Standline advancing minerals sands project pipeline

Once again we are seeing the strong US dollar mitigate interest in gold and metal prices. The gold price continues to be range bound as we await further developments on the trade war. This has flowed through to the attitude to mining stocks with quite a negative shift in sentiment over the week, led down by the gold stocks. Maybe we are also entering the traditionally weak end of financial year selling period.

On the flip side the Westfarmers bid for Kidman Resources caused a spike of interest in lithium companies, though not enough to see them breaking their downtrends. It is interesting to see how the wider market reacts to a bid like this. Yes, it means that the big end of town - or one company at least - has decided to enter the battery materials space. Is this the start of a trend, or a one company initiative? Perhaps the fact that the target has been pounced on means that the other companies in the sector were not sufficiently appetising. Why then should we go out and buy them?

Elsewhere, in non-mining related markets the overriding sentiment is mildly positive but without any urgency while we wait for the signal on which way to turn next. It is just part of the waxing and waning market we are experiencing as traders play with the highs of the Dow and the S&P without any great conviction.
 

 WeeklyComm4May2019.pdf