Australian (ASX) Stock Market Forum

"The best place to be is in commodities"

Copper has to be the "Chart of the Day"...
It will be interesting to see how the XMM will react today when crude had a big rally overnight...
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London (AFP) - The price of copper tumbled Wednesday to the lowest level for more than five years after the World Bank slashed its global economic forecasts.

Copper for delivery in three months plunged in Asian trading hours to $5,353.25 per tonne, a level last seen in July 2009. That marked an 8.0-percent slide from Tuesday's close.

Copper, which is used in plumbing, heating, electrical and telecommunications wiring, clawed back ground in late morning deals in London to stand at $5,564.50 per tonne.

"Unease over the global economy engulfed commodities," said analyst David Papier at trading firm ETX Capital.

Copper "is often considered a barometer of industrial demand, so the slump leant extra gravitas to news that the World Bank had cut its 2015 growth forecasts blaming sluggishness in the eurozone, Japan and some major emerging economies", Papier noted.

The World Bank on Tuesday predicted that global economy would grow by 3.0 percent in 2015.

That marked a downgrade from the previous forecast of 3.4 percent that was given in June.

Source:
https://au.news.yahoo.com/a/26000513/copper-price-crashes-on-world-bank-growth-outlook/
 
That Was The Week That Was … In Australia
Jan 19, 2015

By Our Man in Oz

Minews. Good morning Australia, you seem to have had quite a week with gold stocks leading the way once again.

Oz. It was a good week for gold, but not for much else. Iron ore stocks lost much of their hard-won gains and copper stocks were hit hard by the sharp fall in the price of their metal.

One of the big surprises of the week was a modest increase in the value of the Australian dollar, almost in defiance of predictions that it is destined to drop sharply.

Minews. Is the currency move related to what happened with the Swiss franc?

Oz. Perhaps, though the big winner from the Swiss cutting the connection of their franc to the euro appears to be gold thanks to its status as a currency that governments find hard to manipulate.

Last week’s US1 cent rise in the Australian dollar to US82.2 cents negated some of the rise in the U.S. dollar gold price but when business here on Friday closed the local gold price had moved up to around A$1,550 an ounce, a price that prompted comments long the lines of “if a goldminer can’t make money at that price it should quit”.

Minews. Let’s start our price check with your gold stocks, but first we should hear about the key ASX indices.

Oz. The gold index led the way, as would be expected, adding another eight per cent which extends its gain to almost 27 per cent over three weeks. The metals and mining index, weighed down by stocks exposed to copper and iron ore fell seven per cent, wiping out the gains of the previous three weeks, and the all ordinaries index shed three per cent, also wiping out hard earned gains.

Northern Star (NST) was the gold stock everyone was watching down this way after it reported strong cash flow, heightening speculation that it might use its spare cash to acquire additional assets. On the market, the stock added A28 cents to A$1.98 but did touch a 12-month high of A$2 during the day.

Troy (TRY) was another stock attracting attention as it rose by A13 cents to A68 cents, and St Barbara (SBM) had its best week in a long while with a rise of A5 cents to A18.5 cents. Other gold moves worth noting included Silver Lake (SLR), up A6.5 cents to A30.5 cents. Newcrest (NCM), up A75 cents to A$12.93. Perseus (PRU), up A5 cents to A33.5 cents. Evolution (EVN), up A9 cents to A89 cents. Beadell (BDR) up A7.5 cents to A36.5 cents, and Resolute (RSG), up A5.5 cents to A38 cents.
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Source >> www.minesite.com
 
That Was The Week That Was … In Australia
Jan 25, 2015


Minews. Good morning Australia, it seems to have been another good week for your market with gold again leading the way.

Oz. It wasn’t a bad week, but much of what happened down this way was a direct result of events in Europe, especially the after-shocks of the Swiss going deeper into negative interest rate territory, followed by the European Central Bank’s big bazooka of monetary stimulus.

The net result, apart from driving the euro to a 11 year low against the U.S. dollar, was to further bolster the case for gold as one of the world’s last safe haven investments, and to act as a trigger for the next big fall of the Australian dollar.

Minews. The fall of your dollar must be doing wonders for the local cash flows of gold miners.

Oz. And the rest of the sector because virtually everything the Australian mining industry sells is denominated in U.S. dollars and last week that fact seemed to have drawn local investors back into nickel and copper stocks despite the underlying prices of those metals slipping further on the London Metal Exchange.

Minews. We’ll get to prices in a little while but first let’s hear about the movements in key ASX indices and then go back to our routine of singling out any noteworthy movers from any sector.

Oz. The gold index, as you might expect, had another good week thanks to the local gold price hitting A$1,630 an ounce as the exchange rate fell to US79 cents. Last week’s 5.5 per cent rise in the gold index takes the increase over the past month to 32.4 per cent.

However, while gold was continuing to rise the wider metals and mining index did better with an increase of 7.3 per cent, thanks to strong performances by the two big boys, BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto, and solid performances by smaller nickel and copper stocks.

Both of the most closely watched mining indices, gold and metals, outperformed the all ordinaries index though that index also managed to gain a reasonable 3.5 per cent.
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>>> www.minesite.com
 
That Was The Week That Was … In Australia
Feb 1, 2015

By Our Man in Oz

Minews. Good morning Australia, your market seems to have run out of steam after a strong start to the year.

Oz. That was the case with the mining sector last week, particularly gold stocks, though the overall trend as measured by the all ordinaries index remained positive.

Minews. Gold continues to look interesting from an Australian perspective if your dollar keeps falling.

Oz. There’s no doubt about that, after the ASX closed on Friday you could see the effect of the double-barrelled move with gold rising modestly and the Aussie dollar retreating to around US77.6 cents, producing a local gold price of more than A$1,650 an ounce.

The rise above A$1,650 will probably be reflected in Monday trading when the market has a chance to make up the four per cent fall in the gold index last week, a correction probably caused by profit taking after some strong rises since mid-December.

While gold stocks were losing ground the rest of the mining sector was effectively steady, slipping by an insignificant 0.3 per cent, while the bank-heavy all ordinaries rose by 1.5 per cent.

Minews. Let’s move along to prices, starting with any news-making moves, please.

Oz. There were a few of those, some up, some down, and some making a return after a few years in the wilderness.

Fortescue Metals (FMG), the biggest of the pure play iron ore stocks, surprised the market with a better than expected December quarter result which saw it recoup A23 cents to A$2.36, after hitting a multi-year low of A$1.92 on Tuesday.

On the other side of the ledger the one-time copper darling, Tiger Resources, disappointed its supporters with a poor December quarter report, and immediately suffered a heavy A6.1 cent (55 per cent) fall to A4.9 cents, but that was up on the 12-month low of A3.4 cents reached in early Friday trade.

Another interesting move came from a gold explorer which has been flying beneath the radar screen for some time. Central West Gold (CWG) which is exploring in the Lachlan Fold Belt of New South Wales rose by A6 cents (32 per cent) to A25 cents, but did get to a 12-month high of A26.5 cents, earning itself a stock exchange speeding inquiry – which produced the standard “know of no reason” response.
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Source >> www.minesite.com
 
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