Reinforcing bar steel prices and demand in the United States were steady week on week, market participants said. Fastmarkets' price assessment for steel reinforcing bar (rebar), fob mill US held at $29.75 per hundredweight ($595 per short ton) on Wednesday October 7.US market"I don't see any downward pressure," a mill source said. "We expect steady to up on prices."Indeed, prices for shredded auto...Read More
Biden asked Trump to shut up during the first presidential debate. But for us, the most important question is whether gold will finally go up.Thankfully, the first U.S Elections debate between Donald Trump and Joe Biden is behind us. Arguably, it was awful to watch and one of the worst presidential debates in history, as both candidates talked over each other and threw insults. Consequently, the d...Read More
The three-month aluminium price on the London Metal Exchange was the standout performer at the close of trading on Thursday October 8, breaching nearby resistance levels amid growing concerns over instability at Malaysian commodities hub Port Klang, while the metal's forward curve continued to shrink into the afternoon.Aluminium's outright price on the LME closed at $1,804 per tonne on Thursday af...Read More
The Fed Vice Chair says that the Fed will not even think about hiking interest rates until the inflation reaches 2 percent. Meanwhile, the price of gold decreases further. What is exactly happening in the gold market?Over the last week, several Fed officials spoke publicly with the purpose of convincing investors that their new policy strategy would be positive for the economy. Powell himself test...Read More
Domestic prices for hot-rolled coil in Europe were fairly stable day on day Thursday October 8 as buyers held back from making new deals, sources told Fastmarkets.Fastmarkets calculated its daily steel hot-rolled coil index, domestic, exw Northern Europe at ?,?496.35 ($583.31) per tonne on October 8, down by ?,?1.15 per tonne from ?,?497.50 per tonne on Wednesday October 7.Still, the index wa...Read More
This second part of our research post on super-cycles and precious metals will present our expectations going forward for 6 to 24+ months. In Part I of this research post, I linked a number of our previous research articles we recommended to readers to review for context and continuity. If you have not read Part I of this research article, please take a minute to review that first segment be...Read More
RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS:Uncertainty and cycle events will likely lead to continued Gold and Silver price appreciation until the cycle events end (likely in 2024 or 2025).The gold/silver ratio chart shows very clear levels of support and resistance. With the next targets $2,000-$2,250, $3,200 then $5,500+.Extended basing may continue for the next 2 to 4+ months.I have received many comments and questio...Read More
Here are five Fastmarkets stories you might have missed on Thursday October 8 that are worth another look.The European Commission (EC) has set definitive anti-dumping duties on imports of hot-rolled flat stainless steel products from Indonesia, China and Taiwan, it announced in a document published on Tuesday October 6.Read More
Gold, silver and the HUI Gold Bugs index are viewed here by their big picture monthly charts. In NFTRH we use mainly daily and weekly charts of these along with individual miners to better gauge the shorter-term pictures, which will advise on the end of the correction better than these more cumbersome monthlies that are great for keeping perspective amid the shorter-term noise.Our target for gold...Read More
The gold miners’ stockshave just been hammered, plunging to new correction lows. That shattered their indexes’ 50-day movingaverages, pounding nails in the coffin of this sector’s recent highconsolidation. This necessary correctionprobably isn’t over yet. It is stillsmall and short compared to this bull market’s precedent, the gold stocks arenowhere...Read More
Precious metals markets got clobbered early this week as gold and silver broke down from their high-level consolidations. Strength in the U.S. Dollar Index seemed to be the catalyst that got the selling going.Once key technical levels got breached, the selling intensified.Gold prices fell below the $1,900 level on Wednesday. Meanwhile, silver plummeted below $24 an ounce and traded as low as $22 o...Read More
China has been buying a lot of U.S. crude oil lately, perhaps in a belated attempt to fulfill some of the energy import quotas agreed with Washington last year or perhaps in a bid to take advantage of supercheap U.S. crude. But the buying spree is about to end.This month alone, China could import between 867,000 bpd, according to Reuters' Refinitiv data, and 900,000 bpd, according to oilfield serv...Read More
RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS:Gold rebounded quickly and broke to higher prices after the COVID deep selling. Our Fibonacci support levels for Gold are resting near $1,885, $1,815 & $1,790.More downside pressure on price is possible, but if support is maintained at $1,885 then we could see a big upside recovery trend take Gold to $2,250.Just before the COVID-19 collapse in the markets hit near February...Read More
Mining production? No. China’s consumer demand? No. The main drivers of gold prices are, as I’ve repeated many times, the U.S. dollar and real interest rates. You don’t believe it? You don’t have to – just look at the charts below. The first one displays the greenback and the dollar-denominated price of gold. Because other series start much later, I used here the Trad...Read More
The three-month aluminium price on the London Metal Exchange was the standout performer at the close of trading on Thursday October 8, breaching nearby resistance levels amid growing concerns over instability at Malaysian commodities hub Port Klang, while the metal's forward curve continued to shrink into the afternoon.Aluminium's outright price on the LME closed at $1,804 per tonne on Thursday af...Read More
Seaborne coking coal prices in the fob Australia market fell on Thursday October 8 amid limited demand, especially with China being absent, sources said.Fastmarkets indicesPremium hard coking coal, fob DBCT: $135.12 per tonne, down $2.48 per tonnePremium hard coking coal, cfr Jingtang: $145.10 per tonne, unchangedHard coking coal, fob DBCT: $111.02 per tonne, down $2.50 per tonneHard coking coal,...Read More
The three-month nickel price on the London Metal Exchange was the standout performer during morning trading on Thursday October 8, with hopes of an impending US stimulus package supporting the complex, while a fresh cancellation of 260 tonnes kept LME tin futures firmly above $18,000 per tonne. Nickel's underlying price on the LME was recently trading at $14,760 per tonne, climbing just over 1.5%...Read More
The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.Although we correctly forecast a significant rise in hot-rolled coil (HRC) prices in the United States in September 2020, our price forecast proved too conservative.An impressive V-shaped recovery in key economic fundamentals critical to steel consumption is driving stronger demand for steel at the start of the fourth quarte...Read More
The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.In the iron ore market, supply issues including heavy rains at the start of the year, followed by staffing problems during the Covid-19 pandemic, have affected exports from Brazil. This has helped Australia gain a larger market share, but since June, Brazilian export volumes have returned to levels last seen before the...Read More
Turkish domestic long steel prices have been giving mixed signals between the effects of falling scrap costs and the weakening of the country's lira, sources said on Thursday October 8.Domestic rebar prices have gone down due to weak demand and the negative sentiment in the scrap markets, despite the weakening lira pushing them upward.Fastmarkets' weekly price assessment for steel reinforcing bar...Read More