that are worth another look.South American flat-rolled steel import prices decreased during the week ended Friday September 3, with material from countries other than China dominating the market and ahead of November-shipment negotiations.The global aluminium industry...Read More

Here are five Fastmarkets stories you might have missed on Friday September 3 that are worth another look.South American flat-rolled steel import prices decreased during the week ended Friday September 3, with material from countries other than China dominating the market and ahead of November-shipment negotiations.The global aluminium industry...Read More

Inflation has risen, but bond yields have declined. Such a divergence is strange — beware gold bulls!Would you like to see something mysterious? If yes, please look at the chart below. It shows the yields on 10-year US Treasuries (red line) and CPI annual inflation rates (blue line) in recent years. As you can see, a huge divergence emerged this year: while inflation surged above 5%, nominal...Read More

Here are five Fastmarkets stories you might have missed on Friday September 3 that are worth another look.South American flat-rolled steel import prices decreased during the week ended Friday September 3, with material from countries other than China dominating the market and ahead of November-shipment negotiations.The global aluminium industry...Read More

Here are five Fastmarkets stories you might have missed on Friday September 3 that are worth another look.South American flat-rolled steel import prices decreased during the week ended Friday September 3, with material from countries other than China dominating the market and ahead of November-shipment negotiations.The global aluminium industry...Read More

RAPAPORT... Diamcor Mining garnered $1 million from three rough tenders held during July and August, as overall demand and pricing exceeded expectations.The company sold 4,330 carats of rough from its Krone-Endora at Venetia deposit in South Africa at an average price of $236 per carat, it said last week. That included several special-size diamonds - weighing over 10.8 carats - Diamcor noted.The m...Read More