You see, there is all this noise out there. It comes mostly from inflationists touting gold in the same breath as copper, as oil, and as commodities of all flavors (and aside from gold and to a degree, silver, those flavors are cyclical).But you also see, gold is counter-cyclical in its best suit. You see on this monthly chart that gold has been forming its Handle to the bullish Cup ever since the...Read More

Mexico's Altos Hornos de M?(C)xico (Ahmsa) is considering seeking Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection for its Minera del Norte thermal coal subsidiary, after a Mexican commission canceled state supply contracts, the company said on Thursday October 21.Minera del Norte - also known as Minosa - is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Mexican steelmaker and has the capacity to produce 6.6 million tonnes per...Read More

Russia's Metalloinvest plans to construct the world's biggest hot-briquetted iron (HBI) facility, to help speed up the transition to green steel production, the company said this week.Technology provider Midrex Technologies and engineering company Primetals will supply the new HBI Plant (HBI-4) at Lebedinsky GOK (LGOK), Metalloinvest said. The plant will be built at Gubkin in west Russia, and will...Read More

Rio Tinto will invest $7.5 billion to reduce emissions and meet its carbon targets earlier than planned, the company announced on Wednesday September 20.Following more ambitious climate targets by governments, Rio Tinto is revising its emissions reduction targets. Its new target is to reduce its Scope 1 & 2 carbon emissions of the greenhouse gas (GHG) Protocol by 50% by 2030, more than triple...Read More

What’s happening in the natural gasmarkets? Prices are surging like crazy. The answer may be complex, but I’m hereto provide it.MarketAnalysis Today, we expect the market to beaccumulating since the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) on Thursdayreported an injection of 88 billion cubic feet (Bcf) of natural gas intostorage for the week ending on Sept. 24. This could indeed be...Read More

1. Gold has produced positive returns in 16 of the last 20 years.2. Gold’s average annual return compounded since 2001 is 10.32%. (2001-2020)3. Gold has been a portfolio stalwart. A $100,000 investment in gold in January 2001 would be worth about $655,000 today. At gold’s peak in 2020, it would have been worth over $750,000.4. Gold does not have a political preference. Its ascent has o...Read More

US dollar (DXY) has activated its Inverted H&S, Gold/Silver maintains its uptrend, watch silver going foward…I do not make predictions because I do not pretend to be a guru.* But NFTRH has been tracking what has been an uptrend in the US dollar for all of 2021, keeping us well aware of the potentials being realized from late summer into the fall. A higher low was made in May and now a h...Read More

Another fiscal year, another governmental fight to raise the debt limit. A failure spells a crisis, but gold turns a blind eye and continues its fall.So, America has a new tradition! The government shutdown is coming. A new fiscal year starts tomorrow, and if Congress fails to agree on a budget by the end of today, the government will shut down.What does it mean for the US economy? According to Tr...Read More

With a more hawkish Fed disposition,non-commercial traders remaining dollar-strong, and the EUR/USD sinking, itdoesn’t bode well for the metals.With U.S. Treasury yields continuingtheir ascent on Sep. 28, the mini taper tantrum pushed the NASDAQ 100 over acliff. And with the USD Index loving the surge in volatility, the greenbackfurther cemented its breakout above the neckline of its inverse...Read More

It’s Powell’s doing, as always... the Chair signaled that tapering could be announced as soon as next month. What does this mean for gold bulls?In the latest edition of the Fundamental Gold Report, I covered the FOMC’s newest statement on monetary policy and the dot-plot. I concluded that “gold will struggle until the Fed’s tightening cycle is well underway”. As...Read More

Gold, silver, and mining stocks don’tneed any help from the USDX or the stock market; they can decline all on theirown – the miners in particular.Last week, mining stocks declined quitevisibly, and it happened without significant help from the USD Index and fromthe general stock market. Silver and gold were practically flat week-over-week,so was the USD Index, and the general stock mar...Read More

[edit] Upon completing the article I realized that no forward look at the economy and financial markets from an inflationary/deflationary point of view would be complete without consideration of the Yield Curve. Here is its status at the time of writing. It is making a steepening hint this week along with the rise in bond yields. That signaling is inflationary, at least for now. But in 2008 t...Read More

Biden scaled back on his infrastructure bill. However, with all the remaining cards still in play, his economic agenda should be positive for gold.Inflation, bond yields, monetary policy… that’s all interesting and crucial to understand trends in the gold markets – but, hey, what’s up in politics? A lot has happened recently on this front. In particular, last month, the wo...Read More

Knock, knock? Is it already the sky,or just a ceiling? Either way, oil has risen substantially — how high can itgo?FundamentalUpdates The crude closed on highs on Thursdaythanks to optimism about demand as well as the remaining tight supply. In fact,this increase is driven by a general market sentiment that is relativelyfavorable to the macroeconomic situation and the conviction that supply...Read More

Trading energy ETFs outside of US exchanges can be tricky, as itoften means lower liquidity and some latency, but is it worth trying?Definitely!Let’s do a comparative study between the WTI Crude Oil (CL) and anExchange-Traded Fund (ETF) tracking this energy commodity as the underlyingasset.Prelude In the previous two-part series (see PartI & PartII), we presented different ways to trade...Read More

The gold and silver futures markets were designed to increase volatility and discourage physical ownership of precious metals, as revealed in 1970s-era disclosures. The futures markets have also created opportunities for manipulation.Today, the corruption is on full display for anyone who cares to look at the Wiki-Leaks documents, criminal prosecutions, and the other piles of evidence detailing fo...Read More

Precious metals markets got dealt a technical blow after gold and silver sold off on Thursday. Stronger-than-expected economic reports boosted the U.S. Dollar Index, which in turn gave futures traders all the rationale they needed to pound longs with sell orders. Silver traded down to a slight new 2021 low. Unless prices recover quickly here and carve out a double bottom, stop-loss selling could s...Read More

The Copper/Gold ratio remains at a key decision pointGold has been clobbered lately but a key metallic macro indicator remains in a long-term congestion zone. If it’s going to be cyclical ‘inflation ON’ we’d expect Cu/Au to break through and do what it has not done since a major inflation trade blew out in 2006-2008, and for the 30yr Treasury yield to eventually catch on an...Read More

August marked the 50th anniversary of Nixon’s abandonment of the gold standard. It caused so many problems for the economy…and gold didn’t take over?Last month marked the 50th anniversary of President Nixon’s suspension of the convertibility of US dollars into gold. This move broke the last, thin link between world currencies and the yellow metal, effectively ending the er...Read More

The ECB tapered its asset purchases. Only that it didn’t taper at all. Are you confused? Gold isn’t – it simply doesn’t care.Tapering has begun. For now, in the Eurozone. This is at least what headlines suggest, as last week, the Governing Council of the European Central Bank held its monetary policy meeting. The European central bankers decided to slow down the pace of the...Read More