Tuesday, February 16, 2021 3:48:29 AM
*AM Metals Roundup* Copper slips in thin trade, but hovers near 2012 highs on demand optimism
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Feb 16 (Reuters) - Copper prices slipped in holiday-thinned trade on Tuesday as the U.S. dollar pared losses, but the metal hovered near 2012 highs on the back of firm demand prospects and a tight supply outlook.
Benchmark copper on the London Metal Exchange dropped 0.1% to $8,384.50 by 0709 GMT, after earlier hitting $8,437, its strongest since May 2012.
The metal, often used as a gauge for global economic health, had risen as much as 9.4% from its Feb. 2 low of $7,712 a tonne.
The dollar index hit a three-week low earlier in the day, boosting the appeal of greenback-priced metals, but it later trimmed losses to trade at 90.36 versus a day low of 90.229.
“I wouldn’t read too much into it though as the market is drifting due to extremely thin volumes,” said Anna Stablum, a commodity trader at Marex Spectron in Singapore, commenting on copper’s modest pullback.
“Overall the market is underpinned by optimism of more stimulus and a strong return of demand once the Chinese come back.”
Trading remained light with mainland Chinese markets closed for the Lunar New Year holiday until Wednesday.
* Mining giant BHP Group said in its commodity outlook issued following first-half results that “long term (copper) demand from traditional end–uses is expected to be solid, while broad exposure to the electrification mega–trend offers attractive upside”.
* For calendar 2021, Chinese demand is expected to be roughly 5% higher than in calendar 2019, but supply constraints remain in pandemic-hit Chile and Peru, the world’s two largest exporters of primary copper, BHP said.
* Aluminium slipped 0.2% to $2,078.50 a tonne, after hitting an eight-week high of $2,095 on Monday.
* Nickel was little changed at $18,625 a tonne, still supported after hitting its best level since September 2019 on Monday.
* Tin gained 0.7% to $24,550 a tonne, but zinc dropped 0.3% to $2,834.50 a tonne and lead dipped 0.3% to $2,117.50 a tonne. (Reporting by Enrico Dela Cruz in Manila; Editing by Vinay Dwivedi and Devika Syamnath)
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Gold and silver are flat leading into the EU sesion
Tuesday February 16, 2021 02:58
(Kitco News) - With the US off for a public holiday and China still closed it was a pretty quiet session overnight Gold and silver are trading pretty much flat with the yellow metal hanging near $1819.22/oz and silver holding at $27.56/oz.
The good run in equities markets continues as Japan's Nikkei 225 closed 1.28% higher and Australia's ASX pushed 0.70% in the black. Only the Indian bourses closed lower overnight in the Asia-Pac area.
In the FX space, the dollar once again underperformed with NZD/USD the top-performing pair up around 0.30%. Rates continued to climb with the US 10 year treasury yield hitting 1.228%.
Overnight there has been reports that one US service member and five civilian contractors were injured and one civilian contractor killed in Erbil, Iraq. Aljazeera reported that it was a rocket attack. US Sec State Blinken released a statement saying he was "outraged" at the attack.
The FT has reported that China are looking to attack the US by restricting the amount of rare earth materials it sends over. Rare earths are used in everything from smartphones to fighter jets.
Japan Finance Minister Aso says need to watch bond yields. Yields in the Japanese 10 year have pushed above 0% to hit 0.08% overnight.
That was not it from Japan as BoJ's Gov Kuroda says the Bank will continue its current policy to support the economy. He added "its important to increase productivity and innovation and that the bank need to pay attention to faster digitalisation"
Sticking with central banks, the RBA February meeting minutes stated that very significant monetary support is to be needed for some time. They added the cash rate to be kept at 10 bps as long as is necessary and the bank will not raise cash rate until inflation sustainably in 2-3% target band.
In the commodities markets, bad weather has sent shockwaves through the oil market in the US. According to Bloomberg, at least 5 million people across the U.S. taking turns being plunged into darkness to avoid a total collapse of their grids. More than a million barrels a day of oil and 10 billion cubic feet of gas production are shut. This sent oil prices higher with spot WTI trading just above $60/bbl.
Looking ahead to the rest of the session highlights include German ZEW data, New Zealand GDT, EU GDP and comments from Fed's Daly and Bowman
By Rajan Dhall
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FX rigging may have spread to 200 chat rooms, lawyer says
Submitted by cpowell on Mon, 2021-02-15 16:41. Section: Daily Dispatches
By Ellen Milligan
Bloomberg News
Monday, February 15, 2021
Traders may have used as many as 200 online chat rooms to rig foreign exchange rates, far more than previously thought, a lawyer for investors told a London court today.
