Dominating Nickel and Tin Markets, Indonesia to Set Up New Commodity Exchange with its Own Pricing
East Asia has emerged as a global critical minerals powerhouse, with China taking the lead on price discovery of…
Category: Economies & Markets
Fed Delivers Expected Rate Hike, Bond Market Moves Little, Gold Rises
With a full trading day and a bit behind the Federal Reserve’s quarter-point rate hike, the US bond market…
India, China Commit to Resolving Border Dispute at the BRICS Summit 2026. New Currency Not Announced
Another BRICS summit has come and gone, and the Western world will as usual want to know if the…
French Troubles Are Italy’s Gains with Rome Supplanting Paris in Investment Appeal
Analysts around the world are remarking how Italy has passed the ball as the Eurozone’s most troubled large economy…
Higher Yields, Shortened Average Maturity, New Buyers: Realities of the Bond Market’s New Beat
Long-dated US Treasuries closed the week with yields higher than before Secretary Scott Bessent attempted to drive them down…
Familiar Comments in Warsh’s Jackson Hole Speech Have Fed Watchers Sensing a Pattern
In the press conference following the Federal Reserve Open Market Committee’s (FOMC) July meeting, a journalist asked the new…
Qatar’s LNG Exports Drop 96% Leaving Europe (But Not Italy) Undersupplied for Winter
Given Italy’s favorable geographic position and a big development bet on natural gas as a primary energy source, the…
Jobs Report, Hormuz Deal Unlikely to Have Launched Gold as Much as the Yen Bailout
Two notable surges in the price of gold last week were attributed at the open to falling oil prices…
‘What Are You Waiting For?’ Is the Collective Market Response to Kevin Warsh, FOMC Decision
Future data releases notwithstanding, the response from Wall Street to the Federal Reserve Open Market Committee’s decision not to…
China Ends Paper Gold Trading Hoping to Leverage Strong Physical Position to Reduce Volatility
A Chinese bank that’s the world’s largest measured by total assets informed its customers that on July 24th, buying…
Meet Molybdenum, Yet Another Metal Pricing Up from a Supply Deficit Worldwide
“Critical minerals” are all over the financial and economic news these days. Most commonly they refer to things like…
Trump Takes Huge Gamble in Second Blockade Strategy, as World Oil Reserves Fall Below Half
Following the closure of the Strait of Hormuz in the days after President Donald Trump and Israel’s surprise attack…
Canada Successfully Exploring for ‘White’ Hydrogen Gas, a Clean Power Source Beneath Existing Mines
Scientists in Canada have discovered that ancient underground rocks are naturally producing hydrogen gas—and lots of it, and it…
Greenland Rejects China-Backed Australian Firm’s Application to Mine Kvanefjeld Rare Earths Project
On the final Friday in June, Greenland’s Ministry of Mineral Resources rejected an application from Australian mining company Energy…
Why the Japanese Yen Is Approaching a 40-Year Low Against the Dollar
Story at a glance… The Japanese yen is trading within a few basis points of a recent-record low against…
What Do a Firm Fed and a Yippie Yen Mean for Gold?
A sell-on-the-trumpets rally in gold following a firmer agreement of peace between Iran and the US and an opening…
BRICS Summit 2026 to Reveal the Long-Awaited Alternative Payment System, BRICS Pay
What has long been foreseen as the most important raison d’être of the BRICS organization may finally make its debut…
Central Banks Return to Net Buying of Gold Despite Turkish Sale and Hormuz Stalemate
Central banks returned to being net purchasers of gold in April, recording 19 metric tonnes of reserve additions. Poland,…
Quest to Sustain Divestment from Israel Continues Worldwide-Italy, Norway, North Carolina, Michigan
Under pressure from activists and those of conscience, millions of dollars are flowing out of the US-based Development Corporation…
Indonesian Tin Sees a Banner Quarter While Worldwide Developers Move Projects Forward
Continuing WaL’s coverage of the global tin market, Q1 performance by the state-owned Indonesian tin producer PT Timah came in…