About a year ago, metallurgical coal embarked on a long journey of great volatility and disruption. It emerged as the best performing commodity in 2016 after several years of declining prices. Prices have dropped and spiked several times since then and the volatility continued in 2017 with a cyclone disrupting the market and eventually also affecting the way the commodity is priced. Although therm...Read More
The past year, soaring metallurgical coal prices have greatly affected the costs involved in producing pig iron, a form of crude iron which is the product of the blast furnace. Metal Bulletin Research's Global Steel Cost Service details how coking coal and coke costs usually averaged around 35% of total pig iron production expenditure in 2014 and 2015 while iron ore stood for the majority of costs...Read More
• Goodish USD rebound continues to exert downward pressure. • Traders shrug off today’s mixed US economic releases. • Improving risk appetite does little to revive safe-haven demand. Gold faded mixed US economic data-led early NA session spike back closer to $1330 and refreshed session lows in the last hour. Wi...Read More
Bullishness in the iron ore prices seen during the start of the year has been replaced with greater volatility as supply outpaces demand. Chinese state-directed infrastructure spending and a strong construction market effectively drove bullish sentiment in the first quarter of 2017, fuelling steel production and iron ore consumption. However, with the steel run rates slowing down as the China Iron...Read More
More than two weeks ago, we described the very specific and very important pattern in the gold market, one of short- and medium-term importance. We wrote that the triangle apex pattern based on the intraday highs, pointed to a major reversal in the first half of March. The first half of March ends this week, so the key question is if the pattern was invalidated or are we about to see a major rever...Read More
Gold has now recovered from being negative to close the day higher on three occasions in as many days since Friday. The bulls’ resilience is noteworthy, but not exactly remarkable as there has not been much follow-through yet. Indeed, the metal was trading lower again at the time of this writing. But will it stage another comeback later on? Gold continues to track the EUR/USD exchange rate....Read More
GOLD (in USD) Starting a new leg lower. Gold is declining following recent bounce at 1330. The pair is contained between hourly support and resistance at 1300 (29/12/2017 low) and 1348 (20/02/2018 high). Expected to show further increase. In the long-term, the technical structure suggests that there is a growing upside momentum. A break of 1'392 (17/03/2014) is required to confirm it. A...Read More
Workers at Cobre Panama, the only major copper mine scheduled to come onstream in 2018, have gone on strike, operator First Quantum said on Wednesday March 14."A small number of personnel and their outside union leadership" downed tools on Friday last week, according to a company statement.Although the dominant union is not involved in the strike, development can only be carried out in two of the...Read More
Domestic prices for mesh-quality wire rod produced and delivered in Europe rose this week amid strong order books at mills, sources said on Wednesday March 14.Metal Bulletin's weekly price assessment for domestic mesh-quality wire rod in Northern Europe narrowed upward to ?,?550-560 ($680-692) per tonne delivered on Wednesday, compared with ?,?545-560 per tonne on March 7."Our wire rod mill is ful...Read More
The latest news and price moves to start the Asian day on Thursday March 15.Base metals prices on the London Metal Exchange were on divergent paths at the close on Wednesday March 14, with copper driving higher while the rest of the complex retreated. Read more here in our live futures report.Here are how LME prices looked at Wednesday's close:Metal Bulletin has learned that Teck Resources ha...Read More
Wyelands Capital, the banking and financial services arm of GFG Alliance, has started a commodity inventory finance partnership with financial technology company Demica.The partnership will allow GFG to add its experience in the commodities market to Demica's working capital solutions through its proprietary technology platform, the company said on Wednesday March...Read More
Base metals prices on the London Metal Exchange were on divergent paths at the close on Wednesday March 14, with copper leading the gains. The three-month zinc price was the worst affected today because prices were over 2% lower at the close - fresh deliveries into LME-listed warehouses in New Orleans put pressure on prices. "Zinc is down on account of another 10,000 tonne increase in LME stock ho...Read More
Zinc and lead premiums were unchanged this week, despite a consolidating London Metal Exchange zinc price and with consumers, for the most part, anticipating cheaper buying levels in the coming weeks. European, US and Asia zinc premiums stable after backwardation narrows Price drop on LME, COMEX, SHFE yet to trigger consumer buying on zinc Additional orders for lead ingotsEuropean zinc premiums re...Read More
This item is part of Stockwatch's value added news feed and is only available to Stockwatch subscribers.Here is a sample of this item:by Will PurcellThe diamond and specialty minerals stocks box score for Wednesday was a disappointing 66-85-139. The TSX Venture Exchange fell one point to 827 while polished diamond prices fell 0.1 per cent. Toby Mayo's Far Resources Ltd. (FAT) jumped five cents to...Read More
The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) is reassessing its approach to formulation, implementing and enforcing its regulations, the chairman of the regulatory body said. The regulator is committed to "right-sizing" the CFTC's regulatory footprint following years of expansive Dodd-Frank rule writing, J Christopher Giancarlo told delegates at the 43rd annual Futures Industry Association (...Read More
This item is part of Stockwatch's value added news feed and is only available to Stockwatch subscribers.Here is a sample of this item:by Stockwatch Business Reporter West Texas Intermediate crude for April delivery gained 25 cents to $60.96 on the New York Merc, while Brent for May gained 25 cents to $64.89 (all figures in this para U.S.). Western Canadian Select traded at a discount of $25.55 to...Read More
Arbitrage for copper, aluminium, zinc and nickel imported into China on Wednesday March 14*Copper -$120.1 (-760.56 yuan) Aluminium -$437.33 (-2,769.51 yuan) Zinc -$125.51 (-794.86 yuan) Nickel -$731.92 (-4,635.10 yuan) *Metal Bulletin calculates the physical...Read More
This item is part of Stockwatch's value added news feed and is only available to Stockwatch subscribers.Here is a sample of this item:by Stockwatch Business ReporterNew York spot gold lost $1.70 to $1,324.20 on Wednesday. The TSX Venture Exchange lost 1.77 points to 827.28 while the TSX Gold Index added 0.30 point to 184.15. Klondex Mines Ltd. (KDX) helped lead Canadian gold miners higher today, a...Read More
This item is part of Stockwatch's value added news feed and is only available to Stockwatch subscribers.Here is a sample of this item:by Stockwatch Business ReporterThe TSX Venture Exchange lost 1.77 points to 827.28 Wednesday. Paul Kelly's halted Corporate Catalyst Acquisition Inc. (CII: $0.20) is planning to acquire Anthony Lacavera's Globalive Technology Partners Inc. as its qualifying transact...Read More
Brazilian steel producer CSN is negotiating the sale of its LLC subsidiary in the United States, it has said.Chief executive officer Benjamin Steinbruch said on Wednesday March 14 that CSN plans to double production at LLC following an $80 million investment, but the company has yet to decide whether it will divest the asset.The company did not unveil the name...Read More