Palladium holds up as Russia nixes Scrap-ban story

New York (March 25)  High-flying palladium held up Thursday even though one of the stories that fueled the rally – a Russian export ban on precious-metals scraps – is no longer the case, said Commerzbank in a snippet.

 Palladium crept above $1,600 an ounce for the first time ever this week, had backed off to $1,584.85 an ounce on Friday, down $16.25 for the day.

“After a meeting with industry participants, the Russian Ministry of Industry and Trade announced yesterday that there will be no restrictions on exports of precious metals or precious metal scrap,” Commerzbank added.

 The response of the palladium price to this news was only muted, however. Late last week and early this week, this issue was still being used to drive the palladium price ever further up.

 This reveals the one-sided view of market participants. Whereas supposedly price-supportive news stories are being used to buy palladium, market participants have been ignoring bearish news for months.

ScrapRegister