Deutsche Bank cut its price target to $295 from $300Costco Wholesale Corp (NASDAQ:COST) is down 2% to trade at $299.76, after a price-target cut from Deutsche Bank to $295 from $300. The analyst stated that Costco's core same-store sales and U.S. comp sales for March fell short of their expectations, as stock-up strength faded and customers stayed home. COST has taken a number of volatile swings...Read More

The U.S. Senate just warned its members against using Zoom as a video chat platform The U.S. Senate just advised its members against using popular video chat platform Zoom Video (NASDAQ:ZM) due to security concerns, asking them to find an alternative platform while working remotely. Zoom has addressed some of these security concerns by hiring Facebook's (FB) former security head Alex Stamos. Despi...Read More

Jefferies downgraded Anthem stock to "hold" from "buy," and cut its price target to $257After yesterday's pop for insurance providers, traders are pulling back from Anthem Inc (NYSE:ANTM) this morning. The stock is trading down 0.8% at $244.99 on a downgrade from Jefferies to "hold" from "buy." The analyst also cut its price target to $257 from $354, adding that the insurance stock is the most ex...Read More

By: Ira EpsteinGold daily chart shows the massive move from $1450-1740's within a 5 week period, wow!Read More

The Fed announced a $2.3 trillion lending plan for the economyIn the wake of yesterday's outsized gains, Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJI) futures fought their way into the black, after paring triple-digit losses from earlier this morning.Futures on the Nasdaq-100 Index (NDX) and S&P 500 Index (SPX) are sitting just below fair value, as investors unpack the 6.6 million rise in weekly jobless...Read More

With his portfolio "solidly anchored" in silver and gold, sector expert Michael Ballanger opines on how bankers and politicians can manipulate markets.As a child, I used to get quite excited at the prospect of having my English "Gran" read me the Hans Christian Andersen book "The Emperor's New Clothes." I found the tale fiendishly amusing, as the charlatan tailor uses lethal doses of fla...Read More

Prices for imported steel billet in Egypt increased in the week to Thursday April 9, however, market activity was very weak because of the Covid-19 pandemic, sources told Fastmarkets.Domestic demand is weak, but even then steel billet stocks were low, so buyers booked some material, sources told Fastmarkets.Local rebar prices have not changed in the country since late February, when some Egyptian...Read More

Turkey produced 5.865 million tonnes of crude steel in January-February 2020, up by 12.7% from 5.203 million tonnes produced in the corresponding period the year before, according to the Turkish Steel Producers Association (T???oeD). The rise in output was largely attributed to the significant decrease in production in Turkey in the second half of 2018 and all of 2019. The decline in Turkey's crud...Read More

The European Commission has imposed anti-dumping duties on imports of hot-rolled stainless steel products originating in China, Taiwan and Indonesia into the European Union, it announced on Tuesday April 7.The provisional duties relate to an investigation started on August 12, 2019, following the European Steel Association Eurofer's complaint lodged two months earlier.The investigation applies to,...Read More

Here are five Fastmarkets stories you might have missed on Thursday April 9 that are worth another look.South American flat steel import prices were mostly stable week on week as market liquidity dipped in the continent amid lockdowns and weakened demand due to the Covid-19 pandemic.The aerospace industry has been hit hard by the Covid-19 pandemic, with companies in the sector forced to take drast...Read More

APRIL 2020In a recent essay published at Project Syndicate, Harvard economics professor Kenneth Rogoff sets an ominous tone. Humanity, he says "is facing something akin to alien invasion" - an apt analogy, we thought. "With each passing day," he goes on, "the 2008 global financial crisis increasingly looks like a mere dry run for today's economic catastrophe. The short-term collapse in global ou...Read More

Cobalt prices continued to drift lower over past week with buyers holding back from the spot market and stock levels sufficient to offset the initial impact of various supply-side cutbacks resulting from efforts to curb the Covid-19 pandemic. Fastmarkets' price assessment for cobalt alloy grade, in-whs Rotterdam stood at $16-16.50 per lb on Thursday April 9, unchanged from the previous day an...Read More

By Daniel R. Amerman, CFACan the U.S. economy actually be turned on and off like a light switch? What are the implications for investors if it can't?The shutdown of much of the American economy in response to the COVID-19 pandemic has already created what is by far the single largest increase in unemployment in U.S. history in such a short period of time. We are experiencing two quite distinct b...Read More

By Rob Kirby The plandemic was [conveniently or coincidentally, take your pick?] "dropped" because we are on an exponential, vertical growth curve for money which had to be created - due to the magic of compounding - before we ever had a "virus". I would like to now remind EVERYONE of a piece I penned back in August of 2018 where I did write in a piece titled, Big Money and the Big Lie: "T...Read More

By RambusBack at the 2008 crash low in the HUI there was a reversal pattern, that is pretty rare, which helped confirm that very important low. If you ever wondered what the 2007 - 2008 top looked like and the decline that followed to the 2008 crash low this daily chart for the HUI paints the Chartology I posted at the tent, in real time, as the impulse move to the downside took place.The 2007 -...Read More

The $2.2 trillion coronavirus relief package that President Donald Trump signed into law on March 27 is just the beginning. The Treasury Department is now seeking some $250 billion more to replenish small business loans, and there's hope that the president and House Democrats can agree on a "Phase Four" spending deal, one that may target infrastructure. Trump has asked for $2 trillion. And...Read More

By David HaggithBy its close yesterday, the market provided exactly the example of the head slamming I said bulls were going to get in the article I was writing all day yesterday because the "Stock Market Bulls are Delusional in Face of Great Depression."Monday's stampede proved how utterly disconnected from reality the market's bulls remain, and that means they're going to get their heads pound...Read More

By: Ira EpsteinGold daily chart shows the massive move from $1450-1740's within a 5 week period, wow!Read More

Aluminium billet premiums across the globe declined on Thursday April 9, with the Covid-19 pandemic continuing to dampen downstream aluminium demand and prices across the supply chain.Fresh record lows in Germany, ItalyBrazil premium at 44-month lowAuto shutdowns pressure US marketNo spot business in Thailand Huge drops in EuropeLiquidity was minimal throughout Europe this week as the coronavirus...Read More

Fastmarkets' price assessment for the aluminium extrusion billet premium, cif Brazil was published later than scheduled on Thursday April 9 due to a technical error.Fastmarkets' price book and database have since been updated for the aluminium 6063 & 6060 extrusion billet premium,...Read More