Comments from US Federal Reserve officials overnight appeared dovish after New York Federal Reserve president John Williams stressed at the annual meeting of the Central Bank Research Association that “it is better to take preventative measures than to wait for disaster to unfold”.

Fastmarkets is proposing changes to the specifications of its price assessment of steel billet imports, cfr Southeast Asia, $/tonne.

Barring those for zinc, base metals prices on the Shanghai Futures Exchange were all up during morning trading on Friday July 19 following a retreat in the dollar index overnight.

Here are five Fastmarkets MB stories you might have missed on Thursday July 18 that are worth another look.

Hong Kong Exchanges & Clearing (HKEX) will launch US dollar-denominated London Metal Mini Futures for six base metals starting August 5, the exchange said recently.

Misplaced optimism seems to be driving gains in the London Metal Exchange’s three-month nickel price, especially amidst weak global economic growth and ongoing trade tensions between the United States and China; granted there is growing concern over nickel supply from Indonesia but this remains a long-term play.

China’s 10 biggest copper smelters have set a treatment and refining charges (TC/RCs) purchase price floor of $55 per tonne/5.5 cents per lb for the third quarter of this year, sources close to the matter told Fastmarkets on Thursday July 18.

Fastmarkets will change a portion of the specifications of its fob DBCT and cfr Jingtang hard coking coal indices to align with those for materials typically sold in this segment of the seaborne spot market.

With the exception of copper and aluminium, base metals prices on the Shanghai Futures Exchange were up during morning trading on Thursday July 18.

Fastmarkets has changed the frequency of publication of its Japan and South Korea high-carbon ferro-chrome price assessments from weekly to fortnightly, effective Thursday July 18.