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 Daily
Nickel/Stainless Steel Wrap-up
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Baltic Dry Index - plus/minus 0 to 1,137
(chart)
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Dollar trading graph -
(chart of dollar index)
(live
java chart)
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Indicator charts show nickel opened lower but rose during the latter half
of its trading session. For the day, Dow Jones reports three month nickel
closed at $7.80/lb
 ,
with other base metals trading mixed and quiet. Stockpiles of nickel slipped
overnight and now total just over 105,550 tonnes.
Reports
Morning
Briefing (8:00 AM CST
is 1PM in London)
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Indicators at 7:00 am CST show 3 month nickel trading around $.03/lb
 lower, with only
copper trading slightly higher on the London Metal Exchange. Stockpiles of
nickel fell slightly on Wednesday.
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Reuters morning - Copper rebounds from four-month lows, Greek worries caps
gains -
more
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LME Morning - Metals drift as early run-up stalls, euro situation dominates
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more
Reports
Ed Meir of INTL
FC Stone Daily Metals Commentary
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Metal prices continued to weaken yesterday, with lead and zinc suffering
particularly badly. There were declines in precious metals, energy, and US
equities as well, while the euro hovered at $1.27, close to a four-month
low. Trading volume was light, with just over 67,000 lots changing hands
in late afternoon Comex trading in New York, well below the 30-day average.
There was not much new out of Europe yesterday except for more of the same
dreary headlines. Although French President Hollande and German Chancellor
Merkel pledged to forge a joint approach ahead of an EU summit next month,
we are still not seeing any kind of policy initiatives that could reassure
markets. Instead, the authorities seem to be in “wait-and see”
mode, resigned to the outcome of the Greek elections, which, according to
the polls, could now be even more inconclusive than the first time around.
In the meantime, the Greeks continue to pull money out of their bank accounts;
the Financial Times reported yesterday that $800 million was yanked out on
Monday alone. In addition, the ECB said it has stopped funding operations
for some Greek banks because they had not been adequately recapitalized.
.... At this stage, many commodity complexes are severely oversold (and
nowhere is this more evident than in silver, which has now dropped for eight
straight days and has an RSI reading of 19). However, markets need a
headline to tee off on, and so far, there has not been much in the way of
encouraging news out of Europe that could provide the necessary short-covering
trigger. ...... Nickel is at $16,975, down $30. (complete report
here)
Commodity/Economic Comments
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(Yieh) According to data released by the Department of Commerce, the US imported
100,853 tons of stainless steel in April, up by 7% from 93,892 tons in March,
reaching 12-month high.
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(AIST) U.S. steel mills shipped 8,512,825 net tons for the month of March
2012, a 1.3% increase from the 8,407,343 net tons shipped in the previous
month according to the latest release from AISI.
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Experts see crude & nickel as safe haven, expect weak gold -
more
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(SBB) Major Chinese mills cut stainless export prices by $50-100/t
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(JMB) Jindal Stainless to Double Production Capacity Soon
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Bucko Lake operations suspended -
more
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China Slowdown to End in Third Quarter, Survey Shows -
more
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Stainless Steel Grades Datasheets -
more
 No tarnish on prospects
for stainless steel - The stainless steel industry in China will continue
to expand during the country's 12th Five-Year-Plan (2011-15) as a result
of incentives stemming from ongoing urbanization and construction, experts
said on Wednesday. -
more
 Nickel Prices
Move to the Lowest Level of 2012 on Oversupply - Nickel prices have suffered
from the same downward drift that afflicted the majority of the complex over
the past month. -
more
Some Chinese steel
mills defer iron ore shipments: sources - Some Chinese steel mills have postponed
delivery of iron ore from miners including top supplier Vale as a slow steel
market cuts demand for the raw material and producers expect a further drop
in prices, sources at mills and traders said on Thursday. -
more
 Morning Nickel
Inventory and Price Statistics & Figures
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Today's almost official prices
here / Yesterday's actual
LME official prices
here
or
here
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Shanghai Jinchuan nickel price - available
here
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