Nickel extended gains for a fourth day after top supplier Indonesia reaffirmed it’ll sharply cut output this year. The country will issue production quotas of between 260 million and 270 million tons of nickel ore this year, said Director General of Minerals and Coal Tri Winarno. The goal is slightly higher than a previous estimate, but well below the 379 million tons targeted in 2025. Indonesia i...
Nickel extended gains for a fourth day after top supplier Indonesia reaffirmed it’ll sharply cut output this year. The country will issue production quotas of between 260 million and 270 million tons of nickel ore this year, said Director General of Minerals and Coal Tri Winarno. The goal is slightly higher than a previous estimate, but well below the 379 million tons targeted in 2025. Indonesia is trying to boost prices of the metal amid a persistent surplus. Anything below 270 million tons is viewed as bullish, said Fan Jianyuan, an analyst with Shanghai-based consultancy Mysteel Global. Quota issuance should be completed by March, he said. Nickel, used in batteries and stainless steel, has surged more than 20% since mid-December, joining a broad rally in metals, from copper to gold and silver, fueled by speculative buying and heightened geopolitical concerns. Earlier this month, Macquarie Group Ltd. lifted its 2026 nickel forecast by 18% to $17,750 a ton on the London Metal Exchange, citing a sharp decrease in an expected surplus due to constraints on Indonesian quotas. LME nickel rose as much as 1.7% to $17,780 a ton before trading at $17,710 as of 10:45 a.m. in Shanghai. Copper was slightly higher, while aluminum added 0.6%. Iron ore in Singapore edged up to $100.30 a ton.
Dalin Ou/iStock via Getty Images Seasonal Adjustments Gone Awry? They whacked $82 billion off December sales, by far the most ever. Not seasonally adjusted, retail sales spiked by $80 billion in December from November, by far the biggest-ever November-to-December increase, to $817 billion, the most ever, and for the first time ever exceeding $800 billion (blue line in the chart). It was driven in ...
Dalin Ou/iStock via Getty Images Seasonal Adjustments Gone Awry? They whacked $82 billion off December sales, by far the most ever. Not seasonally adjusted, retail sales spiked by $80 billion in December from November, by far the biggest-ever November-to-December increase, to $817 billion, the most ever, and for the first time ever exceeding $800 billion (blue line in the chart). It was driven in part by the $24 billion spike in ecommerce sales, the biggest month-to-month spike ever, to $166 billion, the most ecommerce sales ever by far, accounting for over 20% of total retail sales for the first time ever. But oh no, the tapped-out consumer! In the headlines today: Retail sales were flat in December on “disappointing holiday season” or whatever. That was due to massive seasonal adjustments. And they seem to have gone awry just a little this December, thereby skewing the seasonally adjusted results (red line): Year-over-year , so compared to the strong December last year, retail sales not seasonally adjusted, increased by 3.8%, the biggest year-over-year increase in three months, and slightly higher than the year-over-year increase of annual retail sales in 2025 (+3.7%). Huge seasonal adjustment factors are used to reduce December sales and to increase January and February sales, with the purpose of leveling them out. Within a 12-month time frame, seasonal adjustments sum up to zero. And in December, the seasonal adjustments were huge, whacking $82 billion off the not-seasonally-adjusted sales ($817 billion), by far the biggest whack-down ever, to get the seasonally adjusted sales down to $735 billion. The December whack-down of not-seasonally adjusted sales to seasonally adjusted sales: December 2025: -$82 billion December 2024: -$69 billion December 2023: -$65 billion December 2022: -$71 billion December 2021: -$68 billion December 2020: -$61 billion December 2019: -$60 billion December 2018: -$57 billion December 2017: -$61 billion The seasonal adjustment factor ...
Taiwan Semiconductor's stock price hit a record high! The company is significantly increasing its investment in the United States, planning to build multiple new wafer fabs and will produce 3-nanometer chips in Japan for the first time. 富途牛牛
Taiwan Semiconductor's stock price hit a record high! The company is significantly increasing its investment in the United States, planning to build multiple new wafer fabs and will produce 3-nanometer chips in Japan for the first time. 富途牛牛