Good afternoon
what a joke of a president...for the sake of 100.000 steel workers ( if that ) this guy is risking a world trade war! Irresponsible is one of the mildest words I have for his action! But let´s wait and see, whether thiswill be really implemented without many if´s and but´s.....as erratic as he is ( as shown by his action re Amricans under guns ), probably everything is possible.
Metals are actually holding up quite well amid all this turmoil...they are hardly down today. The A$, probably seen as a potential looser from a trade war, is making a new, recent low against the US at 0,784...against the Euro, the A$ has now lost nearly 4% this calendar year. The US$ is also under pressure - not surprising, is it?? That´s helping gold, which is now trading at 1325 US$ - and at 1710 A$/oz, refelcting the weaker A$, and very close to the high since Sept 2016! But that´s seen in our local producers like EVN, NST, RRL or SBM, which are all tarding at or around multi-year highs! And well deserved, I might add - the Aussies have put their house in order!
Equities are getting another hammering - but this seems to be pretty controlled, and I think there is absolutely no reason for a crash...this is oredrly retreat, induced by a f......g stupid man! So markets are just reacting to the uncertainty he is creating - this is not the interest-rate inspired well-off we have seen a few weeks ago.
Lithium stocks continue to be unbder pressure amid some negative research - but probably mainly because all the big boys ( now Albemarle ) are driving up production - or to be exact: expansion plans - as much as they can. The brine -producers are trying to protect their turf from the new bred, being the Australian hard rock producers like MIN, PLS, KDR etc. I am undecided here as yet, and exept for an investment in MIN; do not hold any lithium stocks currently. But I am watcching - brine production does take a lot of time to come on, and in the end, it all depends on the uptake of electrical vehicles. While I fear very bullish on this, based on massive investment by just about every car producer, and big political pressure to get it going, exact numbers are really guesswork!
I fear I cannot add much in terms of micro-news, again...so you ahve a nice weekend - and forget about the markets!
WS