The seaborne coking coal spot market saw a flurry of transactions on Monday July 9, though Chinese end-users remained on the sidelines. "We have decided to take our time because we have sufficient levels of inventory as of now. There is also some congestion at our port of discharge at the moment," a procurement source in northeast China said. He had submitted a firm bid for a cargo of premium mid-...Read More
U.S. equity index futures were higher this morning. S&P 500 futures were up 9 points in pre-opening trade.Canadian Pacific (CP $237.23 Cdn.) is expected to open higher after Raymond James upgraded the stock to a Strong Buy. Target price is $275 Cdn.Anadarko (APC $73.66) is expected to open higher after adding $1 billion to its share buyback program. The company also intends to reduce its debt...Read More
The latest bids, offers and deals in the global markets for iron ore, pig iron, direct-reduced iron and other steelmaking raw materials. Latest transaction: iron oreIron oreRio Tinto, tender, 170,000 tonnes of 61% Fe Pilbara Blend fines, sold at $61.60 per tonne cfr China, laycan July 30-August 8.Rio...Read More
Seaborne iron ore concentrates and pellet prices increased in the week ending Friday July 6 as high-grade and low-alumina products continued to be favored by the market. Iron ore concentratesThe weekly Metal Bulletin 66% Fe Concentrate Index was $97.15 per tonne cfr China on July 9, up by $2.83 per tonne - or 3% - from $94.32 per tonne cfr a week earlier. The daily Metal Bulletin 65% Fe...Read More
China's steel futures rose during morning trading on Monday July 9 despite a continual softening of the physical market last week.Futures closing prices - morning session Shanghai Futures Exchange October rebar: 3,816 yuan ($574.40) per tonne, up 34 yuan per tonne October hot-rolled coil: 3,892 yuan per tonne, up 34 yuan per tonne Dalian Commodity Exchange...Read More
Base metals on the London Metal Exchange were mostly higher during morning trading on Monday July 9, rebounding against positive US data last week and a broad recovery in global equity markets.Climbing 1.6%, copper's three-month price made the largest recovery after closing at its lowest point in almost a year on Friday. Broadly impacted by trade worries and volatile market conditions, copper...Read More
A squeeze on credit in China and efforts to secure cash won out over fundamental market strength last week, leaving the recent decline in cobalt prices to gain momentum in early July. Metal bulletin's price assessments for high-grade and low-grade cobalt both dropped to $38.85-40 per lb on Friday July 6, off from $39.70-41 per lb on June 29 and down 2.3% over the course of the week.The cobalt...Read More
Some strength emerged in the three-month base metals prices on the London Metal Exchange on the morning of Monday July 9, with all of the metals posting gains that averaged 1% as at 7.06am London time.Volume has been above average with 10,063 lots traded. This follows a mixed performance on Friday, when nickel, lead, tin and copper prices dropped, while aluminium and zinc prices rallied. A large u...Read More
The depreciation of the yuan against the dollar coupled with persistently weak demand pushed Chinese silicon export prices to their lowest level since August 2017. Meanwhile, the European market has stabilized following its recent decline.Metal Bulletin assessed Chinese grade 553 silicon metal export prices at $1,640-1,700 per tonne on Friday July 6, down 3.7% from $1,710-1,760 per tonne one week...Read More
Pig iron export prices from Brazil have gone up because most producers are sold out until September-October, while demand, in the United States in particular, is expected to increase in mid-July for restocking purposes.Metal Bulletin's weekly price assessment for pig iron exports from Brazil was $400-405 per tonne fob for material from the northern Caraj??s region on Friday July 6, up from $390-39...Read More
Pig iron export prices from Brazil have gone up because most producers are sold out until September-October, while demand, in the United States in particular, is expected to increase in mid-July for restocking purposes.Metal Bulletin's weekly price assessment for pig iron exports from Brazil was $400-405 per tonne fob for material from the northern Caraj??s region on Friday July 6, up from $390-39...Read More
NEW YORK, July 6 (LPC) - US bank loan funds saw the first week of outflows after 19 consecutive weeks of inflows as market volatility triggered by the trade war dented investors’ appetite for risk assets.Investors pulled US$184.2m from loan funds in the week ending July 4, according to Lipper. This marked the first week of outflows from loan funds since the week ending February 14.The trade...Read More
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. economy created more jobs than expected in June, but steady wage gains pointed to moderate inflation pressures that should keep the Federal Reserve on a path of gradual interest rate increases this year.Nonfarm payrolls rose by 213,000 jobs last month as manufacturers stepped up hiring, the Labor Department said on Friday. The economy added 37,000 more jobs in April...Read More
(Reuters) - BP Plc (BP.L) is in the lead to acquire the U.S. onshore shale assets of BHP Billiton Ltd (BHP.AX) (BLT.L) after submitting an offer worth well in excess of $10 billion, people familiar with the matter said on Friday.BP is the front-runner in the auction for the assets run by BHP, and could reach a deal in coming weeks, the sources added, cautioning that an agreement is not certain and...Read More
(Kitco News) - Wall Street and Main Street have both flipped from bearish to bullish short-term forecasts for gold prices, based on the Kitco News weekly survey.Gold is headed for a small gain in a holiday-thinned week, with Canada Day and the U.S. Fourth of July both occurring in the same week. The metal held up Friday even though U.S. nonfarm payrolls came in slightly stronger than expectations,...Read More
(Kitco News) - The amount of gold held by global exchange-traded funds and similar products fell by 49.3 tonnes to 2,434.3 tonnes in June, the World Gold Council reported Friday.In U.S. dollar terms, assets under management fell 2.1% from May to $97.9 billion.“Investors seemed to shrug off poor equity-market performance and escalating global trade tensions, pushing the gold price down by 4.2...Read More
BEIJING/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States and China slapped tit-for-tat duties on $34 billion worth of each other’s imports on Friday, with Beijing accusing Washington of triggering the “largest-scale trade war” as the world’s two biggest economies sharply escalated their conflict.Hours before Washington’s deadline for the tariffs to take effect, U.S. President...Read More
Since gold bottomed at the $1050 region in late 2015 many analysts, myself included, have been anticipating a breakout above strong resistance at the $1375 level. However, this past April the yellow metal failed for the third time at this area and has now broken down with a monthly basis close below critical support at $1260 on June 29th. Furthermore, bullion had its worst quarterly performance si...Read More
(Kitco News) - Gold and silver prices are slightly lower in early U.S. trading Friday. The just-released U.S. jobs report was deemed upbeat, but precious metals prices saw little reaction to the news and saw their mild overnight losses maintained. August gold futures were last down $1.90 an ounce at $1,257.00. July Comex silver was last down $0.022 at $16.075 an ounce.The closely followed U.S. emp...Read More
Can gold keep rallying? The simple answer is yes, although of course, there is the jobs number at 8:30 a.m. EDT that can be a help or hindrance. According to the charts, gold has room to run another $20 before seeing any real resistance. That move can come slowly or all at once, depending on what the job numbers say today. The action in the metals has been better over the last week and the rally s...Read More