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Our Populism-Infused Week-in-Review With Trump, Brexit and More

iconJan 22, 2017 17:28
Source:MetalMiner
This week, the reality of a hard Brexit sunk in across the pond in the U.K. and Europe.

by Jeff Yoders on JANUARY 20, 2017

This week, the reality of a hard Brexit sunk in across the pond in the U.K. and Europe. The instability that might follow after elections in other European countries in the coming months could create volatility in all commodities markets, not just metals.

Here in the U.S., President Donald J. Trump was inaugurated today and promised “America first” in all the dealings of his new administration. In metals, this means that tariffs of 251% were confirmed on Chinese cut-to-length steel plate even before Trump even got into office. So, across the globe it looks like things are getting really, really populist. Is this good for metal prices?

Weaker Dollar

One thing that Trump has already caused, again before even being president, is a weakened U.S. dollar against other global currencies. Presidents and even presidents-elect usually refrain from even talking about the value of the currency because setting its value is seen as the job of the Federal Reserve and its chairman and the nation’s chief executive talking about the value of the dollar can cause volatile swings in the currency.

Trump, though, as everyone should know by now, does not obey convention and freely told reporters that he would like a weaker dollar. This is actually bullish for the metals we track, but our Lead Forecasting Analyst, wrote this week that the dollar’s bull run may not be over, despite Trump’s wishes.

Populism in the Far East

Indonesia tried a protectionist raw ore export policy way back in 2014 and this week finally weakened it (a little) to allow some nickel ore out of the country on certain conditions. Ironically, the country that picked up the slack as the top Chinese nickel-pig-iron raw materials supplier after the Indonesian ban, the Philippines, now has its own wildly populist leader, President Rodrigo Duterte, whose fiercely environmentalist Environment Secretary, Regina Lopez, has cancelled six mine permits.

It’s going to be an interesting few years.

Anti-Dumping
Commodities
Ferrous Metals
Global Trade
Macroeconomics

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