Here are five Fastmarkets MB stories from Monday September 23 that are worth another look.China has announced a fourth round of copper scrap import quotas to allow an extra 31,658 tonnes of copper scrap into the country by the end of 2019, the environmental ministry said on September 23.Faced with high and increasing emissions costs during a period of challenging market conditions, the steel indus...Read More

Daniel R. Amerman, CFAOne of the most common reasons to buy gold is to use it as a stable store of value. This analysis uses 50 years of history to test that common belief, and finds it woefully lacking - for it misses the best parts of investing in gold.The graph above will be developed, and we will show that gold is instead a more sophisticated (and desirable) investment than most people reali...Read More

Dave KranzlerIt would be difficult to find a chart with a more bullish set-up than that of GDX unless it was a chart of the imminent move higher in the U.S. dollar money supply:The Fed was unable to move the Fed funds rate within 50% of the its long term average "normalized" level. It was also unable to unwind little more than 20% of the money it printed under Bernanke and Yellen, despite Bern...Read More

U.S. Overnight Repo Rate Source: www.tradingeconomics.com , www.stlouisfed.orgAs expected, the Fed cut the key banking rate another quarter point this past week to 1.75%-2.00%. It is the second cut this year. Expectations by many are for one more, but there are many who expect the Fed to be done for the year. The Fed as usual was ambiguous. If there is one more, we would not expect it to happe...Read More

Peter DegraafLong term trends take a long time to reverse. One such trend compares gold mining stocks to the S&P 500 stocks. From 2002 until 2011 gold mining stocks outperformed generic stocks, as can be seen in the following chart. (Charts courtesy Stockcharts.com)The trend unmistakably featured mining stocks ($HUI) over the S&P 500 stocks. From 2011 until recently, the trend...Read More

Sept. 20th, 2019(S14-E714)Featured GuestsMichael Pento& Bob HoyePlease Listen HereInterview Recap.Bob Hoye, Editor & Chief Investment Strategist of Bob Hoye.com rejoins the show with insights on US Fed.Bob Hoye draws parallels between the declining yield curve today and that of the Great Depression.The global economy could enter an intractable downturn, beginning with a financial market declin...Read More

By: Avi GilburtThe pundits and the media were debating for several weeks leading up to the last Fed meeting about what the Fed was going to do and the effect they thought it would have on the market. And, it amazes that the great majority of the market does not realize how much of a waste of time these debates really are. But, as I often note, many market participants and analysts are simply...Read More

- Keith WeinerSomething happened in the credit market this week. A Barron's article about it began:"There have been disruptions in the plumbing of U.S. markets this week. While the process of fixing them was bumpy, it was more of a technical mishap than a cause for investor concern."Keep Calm and Carry OnSo, before they tell us what happened, they tell us it's just plumbing, it's been fixed,...Read More

David HaggithWell, that didn't take long! Four days ago, I stated the following in an article titled "Why are Bonds Going for Broke?":Central banks are losing control, and are admitting they don't even understand what is happening.I quoted St. Louis Reserve Bank president, James Bullard, who commented"Something is going on, and that's causing I think a total rethink of central banking and all...Read More

Dear Friend of GATA and Gold:Why did the London Bullion Market Association drop JPMorganChase commodity trading desk chief Michael Nowak from its board of directors this week?Probably not because Nowak was indicted by the U.S Justice Department, accused of racketeering with other Morgan traders in part of the longstanding manipulation of the monetary metals markets. For the indictment was anno...Read More

StrengthsThe best performing metal this week was silver, up 3.16 percent, as gold rebounded this week. As gold was set for a small weekly gain for the first week in four, traders were mostly bullish or neutral on bullion's trajectory in the weekly Bloomberg survey. Palladium, however, rallied as much as 1.8 percent to a record $1,648.65 an ounce for its best run since 2012 with seven weeks of...Read More

We anticipate using further setbacks as an opportunity to re-establish full positions using 5,000 COMEX silver options.The first thing one notices when looking at a weekly gold chart is how much further along it is than its poorer cousin.Sugar, coffee and cotton are all within striking distance of ten-year lows.We knew it was coming... The correction in the precious metals we talked about in our l...Read More

With the price coming back above the average price of $1508, it activated a S1 target of $1524 to a S2 of $1548.A second close below $1508 will activate the B1 of $1484 to B2 of $1468.Traders who go long, use $1508 as your protective level on a close below using the 15-minute bar.Gold: Looking Forward If we look at the weekly indicators, the market after the Fed rate-cut announcement collapsed to...Read More

The Gold Shares ETF stayed above its monthly pivot at $138.57 last week as the weekly chart remains positive but overbought.The Commodities ETF broke out above its "reversion to the mean" at $15.41, which then held on weakness after trading as high as $16.26 last week.The Long Dollar ETF failed at its monthly risky level at $26.99 at the Sept. 3 high, but remains well above its annual an...Read More

Faced with high and increasing emissions costs during a period of challenging market conditions, the steel industry is driving a change toward carbon neutral and fossil-fuel-free steel production in a bid to evolve and stay afloat.Many European steel producers have reported significant falls in profits in recent results due to weaker demand for steel during an economic downturn, the disruption of...Read More

Gold prices finished higher Friday to end the week with a gain for the first time in about a month, as President Donald Trump announced more sanctions on Iran and China reportedly cut short its trade negotiations with the U.S., fueling haven demand for the precious metal. "The confrontation with Iran [is] still very real," said Jeff Wright, executive vice president of GoldMining Inc. "So you have...Read More

The three-month zinc price on the London Metal Exchange was higher at the close of trading on Monday September 23, closing above the $2.300 per tonne threshold and topping the gains in the base metals complex, while sister-metal lead fell furthest over the afternoon.Zinc futures closed at $2,331 per tonne in the afternoon, breaching nearby resistance despite moderately thin turnover, with just ove...Read More

China's domestic hot-rolled coil prices rebounded on Monday September 23 with market participants expecting a supply drop due to production cuts, while exporters remained relatively conservative amid fierce competition from abroad.DomesticEastern China (Shanghai): 3,650-3,670 yuan ($515-517) per tonne, up 50-60 yuan per tonneNorthern China (Tangshan): 3,600 yuan per tonne, up 40-60 yuan per tonneB...Read More

Trading activity for seaborne coking coal was muted on Monday September 23, with market participants awaiting fresh offers.Premium hard coking coal, fob DBCT: $128.19 per tonne, unchangedPremium hard coking coal, cfr Jingtang: $154.98 per tonne, unchangedHard coking coal, fob DBCT: $122.50 per tonne, unchangedHard coking coal, cfr Jingtang: $132.76 per tonne, unchangedLow-vol PCI, fob DBCT: $98.94...Read More

Turkey produced 22.55 million tonnes of crude steel in January-August 2019, down by 10.46% from 25.19 million tonnes in the corresponding eight-month period of last year, the Turkish Steel Producers Association (T???oeD) said last week.The drop in output was largely attributed to subdued end-user demand and weakening export markets for Turkish steel.The European Commission (EC) imposed definitive...Read More