The market sell-off continued today amid coronavirus concerns as the Dow Industrials were down another 800 points in afternoon trading following yesterday’s more than 1,000-point drop, the worst one-day point decline since February 2018. The major commodity indexes were down around 1% today amid falling crude oil and precious metal prices.
Reuters reports crude oil futures fell for a third day in a row as “…concerns about the spread of the coronavirus and its impact on oil demand outweighed OPEC output cuts and Libyan supply losses.” In New York, NYMEX crude oil futures dipped below $50 per barrel while COMEX copper futures were down around $2.57 per pound. In London, base metal prices were mixed as LME 3-mo. aluminum traded as low as $1,697 per metric ton while 3-mo. nickel edged up to $12,525/mt in late day trading. In foreign exchange trading, the euro was buying $1.088 while the British pound was trading around $1.30. Providing timely, pertinent, and solid information, ReMA presents an ReMA Member Webinar: The Coronavirus's Impact on the Scrap Industry -- Wednesday February 26, 2020 at 3 pm EST.
Please join ReMA Chief Economist Joe Pickard and guest speakers Catherine Troisi, PhD, epidemiologist at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston and Jason Schenker, President of Prestige Economics and Chairman of The Futurist Institute for the latest on the coronavirus’ likely economic, trade, and public health impacts and the potential implications for the global scrap recycling industry. Register through ISRI’s website, www.isri.org.