Good afternoon
confidence of Japanese manufacturers at 10-year high...Bundesbank increasing GDP estimate for Germany from 1.7% to 2.5% in 2018 / IFO Institute from 2% to 2.6%....
US consumers buying big time in the first half of Christmas sales...but Industrial Production just ticking along, after another upward revision for October.Except for mining-and oil-output, numbers were a little weaker - but still ok.
China slowing down a little, but most probably growing above 6% in 2018...India probably with above 7%...Russia and Brazil sort of booming...
One word: Goldilocks!!!
Just have a look at the Caterpillar chart, something which I had not done for some time...I could not believe my eyes!! This is THE bellwether for economic growth around the world...and Komatsu looking very similar.
Base metals trading all green today - nickel the strongest up4%, while European equities shrugg off some earlier weaknes, as Walll Street opened stronger. Biggest surprise these days to me is, that bonds are largely unchanged not only today, but also recently. Central banks are obviously still very supportive.
If you are really conservative, and mind investing in our ( speculative ) space, just buy a few BHP / OZL /MIN/EVN and you have good exposure to everything from oil/iron ore /coal/copper in BHP, to copper only in OZL, lithium/mining services/iron ore in Mineral Resources MIN, gold/copper in Evolution - and all of that at an average 3.5% div-yield! Value, here we come!
Gascoyne - have finished their bank-required hedging prgram, to back up the 60 Mill A$ facility. They have sold 164.000oz in total, about 35% of production until June 2022, at a nice 1712 A$/oz. Pretty reasonable, assuming they will produce at the planned 1000 A$/oz AISC. I know that gold is out in the moment - but at 41ct you do not need a better gold price to make some decent returns here over the next 12 month.
Graphex - as you know, they are trying to develope their excellent graphite proejct in Tansania. The graphite market will be controlled by Syrah, but GPX will produce a slightly different product, which is mainly being used in the building material industry, to produce flame retardent material. The boss of GPX`s jv partner ( to be exact - the boss of their holding company ) has recently stated in China, that about 2 millt of graphite will be needed for this purpose. Little GPX is developing a project to initially produce just 60.000t of it...but the resource looks like being able to support much larger production in the long term. For the moment, all development is on ice - but more recently, several companies in Tansania have come out with announcements, stating a much more forthcoming government. And given China´s dominant influcence in Tansania, and their need for the material, I think that GPX are very well positioned to get some "goodwill" from Tansania!!
Have a nice weekend!
WS