Brazilian slab export prices increased during the week to Friday February 28, with recent deals concluded at higher levels and a seasonal pick-up in the market.Fastmarkets' weekly price assessment for steel slab export, fob main port Brazil rose to $460-475 per tonne on Friday from $450-460 per tonne a week earlier.A series of deals to the United States concluded at $470-475 per tonne fob, ac...Read More
In yet more absurdity and confirmation that Edward Snowden was never an "enemy of the state" - as top intelligence officials and some congressional leaders have charged for years - it's been revealed that the Continue...Read More
Greg Weldon breaks down the market fallout still ahead of us as a result of the coronavirus, why gold and silver won't be immune to the selloff that will continue to take place in all markets. Even though it could present a fantastic opportunity for precious metals investors. Gregory Weldon is CEO of Weldon Financial and Editor of the influential newsletters "Weldon's Money Monitor," the "Commodit...Read More
If you want to know why things are screwed up, take a good look at your family (not mine). The corona virus could be a pandemic, but Gerald thinks not. So far the mortality rate has been relatively low. Just like the weatherman likes to panic the public at the first sign of a hurricane, so to with our public health officials. Why believe one word that comes out of any government. They're lying. So...Read More
Is the January Effect dead? Is it now the February Effect? After Tesla nearly hit $1000 per share, it's now fallen almost 20 percent. Global trade contracted in 2019. Perhaps the world economy was already declining and this is just the final chapter of the stock market's long extended bull market. Passive investing is the dominant form of investing, whatever happened to stock pickers? And the debt...Read More
"I wish, again, to express my closeness to those who are ill with coronavirus and to health care workers who are caring for them." Continue...Read More
The market is now demanding almost 4 rate-cuts this year - a stunning example of the desperation for monetary policy mavens to save the world through easy money... and maintain the 'buy the dip' strategy that a generation of money managers has become conditioned to.Continue...Read More
A great many systems that are assumed to be robust are actually fragile. Exhibit #1 is the global financial system, of course, but Exhibit #2 may well be the healthcare system globally and in the U.S.Continue...Read More
Gold is being slammed lower despite a massive stock market sell-off.Continue...Read More
In short, the baby is being thrown out with the bath water. Continue...Read More
Prices in Southeast Asia's steel billet market continued to face multiple headwinds in the week to Friday February 28, despite the sustained uptrend in the bellwether Turkish ferrous scrap import market. Many buyers had replenished their inventories previously or expect the rise in scrap prices to be unsustainable, leading to sluggish demand, a trader in the Philippines said.Ferrous scrap prices i...Read More
A surge in Chinese high-carbon ferro-chrome production last year led to a jump in buying interest for chrome ore, resulting in a significant build-up of ore inventories in the country that is dampening market sentiment. At the same time, the increased output among Chinese ferro-chrome smelters is exceeding demand from the downstream stainless steel sector and is putting pressure on China's market...Read More
The price of stainless steel in the European domestic market was unchanged in the week ended Friday February 28, but decreases were expected from next week following mills' recent announcement of lower monthly alloy surcharges.The surcharges for grade-304 stainless steels came down substantially this week because of lower nickel prices. The nickel downturn also caused grade-316 surcharges to decre...Read More
Key data from the pricing sessions in Asia, Europe and the United States for the week ending Friday February 28. China Novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) continues to weaken sentiment for seaborne ore prices amid sharp falls in portside and alloy prices. Portside prices fell on aggressive bids...Read More
The American Institute for International Steel (AIIS) has again asked the United States Supreme Court to hear its case challenging the constitutionality of Section 232.AIIS' move comes after the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit said that President Donald Trump acted within the authority granted to him by the Constitution in imposing tariffs and quotas against foreign steel and aluminium...Read More
Trading in Turkey's domestic steel market has stopped following an airstrike in Idlib in northwestern Syria, that resulted in the deaths of at least 33 Turkish soldiers, market sources told Fastmarkets on Friday February 28. Following the attack, which Turkish officials blamed on the forces of Bashar al-Assad's regime, Turkey's president, Recep Tayyip Erdodan, said Syria's al-Assad regime was now...Read More
The American Institute for International Steel (AIIS) has again asked the United States Supreme Court to hear its case challenging the constitutionality of Section 232.AIIS' move comes after the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit said that President Donald Trump acted within the authority granted to him by the Constitution in imposing tariffs and quotas against foreign steel and aluminium...Read More
Flat steel import prices showed no clear trend in South America in the week ended Friday February 28, with Chinese exporters trying to push for increases following a steep decline through the earlier parts of the month.Buyers in Brazil had been especially quiet because of the strengthening United States dollar and the annual break for carnival festivities in the South American country."Clients hav...Read More
The pig iron market in the United States during the week ended Friday February 28 went up on new bookings and amid expectations of higher scrap prices in March, sources have told Fastmarkets.Fastmarkets' price assessment for pig iron, import, cfr Gulf of Mexico, US, was $347-350 per tonne on Friday, up from $335-340 per tonne the week before.Late last week, two cargoes with a...Read More
The London Metal Exchange three-month lead price slipped below $1,800 per tonne temporarily on Friday February 28, on a day that saw just over 6,000 lots traded.The LME lead price fell to $1,778.50 per tonne during morning trading hours in London, but recovered to close at $1,848 per tonne.The forward spreads in lead remained tight, with the benchmark cash-to-three-month spread...Read More