Ford's 50-day moving average sits right at the round $10 markThere's not a lot of buzz on Wall Street today following the Fourth of July holiday on Thursday, butautomakers General Motors Company (NYSE:GM) and Ford Motor Company (NYSE:F) have grabbed some headlines. Data showed the companies posted another quarterly decline in sales in China amid the U.S.-China trade dispute. This news has the shar...Read More

KPTI options traders could be using calls to hedgeThe shares of Karyopharm Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:KPTI) are up 15.9% to trade at $10.31 today, as analysts react to Wednesday's news that the company won accelerated approval from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for Xpovio, their treatment for blood cancer. No fewer than six brokerages have hiked their price targets since the approval, the...Read More

Wall Street is worried that strong jobs data in June will discourage the Fed from cutting ratesDow futures are trading below fair value this morning, cooling from Wednesday's all-time highs after a better-than expected June payrolls report -- which has some investors tempering their expectations for a July interest rate cut from the Fed. Payrolls ramped up by a stronger-than-forecast 224,000 in Ju...Read More

It should be a relatively quiet day of trading on Wall StreetIt's set to be a quiet day on Wall Street following the Fourth of July holiday, but a handful of stocks are making big moves in early action, including Swedish drugmaker Oasmia Pharmaceutical (NASDAQ:OASM), French biopharmaceutical name DBV Technologies (NASDAQ:DBVT), and Tesla rival Nio Inc (NYSE:NIO). Here's a quick look at what's mo...Read More

The London Metal Exchange has just finished its trial to calculate nickel prices using a volume weighted average price (VWAP) method on the exchange's electronic trading platform. If early indications are anything to go by, metals market participants did not embrace this method of price discovery in the way some had anticipated. For three months since Monday March 18, closing prices for nickel car...Read More

The United States Secretary of Commerce has joined the growing chorus of voices questioning the current method of setting the US Midwest aluminium premium. Wilbur Ross said the US Midwest aluminium premium is at inflated levels that do not justify the cost of transportation and logistical handling costs that it was originally designed to reflect.  His view is being echoed by a number of...Read More

A decade ago, the Shanghai Futures Exchange launched its steel rebar futures contract. In the years that followed it has become the gold standard for steel derivatives, achieving a success that other exchanges aspire to emulate. And they are definitely trying, with a total of 11 steel derivatives contracts launched by the main trading exchanges since. SHFE, which launched a wire rod futures contra...Read More

Gold has dipped back below $1,400 this morning, as investors believe the strong employment report reduces the odds of a rate cut this year. I believe they are weighing the significance of this one highly-manicured preliminary data point too heavily and the FED will still be forced to cut rates later this year. Therefore, I view this near-term dip in the gold price as a buying opportunity and am ma...Read More

Base metals other than nickel closer lower on the London Metal Exchange on Friday July 5 in thin volumes after the release of weak macroeconomic data from the United States.Zinc was one of the busiest - more than 10,000 lots traded by the close of trading - because of swing in its cash/three-month spread into a slim $3-per-tonne contango from a $9.50 per tonne earlier in the day.The cash/three-mon...Read More

Lead inventory on the Shanghai Futures Exchange increased by 4% week on week as of Friday July 5 amid weak domestic consumption in China. Deliverable lead stocks at SHFE-approved warehouses rose by 1,226 tonnes to 31,982 tonnes in the week to July 5. The largest inflow of lead this week was registered at Zhongchu Wuxi in Jiangsu province, with 21,042 tonnes of the metal entering its warehouse. The...Read More

Seaborne iron ore prices fell on Friday July 5, while futures prices on the Dalian Commodity Exchange plunged for the second consecutive session.Fastmarkets' index for iron ore 62% Fe fines, cfr Qingdao: $114.81 per tonne, down by $7.22 per tonne.Fastmarkets' index for iron ore 62% Fe Pilbara Blend Fines: $114.06 per tonne cfr Qingdao, down by $7.22 per tonne.Fastmarkets' index for iron ore 62% Fe...Read More

China's month-on-month new electric vehicles (NEV) sales rebounded in August after month-on-month declines in June and July. The drop in sales between May and June was the first drop since September 2016, but Fastmarkets MB had expected Chinese NEV sales to dip temporarily after the June subsidy changes came into effect because consumers and NEV manufacturers would have to adjust to the new subsid...Read More

Iron ore prices fell sharply in the second half of November after climbing through October, with prices for higher-grade material pioneering the decline.Fastmarkets MB daily benchmark for 65% Fe fines dropped by 22% by Monday November 26 after peaking on October 29. The 62% Fe iron ore index declined by 16% over the period, as some Chinese steelmakers started to seek larger volumes of cheaper ores...Read More

The steel scrap sector in the United States still depends on exports to Turkey, a member of the Fastmarkets research team said during the ferrous session at the Bureau of International Recycling (BIR) conference in London.This dependence persists despite the changes in the international markets created by the US' imposition of its Section 232 tariffs on imports of steel products, metals analyst Le...Read More

European prices for stainless steel flat products slipped this week on lower monthly alloy surcharges for July and soft demand, sources told Fastmarkets on Friday July 5.Alloy surcharges for July were announced at lower levels last week by European mills, primarily reflecting lower nickel prices.These surcharge decreases were implemented into stainless steel prices this week, although some distrib...Read More

An overview of the minor metals markets and the reasons for any price moves.Read More

Aluminium billet premiums were flat to lower on Friday July 5 amid weak demand, with the premium in Italy falling for a third straight week and the upcharge in the US Midwest making its first move in eight weeks. Premium in Italy falls third week in a row US upcharge down in dull market Thai premium flat in oversupplied market Premium in Brazil down, demand weakAluminium billet premium in Italy co...Read More

Alcoa has signed a conditional share purchase agreement with Swiss private equity firm Parter Capital Group for the firm to acquire Alcoa's La Coru??a and Avil?(C)s smelters in Spain, the aluminium producer said on Friday July 5. Alcoa reached an agreement with the workers' representatives relating to the transaction of the two smelters, which were curtailed in February. The company said in the st...Read More

Lead inventory on the Shanghai Futures Exchange increased by 4% week on week as of Friday July 5 amid weak domestic consumption in China. Deliverable lead stocks at SHFE-approved warehouses rose by 1,226 tonnes to 31,982 tonnes in the week to July 5. The largest inflow of lead this week was registered at Zhongchu Wuxi in Jiangsu province, with 21,042 tonnes of the metal entering its warehouse. The...Read More

Backwardation in zinc has been a persistent theme in the market since the start of 2019, but the tightness in the cash-to-three-month spread on the London Metal Exchange has largely waned over Thursday-Friday July 4-5, with no significant deliveries into the exchange's sheds.On the morning of July 5, the backwardation in the cash-to-three-month zinc spread was $9.50 per tonne. It was as wide as $1...Read More