Commodities

The sudden burst of buying interest appearing two weeks ago in the uranium market continued last week as producers stepped in.

Commodities had a softish week with oil doing well for the second week in a row, copper down for the week but gold weakening as risk moved back into vogue.

Global iron ore prices shook off less than inspiring trade and production data from China for the month of October to notch up a solid gain last week.

While the central banks of emerging nations have provided gold price support through their purchases, many of the central banks from the world’s biggest nations have provided gold price support through their policy actions – specifically debt.

The sharp fall in iron ore prices to well under $US80 a tonne received a lot of publicity and analysis, but it was a different case when prices regained that key support level a day later after Vale, the big Brazilian miner, downgraded its 2019 iron ore and pellets sales estimate and indicated that 2020 might not see as big a rebound as expected from the fallout from the January 25 mine tailings dam wall tragedy.

Ahead of the Herd’s Rick Mills warns that as popular protests grow around the globe against government oppression, “country risk” is growing for mining company investors. Lithium and copper are particularly at risk.

China’s commodity imports were again mixed in October reflecting the state of the wider economy.

Global iron ore prices have fallen another 6% as investors backed off futures markets activity and Chinese iron ore imports fell sharply in October from September.

Gold futures slumped sharply last week in what the biggest percentage loss in more than two and a half years because of a belief that a settlement is in sight for the Trump-China trade war despite more conflicting news about a trade deal between China and the US.

Brazilian iron ore exports are still lagging behind 2018’s levels as the big exporter and miner, Vale struggles to recover from the January 25 mine dam wall collapse, according to export data for October.

The solid US jobs report for October, the Fed’s sit and watch stance and more reasonable third-quarter earnings reports helped markets settle higher last week – with oil leading the day on Friday and over the five days.

Copper is presently engaged in a tug-of-war between negative near-term factors and positive longer-term considerations.

Most commodity prices moved higher on Friday and last week, thanks mostly to suggestions about how parts of the long reported trade deal with China were supposed to be closer to settlement.

Ahead of the Herd’s Rick Mills explains the issues facing the global lithium mining to battery production to EV production supply chain, and where the US has been caught napping.

Gold and oil futures eased on Friday as the US dollar weakened and China produced soft third-quarter economic data.

The World Steel Association is forecasting a sharp slowdown in Chinese crude steel demand in 2020, but at the same time, its reckons demand from other emerging markets will rise to partially offset the Chinese slide.

Brazil’s big iron ore miner and exporter, produced 86, 704 million tonnes in the July-September period, up more-than two-thirds from the second quarter as operations resumed at Brucutu, its largest mine in the southeastern state of Minas Gerais.

While China’s imports fell for a fifth month in a row in September, figures for some key commodities told a different story.