Freight Investor Services (FIS) completed the first brokered trade of the CME Group’s cash-settled cobalt futures contract on Thursday January 7, the company told Fastmarkets.

Markets remained upbeat on the morning of Thursday January 7 despite the outbreak of violence in Washington, DC, with nickel joining copper and tin in setting fresh new multi-month highs but gold turning lower.

Markets seem to be anticipating a Democratic win in the Georgia Senate run-off this morning, Wednesday January 6, and that could be bullish for commodities because a Democratic-controlled US Congress could push through larger fiscal stimulus packages.

Global silico-manganese output dropped by 4.5% month on month in November 2020 to 1.5 million tonnes, due to production cuts in Asia and the Commonwealth of Independent States region, according to the latest data from the International Manganese Institute (IMnI).

Strong gains were seen across the base metals on the London Metal Exchange at the start of the week and most of the metals in London and all the metals on the Shanghai Futures Exchange were up again this morning, Tuesday January 5.

The new year has started with optimism in the air and base metals prices on the London Metal Exchange and Shanghai Futures Exchange were up by an average of 1.8% and 1.4% respectively this morning, Monday January 14.

Fastmarkets has updated its formula for calculating the daily physical nickel arbitrage in Shanghai, after China announced it would lower the import tax on certain non-alloyed nickel from 2% to 1%, from January 1, 2021.

Base metals prices on the Shanghai Futures Exchange were up across the board this morning, Thursday December 24, while those on the London Metal Exchange were mixed.

Base metals prices on both the London Metal Exchange and Shanghai Futures Exchange were generally firmer this morning, Wednesday December 16, with prices holding up in high ground, backed by optimism that vaccines will lead to stronger recoveries next year, while the weaker dollar and concerns about inflation were also supportive.

Base metals prices on both the London Metal Exchange and Shanghai Futures Exchange were mixed this morning, Tuesday December 15, this despite some healthy Chinese economic data.