TB; RE:" London Metals Exchange "
Wow, Berney - you're trading and with options to boot (^_^)
Sorry, I gave you the wrong URL for the London Metals Exchange...
lme.co.uk
...click on the disclaimer at the bottom of the page, and then click on statistics on the too-cute circle; next is price graphs on the next too-cute circle. Set the chart to Aluminium (not aluminium alloy) and most folks use 3-months buyer on their purchase orders. That will take you to a graph of aluminium prices.
They are bouncing around between $1300-1350 USD/metric ton before duties and transport costs. At $1250, Berney, most primary works are at break-even. The usual response to this is for the big primes to shut down some of their pot-lines and/or increase duties on Russian primary aluminium coming into the EU. Because capacity utilizations must be cut, Berney, the published PEG's are unrealistic.
Low LME prices for the benchmark AL-99,7% primary aluminium ingot cause the "spreads" between prime and clean scrap and painted scrap (the three major forms of Al raw materials) to become compressed; ie., there is a dis-incentive to recycle because prime is so cheap. If the primes are hurting, the recycling yards are deep in the red.
Since you're interested in this sector, take a look at NUE Nucor steel - they are the developers of the "mini-mill" steel recycling concept, the only steelmaking capacity likely to survive into the 21st century.
Out STT and MER this morning, +1-1/2 net. I'm now using CMB as my benchmark for the PHLX:BKX.X Bank Index and MWD as my benchmark for the AMEX:XBD.X Broker-Dealer Index.
The irony of the broker's stocks' performance being roughly double that of the S&P-500 ( well over 30% YTD ;-)
PWJ +51%
LEH +51%
MWD +46%
MER +46%
DLJ +45%
RJF +41%
BSC +38%
Buy and Hold? Brokers and Bondz, Baby! (^_^)
-Steve |
