ArcelorMittal will temporarily stop production at its Romanian facility to combat the Covid-19 pandemic, Fastmarkets heard on Tuesday March 31.ArcelorMittal Hunedoara will stop production from April 1 until April 12 inclusive, a company spokesman said."Production will be stopped, for sure," the spokesman said. "We don't know yet if we are going...Read More

Ferrous scrap prices in the Mexican steelmaking regions of Monterrey and Bajio rose during the week ended Friday March 27 - bucking the trend in global markets - due to a strong devaluation of the peso.Most scrap buyers were forced to increase prices by 150-250 pesos ($4-10) last week.Some contractual volumes of ferrous scrap are quoted in dollars in Mexico, and a considerable amount of scrap come...Read More

The Turkish steel mills have gone quiet in the deep-sea scrap markets after the recent sharp fall in prices, with more mills shutting down their operations due to the Covid-19 pandemic, sources said on Tuesday March 31.Two steel mills booked Baltic Sea cargoes late last week at around $206-207 per tonne cfr for HMS 1&2 (80:20), which sent the daily scrap indices down by $23.42 per tonne at the beg...Read More

The seaborne iron ore market stabilized on Tuesday March 31 after the prior day's loss of more than $3 per tonne, attributed to a rebound in China's official manufacturing purchasing managers' index (PMI) and a slight boost in trading volumes. Fastmarkets iron ore indices 62% Fe fines, cfr Qingdao: $83.32 per tonne, up $0.34 per tonne 62% Fe low-alumina fines, cfr Qingdao: $84.08 per tonne, up $0....Read More

The prices for steel rebar and billet in the United Arab Emirates have decreased sharply over the past week, with demand very weak amid concerns about the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic, market sources said on Tuesday March 31.Local rebar producers announced new domestic prices last week.Emirates Steel is now offering rebar at 1,690 dirhams ($460) per tonne ex-works, down from 1,853 dirhams per t...Read More

Steel slab export prices from the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) region fell sharply in the week ended Monday March 30 due to the lack of demand in almost all markets as well as increased competition both inside and outside the region.Fastmarkets' weekly price assessment for steel slab, export, fob Black Sea, CIS, was $330-340 per tonne on March 30, down from $385 per tonne fob a week ea...Read More

Rob Kirby provides some great information as to what is happening and how all this mess ties together.Rob Kirby is a financial commentator and former broker who worked on an institutional trading desk for most of the 1980s and right up until 1996. He also worked for 11 years at Prebon Yamane, an international inter-dealer broker of foreign exchange and interest rate products. He spent an additiona...Read More

It seems like this crisis has been going on forever now. To think that just a few short weeks ago everything was relatively normal. And now, the economy has been stopped dead in its tracks and we're all sitting home wondering when it will be over. But the worst of the economic turmoil hasn't even hit us. The government is busy with helicopter and we're about to see the first installment. What will...Read More

Charles Hugh Smith writes the Of Two Minds blog which covers an eclectic range of timely topics: finance, housing, Asia, energy, long-term trends, social issues, health/diet/fitness and sustainability. From its humble beginnings in May 2005, Of Two Minds now attracts some 200,000 visits a month. Charles also contributes to AOL's Daily Finance site and has written eight books, most recently Money a...Read More

Rick Rule, founder and chairman of Sprott Global Resource Investments Ltd., began his career in the securities business in 1974. He is a leading American retail broker specializing in mining, energy, water utilities, forest products and agriculture. His company has built a national reputation on taking advantage of global opportunities in the oil and gas, mining, alternative energy, agriculture, f...Read More

"This is not your garden variety business cycle where a sharp downturn is followed by an equally sharp snapback. We can restart production, but can we really restart consumption with people still scared and unwilling to go out and socialize and spend? So, I think the recovery is going to be extremely tentative."Stephen S. Roach, former Chairman of Morgan Stanley Asia and the firm's chief economist...Read More

To Watch Update #60, CLICK HEREAs we reported yesterday, with the world sharing its data, we are starting to get a better handle on understanding the coronavirus. This real-time exchange of data and insights going on across the globe right now is invaluable to global efforts to fight the spread of covid-19 more effectively. Germany has recently contributed two important pieces to the puzzle. First...Read More

Keep your eye on Pompeo! President Trump is understandably distracted by the coronavirus outbreak in the US but in the "never let a good crisis go to waste" mode, the neocons in his Administration - led by Pompeo - are launching their war plots without the normal scrutiny. Venezuela, Iran, Syria, Russia - the long knives are coming out. Trump has been able to put the kibbosh on Pompeo's plans befo...Read More

The video, which was broadcast in November, 2015, exposed how scientists in China were conducting biological experiments on a SARS connected virus believed to be Coronavirus derived from bats and miceContinue...Read More

The miners are looking at a favorable cost structure, and at a most favorable gold price prospect. That's why we like names like Agnico Eagle Mines, Barrick Gold or Kirkland Lake Gold.Continue...Read More

Why Asia and Europe had such profoundly different outcomes from the COVID19 PandemicThree crisis for the price of one: Why markets are currently experiencing three separate crises at onceComing challenges for EuropeRead More

My clients have known for a long time that the nucleus of the next crisis will be in the over-leveraged corporate bond market. This notion was confirmed recently in an article from the WSJ: companies that Continue...Read More

Here's my best depiction of how this will play out using one of my two favorite chart patterns at major topping periods (the other is the megaphone pattern, which is also in play on a larger and smaller scale). Continue...Read More

"Keeping over 4,000 young men and women on board the TR is an unnecessary risk and breaks faith with those sailors entrusted to our care," Crozier wrote. Continue...Read More

One of the questions asked most frequently is, isn't the Fed out of ammunition? No, they still have plenty of tricks in their bag.Continue...Read More