The price of steel slab exports from Brazil increased in the first full week of January 2020 with higher demand from North American buyers.Fastmarkets' weekly price assessment for steel slab export, fob main port Brazil, was $415-425 per tonne on January 10, rising from $395-405 per tonne on January 3.Virtually all Brazilian slab producers have increased their offer prices for March-shipment batch...Read More
Base metals prices on the London Metal Exchange consolidated higher at the close of trading on Friday January 10, edging slightly upward on moderately low turnover, while volatility in the aluminium complex saw strong stock moves make little change to its outright price.Aluminium's underlying price settled at $1,806 per tonne in the afternoon, a climb of just 0.1% over the day, while the total vol...Read More
So,did U.S. and Iran just become best friends?Gold’shuge reversal and a decline of about $50 in 24 hours might certainly suggest soto those, who choose to follow the news instead of estimating market’s movesusing more reliable tools.Ofcourse, the two countries are not on friendly terms at this time. So, whathappened that gold declined so much, so fast? Let’s start with going over...Read More
Another wild week for oil traders with missiles flying and huge overnight price swings in crude. As we recently pointed out within our current Oil research article, Oil and the Energy sector may be setting up for another great trade. We recently commented on how the supply/demand situation for oil has changed over the past 20+ years. With US oil production near highs and a shift taking...Read More
Technical analyst Clive Maund discusses the effects of geopolitics on the price of gold. In this update I am not going to repeat the points made in the last fairly comprehensive update, instead we are going to focus on the importance of the resistance level just above where the price is now, and impact of the killing of the Iranian general and its potential implications for the gold price. On the...Read More
Let’s put the geopolitical gyrations in oil into aproper perspective by taking a look at the monthly chart. The overall situationhasn’t changed much as crude oil is still trading inside the blue consolidationbelow three very important resistances (the red and orange bearishgaps and the 61.8% Fibonacci retracement), which form the key resistance zonefor the coming week(s). Additionally,...Read More
Santa Claus rally in Gold and Silver Crowns a very good yearIt was a very good year for precious metals. Gold posted a nearly 19% gain and silver rose over 17%. As you can see in the chart below, the move higher began in early summer defying the annual summer doldrums, hit an impasse during autumn, then ended the year with a surprise Santa Claus rally that took it over the $1520 mark....Read More
Gold COT Report - Futures Large SpeculatorsCommercialTotal LongShortSpreadingLongShortLongShort 383,48061,189139,363202,452558,533725,295759,085 Change from Prior Reporting Period 1,8607,494-1,248-473-10,883139-4,637 Traders 23670875458324185 Small Speculators LongShortOpen Interest 60,56226,772785,857 -4484,328-309 non reportable positionsChange fr...Read More
- Richard (Rick) MillsGold's safe haven status was tested this week, as Iran countered the assassination of its top military commander with missile strikes against two Iraqi bases housing US troops.On Tuesday night Tehran fired over a dozen missiles at the Al-Asad airbase and Erbil airport, in obvious retaliation against an American drone strike a few days earlier that killed General Qasse...Read More
Gold dramatically surged to major new secular highs this past week, fueled by stunning geopolitical news. The US assassinated Iran's top general, so Iran fired ballistic missiles at military bases in Iraq used by the US. That naturally ramped gold bullishness, spawning all kinds of predictions for much-higher prices. But geopolitically-driven gold spikes never last long, and the gold buy...Read More
- Rob KirbyDuring the run-up to year end, the narrative being fed to the population by the Wall St./Fed crowd was that massive liquidity [cash] injections were required in the banking system to ensure there were no "accidents" over the "turn" of the year end calendar to 2020. We've all been treated to some pretty sophisticated technical explanations by Wall Street and Fed mavens about the in...Read More
- Gary TanashianOnce again I have to disclaim that at the moment (and for quite some time now) I hold not one single short position, in anything. I am only long US and global stocks. But also managing cash and portfolio balance as usual while feeling as though I'm playing a game of Musical Chairs while the music still plays (nothing nearly as good as Keith's style, which has always resonated w...Read More
By: Avi GilburtOriginally published on Sat Jan 4 for members of ElliottWaveTrader.net: Back in October and early November, I was preparing our members for the next rally phase I was expecting in the metals complex. And, when the 144-minute MACD on the silver chart signaled a bottom in early December, I noted it was no longer time to look down, but we need to be looking higher in a more s...Read More
By: Ira EpsteinGold needs an impetus in the near-term to get gold back to early week highs:Read More
Traders will either close short positions or go long on the weekend. Iranian risk is there. My initial reaction after the news of Ukrainian airlines crash in Tehran was that of a missile hit. I may be right. USA, Canada and UK are all now saying that Ukrainian airlines was hit an Iranian missile. In my view missile may or may not be Iranian. NATO/USA has started the escalation of war like situat...Read More
Normally, after tensions between Iran/Iraq and the US flare-up, Oil and Gold rally quite extensively but reversed sharply lower by the end of the session. Yes, Gold is 1% higher today and was up over $35 overnight, but Crude Oil has actually moved lower today which is a fairly strong indication that disruptions in oil supply from the Middle East are not as concerning as they were 10+ years ag...Read More
Gold and silver investors buy metals because they are scarce.Precious metals are by nature difficult to find, and hard to produce.Consequently, above ground stocks are limited and valuable, particularly whenpriced in unlimited fiat currencies. The bankers and government officials behind these fiat currencysystems don’t like stable monetary benchmarks such as gold putting theirinflation schem...Read More
Another year of covering commodities and select junior mining stocks is all but done and dusted. We’ve seen palladium prices more than double those of platinum, its sister metal, on tight supply and high demand for catalytic converters in gas-powered vehicles, as smog-belching diesel cars and trucks get phased out to meet tighter air emissions standards particularly in Europe...Read More
We often cover the ongoing JPMorgan silver bullion saga here. It seems we have a new twist in the ongoing story since JPMorgan's takeover of the bankrupt Bear Sterns short silver position in early 2008.Late last year, in early November 2019, CBS’ 60 Minutes show did a puff Public Relations piece for the CEO of the world’s largest and Global Systematic Important Bank.Here we see 60 Minu...Read More
Gold miners’ stocksblasted higher this past week, breaking out of their correction downtrend. Rapidly-improving psychology fueled suchstrong upside momentum that sector benchmarks are challenging months-old upleg highs. Most traders assume this is righteous, that goldstocks’ next upleg is starting to accelerate. But key indicators argue the contrarian side, that this b...Read More