Gold after PCE: “PCE stays at 2.6%—does sticky core keep bullion bid?”
The U.S. PCE inflation rate held at 2.6% year-over-year in July—right in line with consensus—while core PCE edged to 2.9% y/y and 0.3% m/m. For gold, the next leg is…
EU gas is comfy, but winter risk hasn’t vanished
Heading into late August, European gas storage is comfortably above pre-2022 norms, wholesale prices are sitting in the low-to-mid €30s/MWh, and policymakers have even agreed to loosen the once-strict storage…
Cocoa’s Next Shock: Ghana Farmer Revolt + Weather Whiplash
West Africa’s cocoa belt is flashing two kinds of risk at once. In Ghana, hundreds of thousands of growers are protesting the newly set 2025/26 farm-gate price and threatening to…
Brent Hovers Near $66 Ahead of Trump–Putin Summit—How Geopolitics Sets Q4 Oil Risk
Brent crude is orbiting the mid-$60s as markets brace for the Trump–Putin summit in Anchorage, Alaska, a meeting that could shape sanctions, Russian export flows, and sentiment into Q4. With…
Copper’s Quiet Squeeze: Why Record-Low Treatment Charges Signal Tight Concentrate
Copper smelters’ treatment and refining charges (TCRCs) have slid toward cycle lows—often a tell that concentrates are scarce and that the refined market could tighten next. Here’s what falling TCRCs…
Hurricane Season Risk Map: LNG & Gasoline If a Category-4 Hits the Gulf
We’re in the teeth of Atlantic hurricane season. One well-placed landfall can jolt U.S. LNG exports and gasoline crack spreads—rippling quickly into Europe’s gas and refined-product markets. NOAA’s updated outlook…
Africa Faces Another 10 Percent Crop Hit—Will Chocolate Prices Spike Again?
First it was torrential rain, then scorching heat. Now swollen-shoot disease is back in full force. Preliminary field surveys compiled this month by two major European grinders suggest that West…
Indonesia’s 40 Percent Nickel-Output Cut: The Hidden Cost Embedded in Your 2026 EV
Indonesia spent the past decade courting global capital by promising an endless stream of low-cost nickel ore. Then, in late July, a draft decree leaked from the Energy and Mineral…
Peru’s Copper Corridor Blockade: Could a Local Protest Squeeze 10 Percent of Global Supply?
A winding stretch of highway in Peru’s southern Andes rarely makes international headlines. Yet when local residents barricaded the so-called “mining corridor” in late July, trucks laden with copper concentrate…
OPEC+ Adds 548,000 Barrels a Day for August—Will Extra Supply Break Brent’s $70 Floor?
The oil market’s summer calm was jolted in early July when the OPEC+ coalition announced that eight core producers would lift output by 548 thousand barrels per day (kbpd) for…