Comex copper prices weakened Tuesday January 9 morning in the US, although the complex remains well-supported due to positive Chinese and US data released in the past few weeks.Copper for March settlement on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange dipped 0.70 cents or 0.2% to $3.2170 per lb."We remain bullish for copper's fundamentals and the price's action seems to be supporting th...Read More

(Kitco News) - The countdown begins - in one month athletes from around the world will converge in Pyeongchang, South Korea to compete for their country’s honor and the coveted Olympic medals.In total, only about 50 ounces of gold was used to create all the gold medals that will be handed out.On its website, the International Olympic Committee said that the South Korean medals were designed...Read More

Bullish for 2018 The base metals have started 2018 in consolidation mode after frenzied rallies at the end of 2017. The fact that manufacturing data still looks robust, that supply disruptions are being threatened, that the Fed remains dovish and that China’s financial conditions have loosened, suggests the backdrop for the base metals remains bullish overall. This supports our expectations f...Read More

Gold prices have been on a tear since Bitcoin fell $4,300 from its all-time high of more than $19,000 in mid-December.Since Dec. 11, the price of an ounce of gold has climbed from $1,242 to $1,313 today (Jan. 9), for a gain of 5.72% over one month.And this run-up is just the beginning to a gold bull market.In fact, Money Morning Resource Specialist Peter Krauth believes gold prices will rise to...Read More

Significant LME and SHFE price rises in 2017... On the back of the Chinese government’s clean-up of illegal capacity and its winter heating season production cuts in order to protect air quality, aluminium prices on both the LME and SHFE had significant increases in 2017. The LME aluminium price finished the year with a remarkable 30.8% increase while the SHFE aluminium price rose 18.5%, a le...Read More

Gold correlates with the four big markets: the dollar, the USD/JPY ratio, Treasury rates, and inflation expectations (TIP).Gold is behaving oddly relative to three of these four markets.This fairly-odd behavior may signal a change in the gold market.In previous SA articles, we demonstrated how gold correlates to the four big markets: the dollar, the USD/JPY ratio, Treasury rates, and inflation exp...Read More

(Kitco News) - Gold and silver prices were ending the U.S. day session weaker Tuesday. A solid bounce in the U.S. dollar index early this week is putting price pressure on the gold and silver markets. Some normal profit-taking and chart consolidation is also featured after gold prices hit a 3.5-month high last week. February Comex gold was last down $7.30 an ounce at $1,313.10. March Comex silver...Read More

Aluminium Aluminium is consolidating after extending to a fresh five-year high at $2,290.50 per tonne on December 29. With prices below $2,200 per tonne, immediate support at $2,215 per tonne from the October 26 and November 1 double-top has failed, but the daily candlesticks imply indecision. Although prices are drifting lower, they remain in high ground. The RSI has eased to 59 from an overbough...Read More

(Kitco News) - Bart Melek, head of commodities strategy at TD Securities, was the winner of the London Bullion Market Association's gold-forecasting contest for 2017, while ICBC Standard Bank analyst Tom Kendall was first in silver. Both analysts are frequently quoted by Kitco News. At the start of last year, Melek forecast gold would average $1,256 an ounce. That was only slightly off of the actu...Read More

Yellow metal steady, hovering near $1320.  Gold uptrend intact.  The yellow metal continues to move sideways on Monday, near the 3-month high it reached last Thursday at $1,326/oz. Price has been consolidating between around $1,318 during the American session.  Price bottomed earlier today at $1,314.50 and then rebounded but if failed to rally on top of $1,320. The bullish tone re...Read More

SHANGHAI, Jan 9 (SMM)? 1/4 ?Nonferrous metals traded higher this afternoon with zinc and nickel rising over 1%. Lead and copper were up close to 1%, while tin and aluminium edged down slightly.Ferrous metals were firm today with iron ore leading the gain with over 3% rise. Coking coal moved higher by 1.7%, while hot-rolled coil and rebar rose over 1%. Coke also traded up slightly.Copper: SHFE copp...Read More

SHANGHAI, Jan 9 (SMM)? 1/4 ?Nonferrous metals traded higher this afternoon with zinc and nickel rising over 1%. Lead and copper were up close to 1%, while tin and aluminium edged down slightly.Ferrous metals were firm today with iron ore leading the gain with over 3% rise. Coking coal moved higher by 1.7%, while hot-rolled coil and rebar rose over 1%. Coke also traded up slightly.Copper: SHFE copp...Read More

Consolidation after 12.4 percent year-end rally Copper prices rallied sharply between December 6 and 28, reaching a fresh multi-year high of $7,312.50 per tonne, from the month’s low of $6,507.50 per tonne, a gain of 12.4 percent. Given there was a general strong move across the metals, copper’s price rally was not copper-specific. It appears that there was a surge of interest to increas...Read More

(Kitco News) - Gold and silver, after a few attempts, were both unable to break up through their respective resistance levels of $1,322 and $17.22. The break-down of the euro/dollar trade through the 1.20 level initiated some profit taking in both metals yesterday. The 30-year U.S. bond broke above the 2% level yesterday, adding further pressure to the metals complex. The metals have remained resi...Read More

SHANGHAI, Jan 9 (SMM)? 1/4 ?Nonferrous metals traded higher this afternoon with zinc and nickel rising over 1%. Lead and copper were up close to 1%, while tin and aluminium edged down slightly.Ferrous metals were firm today with iron ore leading the gain with over 3% rise. Coking coal moved higher by 1.7%, while hot-rolled coil and rebar rose over 1%. Coke also traded up slightly.Copper: SHFE copp...Read More

SHANGHAI, Jan 9 (SMM) – SMM surveys major Chinese producers in the base metals market every month to get first-hand production data. The following table shows the latest output in December and our forecast for January.CopperChina’s copper output rose in December as some large producers looked to hit their annual production target at the year-end. Qingyuan Jiangxi Copper and Shandong Hu...Read More

Price working higher, approaching October 2017 high Given Glencore’s Lady Loretta restart announcements in December, it is interesting that lead prices have continued to work higher. But lead has underperformed sister metal zinc, which has seen fresh 10-year highs. The upward trend in lead prices has recently been given a boost by the cold weather and snow that has hit the North-East USA and...Read More

SHANGHAI, Jan 9 (SMM) – SMM surveys major Chinese producers in the base metals market every month to get first-hand production data. The following table shows the latest output in December and our forecast for January.CopperChina’s copper output rose in December as some large producers looked to hit their annual production target at the year-end. Qingyuan Jiangxi Copper and Shandong Hu...Read More

Gold's corrective drop continues on Tuesday. DXY sticks to daily gains above 92. US stocks extend their upside to fresh all-time highs. The XAU/USD pair started the second day of the week under pressure and dropped to a fresh 5-day low at $1308 in the early NA session. As of writing, the pair was trading at $1311, losing $9, or 0.7%, on the day. Heightened expectations of the Fed going for a...Read More

(Kitco News) - Gold held by global exchange-traded funds increased by 197.5 tonnes in 2017, a gain of 8.4%, said the World Gold Council in its monthly report on Tuesday.The rise last year was largely driven by European ETFs, which represented 75% of all total inflows by adding 148.6 tonnes of gold ($5.8 billion) to their holdings.In turn, the European market was dominated by Germany. “German...Read More