Fastmarkets will publish its price assessments for standard and alloy-grade cobalt, in-whs Rotterdam, on a daily basis from Monday February 3, 2020.Join members of Fastmarkets' editorial and pricing team for a discussion on the results from its recent consultation on cobalt pricing frequency, insights from Fastmarkets' pricing database and details on the practicalities of daily cobalt pricing. Cli...Read More

Rick Perry wrapped up his final day as head of the Energy Department yesterday thanking his family, the American people, and the Trump administration for allowing him to serve the agency.Perry wrote in a tweet on Sunday, "Today I bid farewell to the Department of @ENERGY. It has been the honor and privilege of a lifetime to serve in the @realDonaldTrump Administration as your Secretary. Thank you...Read More

Fastmarkets will increase the frequency of its benchmark price assessments for standard and alloy-grade cobalt, in-whs Rotterdam, to daily from Monday February 3, 2020.From February 3, Fastmarkets will assess prices for the following two markets on a daily basis: Cobalt alloy grade, in-whs Rotterdam, $/lb Cobalt standard grade, in-whs Rotterdam, $/lb The decision to increase frequency follows an e...Read More

Belgian battery-materials manufacturer Umicore has completed its purchase of cobalt refining and cathode precursor activities in Kokkola, Finland, from Freeport Cobalt for $203 million. The purchase is on a debt and cash-free basis and includes about $50 million of net working capital. It is anticipated that the acquisition will be earnings accretive from 2020 and value accretive from 2021, Umicor...Read More

Thank you for joining us in a weekly technical look at the mid-cap oriented INK Canadian Insider (CIN) Index. The INK CIN extended its powerful ascent last week after just a slight pause the week prior. The Index shot up 15.99 points to carve out a brand new 2019-high at 1172.23 for a 1.4% gain.RSI rose 6.61 points to 79.89. MACD added 0.02 to 0.29. What's noteworthy is that our short-term moment...Read More

Here are five Fastmarkets MB stories you might have missed on Monday December 2 that are worth another look.United States President Donald Trump has imposed new tariffs on steel and aluminium imports from Brazil and Argentina, he said on social media platform Twitter on December 2.A major Japanese steel mill plans to raise its hot-rolled coil offers to Asian buyers by $50 per tonne on a cfr b...Read More

Hot-rolled coil prices in the United States went up slightly on consistently and firmly higher offer prices at mills, but the market was largely unchanged compared with the short working week before the national Thanksgiving holiday, celebrated Thursday November 28.Fastmarkets' daily steel hot-rolled coil index, fob mill US was calculated at $27.79 per hundredweight ($555.80 per short ton) on...Read More

Brazilian steelmaker Usiminas will increase domestic steel prices by an additional 5% in January 2020, following a previous notification of a 5% hike to be implemented in the fourth quarter this year.The company saw the opportunity to raise its flat-steel prices amid the unfavorable currency exchange for imports in the country and the current global uptrend, commercial vice president Miguel Homes...Read More

Singapore rebar import prices have risen in the past week on higher raw materials prices.Fastmarkets' weekly price assessment for steel reinforcing bar (rebar) import, cfr Singapore, which mainly looks at cargoes sold into Singapore on a theoretical-weight basis, was at $430-440 per tonne in the week to Monday December 2, widening upwards by $5 per tonne.Offers for Qatari rebar were at $445-4...Read More

Northern China's rebar prices decreased on Monday December 2 on weakening demand, but those in eastern China held steady amid support from gains in the futures market. Eastern China (Shanghai): 4,010-4,040 yuan ($570-575) per tonne, unchangedNorthern China (Beijing): 3,760-3,790 yuan per tonne, down 20-30 yuan per tonne Average working hours at construction sites in northern areas o...Read More

The latest bids, offers and deals in the global markets for rebar, wire rod, beams and other long steel products. Latest transaction: rebarRebar East China, domestic, grade...Read More

Turkish steel producers continued to book deep-sea scrap for January shipment at steady prices, but at a slower pace, sources told Fastmarkets on Monday December 2.A steel mill in the Marmara region booked a US cargo late on Friday November 29, comprising 10,000 tonnes of HMS 1&2 (80:20) at $272 per tonne and 30,000 tonnes of shredded at $277 per tonne cfr.This was the first US deal since November...Read More

Gold COT Report - Futures Large SpeculatorsCommercialTotal LongShortSpreadingLongShortLongShort 325,28653,65293,522191,548497,015610,356644,189 Change from Prior Reporting Period -12,0102,215-16,214-15,078-28,706-43,302-42,705 Traders 18560794955265170 Small Speculators LongShortOpen Interest 58,91225,079669,268 -6,641-7,238-49,943 non reportable po...Read More

Strengths? The best performing metal for the week was palladium, up 3.66 percent. Palladium reached a fresh record this week, reports Bloomberg, hitting $1,842.76 an ounce and extending this year's rally to 46 percent. Gold also witnessed safe haven buying following Trump's signing of a bill supporting Hong Kong protestors. Despite renewed hopes for a U.S.-China trade pact, hol...Read More

By: Larry LaBorde When considering the space requirements of $1,000,000, the first question is in what form? I will try to illustrate the volume and weight of $1 million dollars in three forms: $100 bills, gold eagle coins and silver eagle coins. I have had some customers surprised by the volume of metals they have ordered when it arrives. Some have been overwhelmed (usually with silver)...Read More

By: Gary Savage After 2013, we started see these huge pre-market dumps in gold. Banks playing the markets with massive contract dumps on the markets, in five minutes or less, usually in the pre-market where that contract volume size will start to..Read More

Keith Weiner, Monetary MetalsThe basic idea behind the Quantity Theory of Money could be stated as: too much money supply is chasing too little goods supply, so prices rise. We have debunked this from several angles. For example, we can use a technique that every first year student in physics is expected to know. Dimensional analysis looks at the units on both sides of an equation.Money supply...Read More

Dear Friend of GATA and Gold:Our friend J.D. writes today:"I write regarding the interesting response you received from Shawn Elizabeth Phillips, corporate secretary at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, by e-mail dated November 13, 2019:http://www.gata.org/node/19583"The New York Fed's response points to purported Dodd-Frank law rules prohibiting disclosing for two years of the identities of...Read More

The next two weeks are big global economic data days and central banks meetings (including FOMC). Eastern European central banks have started increasing gold reserves. Those central banks whose gold have been stored in vaults in UK have started to repatriate their gold or have given their intention to take back their gold. But bank of England is not giving gold to South American nations. This wi...Read More

The 62% Fe iron ore market trended lower in November, with prices falling 5.5% month on month, while the 65% price fell 1% from October. Traded volumes in the 65% Fe derivatives contract on the Singapore Exchange, which is settled against Fastmarkets' daily 65% Fe iron ore index, were 2.27 million tonnes in November, the second-highest total since its launch in December 2018. Open interest on Nove...Read More