WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Top U.S. Senate Democrats on Tuesday blasted President Donald Trump’s stance on Russia as too soft and indicated that his approach to the country accused of meddling in U.S. elections will come up when they consider his nominee for secretary of state next month.Saying that outgoing Secretary of State Rex Tillerson“was not close to tough enough on Russia,” S...Read More
NEW YORK (Reuters) - The U.S. Federal Reserve’s currency swap line with overseas central banks may not stem a further widening of the spread on dollar three-month London interbank offered rate and overnight indexed swap rate, a Citi Research analyst said on Tuesday.The premium of three-month LIBOR over three-month OIS, which is seen as a gauge of stress in the money markets, grew to 48.45 ba...Read More
(Kitco News) - Gold prices were ending the U.S. day session with moderate gains early Tuesday afternoon. The precious metals saw some safe-haven demand due to increasing concerns about turmoil in the Trump administration. A lower U.S. dollar index on this day also worked in favor of the metals bulls. April Comex gold futures were last up $5.70 an ounce at $1,326.50. May Comex silver was last up $0...Read More
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump fired Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on Tuesday after a series of public rifts over issues including North Korea and Russia, replacing his chief diplomat with loyalist CIA Director Mike Pompeo.The biggest shakeup of Trump’s Cabinet since he took office more than a year ago, which the president announced on Twitter, comes as the administrat...Read More
Commerzbank says gold prices may well weaken ahead of a meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee next week. After all, this has been a pattern for the yellow metal, which then tends to rise afterward. A U.S. rate hike is expected at next week’s FOMC meeting, the first to be chaired by Jerome Powell. “It was not unusual for gold to experience phases of weakness ahead of a Fed meetin...Read More
Editor's Note: Welcome to Kitco's new Bitcoin Daily Technical Alert. Every trading day veteran Kitco technical analyst Jim Wyckoff will provide you with a concise and easy-to-understand near-term technical brief on Bitcoin. Importantly, Jim will glean the short-term charts and technical studies, and then alert you to the signals he sees regarding upcoming potential bigger price moves or price tren...Read More
For the last few days, gold has tried to catch a bid to go higher, but each time it has failed. Since last Wednesday's high, gold has attempted to rally each day only to close lower. There seems to be a lot of waiting on gold, keeping the metal from breaking out to the upside. Every news event that seemed positive for the metals has resulted in a failed rally. Prices seem to be hovering at the bot...Read More
The latest news and price moves to start the Asian day on Tuesday March 13.Base metals prices on the London Metal Exchange were lower across the board at the close on Monday March 12, with overhead selling pressure weakening prices. Read more in our live futures report.Here are how LME prices looked at Monday's close:Copper industry participants from throughout the value chain gathered at Met...Read More
The latest news and price moves to start the Asian day on Tuesday March 13.Base metals prices on the London Metal Exchange were lower across the board at the close on Monday March 12, with overhead selling pressure weakening prices. Read more in our live futures report.Here are how LME prices looked at Monday's close:Copper industry participants from throughout the value chain gathered at Met...Read More
Lead was the strongest performer on the London Metal Exchange on Tuesday March 13 - closing 2.2% higher.8,000 tonnes of lead was freshly cancelled in Antwerp this morning giving fresh support to prices while stocks tighten once again. LME warrants are also tightly held with one entity holding 30-39% of warrant positions."Lead is carrying out some much needed base-building after breaking below $2,4...Read More
The United Kingdom's trade department has said it will work with industry to try and convince the United States to exempt British products from the Section 232 import tariffs.The UK government will be assisting UK industry "as they work with US customers to build their cases for the exemption of individual products" from US president Donald Trump's Section 232 tariffs on imported steel and alumini...Read More
Despite the better-than-expected 2018 Chinese government's subsidy policy on electric vehicles (EVs), cobalt demand in local market is likely to be subdued after transitional period specified in the new policy expires in June, market participants told Metal Bulletin.As the market had expected, China's 2018 EV subsidy policy prioritizes pure EVs with a higher driving range and energy density. Yet,...Read More
The manganese ore price-trend outlook was firmly above $8 per dry metric tonne unit (dmtu) on Friday March 9, while producers reckon consumer interest will act as support, though there was a downbeat assessment among consumers. Ore producers say they are sold out through April But Chinese consumers signal otherwise Europe holds, awaits quarterly deals US markets held in rangesMajor manganese ore p...Read More
Due to an administration error, the Metal Bulletin 44% manganese ore index was calculated incorrectly on March 9. Metal Bulletin has corrected its 44% manganese ore index, which was published incorrectly on Friday due to an administrative error.It was incorrectly published at $8.81 per dmtu on Friday, which has now been corrected to 8.63 cents per dmtu. Metal Bulletin's price book a...Read More
The Chinese vanadium market edged upward despite limited trading activity, while the European and US ferro-vanadium markets surged on significant supply concerns. Chinese vanadium suppliers raise offers despite limited activity European market surges on increasingly tight supply US ferro-vanadium market strengthens again, supply squeeze supportsChinese ferro-vanadium export prices continued to tre...Read More
The manganese ore price-trend outlook was firmly above $8 per dry metric tonne unit (dmtu) on Friday March 9, while producers reckon consumer interest will act as support, though there was a downbeat assessment among consumers. Ore producers say they are sold out through April But Chinese consumers signal otherwise Europe holds, awaits quarterly deals US markets held in rangesMajor manganese ore p...Read More
Despite the better-than-expected 2018 Chinese government's subsidy policy on electric vehicles (EVs), cobalt demand in local market is likely to be subdued after transitional period specified in the new policy expires in June, market participants told Metal Bulletin.As the market had expected, China's 2018 EV subsidy policy prioritizes pure EVs with a higher driving range and energy density. Yet,...Read More
UK ferrous scrap prices for monthly deliveries to consumers in March have rebounded, recovering losses from last month, with the prices of almost all grades up by ?30 per tonne amid firm demand, trade sources told Metal Bulletin this week.Only borings bucked the trend, with the price increasing by only ?25 per tonne.Trend-indicating grades in the UK such as HMS 1&2 (old steel) and OA (plate and...Read More
The Turkish steel scrap market remained quiet on Tuesday March 13, with the mills in the country holding back from deep-sea scrap purchases since the end of last week.The mills stepped back from the market after the Section 232 tariffs were officially signed in the United States, imposing a 25% import duty on all steel products. The Turkish mills are now watching the market to see what direction i...Read More
Vietnam's ferrous scrap imports dropped 17% year on year in February, according to the country's Ministry of Finance.The country imported 299,301 tonnes of scrap last month, compared with 359,807 tonnes a year earlier.February's imports were only about half of the 593,119 tonnes of scrap that reached Vietnam's shores in January.Japan and the United States were...Read More