Dear Friend of GATA and Gold:Our friend Stuart Englert, who is writing a book on gold price suppression, calls attention to a declassified 1970 Central Intelligence Agency memorandum asserting that the Special Drawing Rights of the International Monetary Fund were created in 1967 in large part to reduce the world's demand for gold and particularly to reduce exchange of U.S. dollars, the world re...Read More

Friday's subdued rally had more than a faint whiff of distribution about it. DaBoyz had shorts on the run in the early going, with the Dow up about 230 points in the first hour. But instead of reaming bears a new orifice as we might have expected, the erstwhile Masters of the Universe struggled merely to maintain altitude and eventually had to close the broad averages well off their intraday h...Read More

Look for signs of profit taking in all metals and energies as traders leave for Christmas and New Year vacations. China will lower trade tariff on a host of products ranging from pork to some type of semi-conductor. Gold and silver should fall as a result of Chinese move. Right now gold and silver are firm due to Trump and his impeachment. But they will be vulnerable to sharp correction any time...Read More

Simple ConceitRadical ActionsBallooning Balance SheetMerry Christmas and the Happiest New YearIgnoring problems rarely solves them. You need to deal with them not just the effects, but the underlying causes, or else they usually get worse. The older you get, the more you know that is true in almost every area of life.In the developed world and especially the US, and even in China, our economic c...Read More

The China Solid Waste and Chemicals Management Bureau will allow up to 275,465 tonnes of aluminium scrap shipments into the country in the first batch of import quotas for 2020. The volume is significantly higher than for December, which was set at 9,844 tonnes of aluminium scrap - down from 13,770 tonnes in the previous quota. This, in turn, was less than the 44,935 tonnes issued in October....Read More

The export market for hot-rolled coil and cold-rolled coil from the Commonwealth of Independent States was strong ahead of the holiday period, sources told Fastmarkets on Monday December 23.Fastmarkets' weekly price assessment for steel HRC, export, fob Black Sea was $460-475 per tonne on Monday, widening upward from $460-470 per tonne a week earlier.Offers for Russia-origin HRC were heard at...Read More

Here are five Fastmarkets MB stories you might have missed on Monday December 23 that are worth another look....Read More

Nenad Kerkez16 hours ago (Dec 23, 2019 8:42 AM GMT)1475 zone looks very supportive. We see ascending trend line and a potential for ascending scallop pattern. Higher time frames are also bullish and we should see another attempt to proceed further up towards 1490 and 1493. If the price manages to close above 1493, then 1500 is next.At this point its all about bulls. We might see a retracement down...Read More

Tomasz Wi?>niewski13 hours ago (Dec 23, 2019 11:49 AM GMT)Despite traders slowly falling in the winter dream, we still managed to find three great trading setups.First one is Gold, which is quite surprisingly going up today. Surprisingly because the USD is stronger and stocks are higher. So two, usually negative factors for the bullion are present on the market. This rise is even more weird as it...Read More

The fate of indium stocks once held by the failed Fanya Metal Exchange and due to be auctioned this week will remain a major concern for indium market participants going into 2020.An upcoming auction on Sunday December 29 for Fanya's 3,609.5 tonnes of indium is likely to be the last held for the now defunct exchange's hefty minor metals inventories, but the uncertainty clouding the indium market w...Read More

Zinc was the worst performer at the London Metal Exchange 5pm close on Monday December 23, while the other base metals consolidated in quiet market conditions. The three-month zinc price closed 2% lower at $2,291 per tonne, due to weak fundamentals triggering a sell-off. The metal has been retreating after it failed to stabilize above $2,300 per tonne last week. "The stronger than expected sell-o...Read More

Seaborne coking coal prices stayed largely rangebound on Monday December 23, while market expectations for PCI prices were softer.Fastmarkets indicesPremium hard coking coal, fob DBCT: $134.97 per tonne, down $0.81 per tonnePremium hard coking coal, cfr Jingtang: $147.47 per tonne, unchangedHard coking coal, fob DBCT: $122.33 per tonne, unchangedHard coking coal, cfr Jingtang: $134.99 per tonne, u...Read More

China's domestic hot-rolled coil prices gained on Monday December 23 as supply remained short in the east of the country, but a mill based in northern China exported material at a low level despite high offers, market participants said.DomesticEastern China (Shanghai): 3,900-3,910 yuan ($556-558) per tonne, up 30 yuan per tonneNorthern China (Tangshan): 3,640-3,650 yuan per tonne, widening upward...Read More

Billet exporters in the Commonwealth of Independent States saw a splash of demand from Saudi Arabia this week, with several cargoes heard booked, while most other markets remained quiet, market participants said.Two cargoes of billet with increased manganese content, each around 50,000 tonnes and scheduled for shipment in February, were sold to Saudi Arabia at the end of last week within the range...Read More

Zinc was the worst performer at the London Metal Exchange 5pm close on Monday December 23, while the other base metals consolidated in quiet market conditions. The three-month zinc price closed 2% lower at $2,291 per tonne, due to weak fundamentals triggering a sell-off. The metal has been retreating after it failed to stabilize above $2,300 per tonne last week. "The stronger than expected sell-o...Read More

Recylex has placed three companies including German primary smelter Weser-Metall up for sale, with the European lead producer forced to offload assets to reduce outstanding debts of ?,?200 million ($221.4 million)."The group is working on the disposals of PPM Pure Metals GmbH, for which it has already received expressions of interest, Norzinco GmbH and Weser-Metall GmbH," it said in a statement la...Read More

Peter Waszkis will retire as chief executive officer of warehouse and logistics provider Access World next February 2020, the company said in a news release on December 20.After becoming CEO in 2006, Waszkis led the company's push into Asian markets, helping it become one of the leading...Read More

The London Metal Exchange aluminium price was relatively steady during morning trading on Monday December 23, shrugging off a large cancellation of 107,125 tonnes from LME warehouses. Most of the cancellations were at warehouses in Port Klang and Singapore, while there were also 4,625 tonnes canceled in Rotterdam as well. The three-month aluminium contract traded at $1,807 per tonne at 9:45 am Lon...Read More

Daily PDFs will be downloadable until Wednesday December 25. After that, because of the Christmas and New Year holidays, the next daily PDF will be downloadable on Friday January 3, 2020.Read More

Base metals prices on the Shanghai Futures Exchange mostly softened during morning trading on Monday December 23, with the exception of the most-traded nickel contract, which bucked the trend with a 1.6% increase.Most investors stayed on the sidelines despite a partial resolution of the trade war between China and the United States.On Sunday, the Chinese finance ministry said it would lower tariff...Read More