Thefinal weeks of the tumultuous year that has been 2020 present opportunities forinvestors to get their financial houses in order ahead of the New Year.Nobodyknows what 2021 will bring. But new political risks are likely to emerge –including the threats of higher taxes and a more punitive IRS.Withcontrol of the U.S. Senate still up for grabs pending runoff elections inGeorgia next month, an...Read More

The export market for long steel products from the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) was quiet during the week to Monday January 4 because of seasonal holidays, but with sentiment remaining upbeat, sources have told Fastmarkets.Most CIS steelmakers were out of the market for New Year and Christmas breaks, sources said.There will be public holidays in Russia from January 1 to January 11. And...Read More

The Turkish deep-sea scrap markets were quiet at the start of this week due to new year holidays, but purchasing activity was expected to resume soon, market sources said on Monday January 4.Turkish steelmakers 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 tonne cf...Read More

Brace yourselves, winter is coming! It may be a harsh period for the United States, but much better for gold.Some of you may have seen snow this year already, but the astronomical winter is still ahead of us. Unfortunately, it could be a really dark winter. Instead of joyful snowball battles and making snowmen, we will have to contend with the coronavirus . The vaccines will definitely help (the f...Read More

Precious metals are the bedrock of the financial world. They have permanent value and are the oldest form of money in the world. If you don’t own physical gold and silver, your investment portfolio lacks a sound foundation. Precious metals are often sought after as a store of permanent value, and as a method of diversifying portfolios.While cash, bonds, stocks and real estate offer investors...Read More

Here are five Fastmarkets stories you might have missed on Monday January 4 that are worth another look.News of Covid-19 vaccines being distributed and administered around the world has boosted sentiment in Asian economies, with steel markets in the region seemingly upbeat on prospects in 2021.Sustainable mining of lithium - a critical...Read More

The gold miners’ stocksare finally perking up again, after spending months slogging through a grindingcorrection.  Contrarian traders aretaking notice, starting to redeploy capital in this high-potential sector.  Gold miners’ earnings and thus stock pricesare overwhelmingly driven by gold’s fortunes. And the yellow metal’s recent technicals are signaling a ma...Read More

Is it possible the algos are willing to hold their shorts as a $1+ gain puts their short positions closer and closer to a margin call?by J. Johnson via JS MinesetGreat and Wonderful first trading day of the year folks, Gold popped right out of the shoot last night, and continued to rally into the night, with the trade now at $1,938.40, up $43.30 and close to the high at $1,941 with the l...Read More

Welcome to 2021...(by Half Dollar) Happy New Year!One of these years silver will surpass its all-time record high set back in 1980.I thought that year was going to be last year, and of course, I was wrong.What about in 2021?Ha!The Bitcoin Fanboys over at everybody's favorite wannabe alternative-media website are high fiving that Venezuela is going 100% digital:Do you even power grid, bro?And where...Read More

After a recent spike to the upside over the past seven days, both gold and silver have turned negative again and could be headed back to their recent low points reached early in the day on Monday, November 30th.The movement in both gold and silver is evident of a decided shift in trend direction to the downside. What happens after prices return to their recent lows could prove interesting; or down...Read More

The question on everyone’s mind is:when is it a good time to buy some gold or silver after they bottom? The answerto that question is simple: when key triggers are met. Count-trend rallies ingold or silver don’t mean that they have enough energy and momentum to keepclimbing. Miners also don’t have enough strength to lead the way in a freshclimb upwards for the PMs, so everything...Read More

The rapid and significant falls in manganese ore prices in 2019 and 2020 have created "frozen stocks," which are believed to have acted as a buffer for the ore market while also demonstrating some different characteristics over both years, sources told Fastmarkets.Fastmarkets' manganese ore index 37% Mn, cif Tianjin ended 2019 at $3.92 per dry metric tonne unit (dmtu), a decline of $2.19 per dmtu...Read More

The London Metal Exchange three-month nickel price had the biggest rise of 4.8% and tin crossed the $21,000 per tonne mark for the first time since April 2019 in an upbeat start to the year for the entire complex on Monday January 4, where all forward prices rose by more than 1%. Nickel's price closed on Monday at 5pm $17,404 per tonne after closing last year at $16,613 per tonne. Nickel's rising...Read More

Except for copper, base metals stocks in Shanghai Futures Exchange-registered warehouses all recorded falls in the week to Thursday December 31, with zinc down the most by 13%. The anomaly in stock copper levels was stark, surging by 15.3%, while the rest of the base metals' inventories declined.Copper inventories totaled 86,679 tonnes on Thursday December 31, up by 11,530 tonnes or 15.3% from a w...Read More

The London Metal Exchange nickel price led the way on morning trading on Monday January 4 with a 4.3% rise from its closing price of 2020, reflecting an upbeat start to the year where all metals' forward prices rose by more than 1%. The three-month nickel price was at $17,335 per tonne on Monday at 9am, from Thursday December 31's closing price of $16,613 per tonne. Copper's three-month price was...Read More

Access our research platformsSign-in to our platforms to access our extensive research, our latest insight, data and analytics and to connect to our industry experts.As we look to 2020, copper is faced with a finely balanced market. For now, positive investor sentiment around copper’s fundamentals is supporting higher prices. Stronger demand growth is underpinned by new semis capacity, while...Read More

RAPAPORT... Hong Kong recorded its gentlest decline in hard-luxury revenues for a year and a half, as a drop in coronavirus cases boosted the local retail market.Retail sales of jewelry, watches, clocks and valuable gifts fell 16% year on year to HKD 2.78 billion ($358.3 million) in November, according to data Hong Kong's Census and Statistics Department released Monday. Sales across all reta...Read More

(IDEX Online)- Lucapa today announced the recovery of yet another +100-carat diamond, its 17th since commercial operations began at Lulo, in Angola, five years ago.The Australian miner said it was significant that the 113-carat gem-quality white stone (pictured) was found in a new focus area of its kimberlite exploration program, indicating there may be more large and high-value diamonds.Lucapa, o...Read More

(IDEX Online) - Operations at India's only industrial mine - located near a tiger reserve -  have come to halt.The environmental clearance lease, allowing mining to take place at the Majhgawan mine (pictured), near the town of Panna, in Madhya Pradesh, expired on 31 December 2020.It has been reported that COVID-19 has delayed renewal of the lease and work is not likely to resume for up t...Read More

Turkish domestic prices for auto bundle steel scrap have gone down with the strengthening of the country's lira, while firm values for imported scrap were keeping ship scrap prices on an upward trend over the past week, sources said on Monday January 4.The Turkish lira has become stronger since the Turkish Central Bank raised interest rates on December 24.The bank raised the one-week repo rate by...Read More