Final Thoughts

Final Thoughts
Written by John Packard
October 17, 2014
We have selected the hotel we will be using for our next Steel 101 workshop (January 20-21, 2014). The hotel will be the Charleston Harbor Resort & Marina and we have a great off-season rate. We should have more details on the hotel and have the reservations system set up by the middle of this week. The workshop will include a tour of the Nucor Berkeley steel mill. Details and registration are on our website.
We will begin a new flat rolled steel market survey first thing Monday morning, October 20th. Invitations should go out at approximately 8 AM ET. If you receive an invitation please take a couple of moments to click on the link to the questionnaire which is housed on SurveyMonkey.com website. We will keep the survey open until Thursday afternoon. Those who complete our questions will get a link to our Power Point presentation on Friday afternoon. Also, those of you who are Premium level members will also have the survey Power Point available on our website by Friday afternoon of this week.
Please note that I am traveling beginning early Monday morning and I will return to my office on Thursday afternoon. I will be attending an Energy Conference at LSU in Louisiana and visiting a company we are working with on a private consulting workshop on sales. I should be reachable by email, my cell phone or through my office: 800-432-3475.
I am curious to see what company will be the first one referenced as a referral on a new account. Will it be yours?
As always your business is truly appreciated by all of us here at Steel Market Update.
John Packard, Publisher

John Packard
Read more from John PackardLatest in Final Thoughts

Final Thoughts
Despite some scary headlines lately (especially about Trump potentially firing Fed Chair Jerome Powell) this is not October 2008 (financial crisis) or March 2020 (onset of the pandemic). But it sure seems like we’ve taken a relatively strong economy and poured a thick sauce of uncertainty over it.

Final Thoughts
I put some of our survey data through ChatGpt, with interesting results.

Final Thoughts
Nearly 50% of respondents to our latest survey thought hot-rolled coil prices have already peaked. And where will those prices be two months from now? Responses were decidedly split on that question.

Final Thoughts
A modest week-to-week change in HR price understates a huge swing in expectations.

Final Thoughts
What happens when ChatGPT meets SMU's Market Chatter? No, this is not an idea for the latest Hollywood blockbuster. Then again, with what Hollywood is putting out these days, Chatter Meets Chat might just turn out to be a hit. Rather, it’s that old idea of putting theory into practice. Recently, I conducted an interview with Doug Schrock, managing principal of AI at public accounting and consulting firm Crowe. He gave some tips on how to implement AI into your business.