Marie Demetriou, a lawyer for investment funds suing seven banks, said that some of the newly discovered chat rooms were instant message groups that lasted just a few hours while others were "permanent" fixtures established over months.
The chat rooms, as well as emails, telephone calls, and WhatsApp messages will play a central role in a suit brought by investment funds. They're suing banks including Barclays, Citigroup, and JPMorgan Chase & Co. over allegations they lost money as a result of illegal manipulation of the FX market.
As a result of the disclosures, the investors are now re-pleading their case, Demetriou said. They expect that when the remainder of disclosure is given, "further chat rooms and unlawful anticompetitive communications will be identified," she said.
Citi, JPMorgan, and Barclays were among five banks that agreed in 2019 to pay European Union fines totaling 1.07 billion euros ($1.3 billion) as part of a settlement with the antitrust regulator. ...
... For the remainder of the report:
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-02-15/fx-rigging-may-have-s...
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Silver ETF SLV admits trouble sourcing metal and vulnerability to 'dramatic' short squeeze
February 15, 2021
Chris Powell
Dear Friend of GATA and Gold (and Silver):
The silver exchange-traded fund SLV appears to have just amended its prospectus to acknowledge difficulty in sourcing metal for the fund.
The amendment warns that the fund now may be vulnerable to a "dramatic" short squeeze -- like the recent short squeeze in GameStop shares that caused a worldwide sensation.
The change, cited by Bullion Star tonight on Twitter, seems to have been prompted by this month's Reddit-inspired movement to attack shorts in the monetary metal.
SLV does not appear to have issued any announcement of the amendment to its prospectus, perhaps trusting that monetary metals advocates would find it eventually and save the fund the trouble of alerting the markets.
SLV's updated prospectus, dated February 8 and posted at the iShares internet site here --
https://www.ishares.com/us/literature/prospectus/p-ishares-silver-trust-...
-- reads as follows:
"The demand for silver may temporarily exceed available supply that is acceptable for delivery to the trust, which may adversely affect an investment in the shares.
"To the extent that demand for silver exceeds the available supply at that time, Authorized Participants may not be able to readily acquire sufficient amounts of silver necessary for the creation of a Basket.
"Baskets may be created only by Authorized Participants and are only issued in exchange for an amount of silver determined by the trustee that meets the specifications described below under 'Description of the Shares and the Trust Agreement -- Deposit of Silver; Issuance of Baskets' on each day that New York Stock Exchange Arca is open for regular trading.
"Market speculation in silver could result in increased requests for the issuance of baskets. It is possible that Authorized Participants may be unable to acquire sufficient silver that is acceptable for delivery to the Trust for the issuance of new Baskets due to a limited then-available supply coupled with a surge in demand for the shares.
"In such circumstances, the trust may suspend or restrict the issuance of baskets. Such occurrence may lead to further volatility in share price and deviations, which may be significant, in the market price of the shares relative to the net asset value.
"Risks Related to the Shares.
"A sudden increase in demand for shares that temporarily exceeds supply may result in price volatility of the shares.
"A significant change in the sentiment of investors towards silver may occur. Investors may purchase shares to speculate on the price of silver or to hedge existing silver exposure. Speculation on the price of silver may involve long and short exposures. To the extent that the aggregate short exposure exceeds the number of shares available for purchase, investors with short exposure may have to pay a premium to repurchase shares for delivery to share lenders.
"In turn, those repurchases may dramatically increase the price of the shares until additional shares are issued through the creation process. This could lead to volatile price movements in shares that are not directly correlated to the price of silver.
"The trading price of the shares has recently been, and could potentially continue to be, volatile.
"The trading price of the shares has been highly volatile and could continue to be subject to wide fluctuations in response to various factors. The silver market in general has experienced extreme price and volume fluctuations that have often been unrelated or disproportionate to factors such as silver's uses in jewelry, technology, and industrial applications, or cost and production levels in major silver-producing countries such as China, Mexico, and Peru.
"In particular, supply chain disruptions resulting from the Covid 19 outbreak and investor speculation have significantly contributed to recent price and volume fluctuations."
CHRIS POWELL, Secretary/Treasurer
Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee Inc.
