Good afternoon
Please see this link to find an invitation to this years Australian Resources Conference in Zurich, incl all participants: https://www.schroeder-equities.com/conference/ . Please also pass it on to interested friends and colleagues!
The press is consistently reporting about fundmanagers and individuals, who have/are/will reducing/ing their equity exposure - yet markets are off to a strong start! Looks like the trade talks might be getting somewhere…and perhaps, many cautious hands have reduced already? Trees will not grow into the sky this year, but especially small miners should see some relief from depressed levels.
The Worldbank today published their forecast for GDP-growth of 2.9% this year. I would be very happy, if we get there!
Metals as well as equities are continuing with their cautious recovery today…especially copper looking strong. Grasberg announced, that copper production will halve this year amid a move to underground mining. I do not believe, that such a big drop has been forecast…but not sure about it.
Palladium continuing it´s race - diesel needs more platinum, bezin-driven cars need palladium…Norilsk is expecting deficits in Palladium producttion for years to come. The highest combinded price for palladium/platinum I could find has been 2390 US$ ( 1 oz + 1 oz ) in mid 2014 - the loweset around 1700 in 2015. Today´s combined price is a relatively healthy 2164 US$ Pall+Plat-oz. As I said yesterday - I can se ethe day coming, when the market start talking about Panoramics sizeable deposits in Australia and Canada.
Oil is continuing it´s massive run - well, following a much more massive fall! After falling from 86$ to 50$ ( for Brent ) on Christmas Eve, it has recovered by a staggering 20% since then, hitting 60$ today. Machines and programs at work, I guess, supported by more evidence, that Saudi wants to ensure reasonable prices
In Australia, many investors are still on holidays this week..we will see a steady increase of activity over teh next 2 weeks, when everybody should be back on board.
Nevertheless, the market in general, but also in small stocks looks better supported - some bargain hunting is obviously around!
I fear there is not much more to report from Australia today!
have a nice evening
WS