Our national and global health authorities have been playing fast and loose with my, no...with *our*, beloved science. Science means having an open mind, operating in a collegial fashion, being curious, and daring to be wrong and then change your mind when new facts come in. Religion demands obedience to a narrative. That's why I call our current times of medical nihilism as being shot through wit...Read More
All you really need to be is a citizen of the American police state to get flagged by the government for surveillance, censorship and detention.Continue...Read More
Peter Boockvar gives his expert insights into the commodities markets and beyond.Continue...Peter Boockvar is the Chief Investment Officer of Bleakley Financial Group and Editor of The Boock Report newsletter https://boockreport.com/.Read More
For Part 1 of this video series, CLICK HERELynette Zang has held the position of Chief Market Analyst at ITM Trading since 2002. Ms. Zang has been in the markets on some level since 1964. Her mission is to convert financial noise into understandable language. She has been a banker, a stock broker and studied world currencies since 1987. She believes strongly that we need to be as independent as po...Read More
About one in three U.S. adults say they're spending more on groceries than they were at the start of 2021, according to a new survey put out by Morning Consult.Continue...Read More
This week has been trulybrutal for the entire cryptocurrency sector, with the prices of majorcurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum crashing at least 30%. Theoverall sector has shed trillions of dollars in value.The recent carnage forholders of digital currencies could be due to a variety of factors includingprofit taking spurred by Elon Musk, an easing of inflation worries, or concernsabout new reg...Read More
Precious metals are among the best places to park your money in times of economic or political distress. Gold and silver offer stability during a period of extreme stock market volatility and low bond yields, and while they do not pay interest or dividends, they are not subject to inflation like paper currencies. It is also, in my opinion, a smart strategy to allocate a portion of gold a...Read More
A strategy to cool down commodity price spikes was top of the agenda China's weekly State Cabinet meeting on Wednesday May 19. Chaired by China's second most powerful politician, Premier Li Keqiang, the cabinet meeting discussed control measures to rein in the "unreasonable price rally", including ensuring sufficient supplies of main commodities. The aim is to prevent the rising costs pa...Read More
First Quantum Minerals has entered into a binding agreement to sell a 30% equity interest in the Ravensthorpe nickel-cobalt operation in Western Australia to South Korean steelmaker Posco for $240 million in cash, the company said on May 19.The Vancouver, Canada-headquartered company will retain a 70% interest in Ravensthorpe and continue to be the operator.Posco and First Quantum have also agreed...Read More
The world will need more than twice the amount of copper that it used in past three decades if it is to hit Paris Climate Agreement targets in the next 30 years, BHP's chief executive officer, Mike Henry said this week.Speaking at the Bank of America Metals, Mining & Steel conference on Tuesday May 18, Henry said demand for nickel will quadruple over the same timeframe.He added that meet...Read More
China's new tax regime for ferrous raw materials and steel exports will kick off a new era for the steel sector, one in which demand and supply will become more balanced and the country cuts its dependency on iron ore at a faster pace. Chinese authorities announced last week that, from May 1, import duties for metallics and semi-finished steel would be removed and that export duties for raw materi...Read More
Proposed changes to the London Metal Exchange's market structure may actually have the opposite effect to its desired intention: destroying liquidity, not increasing it.Attention has been focused on the proposed permanent closure of the LME ring, the incentivization of electronic trade and changes to margin methodology, which were central issues in the exchange's recently closed discussion paper.B...Read More
The Shanghai Futures Exchange's plans to list ferro-chrome futures, potentially this year, will bring welcomed hedging opportunities and may weaken the dominance of China's stainless steel mills in the ore and alloy markets, participants told Fastmarkets.While no definite date or specifications of the ferro-chrome futures have been announced, Fastmarkets asked participants what changes these contr...Read More
The situation with Silver due to Basel 3 is unique...by Korbinian Koller via Midas Touch ConsultingBasel 3, a voluntary regulatory framework to stress test central banks worldwide, requires banks to hold a percentage of assets back to deleverage their lendings. On June 28th, a new regulation will be set in place that disvalues unallocated gold paper contracts held against lendings. At the same tim...Read More
The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.Recent weeks have largely been a repetition of the weeks leading up to our previous tracker in mid-April. A flurry of price increases have been announced, and largely obtained, by leading steelmakers in both Europe and the United States while buyers struggle to secure spot tonnages.Although steel output is rising in both reg...Read More
The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.This month's key North American steel forecast highlights:Unprecedentedly high flat steel product pricing in the United States was forecast to persist through the current quarter and well into the second half of 2021.Actual US hot-rolled coil prices in April slightly outpaced our forecasts, with Fastmarkets' US HRC index ave...Read More
The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.The upward momentum in United States' flat product prices is yet to show any signs of slowing, with US HRC prices hitting new record highs during April. Steel supply is forecast to remain short of demand due to no improvement in underlying supply and demand fundamentals, which is propelling US flat product prices higher...Read More
The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts is ready to view.Market conditions are clearly extraordinary when we find ourselves adjusting the axis on our pricing charts to display the new record-high prices each month.After reporting record price highs in Europe and the United States with regards to coated steel products, we find ourselves repeating the same line this month. In Europe,...Read More
The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.This month's key ferro-alloy forecast highlights:?EUR? Impressive advances in ore and alloy prices persisted in March, with most markets posting significant price gains. Strengthening demand from steelmakers along with supply shortages and depleted inventories in numerous markets, as well as freight and transportation...Read More
Inner Mongolia, China's ferro-chrome production heartland, has imposed restrictions on its metallurgical sector in a move that has fueled the high-carbon ferro-chrome markets in China and Europe, and although this may ease off, the gains were unlikely to be lost while alloy ramp-ups continue, sources have told Fastmarkets.The decision to restrict energy consumption in Inner Mongolia since December...Read More