Daily FNArena News - Commodities

Japanese oil demand, crunching the data in China’s steel sector and the oversupplied iron ore outlook.

In the space of a couple of years, the global rare earth picture has changed substantially. The future balance of supply and demand is a complex and difficult equation to solve, which has ramifications for Australia’s Lynas Corp.

The uranium price has fallen another US$2.00, making it look like sub US$40 prices might be here for a while.

Opportunities in thermal ooal plays are closing, two steel inventory themes play out for iron ore and the copper surplus is seen as increasing.

Goldman takes a look at metal price forecasts, while JP Morgan makes the case for improvement in refined zinc and Macquarie makes observations on the latest Chinese trade data.

The LME’s push to change its warehousing rules, coupled with the Fed’s rethink on US bank commodity trading, suggests the potential for significant base metal price falls.

Jonathan Barratt of Barratt’s Bulletin expects volatility to continue for gold but cites clear physical demand as a reason to be bullish.

Uranium prices continued to soften last week, with sellers scrambling to secure deals on ever falling prices.

Jonathan Barratt of Barratt’s Bulletin suggests inventory movements are pointing to a short term supply crunch, and thus bullishness, for copper.

Demand for gold jewellery has swelled with the falling gold price. Analysts look at what underpinning factors might give way.