CPowell@GATA.org
* * *
Join GATA here:
Gold Week Africa Conference
via internet from Lagos, Nigeria
Monday-Thursday, February 15-18, 2021
https://www.goldwestafrica.com/gold-week-africa
https://silverseek.com/article/silver-etf-slv-admits-trouble-sourcing-metal-and-vulnerability-dramatic-short-squeeze
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Platinum gains 21% this year, surges past $1,300 an ounce for first time in six years
16th February 2021 by Editor
By Yuliya Fedorinova and Ranjeetha Pakiam
(Bloomberg) – Platinum surged above $1,300 an ounce for the first time in more than six years on bets that a recovery in industrial demand and stricter emissions rules will tighten supply of the metal. Gold edged lower.
Tougher pollution regulations requiring vehicle makers to use more platinum in catalytic converters are supporting prices, said Margaret Yang, a strategist at DailyFX. Platinum has gained 21% this year, narrowing the steep discount with sister-metal palladium, which was the star performer over the two previous years.
“Platinum has largely outperformed gold since November 2020 as reflation hopes and a projected recovery in global auto sales brightened the demand outlook for the white metal,” said Yang.
After years of surpluses, Covid-19 mine shutdowns in South Africa saw the platinum market deficit widen to 400,000 ounces in 2020, Johnson Matthey said in a report last week. While the market could return to a surplus this year, disruptions at a key refinery in the country improved the immediate outlook for the metal.
Platinum futures rose as much as 4.4% to $1,314.40 an ounce. Spot platinum climbed as much as 4% to $1,306.22 an ounce, the highest level since September 2014, and traded at $1,301.77 as of 4:06pm in London.
The outlook for prices will partly depend on whether investment demand – from those expecting a catch-up to gold and palladium – remains supportive.
“Platinum got attention from financial investors,” said Kirill Chuyko, a strategist at BCS Global Markets. “It’s getting its momentum now due to speculative demand.”
Gold slipped as investors weighed the slowing pace of coronavirus infections, as well as immunisation programs globally, and the impact on growth. US markets were shut for Presidents’ Day, while exchanges in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan were also closed Monday.
The precious metal has retreated about 4% this year amid higher Treasury yields, which diminish the appeal of bullion because it pays no interest. Still, the haven asset has gained support from bets that more stimulus will be inflationary and that a recovery from the pandemic will weigh on the dollar.
Spot gold fell 0.3% to $1,818.94 an ounce in London, after climbing 0.6% last week. Silver and palladium advanced. The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index declined 0.1%.
https://www.biznews.com/briefs/2021/02/16/platinum-surge
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Have a Great day everyone
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......................
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Feb 16 (Reuters) - Copper prices slipped in holiday-thinned trade on Tuesday as the U.S. dollar pared losses, but the metal hovered near 2012 highs on the back of firm demand prospects and a tight supply outlook.
Benchmark copper on the London Metal Exchange dropped 0.1% to $8,384.50 by 0709 GMT, after earlier hitting $8,437, its strongest since May 2012.
The metal, often used as a gauge for global economic health, had risen as much as 9.4% from its Feb. 2 low of $7,712 a tonne.
The dollar index hit a three-week low earlier in the day, boosting the appeal of greenback-priced metals, but it later trimmed losses to trade at 90.36 versus a day low of 90.229.
“I wouldn’t read too much into it though as the market is drifting due to extremely thin volumes,” said Anna Stablum, a commodity trader at Marex Spectron in Singapore, commenting on copper’s modest pullback.
“Overall the market is underpinned by optimism of more stimulus and a strong return of demand once the Chinese come back.”
Trading remained light with mainland Chinese markets closed for the Lunar New Year holiday until Wednesday.
* Mining giant BHP Group said in its commodity outlook issued following first-half results that “long term (copper) demand from traditional end–uses is expected to be solid, while broad exposure to the electrification mega–trend offers attractive upside”.
* For calendar 2021, Chinese demand is expected to be roughly 5% higher than in calendar 2019, but supply constraints remain in pandemic-hit Chile and Peru, the world’s two largest exporters of primary copper, BHP said.
* Aluminium slipped 0.2% to $2,078.50 a tonne, after hitting an eight-week high of $2,095 on Monday.
* Nickel was little changed at $18,625 a tonne, still supported after hitting its best level since September 2019 on Monday.
* Tin gained 0.7% to $24,550 a tonne, but zinc dropped 0.3% to $2,834.50 a tonne and lead dipped 0.3% to $2,117.50 a tonne. (Reporting by Enrico Dela Cruz in Manila; Editing by Vinay Dwivedi and Devika Syamnath)
.
.
Gold and silver are flat leading into the EU sesion
Tuesday February 16, 2021 02:58
(Kitco News) - With the US off for a public holiday and China still closed it was a pretty quiet session overnight Gold and silver are trading pretty much flat with the yellow metal hanging near $1819.22/oz and silver holding at $27.56/oz.
