By: Ira EpsteinCoronavirus impact on supply chains coming? Bigger picture on the gold market: monthly uptrend is bullish, bias is up, momentum is still up. 18 month moving averages is still over the 100 month, another bullish sign.Read More

Silver is expected to begin the 2020s newly burnished, through acombination of higher industrial and investment demand, and tightened supplyowing to mine production issues and output cuts. If it does, it would be thecontinuation of a trend that started last year. 2019 was an excellent year for gold and silver. Both metalsbegan to run last summer after the US Federal Reserve started cutting in...Read More

Here are five Fastmarkets MB stories you might have missed on Friday February 7 that are worth another look.Prices in Southeast Asia's steel billet market have tumbled last week amid speculation that Chinese billet importers could annul contracts on the grounds of virus-related force majeure.China has halved tariffs on a slew of US-sourced metals and minerals including copper cathodes and rare ear...Read More

YESTERDAY in GOLD, SILVER, PLATINUM and PALLADIUMBy Ed Steer08 February 2020 -- Saturday The gold price wandered around a few dollars either side of unchanged on Friday -- and that lasted until the job numbers hit the tape at 8:30 a.m. in New York. It rallied a bit from there, but obviously ran into 'something' a few minute after the 9:30 open of the equity markets. Once the 10 a.m. EST a...Read More

What underlies the tremendous runup in the price of Palladium and now the giant spike in Tesla stock? They are connected. Tesla stock has spiked despite its self-driving cars doing strange things like running people over and spontaneously combusting. The reason for this is the relentless drive towards electric cars which will result in a massive increase in demand for palladium and electric car...Read More

By Robert LambourneSince May 2019 the Bank for International Settlements, which represents most central banks, has increased its use of gold swaps and other gold-related derivatives by more than 400 percent, from an estimated 78 tonnes to an estimated 320 tonnesThe BIS uses gold swaps and other gold derivatives to gain access to gold held by commercial banks. According to the bank's January 31 s...Read More

By: Ira EpsteinCoronavirus impact on supply chains coming? Bigger picture on the gold market: monthly uptrend is bullish, bias is up, momentum is still up. 18 month moving averages is still over the 100 month, another bullish sign.Read More

Viral ThreatNot Good EnoughOverwhelming StimulusBut What About Government Deficits?And Then There Is the Fed...Dallas and New YorkEconomists and investors are rightly obsessed with growth. We always want more of it. We worry it won't come or, worse, might turn into contraction. Economists of all stripes, from Paul Krugman to Lacy Hunt, recognize economic growth cures all manner of ills.Yet, exac...Read More

From a current-technicals standpoint, the silver stocks are looking better than the gold stocks these days!by Adam Hamilton of Zeal LLCThe silver miners' stocks are looking interesting. While they really lagged silver's surge on gold's bull-market-breakout rally last summer, their upleg since remains intact. Gold stocks' own upleg peaked in early September. And silver itself remains wildly u...Read More

Here are five Fastmarkets MB stories you might have missed on Friday February 7 that are worth another look.Prices in Southeast Asia's steel billet market have tumbled last week amid speculation that Chinese billet importers could annul contracts on the grounds of virus-related force majeure.China has halved tariffs on a slew of US-sourced metals and minerals including copper cathodes and rare ear...Read More

RAPAPORT... Grib Diamonds has started buying rough in Angola, as a new company structure has enabled it to diversify beyond its one mine in Russia.The Antwerp-based company, which markets most of the Grib deposit's diamonds, is looking to source goods from a broader range of locations.Grib Diamonds is now a subsidiary of AGD Diamonds, which operates the site in the Arkhangelsk region, whereas...Read More

RAPAPORT... Polished-diamond imports to Hong Kong declined 13% in 2019 according to data from the Diamond Federation of Hong Kong, China. Polished imports fell 17% in the fourth quarter, the official figures showed. The decline reflected a slowdown in the diamond market amid weak consumer sentiment and social unrest in the municipality.  Hong Kong Trade Data for 2019Read More

RAPAPORT... A court has awarded a limited victory to De Beers' synthetic-diamond production unit in a patent dispute with Singapore-based grower IIa Technologies.IIa infringed an Element Six patent related to diamond material that's usable for lab-grown diamond jewelry and industrial applications, according to a High Court of Singapore judgment Friday. However, another Element Six patent for...Read More

RAPAPORT... Botswana's diamond trade took center stage in the newest episode of a documentary highlighting sustainability in the fashion industry.The Fashionscapes films were created by Livia Firth, wife of actor Colin Firth, and cofounder and creative director of sustainability and communications consultancy Eco-Age. A screening of the film, which Firth created together with director Andrew...Read More

(IDEX Online) - Reports in the Indian press highlight the worry that many diamond traders are feeling about the effects of the ongoing coronavirus outbreak. While there have been isolated incidents of the disease in India, most people are more worried about the effects on the country's diamond trade - especially in Surat.According to the media, the Surat industry could face losses of around R...Read More

(IDEX Online) - The High Court of Singapore has ruled that IIa Technologies has infringed on an Element Six patent for proprietary synthetic diamond products and their method of manufacture (Singapore patent number 115872).The patent relates to the production of material that can be used in lab-grown diamond jewelry and in optical applications such as infrared spectroscopy and high-power laser opt...Read More

"Zimbabwe gold mine collapse leaves at least 2 dead, 20 trapped in illegal operation: state media https://t.co/mVHi3camap"Read full newsRead More

Eagle Mine. Image by Victoria Gold Corp.As it ramps up the Eagle gold mine in Canada's Yukon Territories, Victoria Gold has announced a C$5 million flow-through financing, intending to issue 572,659 flow-through shares at C$8.73 each. It has the option, exerciseable until closing, of issuing an additional 114,532 shares for proceeds of C$1 million. Closing is expected around Feb. 25 with the secu...Read More

Rubicon Minerals' Phoenix gold project in Ontario's Red Lake camp. Credit: Rubicon Minerals. Rubicon Minerals has announced an C$8 million flow-through bought deal, upsized from C$6 million previously, led by Cormark Securities. Rubicon will now issue 5.6 million common shares at C$1.43 per share with the underwriters having the option to purchase up to an additional 694,000 flow-through shares,...Read More

$5.7 billion...That's how much money Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) short sellers lost in just two days.To put that in perspective, that is more money than the Dallas Cowboys - America's most valuable sports team - are worth.On Monday, people betting against the electric car giant lost $3.1 billion. That same day, Elon Musk, the charismatic CEO of the company, made himself $4.4 billion.Tuesday was like a la...Read More