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

The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.Heavy rains in China, which can negatively affect iron ore supplies and pig iron production, and bolster demand for scrap, continued in July 2020. Although this was more an upside risk to our bearish base case one month ago, Chinese scrap prices remained strong. The firm prices gained support from the rains and from a more g...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

The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.This year has come with several unexpected events which increased the bullish case for iron ore prices, while the Chinese government's spending on infrastructure is likely to boost iron ore demand and add upside support to prices. But supply disruptions and a demand surge which caused price spikes are now easing. We do not e...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

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

The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' teamof analysts are ready to view.Chinese crude steel production outperformed our expectations with its recovery since the Covid-19 pandemic lockdowns. Crude steel output was up by 2.3% year-on-year in the first half of 2020 to 503 million tonnes, and we have revised upward what was initially a more bearish forecast for this year. We now estimate that product...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 latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.Prolonged flooding in China could limit the use of construction steel and drag down demand for steel rebar in the short term, which in turn could damp the demand for iron ore. So far, it has been reported that steel mills in the affected regions have continued to operate as normal. The floods have, however, caused a few days...Read More

The number of cases of Covid-19 in the U.S. have been rallying very quickly in last weeks, giving way only to the gold prices, which have surpassed $1,800. It’s not easy to terminate the viruses, especially that they are not quite alive. Indeed, the pandemic of the coronavirus is still not over, as the chart below shows. The global number of daily confirmed Covid-19 cases has surpassed 220,0...Read More

The latest forecast from Fastmarkets' team of analysts is ready to view.As we enter the summer season across the northern hemisphere, almost half a year has passed since the Covid-19 pandemic began to seriously affect Europe and the United States.One would not really be able to tell that such a dramatic event had occurred by looking at stainless steel prices, however, because they are more or less...Read More

The next few weeks are certain to attract much attention to precious metals.  Hardly anyone can argue that Gold has not experienced an incredible upside price rally over the last 12+ months.  Recently, Gold closed above $1800 for the first time since 2011.  Our researchers believe the next target is $1935.  Keep reading to learn why we believe this is the next major price targe...Read More

The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts is ready to view.Stainless steel prices are relatively stable this month, showing little change since our previous tracker. Such stability masks growing issues for stainless steelmakers, however, who are increasingly unable to pass on rising costs to consumers and are, thus, facing cuts to their margins.In general, this is due to an excess of...Read More

Previously, I have shown how  there were virtually no significant Silverrallies over the last 50 years during a period when the US Dollar index hasbeen rising.Betting on a silver rally when the US Dollarindex is in decline makes for great odds. There have been two significantSilver rallies in the last 50 years (marked out with rectangles on the chartbelow). During both of these, the US dollar...Read More

European stainless steel prices have remained stable over the past week due to the seasonal demand slowdown, sources told Fastmarkets on Friday August 7.Fastmarkets' assessment of the price for stainless steel cold-rolled sheet, 2mm, grade 304, transaction domestic, delivered North Europe, was ?,?1,900-1,950 ($2,254-2,314) per tonne on August 7, unchanged week on week.The assessment was...Read More

European domestic prices for stainless steel scrap have increased over the past week, supported by the higher cost of nickel, sources told Fastmarkets on Friday August 7.Fastmarkets' weekly price assessment for stainless steel scrap, 18/8 solids, domestic, delivered merchants UK, was ?850-880 ($1,118-1,157) per tonne on Friday, up by ?10 per tonne from ?840-870 per tonne on July 31.The assessme...Read More

Secondary aluminium scrap prices in the United States rose week on week amid a slight uptick in business and some pricing pressure from exports, although consumers were still being cautious. "We are buying what we need," one consumer said. "[We] don't want to build the scrap inventory."Fastmarkets assessed the aluminium scrap turnings clean dry high grade buying price, delivered to Midwest seconda...Read More

The three-month copper price on the London Metal Exchange was the laggard at the close of trading on Friday August 7, with news of planned restarts at several of Chilean producer Codelco's operating facilities suppressing buying momentum.Meanwhile, lead futures declined by more than 2% but stayed above nearby support levels into the close.Copper's outright price on the LME closed at $6,308 per ton...Read More

Higher spot transaction volumes for copper concentrates were reported with Chinese smelters starting to procure for fourth quarter production and pressuring processing charges to a new low this week. Higher transaction volumes were reported in  the spot market for copper concentrates with Chinese smelters starting to procure for fourth quarter production, pressuring processing charges to a ne...Read More

The return of Section 232 tariffs on imports of Canadian aluminium has made European market participants nervous of excess stock arriving from Canada, which could pressure premiums, Fastmarkets heard on Friday August 7.United States President Donald Trump announced on Thursday August 6 that the US will reintroduce Section 232 tariffs on imports of non-alloyed unwrought aluminium from Canada - set...Read More