Midwest HRC indices have been stuck in a tight range since last summer with the weekly CRU Midwest HRC price spending the past 32 weeks between $656 and $714 per short ton (st). The rolling Midwest HRC future has been rangebound between roughly $650 to $800 since last June. The rate at which the price of HRC futures move over a certain period or “volatility” has compressed dramatically over the past few months.
In the last article written for SMU, we looked at the rallies that followed both the 2016 and 2022 presidential elections, as well as the moves in the NFIB Small Business Optimism Index.
No more excuses! The election is over. Donald Trump will be inaugurated on Monday January 20 with the Republican party in control of Congress. Now, it is time to get back to work!
Cleveland-Cliffs and Nucor each raised their respective hot-rolled coil (HRC) prices this week. Since last Wednesday’s settlement, the Midwest HRC futures curve has rallied as much as $63 in the September future.
This chart of the rolling second-month CME hot-rolled coil (HRC) future dating back to the start of 2022 has been as volatile as a herd of “Wild Horses.”
It has been a crazy 2024 so far for hot-rolled coil (HRC) futures!!!
2024 started with a $200 per short ton (st), one-week demon drop in the CME Midwest hot-rolled (HR) coil futures. Then, HR futures consolidated in the low $800s/st with the April future trading to as low as $770/st as the curve shifted into contango or upward sloping. A big move was expected, and a big […]
The March scrap trade is set to pick up steam next week.
Oct. 26 was my previous Steel Market Update contribution. The night before, Ford and the United Auto Workers (UAW) announced they had reached a tentative agreement for a new labor contract.
The last article I wrote on Thursday, July 13, pointed to the surprising rallies in the August and September futures, while noting the August future trading to just below its multi-year down trendline.