China’s economy grew 3.2 percent in Q2 2020. The expansion was above expectations, but it does not have to sink gold.Last week, China reported that its economy grew 3.2 percent year-on-year in the second quarter of this year, following a 6.8 percent contraction in the previous quarter, as the chart below shows. Importantly, the actual growth rate beat the market expectations of a 2.5 percent...Read More

This week saw higher metal prices with the mining stocks performing well. Silver had an incredible week, being up >$1/oz. for two consecutive days. Silver reached on all-time high and had its best week in a long time. Like two weeks ago, there were countless financings for junior stocks again this week, which are listed below. Earnings should start to be reported in two weeks or so. Some compani...Read More

Steve St. Angelo, SRSrocco Report As the Fed and central banks continue to prop up the global economy with massive monetary stimulus, investors are just beginning to move into the precious metals to protect wealth. In the first seven months of the year, investors have already purchased three times the Gold Eagles that were sold during full-year 2019. According to the data from the U.S. Mint,...Read More

The Market in a Dozen ChartsWhere Is the Breadth?The S&P 10 versus the S&P 490If That Was a Bubble, What Is This?Extra CashEnter Robin HoodTriggered MarketCoping with COVID"In the short run, the market is a voting machine but in the long run, it is a weighing machine." Benjamin GrahamYou may have noticed a bit of manic activity in the stock market. You may have also notice...Read More

Last week, we wrote that gold miners flashed an“extremely overbought” signal, which they had only flashed once in the past –almost right at the 2016 top. The GoldMiners Bullish Percent Index recently moved to the highest levelthat it could reach – 100.The only other case when the index was at 100, wasin mid-2016. We marked this situation with a vertical dashedline. Did min...Read More

As the world's economic engine starts to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic, the demand for certain key commodities are a good indicator of the rebound strength.The S&P GSCI Commodity Index (Chart 1) is a collection of24 commodities from all commodity sectors (energy products, industrial metals, agricultural products, livestock products and precious metals). Since 2011, the index has been in a...Read More

"Hope and fear look different on a chart"Recently in these pages, we noted that bull markets in stocks tend to end with "a subtly slowing ascent" rather than with a final "spike" higher, as many investors believe. Historical examples were provided.It was also pointed out that, by contrast, commodities do tend to end major uptrends with a price spike.The Wall Street classic book, Elliott Wave Princ...Read More

You may have heard that gold typically rallies seasonally from themiddle of the year. This trend is driven by jewelry demand, which increasesahead of the Christmas business, the Indian wedding season and the Chinese NewYear celebrations on the back of advance purchases by jewelers, which tend to putupward pressure on prices. But what about the seasonal trend in gold stocks? Since the earnings ofgo...Read More

Gold and silver markets advanced early thisweek, with silver leading the way.  OnThursday, the metals sold off a bit as the U.S. dollar gained.The major trend for the dollar, however, isdown. The Dollar Index has been grinding lower since mid March, when it put ina spike high.  Silver finally broke through $19 level with astrong close above it on Monday.  Therehasn’t yet been...Read More

It’s official now! On June 8, the Business Cycle Dating Committee of the National Bureau of Economic Research stated that economic activity in the United States had peaked in February 2020 (and in Q4 2019, when it comes to the peak in quarterly economic activity), marking the start of a recession. The peak also designates the end of the expansion that began in June 2009 and lasted 128 months...Read More

The London Metal Exchange is looking for ways to boost its options market, which has been struggling for some years to replicate the growth seen in the same sector among its peers.The exchange has launched a consultation, scheduled to end on July 29, on developing electronic options via a new trading platform while retaining its current inter-office options trading structure.Items up for discussio...Read More

Summerdoldrums? Not for precious metals markets!Inearly July, gold and silver eachbroke out to fresh multi-year highs. The yellow metal is within strikingdistance of new all-time highs and the headline worthy figure of $2,000/oz.Thewhite metal, meanwhile, has a lot of catching up to do. And as it does, thegains in percentage terms could be explosive.Silver has already packed on 60% since its March...Read More

Silver investmentdemand is exploding in recent months, skyrocketing higher inwildly-unprecedented fashion!  That has catapultedsilver sharply higher since mid-March’s COVID-19-lockdown stock panic.  Accelerating even in this usually-weak summerseason, the massive capital inflows deluging into silver show no signs ofabating.  This is very bullish for silver,yet most traders rem...Read More

The mining industry does a huge amount of good for local communities, to say nothing of its essential contribution to society through the materials it produces. Unfortunately, it all too often manages to give itself a bad name, worsening negative perceptions of the sector through accidents, spills and a failure to act as a steward of the environments in which it operates. In the past month alone,...Read More

The threat of Section 232 tariffs on aluminium imports from Canada into the United States has, like the great white shark following the Brody family in the universally panned film, 'Jaws: The Revenge,' returned - akin to a truly awful horror movie franchise. And that's how Neil Herrington, senior vice president for the Americas, US Chamber of Commerce, views reports that the US administration is c...Read More

The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.Aluminium: Comfortable consolidationAluminium appears comfortable consolidating for the moment, and this will leave prices in a stronger position to challenge overhanging long-term trend-line resistance from the May 2018 high, which stands at $1,670 per tonne currently.Copper: Consolidation unlikely to lastCopper reached its...Read More

The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.Aluminium: Upside breakout last weekThe price of aluminium on the London Metal Exchange surprised us with a break to the upside in the week ended July 10, when prices on the Shanghai Futures Exchange raced to three-and-a-half-year highs. While we think there is more short-term upside potential if technical and liquidity fact...Read More

The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.Aluminium: Capped by oversupplyA lack of a meaningful supply adjustment to the Covid-19 demand hit is keeping the aluminium physical market oversupplied and weighing on prices, limiting the success of more buoyant macro and technical forces on prices. Our premium forecasts are under review in light of threats from the U...Read More

The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.Aluminium: Poised for a technical breakoutFears over a second wave of Covid-19 continue to grow, forcing prices of aluminium and the other base metals to take a pause. Our base-case scenario is that countries will respond more efficiently to contain the virus spread, so economic activity and metal demand should continue to r...Read More

The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.Prices hold, pipe buying stalls Seamless prices remained broadly stable in much of the world this month - with the notable exception of falling Japan fob prices, because oil and gas producers have been less inclined to fight for premium products as they cut their capital expenditure - but this was not the result of a balance...Read More