StrengthsThe best performing metal this week was palladium, up 17.92 percent on tight supplies and strong demand. One-week lease rates for palladium rose for a seventh day to 32.56 percent. The majority of gold traders and analysts were bullish on gold in the weekly Bloomberg survey, as attention turns to the next stage of the U.S.-China trade deal. Turkey's gold reserves rose $478 million from...Read More

Clint Siegner, Money MetalsNarayana Kocherlakota, the former President of the Federal Reserve bank of Minneapolis wants you to know the Federal Government can never borrow too much money.Our government already borrowed $23 trillion and deficits are expected to exceed $1 trillion per year. He knows many Americans feel anxious about the federal government going bankrupt, and he has a simple soluti...Read More

I've been a hardcore deflationist for so long that it took a wake-up call from the always astute Jesse Felder to jolt me out of my complacency. His latest report is headlined Dr. Copper Could Soon Deliver a Diagnosis of Inflation, and it's an eye-opener. The chart accompanying Felder's think-piece suggests that copper futures have been developing thrust for the last several years that could l...Read More

The IMF now sees growth at 3.3% this year, down from 3.4% and also cut the 2021 forecast to 3.4% from 3.6%. Yet it still lifted the outlook for China to 6%. Slower growth rates imply lower interest rates. Low interest rates along with high inflation will result in continued rise on gold investment demand for the rest of the year. If gold price rise sharply and silver lags, then retail investor...Read More

A summary of base metals premiums from across the globe for the week to Tuesday January 21.Please click...Read More

Prices for steel plate in the United States were flat after producers continued to experience slow bookings in the new year.Attaining the full extent of announced price hikes has posed a challenge for mills after some buyers stocked up in the early stages of an upswing that started in December 2019. A post-New Year's bounce has been elusive so far, with distributors reporting that material has bee...Read More

Here are five Fastmarkets MB stories you might have missed on Tuesday January 21 that are worth another look.China's hot-rolled coil market was quiet on January 21, with producers suspending their operations before the Chinese New Year, while concerns have emerged over post-holiday demand due to the spread of a mysterious respiratory virus that has claimed several lives.SolGold chief executive off...Read More

The London Metal Exchange will on February 1 introduce a reporting process that will increase transparency into levels of off-warrant stocks. The exchange announced the plans in November 2019 and aims to attract more metal back in LME sheds. It is controversial, but its passage into the LME rulebook on February 1 follows a consultation last year. Some market participants are now saying the LME sho...Read More

Zinc and lead smelter Nyrstar has appointed Simon Dent, a longtime sales manager and trader, as its new head of commercial as of January 2020.The role will see Dent leading a commercial team that is responsible for all acid and byproduct...Read More

The three-month nickel price on the London Metal Exchange was lower at the close of trading on Tuesday January 21, settling at its lowest price since December 10 against moderate turnover, while a fresh inflow of some 40,000 tonnes pushed copper futures lower.Nickel's outright price on the LME closed at $13,665 per tonne in the afternoon, settling at its lowest level for more than a month, while t...Read More

The seaborne coking coal market kept steady on Tuesday January 21 even though Australian rail freight operator Aurizon flagged train cancellations following a derailment on Sunday January 19.Fastmarkets indicesPremium hard coking coal, fob DBCT: $152.23 per tonne, unchangedPremium hard coking coal, cfr Jingtang: $160.13 per tonne, unchangedHard coking coal, fob DBCT: $127.01 per tonne, unchangedHa...Read More

The three-month copper price on the London Metal Exchange fell over 1.5% during morning trading on Tuesday January 21, declining below nearby support at the $6,200-per-tonne level, while nickel futures similarly weakened. Copper's outright price on the LME was recently at $6,152 per tonne, a 1.7% drop since yesterday's close and more than $100 per tonne against high turnover. A fresh inf...Read More

Yesterday we said if the cartel could smash, they would smash. Some might call it a flash-sale, however, which could end at any moment...(Silver Doctors Editors) As stated in yesterday's outlook, the next two weeks could see some random smashes on price here and there.On Tuesday morning, it seems the cartel is wasting no time.The selling was heavy into the COMEX open:Gold is holding up slightly b...Read More

Silver could drop to support in the $16 area without doing any significant technical damage...by Clive Maund via StreetwiseTechnical analyst Clive Maund charts silver and predicts a small drop in the price of the metal.If gold is looking set to react back over the short to medium term, which it does, then it implies that silver, which is weaker at this stage in the cycle, is set to react back too....Read More

The three-month nickel price on the London Metal Exchange was lower at the close of trading on Tuesday January 21, settling at its lowest price since December 10 against moderate turnover, while a fresh inflow of some 40,000 tonnes pushed copper futures lower.Nickel's outright price on the LME closed at $13,665 per tonne in the afternoon, settling at its lowest level for more than a month, while t...Read More

Domestic prices for hot-rolled coil in Northern Europe have jumped, with support coming from good order books at mills, solid demand and a lack of competitive import offers, sources told Fastmarkets on Tuesday January 21.Fastmarkets' daily steel HRC index domestic, ex-works Northern Europe, rose by ?,?13.93 per tonne day on day to ?,?463.41 ($513.95) per tonne on Tuesday, from ?,?449.48 per tonne....Read More

Here are five Fastmarkets MB stories you might have missed on Tuesday January 21 that are worth another look.China's hot-rolled coil market was quiet on January 21, with producers suspending their operations before the Chinese New Year, while concerns have emerged over post-holiday demand due to the spread of a mysterious respiratory virus that has claimed several lives.SolGold chief executive off...Read More

Beginning in 2020, Fastmarkets will review its pricing methodologies and price specifications across all its Price Reporting Agency (PRA) divisions - Metals & Mining and Forest Products - on an annual basis rather than twice per year. The decision is in line with the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) principles for PRAs, which sets out global standards for orderly and fa...Read More

Zinc and lead smelter Nyrstar has appointed Simon Dent, a longtime sales manager and trader, as its new head of commercial as of January 2020.The role will see Dent leading a commercial team that is responsible for all acid and byproduct...Read More

The three-month copper price on the London Metal Exchange fell over 1.5% during morning trading on Tuesday January 21, declining below nearby support at the $6,200-per-tonne level, while nickel futures similarly weakened. Copper's outright price on the LME was recently at $6,152 per tonne, a 1.7% drop since yesterday's close and more than $100 per tonne against high turnover. A fresh inf...Read More