China's ferrous futures largely trended downward during morning trading on Tuesday January 8, with the rebar, coking coal and coke contracts ending the session lower than their opening prices.Futures closing prices - morning session Shanghai Futures Exchange May rebar: 3,496 yuan ($509.84) per tonne, down 17 yuan per tonneMay hot-rolled coil: 3,403 yuan per tonne, up 1 yuan per...Read More

Base metals prices on the London Metal Exchange were mixed during morning trading on Tuesday January 8, with prices remaining stable and market sentiment broadly positive amid US-China trade talks and a continued softening in the US dollar index. Continuing their uptrend, both copper and nickel futures consolidated higher over the morning, with the former making a continued approach towards $6,000...Read More

Arbitrage for copper, aluminium, zinc and nickel imported into China on Tuesday January 8*Copper -$61.39 (-422.08 yuan) Aluminium -$374.94 (-2577.67 yuan) Zinc $18.23 (125.36 yuan) Nickel -$139.52 (-959.18 yuan) *Fastmarkets MB calculates the physical arbitrage for import into China daily by using SHFE front-month and LME...Read More

China's hot-rolled coil exporters kept offer prices high on Tuesday January 8 following stable prices in the domestic market, although overseas buyers are bidding much lower with access to cheaper goods from other countries.DomesticEastern China (Shanghai): 3,660-3,680 yuan ($534-537) per tonne, widening downward 10 yuan per tonneNorthern China (Tianjin): 3,620-3,650 yuan per tonne, up 2...Read More

Three-month base metals prices on the London Metal Exchange were for the most part weaker this morning, Tuesday January 8. Tin was unchanged, while the rest were down between 0.1% for copper and lead and 0.7% for aluminium, with zinc and nickel off by 0.6% and 0.5% respectively. The three-month copper price was recently quoted at $5,909 per tonne.Volume across the complex has been average with 5,0...Read More

China's domestic rebar prices were stable on Tuesday January 8 amid a divided outlook on prices in the coming weeks and higher billet prices being negated by lower futures.Domestic Eastern China (Shanghai): 3,730-3,780 yuan ($544-551) per tonne, unchangedNorthern China (Beijing): 3,650-3,680 yuan per tonne, unchangedSpot market traders kept their prices flat as higher billet prices were...Read More

Mining chatter in the Yukon these days is all about the yellow metal. It's been that way for at least 10 years, according to geologist Mike Burke, who spent more than 20 years working for the Yukon Geological Survey before moving to the private sector."People were having a hard time in 2008, and then along came Kinross and bought Underworld Resources. That started an area play," Burke recalls. Now...Read More

January 8, 2019 It's time for the queen of assets to rest and consolidate. Nothing goes up in a straight line, and that's certainly true for gold!Please click here now. Double-click to enlarge this daily gold chart.A pullback to about $1250 would be a healthy 50% retracement of the $100 rally from $1200 to $1300.Gold begins 2019 with some very positive news in play. Please click here now. After a...Read More

Silver's latest rally, which sees the metal up by over 12% from 2018 lows to be trading at US$15.65 per ounce, has sparked considerable speculation that 2019 is the year that the precious metal will shine. This has breathed life into primary silver miners like First Majestic Silver (TSX:FR)(NYSE:AG), which has gained a remarkable 17% over the last month. That - along with an improving outlook for...Read More

Last year was a tough one for silver miners. Silver opened the year at over US$17 an ounce, but by November 2018 it had plunged to under US$14 per ounce, and there were signs that the white metal was caught in a protracted slump. While the overall outlook for silver remains stagnant for 2019 with higher gold prices the only positive catalyst for the precious metal, it shouldn't deter investors fro...Read More

January 8, 2019 It's time for the queen of assets to rest and consolidate. Nothing goes up in a straight line, and that's certainly true for gold!Please click here now. Double-click to enlarge this daily gold chart.A pullback to about $1250 would be a healthy 50% retracement of the $100 rally from $1200 to $1300.Gold begins 2019 with some very positive news in play. Please click here now. After a...Read More

The stock market has gone "Roman Candle" since Fed Chairman, Jerome Powell, gave a speech that was interpreted as a precursor to the Fed softening its stance on monetary policy. Not that intermittent quarter-point Fed Funds rate nudges higher or a barely negligible decline in the Fed's balance sheet should be considered "tight" money policy.Credible measures of price inflation, like the John Wil...Read More

"Talks with China are going very well!" US president Donald Trump tweeted earlier. Commodities were mixed, with copper closing lower on the London Metal Exchange and palladium hitting a fresh high.It was worth US$1,321 an ounce on the spot market earlier - above gold's value of $1,281.50/oz.Among the majors, Freeport-McMoRan closed up 1.8% in New York and Rio Tinto (LSE: RIO) gained 0.8% in London...Read More

The Zgounder silver mine in Morocco. Source: Maya Gold & Silver Inc.Maya Gold & Silver Inc. [MYA-TSX; MYAGF-OTC] achieved a key milestone Wednesday January 9 with the announcement that its flagship Zgounder silver mine in Morocco has reached the commercial production stage. Maya is a Morocco-focused company with a portfolio that also includes the Boumadine polymetallic deposit, located in...Read More

GT Gold's exploration camp on the Tatogga property in the Golden Triangle region of northwestern British Columbia. Source: GT Gold Corp.GT Gold Corp. [GTT-TSXV, GTGDF-OTC] shares were active Wednesday January 9 after the company said the final and deepest hole of its Saddle North porphyry drill program (hole TTD109) returned the strongest intercepts reported so far. The Saddle North discovery is l...Read More

Brine sampling in Q3 2018 at the Smackover lithium project in Arkansas. Source: Standard Lithium Ltd.Standard Lithium Ltd. [SLL-TSX; STLHF-OTC-Nasdaq-Int. Designation; S5L-FSE] said Wednesday January 9 that it has produced its first quantity of battery quality (over 99.56% purity) lithium carbonate.The battery quality lithium carbonate was produced at the company's prototype lithium carbonate crys...Read More

Throughout all of the political bickering these days - and it has reached quite the crescendo after the recent midterm elections - we can't help but feel the despair of frustration.Looking with an objective eye toward Capitol Hill, nobody can deny the divisiveness that has grinded our government to a screeching halt.That's just the natural course of things when you have extremes on both sides ramm...Read More

Forecasts, Commentary & Analysis on the Economy and Precious MetalsCelebrating our 45th year in the gold businessJanuary, 2019_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Gold mine production by countryDivergent paths among the major global producers tell an important taleSources: MetalsFocus and the World Gold Coun...Read More

By: Gary TanashianThe 3 Amigos were a blogger's way of not boring himself to death while fleshing out important macro indicators month after month.Amigo #1 (SPX/Gold ratio) got home and dropped from target. What's more, it has taken back the ratio's equivalent of the entire Trump rally and that is an eventuality we are very open to on nominal SPX as well.The gaps are interesting and among sev...Read More

John Williams & Chris Waltzek Ph.D. - January 8th, 2019. -- CLICK HERE TO LISTEN NOW (Mp3 file) HighlightsThe founder of Shadowstats.com, a leading online alternative economic-resource offers listener's a financial market overview for 2019.John Williams notes the economic mishaps leading up to the Great Recession of 2008 were mostly ignored.The inordinately large global financial-bubble...Read More