Eight of the nine Category 1 members of the London Metal Exchange have indicated their support for continuing to trade official lunchtime prices in the open-outcry ring.Does this mean that one company does not support ring trading? And could one of the exchange's members be preparing to leave the trading floor?The exchange revealed on Monday August 9 that it had majority support for the ring, in a...Read More
Eight of the nine Category 1 members of the London Metal Exchange have indicated their support for continuing to trade official lunchtime prices in the open-outcry ring.Does this mean that one company does not support ring trading? And could one of the exchange's members be preparing to leave the trading floor?The exchange revealed on Monday August 9 that it had majority support for the ring, in a...Read More
The price of nickel showed the biggest fall on the London Metal Exchange on Monday August 9, but selling extended across the base-metals complex, following a sharp turn in sentiment at the end of last week.Data pointing to further recovery in the United States' employment market continued to fuel speculation about when the US Federal Reserve bank will taper its asset purchases and start to raise i...Read More
China's Dalian Commodity Exchange (DCE) has announced an increase to the minimum margin for speculative trading of its most-active September coking coal contract to 20%, from 15%.The increase takes effect on Monday August 9, it said on Thursday August 5.This is the exchange's second such adjustment, having raised the minimum margin to 15% from 11% on August 2.The DCE is also adjusting the minimum...Read More
RAPAPORT... Revenue from the retail division of Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway surged to $5 billion in the second quarter as the US economy recovered.The division - which includes jewelry chains Borsheims, Helzberg Diamonds and Ben Bridge Jeweler - saw sales increase 48% compared to the same period of 2020, when stores were shuttered due to Covid-19, the company reported last week. Pretax ear...Read More
RAPAPORT... Lucapa Diamond Company plans to begin processing the first ore from its newly acquired Merlin mine in Australia within the next 24 months.The company is currently working with the liquidators to complete administrative requirements and finalize the sale, after which it will begin work at the site, Lucapa managing director Stephen Wetherall told Rapaport News. The miner purchased the de...Read More
RAPAPORT... Pandora has increased its sales outlook for the current year following strong growth in the past quarter and a reduction in the number of stores it expects to close.Sales will rise by 16% to 18% year on year on an organic basis for 2021, the Danish jewelry retailer predicted Friday. That compares with a previous forecast of above 12%.The update came on the back of an 84% year-on-y...Read More
(IDEX Online) - Russian authorities are investigating allegations of widespread tax fraud at jewelry factories, after production increased sharply - but employee numbers in the sector fell.The governor of the Kostroma Province, home to 60 per cent of Russia's jewelry industry, is concerned that workers who returned after Covid lockdowns have not been registered, and tax is not being paid.Serg...Read More
(IDEX Online) - A painting that incorporates 500 polished diamonds has sold for $87,000 - almost 10 times its high estimate - at Phillips London.The US artist known as Genesis the Greykid, from Chattanooga, Tennessee, started using diamonds in his work when the pandemic struck.His abstract work, entitled Computer Love and described as acrylic, latex and diamond dust on canvas, went to an ano...Read More
(IDEX Online) - A jewelry company in Canada claims it's offering "price transparency" by allowing customers to choose how much they pay for an engagement ring. Lovelri says rival brands have profit margins of over 50 per cent. It offers consumers three prices on each ring - which will, it says, mean a profit for the company of C$50, C$100 or C$150.The Toronto-based retailer brands itself...Read More
Europe's biggest copper producer, Aurubis, is planning to offload part of its downstream business to focus on primary copper smelting and recycling, it said on Monday August 9.The Germany-based company will sell a portion of its flat-rolled copper product operations to Intek Group, which fully controls KME, a leading player in the European copper and copper alloy semifinished-product industry. Ope...Read More
The price of nickel showed the biggest fall on the London Metal Exchange on Monday August 9, but selling extended across the base-metals complex, following a sharp turn in sentiment at the end of last week.Data pointing to further recovery in the United States' employment market continued to fuel speculation about when the US Federal Reserve bank will taper its asset purchases and start to raise i...Read More
Look beyond market approach to project valuations: van ZylLeadershipFuture remains golden for Rox ResourcesSPONSOREDrox resourcesCashed-up Karora is doubling gold production at a blistering paceSPONSOREDkarora resourcesZinc-lead discovery helps Zenith double market capSPONSOREDzenith mineralsFairfax - whose subsidiaries are engaged in insurance, reinsurance and investment management - has acquired...Read More
The London Metal Exchange will adapt its rule book to include new closure provisions for its open-outcry ring, Fastmarkets heard on Monday August 9. And the anonymous nature of responses to the recent pricing consultation means that the Ring's long-term prospects were still in doubt.The exchange operates Europe's last open-outcry market trading venue, known as the Ring, where brokers make markets...Read More
Stronger-than-expected United States employment figures on Friday August 6 turned the dollar higher, which weighed on prices, with most base metals weaker this morning, Monday August 9, but gold and silver underwent a ‘flash crash’ at the start of trading in Asia.* Signs of a stronger US recovery weighed heavily on gold and silver on Friday, which led to a chaotic start to trading this m...Read More
The London Metal Exchange will go ahead with its proposal to move official prices back to the open-outcry trading ring, but closing prices will be determined electronically via LMESelect, it announced on Monday August 9.The exchange has published the outcome of its consultation on price determination, which was begun in June. The consultation paper only received 12 responses.By comparison, the ori...Read More
China's January-to-July copper import volumes dropped by more than a tenth compared with the first seven months of 2020, the latest Chinese customs data shows. The biggest copper buyer in the world bought 3.219 million tonnes of unwrought copper and copper products in the first seven months this year, down 10.6% compared with the same period in 2020 which was a record year for imports.The average...Read More
U.S. equity index futures were lower this morning. S&P 500 futures were down 8 points in pre-opening trade. American National Insurance is expected to open higher after Brookfield Reinsurance agreed to acquire the company at $190 per share cash. Value of the deal is $5.1 billion.Berkshire Hathaway added $2.89 to $288.52 after reporting higher than consensus second quarter earnings. Dollar Tree...Read More
On August 9, there was a blast at Novolipetsk Steel's (NLMK) oxygen plant in Lipetsk, Russia, but it will only have a minor impact on production, the company told Fastmarkets.The blast caused the roof to ignite but it has now been neutralized, the company said. No one was injured."The accident has not impacted key production assets' logistic infrastructure and repair...Read More
Export slab prices from the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) continued to fall in early August due to a lack of demand from major overseas buyers.European customers were mainly absent due to the summer holidays in the region and there was limited trading activity in Turkey's domestic and export hot-rolled coil (HRC) markets, resulting in lower interest in imported slab.Turkish HRC pro...Read More