Cadmium prices continue to move downward in the week ended Friday April 24, with the global market in paralysis because of sluggish demand from India, the main buyer worldwide.On March 25, a 21-day lockdown was imposed on India to combat the Covid-19 pandemic. This has since been extended until May 3, hitting economic activity, while trading and projects came to a halt and migrant workers returned...Read More

The Covid-19 pandemic may well provide Freeport-McMoRan with a silver lining it had never expected. The US copper producer is discussing with the government of Indonesia what should be done with the planned smelter in the Gresik region in the province of East Java. It has been forced to delay the completion timeline of December 2023 for the plant, due both to Covid-19-related disruptions to the wo...Read More

When the oil price fell into negative price territory at the start of the week ended April 24, it fueled fears that a similar situation could materialize in metals. The good news for users of the London Metal Exchange is the exchange's delivery mechanism that makes it virtually implausible, while its contract structure makes it even more unlikely. Here's why. The reason the West Texas In...Read More

4/24/20Gold MinersOn a technical note, GDX, GDXJ, and SIL (silver miners), put in a bearish "doji" yesterday on the daily charts. The "wick" that you can clearly see, most times indicates we've hit a temporary top in the larger gold and silver miners. I don't expect much of a pullback, but if you're looking to buy into producers that you missed much cheaper, you may get a slight discount from here...Read More

Last month, analysts started warning that oil prices could fall below zero. On Monday April 20, they did.The May futures contract for West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil fell as low as minus $37.63 per barrel, the first time ever that the price of the commodity has entered negative territory. By contrast, the June WTI contract is trading at around $20 per barrel, marking the biggest perce...Read More

A surge in coronavirus cases, an expansion ofeconomic lockdowns, and an explosion in unemployment claims hit markets thisweek.  But this deluge of bad news didn’tseem to catch investors by surprise. Instead of crashing to new lows, the stock marketheld within a trading range and rallied yesterday following the release of ahorrific jobs report.  It’s been a huge week for commo...Read More

Gold miners’ stocks haveendured epic volatility in this past month, literally crashing before blasting backhigher in a violent V-bounce.  That precedingwicked capitulation flush savagely forced the weak hands out, paving the wayfor gold stocks’ next major upleg.  The resultingfierce rebound signals it is already underway, with plenty of speculators andinvestors now chasing th...Read More

This week, the US scored a sad record. The number of deaths related to the coronavirus in the US surpassed the death toll in China. What does it imply for the US economy and the gold market?US Epidemiological Situation Is GrimJust as people were overly optimistic before the stock market top, they can be too pessimistic right now. This is a real risk and we take it into account. However, the incomi...Read More

The London Metal Exchange three-month aluminium price rose by 0.3% during trading on Friday April 24 to close at $1,514 per tonne, on low turnover of 9,132 lots during the day.Global LME aluminium stocks remained high, with 1,175,175 tonnes on warrant on Friday, and total stocks at 1,317,925 tonnes.Fastmarkets analyst Andy Farida noted in his Aluminium Today report that speculative sentiment remai...Read More

Item: March 16, 2020. A hugepoly-metallic (gold, silver, copper) mining operation in Mongolia "has suspendedoperations" after authorities "restricted the movement of goods andpeople within the country." Item: March 17. In Peru, one of the world's largestprimary silver-gold producers has its 4 mines "temporarily suspended"following the Government's Declared S...Read More

When the oil price fell into negative price territory at the start of the week ended April 24, it fueled fears that a similar situation could materialize in metals. The good news for users of the London Metal Exchange is the exchange's delivery mechanism that makes it virtually implausible, while its contract structure makes it even more unlikely. Here's why. The reason the West Texas In...Read More

How many people can, can't, will or won't buy precious metals at this price and time?By Matt from Silver Fortune via Silver Fortune How many people can't or won't buy metals at this price and time?Read More

Technical analyst Clive Maund charts silver and explains why he is bearish in the short to medium term.Whichever way you cut it, silver's chart looks bearish for the short to medium term, but against this we must set its rapidly improving COT structure and the mega-bullish silver to gold ratio (by all past standards). Silver's 7-month chart is a rather grim picture. On it we see that key support f...Read More

China's domestic and export prices for rebar decreased on Friday April 24 along with the weaker demand. Domestic Eastern China (Shanghai): 3,420-3,450 yuan ($483-487) per tonne, down by 20 yuan per tonneNorthern China (Beijing) - weekly assessment: 3,420-3,470 yuan per tonne, narrowing by 10-20 yuan per tonne week on weekRebar futures traded below Thursday's settlement price of 3,356 yuan per tonn...Read More

What are we to believe here?submitted by J. Johnson via JS MinesetGreat and Wonderful Friday Folks, Gold is doing it again, going higher 3 days in a row with June Gold at $1,757.80 up $12.60 and right close to the high at $1,760.20 with the low at $1,742.20. Silver, the red headed step child, is still being dragged along with the July contract at $15.625, up 9.9 cents with the high nearb...Read More

On Thursday, the initial jobless claims rocketed to almost 3.3 million. Quite an unimaginable number. What does it imply for the US economy and the gold market?One of the Most Scariest Things You Will See This WeekWould you like to see something scary? I guess not, but I'll show you anyway! But don’t worry: it will not be an microscope image of the coronavirus! Instead, I will present you a...Read More

The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.Aluminium: 4-million-tonne surplus for 2020We have made further downward revisions to our aluminium demand expectations for 2020 and, although there have been smelter capacity reduction in China too, the net effect is that our forecast for the global surplus this year has swelled to 4 million tonnes, from 2.7 million tonnes...Read More

MarkTwain said that history does not repeat itself, but it rhymes. It’s certainlytrue in both life and financial markets. Let’s explore how the recent historylessons apply to the precious metals.The2008 - Now LinkLet’s recount the similarities. We already had goldreversing on huge volume, and we saw it decline very strongly in the first weekafter the top. We already had another a...Read More

The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.Average LME aluminium price down by 2.5% week on weekAlthough LME aluminium began this week on the rebound, prices extended their recent downtrend further last week, approaching the $1,400-per-tonne level. The weekly average LME aluminium cash price was down 2.5% last week to $1,432.50 per tonne from previous week's $1,469.6...Read More

The historic action of the precious metals sector over the past few weeks has continued. The strong recovery in GDX, GDXJ, and Silver has potentially invalidated the technical breakdown that occurred during the crash. It appears to be a failed breakdown. Furthermore, Gold was looking vulnerable on the weekly, and monthly chart yet was able to slingshot back to $1700/oz. It is currently up $88/oz o...Read More