"The further a society drifts from truth the more it will hate those who speak it" - George OrwellThe western Central Banks, led by the BIS, are operating to push the price of gold and silver as low as possible. It's a highly motivated effort to remove the proverbial canary from the coal mine before it dies. A soaring price of gold signals to the world that the Central Banks have lost contr...Read More

Rambus/PlungerThe great debate on whether we're going to see inflation or deflation has been answered in spades. For years some of the greatest minds of our time have discussed this issue in great detail with each side giving probable reasons as to why we'll see either inflation or deflation. Both sides can make great points to their arguments but in the end only one side will win the battle tha...Read More

If you're feeling depressed because your retirement fund has been cut in half by the Covid-19 avalanche on Wall Street, take heart because you may have a good chance to get it back. Yeah, I know, I wrote here only last week that the bear market would stretch on for years, bankrupting us all and ushering in the Second Great Depression. But watching the spectacular collapse of Boeing shares has ma...Read More

The fall in gold will clear some short term investors and also result in a big increase in long term investors. Both gold and silver are good long term investment opportunities. In the short term gold and silver will see a see-saw type prices moves like yesterday. Global financial markets have to stabilize for gold and silver to for a short term direction. In the very short term both gold and si...Read More

Here are five Fastmarkets stories you might have missed on Tuesday March 17 that are worth another look.Three more European car manufacturers are set to close and halt production in response to the spread of the coronavirus (2019-nCoV), Fastmarkets learned on March 17.The London Metal Exchange intends to suspend all ring trading and move to full electronic pricing from next week if the United King...Read More

A summary of base metals premiums from across the globe for the week to Tuesday March 17.Click on...Read More

Domestic prices for hot-rolled coil in Northern Europe have decreased day on day in a slow market, sources told Fastmarkets on Tuesday March 17.Market activity decreased due to closures among big automotive manufacturers and slowdowns at some service centers, according to market sources.Fastmarkets' daily steel hot-rolled coil index, domestic, exw Northern Europe, was ?,?477.00 ($531.94) per tonne...Read More

London Metal Exchange three-month base metals prices largely traded down at the close on Tuesday March 17 with risk-aversion from the global spread of the coronavirus (CoV-2019) and associated corporate shutdowns weighing heavily on the complex."Global financial markets remain rattled while the virus wreaks havoc across Europe and the United States," Fastmarkets research analyst Andy Farida said....Read More

Here are five Fastmarkets stories you might have missed on Tuesday March 17 that are worth another look.Three more European car manufacturers are set to close and halt production in response to the spread of the coronavirus (2019-nCoV), Fastmarkets learned on March 17.The London Metal Exchange intends to suspend all ring trading and move to full electronic pricing from next week if the United King...Read More

If global financial markets had been operating under a pervading sense of uncertainty due to the impact of the novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV), they now appear to be veering on panic.Oil prices have suffered their biggest one-day collapse since the 1991 Gulf War following Saudi Arabia's declaration of a price war on Russia through a shock move to hike oil production. S&P Dow Jones Indices was forced...Read More

The novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) is set to accelerate what the trade wars started: the diversification of global supply chains. Both events have demonstrated just how interconnected the global economy is and have provided a wake-up call to businesses worldwide that it might be time to reduce their reliance on China as the workshop of the world. Of course, that's easier said than done. China is th...Read More

Trade disputes and geopolitical uncertainties had already made the prospects for global economic growth uncertain. A coronavirus has now added to the challenges facing financial markets.The epicenter of the virus is Wuhan, an important commercial hub in China that is home to 11.9 million people, including the country's largest student population. It is also a manufacturing hub, with around 500 fac...Read More

China's appetite for importing steel billet despite high levels of steel inventories indicates growing confidence that a rebound in the domestic steel sector is expected in the near future, a stark contrast to virus-induced uncertainty worldwide. This could alleviate the pressure on regional prices with other Asian steelmakers struggling to exhaust billet surpluses due to a consumption slowdown du...Read More

A summary of base metals premiums from across the globe for the week to Tuesday March 17.Click on...Read More

London Metal Exchange three-month base metals prices largely traded down at the close on Tuesday March 17 with risk-aversion from the global spread of the coronavirus (CoV-2019) and associated corporate shutdowns weighing heavily on the complex."Global financial markets remain rattled while the virus wreaks havoc across Europe and the United States," Fastmarkets research analyst Andy Farida said....Read More

The London Metal Exchange intends to suspend all ring trading and move to full electronic pricing from next week if the United Kingdom's current directives restricting the movement of people in a bid to stop the spread of the Covid-19 coronavirus (2019-nCoV) remain in place."If current trends continue, the LME anticipates that it will temporarily move to fully electronic pricing on Monday 23 March...Read More

Copper has attempted to rebound since early September following a marked sell-off in the summer months where macro and fundamental forces have been prevalent.On the macro front, copper has benefited from a slight easing in US-China trade tensions and more monetary policy easing across the globe - including China, where copper consumption is the most exposed - that has shored up investor sentiment....Read More

The new issue of the Steel Market Tracker is now online at metalbulletinresearch.com.In this edition, Fastmarkets' research team delivers key insights and forecasts into the long and flat products markets.This week's risks to our latest flat-rolled forecasts:The Chinese government is stepping up help to the economy, increasing banks' liquidity. But the spread of the coronavirus worldwide is likely...Read More

The increasing consumption of scrap and a potential shift toward the electric-arc furnace (EAF) steelmaking route from the basic oxygen furnace (BOF) route in China are medium- to long-term threats to demand for steelmaking raw materials, while in the near team coking coal import volumes will continue to be affected by iron ore procurement strategies.This was the basis of Fastmarkets research team...Read More

Three more European car manufacturers are set to close and halt production in response to the spread of the coronavirus (2019-nCoV), Fastmarkets learned on March 17.Car manufacturer Ford is set to close all continental European plants from Thursday March 19, "for a number of weeks," it said. Ford will close plants in Cologne and Saarlouis in Germany as well as Craiova in Romania while it's Valenci...Read More