Gold COT Report - FuturesLarge SpeculatorsCommercialTotalLongShortSpreadingLongShortLongShort287,38224,65344,448114,902408,531446,732477,632Change from Prior Reporting Period 5,119-8,0393,519-1,90611,6506,7327,130Traders20354715959290159 Small Speculators (C) GoldSeek.com LongShortOpen Interest 54,08423,184500,816 9265287,658 non reportable positionsChange from the pr...Read More

The Coronavirus / covid-19 pandemic is the biggest hoax in the history of the world. Billions of people across the globe have been duped and allowed themselves to be subjected to tyranny because of a spook.As you will learn when you follow the links below, the figures for cases and deaths caused by Covid-19 are largely fraudulent and grossly inflated - the product of distortion, exaggeration and...Read More

The London Metal Exchange three-month nickel price sank below$12,000 to close at $11,955 per tonne on Friday May 1, shedding 1.73% of its price after a low turnover of 3,207 lots traded.Base metals prices fell across the complex, with the LME three-month copper price falling 1.57% on Friday to close at $5,110 per tonne, despite a fresh cancellation of 6,600 tonnes across LME-registered wareho...Read More

By Mike Gleason Precious metals markets enter the month of May with some mixed signals near term. But the long-term picture continues to look constructive. All the metals appear to have put in major bottoms during the panic selling of mid to late March. Barring another wave of virus outbreaks and economic lockdowns, the gradual reopening of state, local, and national economies should star...Read More

By: Ira EpsteinGold market has backed off here. Not pretty on the chart action on gold..Read More

Key data from Fastmarkets' pricing session in Shanghai, New York and Galway on Friday May 1.China China's domestic prices climbed on a more active spot market, with mills restocking ahead of the Labor Day holiday from May 1-5.Production costs for ferro-silicon will increase...Read More

The sharp decline in emerging market currencies combined with a collapse in oil prices are providing a twin saving grace for many metals and mining companies during the Covid-19 pandemic. For producers of energy-intensive metals like aluminium, and in particular the low-cost ones, the benefit is even greater. It's an emerging trend that is starting to be reflected in the earnings of corporates in...Read More

The Covid-19 pandemic may well provide Freeport-McMoRan with a silver lining it had never expected. The US copper producer is discussing with the government of Indonesia what should be done with the planned smelter in the Gresik region in the province of East Java. It has been forced to delay the completion timeline of December 2023 for the plant, due both to Covid-19-related disruptions to the wo...Read More

When the oil price fell into negative price territory at the start of the week ended April 24, it fueled fears that a similar situation could materialize in metals. The good news for users of the London Metal Exchange is the exchange's delivery mechanism that makes it virtually implausible, while its contract structure makes it even more unlikely. Here's why. The reason the West Texas In...Read More

The London Metal Exchange three-month nickel price sank below$12,000 to close at $11,955 per tonne on Friday May 1, shedding 1.73% of its price after a low turnover of 3,207 lots traded.Base metals prices fell across the complex, with the LME three-month copper price falling 1.57% on Friday to close at $5,110 per tonne, despite a fresh cancellation of 6,600 tonnes across LME-registered wareho...Read More

The global tin market is experiencing a glut of supply entering the market amid coronavirus-related uncertainty, Fastmarkets understands.But even with global verifiable tin stocks now estimated to be at approximately seven days' consumption, many participants believe the industry's meagre demand conditions could cripple the tin market for the remainder of the year.Meanwhile, the prospective resump...Read More

The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.Aluminium: 'Sell the rally' mentality here to stayAlthough the London Metal Exchange aluminium price has managed to recover modestly from recent lows, we suspect this is mostly short-covering. The lack of producer restraint, growing exchange inventories, a weak demand outlook and the 7 million tonnes of oversupply forecast f...Read More

The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.Aluminium: 4-million-tonne surplus for 2020We have made further downward revisions to our aluminium demand expectations for 2020 and, although there have been smelter capacity reduction in China too, the net effect is that our forecast for the global surplus this year has swelled to 4 million tonnes, from 2.7 million tonnes...Read More

The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.Average LME aluminium price down by 2.5% week on weekAlthough LME aluminium began this week on the rebound, prices extended their recent downtrend further last week, approaching the $1,400-per-tonne level. The weekly average LME aluminium cash price was down 2.5% last week to $1,432.50 per tonne from previous week's $1,469.6...Read More

The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.Aluminium: OversoldAluminium has been the hardest hit base metal over the past week, after relentless selling pressure took it to fresh multiyear lows while its LME peers generally consolidate or try to rebound. Aluminium is seeing far less in the way of supply restraint or disruptions than the other metals. But this market...Read More

Global markets are contracting in the face of the Covid-19 pandemic, and the prices for flat steel products continue to retreat, with prices for coated steels down by a further 5% since late March in most of the markets that Fastmarkets tracks.The latest edition of Fastmarkets' Galvanized Steel and Tinplate Market Tracker, for April 2020, is now available to view.Further price falls are almost cer...Read More

The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.Despite these unprecedented times, US sheet prices moved in line with our expectations over the past month. While we maintain our view on the direction of pricing during 2020 and the length of the pricing downturn, as the Covid-19 crisis deepens we have increased the magnitude of the price declines through the second quarter...Read More

The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.As oil price stumbles, outlook for welded markets weakensIn February, oil prices, already hit by the economic slowdown in Asia, turned lower on the failure of OPEC+ to reach an agreement on production cuts. This was enough to shake oil markets, but the collapse of global demand due to the pandemic has driven Brent below $30/...Read More

The new issue of the Seamless OCTG & Linepipe Market Tracker is now online at metalbulletinresearch.com.In this edition, Fastmarkets' research team delivers analysis of seamless OCTG and linepipe across international markets:Covid-19 underscores pipe outlookUnsurprisingly, the concern in the seamless pipe markets across the regions is the effect of the spread of Covid-19 on public health and econo...Read More

Ferro-alloys prices have generally retreated over the past month, with demand concerns gaining in prominence.The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.Ferro-alloy pricing trends have generally diverged ove the past month, depending on the security of the supply-side position of the market. With most supply concerns fading with the resumption of industrial activity i...Read More