A drop in the price of gold and silver - besides fears of a recession and an economic downturn amid the coronavirus outbreak - has created a demand spike for the metals so large that bullion dealers around the world are selling out!Spot gold closed yesterday at $1,496 per ounce, a 9% decline over the last 30 days. Meanwhile, spot silver closed yesterday at $12.57 an ounce, down 32% over the past m...Read More

Thank you for joining us in a weekly technical look at the mid-cap oriented INK Canadian Insider (CIN) Index. Last week, the INK Canadian Insider Index continued to sell off in one of the greatest worldwide market panics of our lifetime. The INK CIN fell 177.54 points or 20.4% to an all-time low of 692.87, making for a two-week plunge of over 40%.MACD closed only nominally down 0.03 to -36.63. RS...Read More

Hermes Belous Freire has joined Sumitomo Corp as sales manager for cobalt briquettes. Belous Freire is currently based in Switzerland as a consultant, but will relocate to...Read More

Argentina's lithium brine industry have announced that they will suspend their on-site project works until the end of March after the Argentinian government imposed a nationwide lockdown to stem the spread of the novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) in the country.Australian lithium miners Galaxy Resources and Orocobre announced the suspension of on-site operations at their Argentinian projects on Monday...Read More

Here are five Fastmarkets stories you might have missed on Monday March 23 that are worth another look.ArcelorMittal is idling two blast furnaces, in Indiana and Canada, due to the spread of the novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) and its impact on end markets.South Africa will enter a 21-day nationwide lockdown from midnight on Thursday March 26 and ordered the country's metals and mining operations to...Read More

Metals, mining and alloy producers have been scenario-planning in response to the novel coronavirus. The South African government appears to have just removed all but one option.President Cyril Ramaphosa ordered the country's mineral resources industry to shut underground mines and furnaces from Thursday March 26, unless they can be operated remotely. The shutdown will last for three weeks an...Read More

Trading activity in the hot-rolled coil market in Northern Europe was slowed by closures at a number of vehicle manufacturers across Europe, although other consuming industries remained relatively active, sources told Fastmarkets on Monday March 23.But at the same time, trading activity in Southern Europe was close to zero, according to market participants.Fastmarkets' daily steel hot-rolled coil...Read More

Here are five Fastmarkets stories you might have missed on Monday March 23 that are worth another look.ArcelorMittal is idling two blast furnaces, in Indiana and Canada, due to the spread of the novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) and its impact on end markets.South Africa will enter a 21-day nationwide lockdown from midnight on Thursday March 26 and ordered the country's metals and mining operations to...Read More

CIS export rebar and wire rod prices remained largely unchanged in the week to Monday March 23 with trading activity being limited.Lower levels of trade followed the slowdown of demand in most markets due to the spread of the 2019-nCoV coronavirus pandemic."The market is very weak at the moment. If last week there was some activity, today and in the next two weeks it will all be quiet," one trader...Read More

The rebar price in Russia's Central Federal District around Moscow increased in the week to Monday March 23 on a sharp depreciation of the rouble against the dollar. Fastmarkets' weekly price assessment for steel reinforcing bar (rebar), domestic, cpt Moscow, Russia, including 20% value-added tax (VAT) was 34,500-35,000 roubles ($432-437) per tonne on Monday, up from 34,000-34,500 roubles per...Read More

Keith Weiner, Monetary MetalsThe price of gold dropped $31, and that of silver fell even more by proportion, $2.14. The gold-silver ratio hit a hit of over 126 before closing the week around 119. This exceeds the high in the ratio last hit in the George H.W. Bush recession.Last week, we were warming up to silver, if not recommending it. We said:"While we would not recommend betting on silver wit...Read More

Strengths? The best performing metal this week was gold, down just 2.04 percent. BullionStar, a bullion dealer in Singapore, has seen a record number of orders, order revenue and number of visitors to its center over the past month, according to a post on its website and as reported by Bloomberg. "We have managed to replenish a bit of gold on Saturday but it's very difficult to...Read More

Dave KranzlerThe biggest bill of sale sold to the public after the great financial crisis was that the legislation enacted forced the banks to maintain a higher level of integrity in their business dealings. But nothing could be further from the truth. The various pieces of legislation enacted after the 2008 de facto banking system collapse ultimately made it easier for the TBTF banks to move th...Read More

The Turkish deep-sea scrap import market started the week in silence on Monday March 23, with some fearing the worst is yet to come with regard to the impact of the novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV), sources told Fastmarkets.The market has been quiet since a $23.90-per-tonne day-on-day price drop on Wednesday March 18, following news of a fresh cargo.Since then, market participants have turned increas...Read More

Clint SiegnerA huge spike in demand for physical precious metals has decimated available dealer inventories. The vast majority of gold and silver coins, rounds, and bars are either out of stock or come with extended shipping delays.Premiums are spiking higher. Dealers have raised bid premiums - the amount offered above the spot metal price - dramatically along with ask premiums.The market...Read More

The pros who confidently bought the dips for more than a decade are now quietly selling the rallies. During the bull market, accumulating stocks on weakness was a no-brainer, as easy a ticket to big profits as investors will ever enjoy. But the bear market has ended this rare opportunity. Instead, the Masters of the Universe have been unloading as much stock as they can into every rally. This ta...Read More

By Avi Gilburt, ElliottWaveTrader.netSo, how many of you followed reckless bulls into this mess?I know many of you took me to task for missing some of the rally in the SPX. But, as I had been trying to warn you, the IWM and the EEM, as well as a host of other charts, were warning me that something was just not right about the move in the SPX. Then, when I publicly posted that I was shortin...Read More

There are two things which we all need to focus w.r.t to corona virus:Positive: China could be corona "virus free" in the next two weeks to four weeks. This will be very bullish for crude oil demand and industrial metal demand.Negative: One needs to closely watch the corona virus spreads in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Indonesia. These are world's most densely populated zone with inadequate m...Read More

Turkish domestic auto bundle scrap prices have fallen sharply over the past week, in line with declining scrap import values, with some mills stopping their scrap purchases, sources said on Monday March 23.Turkish scrap import prices fell by 9% last week, amid the novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) pandemic.Fastmarkets' daily index for steel scrap, HMS 1&2 (80:20 mix), US origin, cfr Turkey, was $249.0...Read More

To Watch Update #54, CLICK HERECovid-19's exponential spread across the world continues unabated, except in China, where the rate of officially reported new cases has slowed dramatically. At the same time, cases in India are on the rise. Might India be the next big outbreak location? Time will tell. Meanwhile, this honey badger of a virus shows that it "just don't care" who you are. We are getting...Read More