(Kitco News) - Gold futures have fallen to levels that suggest an “oversold” market in the near term, yet technically oriented traders would still like to see some chart sign of a reversal higher.One measure that traders watch to see if the market has absorbed too much selling - meaning potential for at least a short-term bounce - is the Relative Strength Index. As of Wednesday mornin...Read More
After many months in the gutter, two of the world’s least-loved metals are enjoying an honest-to-goodness turnaround.Zinc and nickel are both soaring this summer after recovering from shocking depths early in the year. Zinc touched US$1.00 a pound on Thursday for the first time since mid-2015, while nickel jumped to a nine-month high of US$4.73 a pound. Zinc is up 48 per cent from its Januar...Read More
(Kitco News) - Kitco aficionados, it is now time to have your say in where you think gold prices are heading in the short-term.Will gold prices go higher, lower or remain unchanged next week? Kitco readers will have until 9 a.m. EDT, Friday to cast their vote. The results will be tabulated and released after noon (12 PM EDT) along with the results from our market professional survey.Readers can al...Read More
Spreads between prime and obsolete scrap in the United States are likely to remain tight in the foreseeable future, with few obvious factors that could unhinge a narrow spread, according to an executive at David J. Joseph Co (DJJ), the largest domestic scrap buyer.Current spreads between prime grades and obsolete grades are much lower than they were in the 2004-08 time frame, DJJ vice preside...Read More
Futures speculators may well have flipped to a net-short, or bearish, position in gold, says Commerzbank. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission releases a report each Friday showing the positioning of various categories of market participants as of the prior Tuesday. The last “disaggregated” CFTC report showed that money managers were net-long, or bullish, by only 10,528 contracts a...Read More
It feels like a lifetime ago, but only five months have passed since investors thought Canada’s two biggest copper miners were at risk of collapsing.In mid-January, Teck Resources Ltd.’s long-term notes traded as low as 38.5 cents on the dollar. Meanwhile, the debt of First Quantum Minerals Ltd., one of its chief rivals, traded between 40 and 45 cents. The mining industry was drowning...Read More
Gold is lower again this morning. Some believe the trade wars are influencing the precious metals, which could be an underlying reason. However, markets really don't care about the news, trade wars or anything else. They are driven by human emotion. Gold and other markets don't trade by themselves; humans make the trade. Many will argue that high-frequency algorithm trades control price, but the a...Read More
Editor's Note: Welcome to Kitco's new Bitcoin Daily Technical Alert. Every trading day veteran Kitco technical analyst Jim Wyckoff will provide you with a concise and easy-to-understand near-term technical brief on Bitcoin. Importantly, Jim will glean the short-term charts and technical studies, and then alert you to the signals he sees regarding upcoming potential bigger price moves or price tren...Read More
Well, that rally didn’t last long. BMO Capital Markets analyst Jessica Fung pointed out on Tuesday that copper prices have given back all of their gains so far from 2016. Prices rose as much as 7.5 per cent before they started to slip in March.And Fung said further declines are a strong possibility in the short term. She noted that June is typically a weak month for copper prices, the U.S. d...Read More
Construction at Cleveland-Cliffs' $700-million hot-briquetted iron (HBI) plant in Toledo, Ohio, is under way and ahead of schedule, the company's top executive said on Wednesday June 27.Cliffs expects to use the plant - slated to enter commercial production in July 2020 - to knock out the foreign raw materials that electric-arc furnace producers in the United States rely on today, accord...Read More
(Reuters) - Rating agency Moody’s Investor Service said on Wednesday a strengthening US dollar since mid-April has increased the credit risk of several emerging markets due to currency depreciation.A Moody’s report said a strong dollar would also lead to a drop in foreign exchange reserves of countries such as Argentina, Ghana, Mongolia, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Turkey, and Zambia.Chile, C...Read More
(Reuters) - The effects of U.S. steel and aluminum tariffs and tighter mortgage rules will “figure prominently” in the Bank of Canada’s July decision on interest rates, Governor Stephen Poloz said on Wednesday.In a speech promising increased transparency from the central bank in an age of economic uncertainty, Poloz said there is “a litany of things we simply do not know&rd...Read More
Turkish steel mills have resumed their deep-sea scrap purchases with slightly lower prices, sources said on Wednesday June 27.A steel producer in the Marmara region booked a Baltic Sea cargo, comprising 25,000 tonnes of HMS 1&2 (80:20) at $353 per tonne and 5,000 tonnes of bonus at $368 per tonne cfr late on Tuesday June 26.Most market participants were expecting steel mills to resume buying...Read More
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - New orders for U.S.-made capital goods and shipments unexpectedly fell in May, but upward revisions to data for the prior month pointed to moderate growth in business spending on equipment in the second quarter.Other reports on Wednesday showed a sharp narrowing in the goods trade deficit last month, the latest indication that the economy was accelerating this quarter after...Read More
Commodity prices have finally risen to the point that miners can start new development projects, but the rally in metals prices also brings higher costs for producers.Both operating and capital costs tend to climb sharply during cyclical rallies for metals. However, some companies have proven more adept than others at generating returns in the face of this challenge.Stephen D. Walker, head of glob...Read More
The plunge in commodity prices has forced many mining companies to sell assets or metal streams to boost their liquidity. But their work is far from finished.TD Securities analysts Greg Barnes and Craig Hutchison studied the liquidity of base metal miners and found that if prices remain low, liquidity will become “extremely tight” for many of them by the end of 2017, if not sooner.&ldq...Read More
China's coke prices have peaked, sources said this week, with downside concerns arising over the decline in export activity and the potential for further environmental restrictions.Metal Bulletin's price assessment for Chinese coke exports with 65% coke strength after reaction (CSR), 12.5% ash, 30-90mm, was $360-375 per tonne fob China for the week ending Tuesday June 26.The range widened upward f...Read More
Falling base metal prices are putting major pressure on producer balance sheets, especially for those miners that are carrying a lot of debt. Canaccord Genuity analyst Peter Bures is among those cautioning investors to be very careful in this sector right now.“With producers feeling the squeeze of over-levered balance sheets amidst a backdrop of significantly lower commodity prices, we belie...Read More
Iron ore prices remained largely rangebound on Wednesday June 27, though those for high-grade fines and lumps continued to strengthen.Metal Bulletin 62% Fe Iron Ore Index: $64.60 per tonne cfr Qingdao, down $2.02 per tonneMetal Bulletin 58% Fe Premium Index: $52.49 per tonne cfr Qingdao, down $0.28 per tonneMetal Bulletin 65% Fe Iron Ore Index: $90.60 per tonne cfr Qingdao, up $0.20 per tonneMetal...Read More
Seaborne coking coal prices fell on Wednesday June 27 amid weak demand. "Coke plants [in China] have a lot of coking coal in their inventories, about 7-15 days' worth," a Chinese trader told Metal Bulletin. A second trader said the coking coal market "is definitely moving in a downward trajectory." As such, he think "it's pointless to make offers at...Read More