Fastmarkets examines the factors affecting the price spread between domestic steel reinforcing bar and shredded scrap over the past two years. Trade, supply factors widen, then tighten spreadWhile rebar and scrap prices tend to be directionally correlated, developments on the trade front helped widen that gap, according to KeyBanc Capital Markets analyst Philip Gibbs."If you look at it over a...Read More
The Brazilian steel industry is operating around 60% production capacity, up from 42% in April when demand was hit the hardest by the Covid-19 pandemic, but still far from the ideal level of 80%, Instituto A??o Brasil said on Friday August 28.At the worst moment of the pandemic, there were 13 halted blast furnaces (BF) in the country, the president of A??o Brasil, Marco Polo de Mello Lopes said du...Read More
Prices for rebar imports into Singapore increased in the week to Monday August 31 due to a recent surge in raw materials prices, market sources told Fastmarkets.Major end users in Singapore denied that there were any transactions by them for imported materials, after talk circulated the market that a trader had sold Turkish rebar to the island state at $465 per tonne cfr Singapore on a theoretical...Read More
For Americans living under coronavirus restrictions, it's a question too rarely asked. In fact it's actively discouraged.Read More
Over the weekend the Centers for Disease Control dropped a bombshell report on coronavirus/Covid deaths: of the approximately 165,000 "Covid deaths" less than ten thousand died from Covid. The rest - a vast majority - had on average 2.6 serious additional diseases, with the addition in most cases of extreme advanced age. Is it time to begin litigating the damage done to the US and the world from t...Read More
Can you buy a house with silver coins? How much silver will it take? They are two of the most common questions we get at GoldSilver.com, tune in to today's update and get Mike Maloney's thoughts on how this could play out.Jeff Clark is editor and lead writer of BIG GOLD, the monthly gold-investment newsletter from Doug Casey's Casey Research. He is also the Senior Precious Metals Analyst at GoldSi...Read More
Money flow is the only thing that can change the price of a stock-supply, and demand. Today's guest advises if you are invested only in a 401(k) to "Run for the hills. You don't want to be fully invested in the stock market."Why does he say this? As you are aware, the world's economic system was on the brink of total collapse in March 2020. The Fed, over the last nine weeks, has had to inject more...Read More
Scott talks to David Stockman about the economic fallout from the coronavirus lockdowns. Stockman points out all the devastation that has already been wrought by the government so far-relating to both the lockdowns and to the rampant stimulus measures meant to address the fallout of the lockdowns themselves. This, Stockman believes, could be the event that triggers the bursting of the bubble that...Read More
A sort of sector rotation of layoffs, and it's not a good sign, even as millions of lower-wage workers are being hired back.Wolf Richter is the founder of Wolf Street Corp and the publisher of WolfStreet.com. Wolf has over twenty years of C-level operations experience, including turnarounds and a VC-funded startup. He has a BA, MA, and MBA (UT at Austin). In his prior life, he worked in Texas and...Read More
We discuss how fact checkers don't use source documents, the recent CJR article that illustrates how the Gates Foundation funds media and fact checking organizations to gain influence, and the lawsuit filed by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. against Facebook for censorship. Read More
If you don't think things can get even weirder and more uncertain than that, well, they can. I'm not predicting it's going to happen, let me be clear, but we could even end up with President Pelosi. Here's how:Continue...Read More
"This is the first time this has ever happened. I would like to thank the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for making that possible," Kushner, US President Donald Trump's son-in-lawContinue...Read More
Many of the recent outbreaks are occurring in Midwestern states, including Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Ohio and the Dakotas.Continue...Read More
The last few weeks have seen something 'odd' happening.VIX has been 'rising' as stocks soared to record highs.Continue...Read More
Earlier this month, while meeting with the Iraqi Prime Minister, President Trump reaffirmed his intent to remove all US troops from Iraq. "We were there and now we're getting out. We'll be leaving shortly," the president told reporters at the time.Although President Obama should never have sent US troops back into Iraq in 2016, it is definitely well past time to remove them as quickly as possible....Read More
It's silly, however, to suggest that Berkshire has dumped banks.Continue...Read More
Operating costs have increased by about 16% due to additional infrastructure and transportation costs. Continue...Read More
Supply of steel scrap in Australia is being squeezed by regional Covid-19 lockdowns and a general decline in economic output, scrap market participants have told Fastmarkets.The reduction in scrap generated in Australia is reducing the volume of material being offered for export from the country and raising prices for whatever material is being offered.Covid-19 transmission in the country is affec...Read More
Michael Ballanger interprets the motives of the Federal Reserve and their impacts on the "haves" and "have nots" in America and beyond. This week, the financial community around the globe was handed a "new approach" by the Federal Reserve Board of the United States that essentially flipped the middle finger at savers, senior citizens on limited pensions and proponents of sound money principles. B...Read More
Here are five Fastmarkets stories you might have missed on Monday August 31 that are worth another look.The United States' government has reduced the Section 232 quota for imports of semi-finished steel products from Brazil in the fourth quarter, according to a proclamation from president Donald Trump published late on Friday August...Read More