The good run in equities markets continues as Japan's Nikkei 225 closed 1.28% higher and Australia's ASX pushed 0.70% in the black. Only the Indian bourses closed lower overnight in the Asia-Pac area.
In the FX space, the dollar once again underperformed with NZD/USD the top-performing pair up around 0.30%. Rates continued to climb with the US 10 year treasury yield hitting 1.228%.
Overnight there has been reports that one US service member and five civilian contractors were injured and one civilian contractor killed in Erbil, Iraq. Aljazeera reported that it was a rocket attack. US Sec State Blinken released a statement saying he was "outraged" at the attack.
The FT has reported that China are looking to attack the US by restricting the amount of rare earth materials it sends over. Rare earths are used in everything from smartphones to fighter jets.
Japan Finance Minister Aso says need to watch bond yields. Yields in the Japanese 10 year have pushed above 0% to hit 0.08% overnight.
That was not it from Japan as BoJ's Gov Kuroda says the Bank will continue its current policy to support the economy. He added "its important to increase productivity and innovation and that the bank need to pay attention to faster digitalisation"
Sticking with central banks, the RBA February meeting minutes stated that very significant monetary support is to be needed for some time. They added the cash rate to be kept at 10 bps as long as is necessary and the bank will not raise cash rate until inflation sustainably in 2-3% target band.
In the commodities markets, bad weather has sent shockwaves through the oil market in the US. According to Bloomberg, at least 5 million people across the U.S. taking turns being plunged into darkness to avoid a total collapse of their grids. More than a million barrels a day of oil and 10 billion cubic feet of gas production are shut. This sent oil prices higher with spot WTI trading just above $60/bbl.
Looking ahead to the rest of the session highlights include German ZEW data, New Zealand GDT, EU GDP and comments from Fed's Daly and Bowman
By Rajan Dhall
.
.
FX rigging may have spread to 200 chat rooms, lawyer says
Submitted by cpowell on Mon, 2021-02-15 16:41. Section: Daily Dispatches
By Ellen Milligan
Bloomberg News
Monday, February 15, 2021
Traders may have used as many as 200 online chat rooms to rig foreign exchange rates, far more than previously thought, a lawyer for investors told a London court today.
Marie Demetriou, a lawyer for investment funds suing seven banks, said that some of the newly discovered chat rooms were instant message groups that lasted just a few hours while others were "permanent" fixtures established over months.
The chat rooms, as well as emails, telephone calls, and WhatsApp messages will play a central role in a suit brought by investment funds. They're suing banks including Barclays, Citigroup, and JPMorgan Chase & Co. over allegations they lost money as a result of illegal manipulation of the FX market.
As a result of the disclosures, the investors are now re-pleading their case, Demetriou said. They expect that when the remainder of disclosure is given, "further chat rooms and unlawful anticompetitive communications will be identified," she said.
Citi, JPMorgan, and Barclays were among five banks that agreed in 2019 to pay European Union fines totaling 1.07 billion euros ($1.3 billion) as part of a settlement with the antitrust regulator. ...
... For the remainder of the report:
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-02-15/fx-rigging-may-have-s...
.
.
Silver ETF SLV admits trouble sourcing metal and vulnerability to 'dramatic' short squeeze
February 15, 2021
Chris Powell
Dear Friend of GATA and Gold (and Silver):
The silver exchange-traded fund SLV appears to have just amended its prospectus to acknowledge difficulty in sourcing metal for the fund.
The amendment warns that the fund now may be vulnerable to a "dramatic" short squeeze -- like the recent short squeeze in GameStop shares that caused a worldwide sensation.
The change, cited by Bullion Star tonight on Twitter, seems to have been prompted by this month's Reddit-inspired movement to attack shorts in the monetary metal.
SLV does not appear to have issued any announcement of the amendment to its prospectus, perhaps trusting that monetary metals advocates would find it eventually and save the fund the trouble of alerting the markets.
SLV's updated prospectus, dated February 8 and posted at the iShares internet site here --
https://www.ishares.com/us/literature/prospectus/p-ishares-silver-trust-...
-- reads as follows:
"The demand for silver may temporarily exceed available supply that is acceptable for delivery to the trust, which may adversely affect an investment in the shares.
"To the extent that demand for silver exceeds the available supply at that time, Authorized Participants may not be able to readily acquire sufficient amounts of silver necessary for the creation of a Basket.
