By: Dave KranzlerLast month the Government's Bureau of Lies And Statistics served up an employment report purporting 312,000 new jobs in December. This despite massive seasonal retail lay-offs in the latter half of the month. The BLS happily counts those jobs when hired in October but forgets to remove them when are dismissed at the end of the holiday shopping season. As John Williams (Sh...Read More
By: Steve St. Angelo, SRSrocco Report Official gold purchases reached a new record in 2018 as central banks continued to diversify away from the U.S. Dollar. Not only was 2018 a banner year for central bank gold purchases, but it was also the highest amount for more than five decades. Central banks haven't bought this much gold in one year since Nixon ended the convertibility of the U.S. Do...Read More
Last year was admittedly a tough one for emerging markets. A number of currencies were under considerable pressure, with some of them falling to record or near-record lows against the strong U.S. dollar. Global trade tensions, threats of sanctions, rising U.S. interest rates and higher oil prices before they began to crater in October, that is also contributed to the selloff. From its 52-week hi...Read More
Eastern China's Shagang has increased the prices for its long steel products for orders booked in the first 20 days of February.The mill is selling its HRB400 16-25mm rebar at 3,900 yuan ($582) per tonne over the February 1-20 period, up 20 yuan per tonne from its last set of prices, it said on Friday February 1.Shagang is also...Read More
Global scrap prices pushed upward during the working week from Monday January 28 to Friday February 1, driven by heightened demand due to restocking activity from steel mills worldwide. Steelmakers in Turkey secured at least 17 ferrous scrap cargoes over the past week, pushing Turkish scrap import prices and US ferrous scrap export prices higher during that period. Asian and Indian import pri...Read More
An overview of the battery raw materials markets and their price moves from the past week.Read More
Despite the fact that European steel mills published significantly lower alloy surcharges to come into effect on Friday February 1, prices have remained unchanged, Fastmarkets has heard.Transaction prices for grade-304 cold-rolled (CR) stainless steel sheets remained at ?,?2,000-2,040 ($2,295-2,341) per tonne delivered on the day.Whether the lower surcharges will be reflected in transaction prices...Read More
Base metals prices on the London Metal Exchange were mixed at the close of trading on Friday February 1, with most futures prices ending the week higher amid continued weakness in the US dollar index and LME stock drawdowns. Despite consolidating 0.5% lower over the afternoon, copper's three-month price remains well supported above $6,100 per tonne. While on-warrant material is now above 100,000 t...Read More
The price of copper on the Comex exchange in the United States edged lower in the final session of trading on Friday February 1, with the market awaiting further news on US-China trade talks.The copper price for March settlement on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange dipped by 0.20 cents to $2.7825 per lb.Price action in the red metal has been positive throughout the week, on lo...Read More
Gold's four-month winning streak - the longest since September 2012 - could pause in February if the US data continues to beat estimates, forcing markets to reassess Fed outlook. The yellow metal closed at $1,321 yesterday - up 3 percent from the monthly opening price of $1,282. Prices rallied 2.07, 0.59, and 4.91 percent, respectively, in the previous three months. That is the longest stretch...Read More
Gold prices are acting as a tailwind.KGC is likely to deliver a strong Q4 when it announces results in mid-February.The long-term outlook will depend on the company's operational performance delivered in-line with targets, and a sustained improvement in gold prices.The technical price chartand analysts' recommendations also indicate a buy at current prices.When I last wrote on Kinross Gold (KGC),...Read More
Manganese ore prices are showing signs of recovery after a poor start to 2019 that was blamed largely on bearish sentiment around silico-manganese and steel markets in China.Low-grade manganese ore prices have edged up in late January amid a flurry of demand ahead of Chinese New Year, which meant some of the firmer offers in the market were successful, despite the fact that some miners had cut off...Read More
Eldorado Gold unexpectedly changed its Kisladag development plans.The heap-leach mining will resume in Q1, without the need to build the expensive mill.Eldorado Gold should produce 390,000-420,000 toz gold this year and 520,000-550,000 toz gold next year.With the improved cash flow and no Kisladag mill expenditures, a range of new options opens up for Eldorado Gold.Shares of Eldorado Gold (EGO) ju...Read More
Bitcoin slipped to lower ground in a slow-moving week. The fresh request for an ETF did not help. The technical picture is bearish for BTC/USD, but experts see a short-term recovery. Bitcoin drifted lower, without dramas this time. Jan Van Eck, the man behind the VanEck and SolidX partnership, said that funds are flowing towards gold, this according to a survey of crypto investors. VanEck...Read More
Consumption of ferrous scrap in the United Kingdom will continue to increase over the coming years amid an expansion in the UK operations of international metals group Liberty House, Fastmarkets MB's research team believes. UK scrap demand in 2018 is on course to rise for the first time in four years after Liberty restarted a second electric arc furnace (EAF) at its site in Rotherham, northern Eng...Read More
MAX Resource (TSXV: MXR) announced this week that, following sampling work at five conglomerate trial pits on its Choc?? project, free gold was observed in the test concentrates obtained from each of the hard rock pits.In a press release, MAX said that initial results suggest potential gold continuity throughout a surface area of approximately eight square kilometers, open in all directions.The Va...Read More
GOLD I covered our long Gold position because as it struck 1326 it just did not want to stay up there, and the lower close after making for Gold a new Yearly high was a bit disconcerting so I covered longs at 1321 and look again....Gold needs to break this 1326 area to stand a chance of trading higher. Can we break it when the market is so overbought... I don't think so...but remember these in...Read More
Gold demand came in at 4,345.1 tons in 2018.Central banks accumulated 651.5 tons of gold last year.ETF gold holdings grew by 68.9 tons.By SchiffGold Global gold demand grew by 4% in 2018, driven by a multi-decade high in central bank buying, according to the World Gold Council's Gold Demand Trends 2018 Report. Gold demand came in at 4,345.1 tons in 2018. That was up from 4,159.9 tons the previous...Read More
The economic development of China is one of the most important events in the history of the world. In an unprecedentedly short time, millions of people have been taken out from poverty. But, as no country has ever developed so fast, that great story raises important worries. We invite you to read our today's article about the great progress China made in the last forty years and find out wheth...Read More
Published9:02PM ET Wed, 30 Jan 2019Updated6 Hours AgoReuters Getty ImagesGold bullion bars and coins.Gold slipped on Friday, weighed down by robust U.S. jobs data, but remained on course for a second week of gains buoyed by the U.S. Federal Reserve's signal that it would pause its interest rate hikes.Spot gold dipped 0.23 percent to $1,317.56 per ounce at1:02 p.m. ET, having hit a nine-month pe...Read More