Good afternoon
Import Prices in the US have risen 4.6%, and PPI in China up by 7.8% - both a little stronger than expected. More indications for inflation...while Draghi expects EU-inflation to come in at +1.7% for 2017 ( vs earleir exp of 1.3% ), but stay roughly unchanged for 2018 and 2019.
China to do nothing new on coal curbs...iron ore finally under 90$/t. Major stocks like BHP, RIO and Anglo have been under a lot of pressure from profit-taking very recently - probably a great busing opportunity for those, who are still underweight resources!
A lot of profit-taking in industrial metals, still. Strange things are happening on the LME, where copepr stocks have gone up extremely strongly over the last 4 days, while cancelled warrants are very high - indicating a lot of copper to be withdrawn from the LME. In any case, Treatment Charges of copper smelters ( the costs of smelting copper concentrate into copper cathode ) are at a 4-year low, indicating a shortage of copper concentrates. Also very conflicting messages from Indonesia and the Phillippines with regards to nickel ore...we will find out. I still believe, that metal markets are looking good this year, based on supply & demand...
I fear not much more coming to my mind today!
have a nice evening!
WS