By Frank HolmesPresident Donald Trump's proposed tariff on imported steel and aluminum, at 25 percent and 10 percent, is much more than a shot across the bow. Indeed, this could be the official kickoff of the trade war we all anticipated. The protectionist trade policy, announced last week as the president met with metals executives, raised fresh inflation worries and had an immediate impact on...Read More

Demand for flat steel will remain strong in Turkey through March and price increases are expected to continue because producers are fully booked until late May, market participants told Metal Bulletin this week. "Producers are fully booked until mid-May, so they have increased their prices. And end-user demand is okay, so prices have some more room to rise," one trader said on March 2. "...Read More

Major blow to the EU! The populist Five Star Movement won about one-third of the votes in the Italian general elections. It's another negative shock for the European establishment. Will these stars shine on gold? Five Stars Movement TriumphsWe live in strange times. To be a hairstylist, you need a license. But you can become a politician being just a comedian and telling jokes. We refer here to...Read More

This is the sort of article that should lead to a flat-out boycott and destruction of this "newspaper". Specifically, they speak of Mexico, which has extremelyContinue...Read More

The rising interest-rate trend in the US isn't new and isn't related to the Fed's so-called "policy normalisation" program. However, it has only just started to matter.That the rising interest-rate trend isn't new and isn't related to the Fed's rate-hiking efforts is clearly illustrated by the following chart. This chart shows that the US 2-year T-Note yield began trending upward in 2011 more...Read More

China's hot-rolled coil export prices surged on Tuesday March 6 with a few importers agreeing to pay more despite a softening of the country's domestic market.DomesticEastern China (Shanghai): 4,100-4,120 yuan ($646-650) per tonne, down by 20 yuan per tonneNorthern China (Tianjin): 4,040-4,060 yuan per tonne, down by 30 yuan per tonneSpot prices fell amid a stronger interest among market participa...Read More

Jeff Clark: Mike Maloney revealed that he recently made a large purchase of silver because of how undervalued it is. And he bought silver instead of gold because of how high the gold/silver ratio is.If you want to mimic Mike’s purchase of silver while it’s still undervalued, history says you only have 27 days to do so. As many of you know, the gold/silver ratio (the price of gold divi...Read More

Marc Morano says there's plenty of polar bears and their number has actually been increasing. Marc is much more concerned by less freedom. More regulation. Higher costs. Make no mistake: those are the surefire consequences of the modern global warming campaign waged by political and cultural elites, who have long ago abandoned fact-based science for dramatic fearmongering in order to push increase...Read More

- RaboDirect Ireland to close online savings accounts in Irish market on May 16- RaboDirect holds over EUR3 billion in deposits from its 90,000 Irish customers- Irish savers now exposed to still indebted Irish banks and bail-ins- Marian Finucane heard recently that buying gold is for "ordinary people" and not just for "rich and posh people"- By owning gold "if banks go belly up again you woul...Read More

Lynette Zang has held the position of Chief Market Analyst at ITM Trading since 2002. Ms. Zang has been in the markets on some level since 1964. Her mission is to convert financial noise into understandable language. She has been a banker, a stock broker and studied world currencies since 1987. She believes strongly that we need to be as independent as possible and at the same time, we need to com...Read More

As we noted in yesterday's missive, the new Fed Chair Jerome Powell is rapidly changing the focus of the Fed in terms of monetary policy.A large component of this stems from Powell's experience prior to join the Fed. Indeed, Powell is the first Fed Chair with any kind of banking experience (albeit investment banking) since Alan Greenspan: former Fed Chairs Janet Yellen and Ben Bernanke were both c...Read More

By OlivierGarret : We’verecently witnessed what I consider to be a turning point for the stock market.Just whenmany predicted another growth year for the markets, on Monday, February 5, theDow plunged by 1,600 points—its greatest point drop in history. Source: Money.CNN The suddendecline shook investors’ bullishness to the core. Many belatedly rememberedthat markets do not alway...Read More

Spanish steel import volumes rose by 4.90% year-on-year in 2017, while exports fell in the same year, according to Unesid, the country's steel association.The volume of steel imported into Spain was 9.90 million tonnes in 2017, up by 4.90% year-on-year, according to Unesid, while exports fell by 5.90% to 8.80 million tonnes.One reason for this was that local consumption increased at the same time...Read More

As we noted in yesterday's missive, the new Fed Chair Jerome Powell is rapidly changing the focus of the Fed in terms of monetary policy.A large component of this stems from Powell's experience prior to join the Fed. Indeed, Powell is the first Fed Chair with any kind of banking experience (albeit investment banking) since Alan Greenspan: former Fed Chairs Janet Yellen and Ben Bernanke were both c...Read More

How often have you heard the phrase "the government will never let it happen"? It almost doesn't matter what the topic is youContinue...Read More

Gold is showing solid rallies from my $1310 area buy zone (basis April futures). From both a love trade and fear trade perspective, the fundamental picture is becoming more positive.I've repeatedly highlighted the fact that while America has the world's richest economy, China's economy is vastly bigger.Courtesy of the Visual Capitalist, this snapshot of Chinese commodity demand should provide a si...Read More

CloseGain/LossGold $1333.70+$14.10Silver$16.74+$0.31XAU80.80+2.15%HUI177.86+2.01%GDM615.99+2.08%JSE Gold1140.09+31.92USD89.62-0.38Euro124.10+0.74Yen94.26+0.01Oil$62.60+$0.0310-Year2.884%UNCHT-Bond144.1875+0.0625Dow24884.12+0.04%Nasdaq7372.01+0.56%S&P2728.12+0.26% The Metals: Gold gained $18.90 to as high as $1338.50 in late morning New York trade before it edged back lower into the close,...Read More

As we noted in yesterday's missive, the new Fed Chair Jerome Powell is rapidly changing the focus of the Fed in terms of monetary policy.A large component of this stems from Powell's experience prior to join the Fed. Indeed, Powell is the first Fed Chair with any kind of banking experience (albeit investment banking) since Alan Greenspan: former Fed Chairs Janet Yellen and Ben Bernanke were both c...Read More

Major blow to the EU! The populist Five Star Movementwon about one-third of the votes in the Italian general elections. It’s anothernegative shock for the European establishment. Will these stars shine on gold? Five Stars MovementTriumphsWe live in strange times. To be a hairstylist, youneed a license. But you can become a politician being just a comedian andtelling jokes. We refer here to B...Read More

Local and imported rebar prices in the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia remained unchanged this week although the price of steel billet imports into the UAE increased, sources told Metal Bulletin on Tuesday March 6. Demand for locally produced rebar in the UAE was still strong. Domestic rebar The major rebar producers in the UAE rolled over their prices for March and April production las...Read More