China’s unwrought copper imports declined by 7.2% year-on-year to 837,000 metric tons in the first two months of 2025, customs data on Friday showed, due to increased domestic smelting capacity that reduced the need for additional imports.
Deliverable copper stocks on the Shanghai Futures Exchange stood at 268,337 tons on February 28, more than double the 83,174 tons recorded on January 3.
Source – Reuters
U.S. President Donald Trump sprang a double surprise on the copper market when he announced import tariffs of 50% effective next month.
The August 1 start date signals the end of the race to ship physical metal to the United States to capture the tariff arbitrage.
A lucky few with cargoes already afloat may yet cross the finishing line in time, but the physical tariff trade is rapidly unwinding.
The LME benchmark spread is now in a comfortable contango of $66 per ton, compared with a backwardation of more than $300 per ton at the end of June.
Source – Reuters
Spot gold lost 0.4% to $3,222.49 an ounce, as of 0852 GMT. Bullion hit a record high of $3,245.42 earlier in the day.
“Market sentiment has improved a bit this morning after President Trump excluded electronics and smartphones from US tariffs. This has partly caused a dip in gold prices, likely due to profit-taking,” said Zain Vawda, an analyst at MarketPulse by OANDA.
Spot silver was steady at $32.27 an ounce, while platinum added 1% to $952.10. Palladium gained 2.2% to $935.38.
Source – Reuters
“We believe the demand is across the board. We see institutions either adding to or establishing long term strategic asset allocation type positions. We see individual investors doing the same. We see a certain amount of FOMO. There’s a fear of missing out whenever the price gains momentum to the upside” George Milling-Stanley, Chief Gold Strategist at State Street Global Advisors, told FOX Business.
Source – FOX News
Spot gold was down 0.4% at $3,101.01 an ounce, as of 0710 GMT. Still, bullion was on track for a fifth consecutive weekly gain, buoyed by its safe-haven appeal that aided gold to reach three record highs this week.
“Gold tends to rally amid difficult-to-price uncertainty – like the start of a war – but tends to lose that support once markets learn how to price the risks involved,” said Ilya Spivak, head of global macro at Tastylive.
“The Trump administration seems to have picked a road, and while sentiment clearly doesn’t like it, at least the path of least resistance is more visible and easier to price. That is trimming some of gold’s “market confusion” premium.”
Spot silver declined 1.5% to $31.4 an ounce, platinum lost 0.8% to $944.80, and palladium was steady at $928.33.
Source – Reuters
Gold futures posted their second consecutive strong gain on Tuesday, rising 3% in the two days since Moody’s downgraded its U.S. credit rating and amplified concerns over the debt and deficit spending.
The dollar slipped again, weighed down in part by cautious remarks about the economy by Federal Reserve officials and by President Trump’s failure so far to convince Republican holdouts in the U.S. House to support his sweeping tax and spending bill.
“Investors are reassessing the long-term outlook for U.S. sovereign risk. As such, safe-haven assets like gold could experience heightened demand,” Quasar Elizunda of Pepperstone said in a note.
Source – Seeking Alpha
Moody’s Corporation – (MCO) a New York-based company that owns Moody’s Investors Service that rates creditworthiness of companies, governments, and fixed income debt securities, and Moody’s Analytics.
Franco-Nevada said Tuesday it agreed to acquire a royalty package consisting of a 7.5% gross margin royalty on the Côté gold mine in Ontario from a unnamed third party for $1.05B in cash.
The company said the royalty package applies to mineral production from the Chester 1, 2 and 3 claims, which cover all of the mineral reserves and over 99.9% of current mineral resources on the Côté mine.
Source – Seeking Alpha
Franco-Nevada Corporation is a Canada based, gold-focused royalty, and streaming company with the most diversified portfolio of cashflow producing assests