This week gold priceshave smashed one record after another, well surpassing the previous high set in2011, of $1,920 an ounce. At time of writing, spotgold’s last bid was $2,064.10.The usual suspects arebehind the surge, ie., worrisome covid-19 infections, geopolitical concernsespecially US-China tensions over trade (PresidentTrump tried to force China-owned TikTok into selling its US op...Read More

For a long time, pundits talked excitedly about the rapid, V-shaped recovery. I never shared this view, finding it too optimistic and without basis in reality. Like Jeff Goldblum in Jurassic Park, I hate being right all the time, but it really seems that I was right about this issue. According to the July World Flash report by IHS Markit, we can read that “the new wave of infections has redu...Read More

The three-month price of nickel on the London Metal Exchange was higher at the close of trading on Monday August 24, outperforming its peers and closing a little more than 1% higher, while the entire base-metals complex was given a boost by a rally in global equity markets.Nickel's outright price closed at $14,926 per tonne on Monday afternoon, its highest closing price since November 2019, and co...Read More

The term ‘unprecedented’ has been used to explain 2020 throughout the world. Whether it be the simultaneous triple bubble that is currently being experienced within equity, bond, and real estate markets, or the volume of quantitative easing deployed by central banks in order to combat Covid-19, 2020 has been an unprecedented year thus far to say the least. Safety and stability of capit...Read More

Tonight I would like to go over some PM charts looking for a possible place for our current impulse move to find some strong resistance that could lead to the next consolidation phase. It’s not going to be easy as there are several possibilities that could work. Lets put the Chartology to work and see what we come up with.There was something fairly rare last week that happened to gold which...Read More

Seaborne iron ore prices eased for the second consecutive trading session on Monday August 24 amid limited trading activity, according to trade sources.Fastmarkets iron ore indices62% Fe fines, cfr Qingdao: $125.23 per tonne, down by $2.15 per tonne.62% Fe low-alumina fines, cfr Qingdao: $124.78 per tonne, down by $1.93 per tonne.58% Fe fines high-grade premium, cfr Qingdao: $111.21 per tonne, dow...Read More

Canadians, at least thosefortunate enough to enjoy a long weekend, returned to their desks Tuesdayto watch gold prices crack another milestone - $2,000 per ounce - as thespectacular summer rally for the precious metal continues. At time of writing, spotgold’s last bid was $2,019.20, marking a $42 gain since Monday’s tradingsession. Silver prices also experienced a major leg u...Read More

Seaborne coking coal prices were relatively flat on Monday August 24 due to a lack of transactions, sources told Fastmarkets. Fastmarkets indicesPremium hard coking coal, fob DBCT: $104.09 per tonne, down $0.62 per tonne Premium hard coking coal, cfr Jingtang: $114.63 per tonne, unchangedHard coking coal, fob DBCT: $85.19 per tonne, unchangedHard coking coal,...Read More

The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view. We also review our price forecasting accuracy for the second quarter 2020.Q2 2020 price forecast performance review According to the results of Fastmarkets' Apex for the second quarter of 2020 published this week, Fastmarkets' base metals research team was the second most accurate price forecaster for nickel (99.06%), lead...Read More

The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.Aluminium: Comfortable consolidationAluminium appears comfortable consolidating for the moment, and this will leave prices in a stronger position to challenge overhanging long-term trend-line resistance from the May 2018 high, which stands at $1,670 per tonne currently.Copper: Consolidation unlikely to lastCopper reached its...Read More

Now, I have not gone raving silver bug on you. The title says “silver bull” because that is what silver is in, a bull market by definition of having taken out the 2016 high of 21.23. We targeted that point as a cyclical bull market gateway, silver cut through it like a knife through warm butter… and there you have it. A key higher high. I don’t apologize for any of the abo...Read More

This inflation-adjusted silver chart (frommacrotrends.net) tells an interesting story:The levelaround $18 appears to have been very critical, especially since it is the 1920and 1968 inflation adjusted high. It was an important level to cross on theway to the 1980 high, evidenced by the fact that it came back to that level(after it blast through in Dec 1973) before setting off to that all-time high...Read More

The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.Aluminium: Upside breakout last weekThe price of aluminium on the London Metal Exchange surprised us with a break to the upside in the week ended July 10, when prices on the Shanghai Futures Exchange raced to three-and-a-half-year highs. While we think there is more short-term upside potential if technical and liquidity fact...Read More

The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.Aluminium: Capped by oversupplyA lack of a meaningful supply adjustment to the Covid-19 demand hit is keeping the aluminium physical market oversupplied and weighing on prices, limiting the success of more buoyant macro and technical forces on prices. Our premium forecasts are under review in light of threats from the U...Read More

First, we want to say “It took long enough!” and we’re happy to see this upside move in Natural Gas.  We had been calling this move for many months.  Our predictive modeling systems and cycle systems suggested the extended bottoming formation in Natural Gas was an excellent opportunity for skilled technical traders.  Today’s big move suggests the downside pri...Read More

The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.US market at risk of slidingPrices for pipe products were at a floor in the United States in mid-August, and have been broadly stable at that level since the start of the second quarter, but they are at risk of declining further in the coming months.Drilling rig counts have yet to find a floor and have fallen below most esti...Read More

The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.This month's key North American steel forecast highlights:US domestic prices for hot-rolled coil moved down in line with our expectations, averaging $461 per ton in July versus our forecast price of $460 per ton. Although domestic HRC prices slipped to less than $450 per ton in late July/early August, we maintain the view th...Read More

The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.?EUR? US domestic prices for hot-rolled coil have moved down in line with our expectations, averaging $508 per tonne in July compared with our forecast price of $519 per tonne. While we are forecasting coil price increases in August, we have revised our expectations downward. Although steelmakers are reporting improving dema...Read More

The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.The price for steel scrap in China has risen recently, amid high mill operating rates and at a time of heavy rain, but it remains at a premium to hot metal, we estimate. Heavy rains in China tend to increase the moisture content of iron ore stockpiles, which can cause issues during the sintering process, and this may have en...Read More

The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.This month's key ferro-alloy forecast highlights:Numerous ore and alloy markets enjoyed upward pricing momentum in the first half 2020, with supply-side constraints supporting prices despite collapsing demand from steelmakers and other key end users. While supply side issues related to Covid-19 lockdowns have been resolved,...Read More