Hot-rolled coil prices in the United States have hit a year-to-date high, thanks mostly to tight supply, Fastmarkets understands. Fastmarkets' daily steel hot-rolled coil index, fob mill US was calculated at $30.99 per hundredweight ($619.80 per short ton) on Friday October 2, up by 1.3% from $30.59 per cwt on Thursday October 1 and 3.3% higher than $30 per cwt a week ago on September 25. US hot b...Read More

RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS:Gold rebounded quickly and broke to higher prices after the COVID deep selling. Our Fibonacci support levels for Gold are resting near $1,885, $1,815 & $1,790.More downside pressure on price is possible, but if support is maintained at $1,885 then we could see a big upside recovery trend take Gold to $2,250.Just before the COVID-19 collapse in the markets hit near February...Read More

South American import prices for flat-rolled steel were mostly down in the week ended Friday October 2, with new offers from China being slightly lower before that country's Golden Week national holiday, amid reports of short-selling in the region.Fastmarkets assessed the price of steel hot-rolled coil, import, cfr main ports South America, at $540-565 per tonne on Friday, falling by $5 per tonne...Read More

Mining production? No. China’s consumer demand? No. The main drivers of gold prices are, as I’ve repeated many times, the U.S. dollar and real interest rates. You don’t believe it? You don’t have to – just look at the charts below. The first one displays the greenback and the dollar-denominated price of gold. Because other series start much later, I used here the Trad...Read More

Key data from the pricing sessions in Europe, Asia and the United States for the week ending Friday October 2. China Tight availability of spot materials continued to consolidate the stability of domestic prices, with producers taking a firm stance on the higher costs of raw materials - including silica ore and semi-coke.The low end of export prices climbed by...Read More

The trading range on the HUI and other PM stock indexes continues its job of confusing both the bulls and bears alike. I’ve always said that trading an impulse move is much easier than trading during a consolidation phase. During a strong impulse move up it is easy to see the price action making higher highs and higher lows. Trading during a consolation phase is usually completely different....Read More

In military terms, the phrase "locked and loaded"refers to "locking" a magazine or cartridge into a firearm andloading a round into the gun's chamber. A variant is to "lock thesafety" and then load a magazine into the weapon.The analogy in his essay is that from a technical (chart)standpoint, the price of gold and silver arebuilding energy to the point that they are g...Read More

The dollar is the mostimportant unit of account for international trade, the main medium of exchangefor settling international transactions, and the store of value for centralbanks. The Federal Reserve is the lender of last resort, as in the 2008–09financial crisis, and is the most common currency for overseas borrowing bygovernments and businesses.Investors want to owndollars when the prove...Read More

The number of new daily infections in Europe is rapidly increasing, even reaching new heights in several countries. That is just another reminder that the second wave in fall or winter is upon us. Yes, I know. You are all fed up reading about the coronavirus. And yet, the coronavirus is not fed up with spreading around the globe. The number of new daily infections keeps going up, as the chart belo...Read More

RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS:Gold will target the $2,250 level before stalling and attempting another upside price rally targeting $2,500 or higher.Silver will target the $33 price level when the current upside move builds enough momentum, then target $38 or higher.Our next upside price target for platinum is $1,410, representing a +52.4% upside price target.Palladium bottom in March 2020 was near $1,357....Read More

Views of gold in relation to other markets and brief summaries thereof, with a focus on how it relates to the gold mining sector and the inflationary macro to come.Gold/Silver RatioGold/Silver is in a potential bounce pattern with RSI and MACD positive divergences. A bounce (if applicable) – which would likely come in unison with a counter-trend bounce in USD could accompany more broad ...Read More

Gold has been consolidatinghigh since early August, when it rocketed parabolic on colossal gold-ETFdemand.  That 6-week-old sideways drift hasworked off some greed and overboughtness, but plenty still remains.  So gold isn’t out of the woods yet for thisessential sentiment-rebalancing selloff. With residual overboughtness still extreme, gold faces considerabledownside risk hea...Read More

Peter Krauth outlines the reasons he believes the price of silver will continue to rise. They say patience is a virtue.Well, if anyone is virtuous these days, it has to be silver bulls.They also say good things come to those who wait. I believe those good things will be coming…in spades.Silver reached just shy of $50 back in April 2011. A decade later, we're still just barely above half tha...Read More

The latest FOMC statement and economic projections signal are that the interest rates will stay at zero until the end of 2023. This is excellent for gold. Yesterday, the Fed issued a statement regarding the FOMC meeting, which was held from September 15-16. The US central bank kept the interest rates and the conditions of its quantitative easing unchanged. The chart below shows the levels of effec...Read More

At last, crudeoil moved a bit higher, so you might be asking yourself if the trend hasreversed or is this just a pause before the moves continue.In short, wethink the latter is much closer to the truth. The fact remains that in a global andhyperconnected economy such as today, no market can sustain completeindependence of the rest of the world. Crude oil, as the most versatilemarketplace commodity...Read More

The London Metal Exchange three-month copper price made an impressive comeback on Friday October 2, gaining 3.5%, amid strong turnover, on a day of positive moves for many of the base metals.The LME three-month copper price, which had tumbled 5.1% on Thursday, in its deepest sell-off since March 18, closed the day on Friday at $6,566 per tonne, with just over 24,000 lots traded.Fastmarke...Read More

Trading activity in the seaborne coking coal market was muted on Friday October 2, which was the second day of China's "golden week" holiday marking the country's 71st national day.Fastmarkets indicesPremium hard coking coal, fob DBCT: $137.71 per tonne, up by $3.16 per tonnePremium hard coking coal, cfr Jingtang: $145.10 per tonne, unchangedHard coking coal, fob DBCT: $114.02 per tonne, up by $1....Read More

More than a few traders are confused about what is going on with silver here after its recent reaction, but when we look at...by Clive Maund of Streetwise ReportsMore than a few traders are confused about what is going on with silver here after its recent reaction, but when we look at its long-term chart the situation quickly becomes clear. So we will start this update by looking at silver's 13-ye...Read More

The London Metal Exchange three-month nickel price dipped during morning trading on Friday October 2, down by 1.5% against continued selling pressure, while a slight recovery in copper buying led the red metal's price back above the $6,300-per-tonne threshold. LME nickel's outright price was recently at $14,085 per tonne on Friday morning, falling from $14,343 per tonne at Thursday's close, while...Read More

The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.Across the regions, producers of welded linepipe and oil-country tubular goods (OCTG) saw their margins shrink with substrate costs increasing in the third quarter of 2020.Many have been attempting to protect margins with higher prices, with varying degrees of success. Europe-origin commodity-grade steel hot-rolled coil and...Read More