"Baskets may be created only by Authorized Participants and are only issued in exchange for an amount of silver determined by the trustee that meets the specifications described below under 'Description of the Shares and the Trust Agreement -- Deposit of Silver; Issuance of Baskets' on each day that New York Stock Exchange Arca is open for regular trading.
"Market speculation in silver could result in increased requests for the issuance of baskets. It is possible that Authorized Participants may be unable to acquire sufficient silver that is acceptable for delivery to the Trust for the issuance of new Baskets due to a limited then-available supply coupled with a surge in demand for the shares.
"In such circumstances, the trust may suspend or restrict the issuance of baskets. Such occurrence may lead to further volatility in share price and deviations, which may be significant, in the market price of the shares relative to the net asset value.
"Risks Related to the Shares.
"A sudden increase in demand for shares that temporarily exceeds supply may result in price volatility of the shares.
"A significant change in the sentiment of investors towards silver may occur. Investors may purchase shares to speculate on the price of silver or to hedge existing silver exposure. Speculation on the price of silver may involve long and short exposures. To the extent that the aggregate short exposure exceeds the number of shares available for purchase, investors with short exposure may have to pay a premium to repurchase shares for delivery to share lenders.
"In turn, those repurchases may dramatically increase the price of the shares until additional shares are issued through the creation process. This could lead to volatile price movements in shares that are not directly correlated to the price of silver.
"The trading price of the shares has recently been, and could potentially continue to be, volatile.
"The trading price of the shares has been highly volatile and could continue to be subject to wide fluctuations in response to various factors. The silver market in general has experienced extreme price and volume fluctuations that have often been unrelated or disproportionate to factors such as silver's uses in jewelry, technology, and industrial applications, or cost and production levels in major silver-producing countries such as China, Mexico, and Peru.
"In particular, supply chain disruptions resulting from the Covid 19 outbreak and investor speculation have significantly contributed to recent price and volume fluctuations."
CHRIS POWELL, Secretary/Treasurer
Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee Inc.
CPowell@GATA.org
* * *
Join GATA here:
Gold Week Africa Conference
via internet from Lagos, Nigeria
Monday-Thursday, February 15-18, 2021
https://www.goldwestafrica.com/gold-week-africa
https://silverseek.com/article/silver-etf-slv-admits-trouble-sourcing-metal-and-vulnerability-dramatic-short-squeeze
.
.
Platinum gains 21% this year, surges past $1,300 an ounce for first time in six years
16th February 2021 by Editor
By Yuliya Fedorinova and Ranjeetha Pakiam
(Bloomberg) – Platinum surged above $1,300 an ounce for the first time in more than six years on bets that a recovery in industrial demand and stricter emissions rules will tighten supply of the metal. Gold edged lower.
Tougher pollution regulations requiring vehicle makers to use more platinum in catalytic converters are supporting prices, said Margaret Yang, a strategist at DailyFX. Platinum has gained 21% this year, narrowing the steep discount with sister-metal palladium, which was the star performer over the two previous years.
“Platinum has largely outperformed gold since November 2020 as reflation hopes and a projected recovery in global auto sales brightened the demand outlook for the white metal,” said Yang.
After years of surpluses, Covid-19 mine shutdowns in South Africa saw the platinum market deficit widen to 400,000 ounces in 2020, Johnson Matthey said in a report last week. While the market could return to a surplus this year, disruptions at a key refinery in the country improved the immediate outlook for the metal.
Platinum futures rose as much as 4.4% to $1,314.40 an ounce. Spot platinum climbed as much as 4% to $1,306.22 an ounce, the highest level since September 2014, and traded at $1,301.77 as of 4:06pm in London.
The outlook for prices will partly depend on whether investment demand – from those expecting a catch-up to gold and palladium – remains supportive.
“Platinum got attention from financial investors,” said Kirill Chuyko, a strategist at BCS Global Markets. “It’s getting its momentum now due to speculative demand.”
Gold slipped as investors weighed the slowing pace of coronavirus infections, as well as immunisation programs globally, and the impact on growth. US markets were shut for Presidents’ Day, while exchanges in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan were also closed Monday.
The precious metal has retreated about 4% this year amid higher Treasury yields, which diminish the appeal of bullion because it pays no interest. Still, the haven asset has gained support from bets that more stimulus will be inflationary and that a recovery from the pandemic will weigh on the dollar.
Spot gold fell 0.3% to $1,818.94 an ounce in London, after climbing 0.6% last week. Silver and palladium advanced. The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index declined 0.1%.
https://www.biznews.com/briefs/2021/02/16/platinum-surge
.
.
Have a Great day everyone
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.
......................
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