It's the time of the year that most of us would be dressing up for holiday parties, kissing under the mistletoe, and drinking a bit too much eggnog.Sadly, Christmas in 2020 has killed two out of the three. Parties are canceled.Travel is on hiatus. Kisses are verboten.Hell, I don't think mommies are even kissing Santa Claus this year. That would be a superspreader event the likes of which the wor...Read More

If you're anything like many Americans, you're probably breathing a sigh of relief that 2020 is almost over.After the year the country's had, it's not surprising that many people just want it to be over and done with.But just like the changing of the year won't automatically result in weight loss, quitting of smoking, or the learning of a new skill, it won't lead to things instantly getting better...Read More

Here are five Fastmarkets stories you might have missed on Thursday December 31 that are worth another look.The global pig iron market remained strong, but activity was limited during the week to December 31 due to the end-of-year holiday period.Argentinian aluminium producer Aluar finished 2020 at 70% capacity utilization, ramping up...Read More

Argentinian aluminium producer Aluar finished 2020 at 70% capacity utilization, ramping up production from stoppages related to the Covid-19 pandemic and weather conditions earlier in the year, the company said."[We will] continue to gradually seek production planning that allows for the partial resumption of the remaining capacity usage," Aluar said in a filing to the country's securities and exc...Read More

Adam HamiltonArchivesDec 31, 2020 One of gold's primary drivers is American stock-market capital sloshing into and out of gold through major exchange-traded funds. Their sustained inflows and outflows partially fuel gold's bull-market uplegs and corrections. Interestingly the differential gold-ETF-share selling that exacerbated gold's recent correction is greatly slowing. Gold's next upleg depends...Read More

The advent of Covid-19 pushed prices to their lowest levels during the first quarter of the year, yet by the end of 2020, most underlying prices on the London Metal Exchange had bounced back to multi-year highs. Fastmarkets looks at why some metals outperformed others.Figure 1: LME Indexed performance up until December 24.Copper - cash price gain of 25% ($6,179.50 per tonne open 3 Jan to $7,749 pe...Read More

Discussions between Chinese copper smelter Jiangxi Copper and Zambian producer Chambishi on annual blister copper refining charges (RCs) for 2021 are at their final stage, with both sides expecting a rise in terms, Fastmarkets has learned.Benchmark RCs for contractual supply of intermediate copper products in 2021 have still not been signed, sources said. Two sources close to the matter said...Read More

The Turkish deep-sea ferrous scrap market continued to be quiet due to year-end holidays, sources said on Thursday December 31.The country's steel mills have been silent in the deep-sea markets since December 24, when a steel mill in the Marmara region booked a Baltic Sea cargo containing 30,000 tonnes of shredded scrap at $480 per...Read More

Discussions between Chinese copper smelter Jiangxi Copper and Zambian producer Chambishi on annual blister copper refining charges (RCs) for 2021 are at their final stage, with both sides expecting a rise in terms, Fastmarkets has learned.Benchmark RCs for contractual supply of intermediate copper products in 2021 have still not been signed, sources said. Two sources close to the matter said...Read More

China's spot prices for battery-grade lithium carbonate moved up further on tight supply, and deals were secured at even higher prices over the week Thursday December 31China Deals for battery-grade lithium carbonate in China concluded at higher levels this week on tight availability of material; producer sources expect higher prices to emerge in the coming month. Offers for industrial-grade lithi...Read More

Hot-rolled coil prices in the United States reached the highest level seen all year - and in more than 12 years - on the final day of 2020. Fastmarkets' daily steel hot-rolled coil index, fob mill US was calculated at $51.50 per hundredweight ($1,030 per short ton) on December 31, 2020, up 0.5% from $51.25 per cwt the previous day and 3% higher than $50 per cwt a week prior. This is the highest le...Read More

Check out this recent Bloomberg headline...While it's true that family offices and high-net-worth individuals are pouring millions into the psychedelics space, I can assure you that this is NOT an "edgy" investment.Unless you think biotech stocks and pharma stocks are edgy.Because really, that's what psychedelics stocks are.Truth is, there isn't a single legitimate psychedelics stock out there tha...Read More

Flat steel prices in Turkey continued to increase in the week to Thursday December 31, but buying was weak because most buyers were busy with inventory calculations, sources told Fastmarkets.Additionally, hot-rolled coil (HRC) prices fell during the week in China because of weak trading, which created market concerns of whether global flat steel prices will follow, trading sources said.Fastma...Read More

Steel billet and reinforcing bar prices have increased again in Egypt for the week ended Thursday December 31, but demand remains weak due to the year-end lull in business, market sources told Fastmarkets.Market participants want to see the global direction of prices at the beginning of January before placing orders.Demand for rebar and billet has been slow in the country since the imposition of a...Read More

China's rebar prices picked up on Thursday December 31 despite thin trading, with the government's call for output cuts in the new year lifting market sentiment.DomesticEastern China (Shanghai): 4,450-4,470 yuan ($682-685) per tonne, up by 20 yuan per tonneNorthern China (Beijing) weekly assessment: 3,950-4,000 yuan per tonne, down by 100-120 yuan per tonneA Shanghai-based trader said sellers ther...Read More

Here are five Fastmarkets stories you might have missed on Thursday December 31 that are worth another look.The global pig iron market remained strong, but activity was limited during the week to December 31 due to the end-of-year holiday period.Argentinian aluminium producer Aluar finished 2020 at 70% capacity utilization, ramping up...Read More

Harry Dent is a Fortune 100 consultant, new venture investor, noted speaker, bestselling author, and the founder and senior editor at Dent Research, where he dedicates himself to identifying and studying demographic, technological, and geopolitical trends. He has a free daily newsletter at www.harrydent.com called "Survive and Prosper." Mr. Dent accurately predicted Japan's collapse in 1989, the d...Read More

For Part 1 of this interview, CLICK HEREMacroVoices Erik Townsend and Patrick Ceresna welcome back Ronald Stoeferle and Grant Williams in this second half of two-part Holiday Special series to discuss the distinction between inflation and fiat debasement, and then talk through a long list of hedging trades against each of those risks, ranging from precious metals to bitcoin to farmland to base met...Read More

In this New Year's Eve episode of Keiser Report, Max and Stacy spend the night celebrating the relentless optimism of a post-fiat world. Imagining a post-Covid world can only lead to this relentless optimism as one sees that relentless and out of control money printing leads to its own inevitable demise and ends the time theft. They look forward to 2021 in which the 50th birthday of an all fiat mo...Read More

Christopher Martenson is a former American biochemical scientist. Currently he is a writer and trend forecaster interested in macro trends regarding the economy, energy composition and environment. He is the founder of PeakProsperity.com. As one of the early econobloggers who forecasted the housing market collapse and stock market correction years in advance, Chris rose to prominence with the laun...Read More