The London Metal Exchange (LME) is a futures and forwards exchange in London, United Kingdom with the world's largest market in standardised forward contracts, futures contracts and options on base metals. The exchange also offers contracts on ferrous metals and precious metals. The company also allows for cash trading. It offers hedging, worldwide reference pricing, and the option of physical delivery to settle contracts.
Bullion is non-ferrous metal that has been refined to a high standard of elemental purity. The term is ordinarily applied to bulk metal used in the production of coins and especially to precious metals such as gold and silver. It comes from the Anglo-Norman term for a melting-house where metal was refined, and earlier from French bouillon, "boiling". Although precious metal bullion is no longer used to make coins for general circulation, it continues to be held as an investment with a reputation for stability in periods of economic uncertainty. To assess the purity of gold bullion, the centuries-old technique of fire assay is still employed, together with modern spectroscopic instrumentation, to accurately determine its quality.
Economic forecasting is the process of making predictions about the economy. Forecasts can be carried out at a high level of aggregation—for example for GDP, inflation, unemployment or the fiscal deficit—or at a more disaggregated level, for specific sectors of the economy or even specific firms. Economic forecasting is a measure to find out the future prosperity of a pattern of investment and is the key activity in economic analysis. Many institutions engage in economic forecasting: national governments, banks and central banks, consultants and private sector entities such as think-tanks, companies and international organizations such as the International Monetary Fund, World Bank and the OECD. A broad range of forecasts are collected and compiled by "Consensus Economics". Some forecasts are produced annually, but many are updated more frequently.
Of all the precious metals, gold is the most popular as an investment. Investors generally buy gold as a way of diversifying risk, especially through the use of futures contracts and derivatives. The gold market is subject to speculation and volatility as are other markets. Compared to other precious metals used for investment, gold has been the most effective safe haven across a number of countries.
Nariman Behravesh is Chief Economist at the consulting firm IHS Markit, and author of Spin-Free Economics: A No-Nonsense, Nonpartisan Guide to Today's Global Economic Debates.
The economy of London is dominated by service industries, particularly financial services and associated professional services, which have strong links with the economy in other parts of the United Kingdom (UK) and internationally. In addition to being the capital city of the United Kingdom, London is one of the world's leading financial centres for international business and commerce and is one of the "command centres" for the global economy.
Vladimir L’vovich Kvint is a Russian-American economist and the Chair of the Department of Economic and Financial Strategy at the Moscow School of Economics of the Lomonosov Moscow State University. He is President of the International Academy of Emerging Markets. He is a Foreign Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
Thomson Reuters Corporation is a Canadian-American multinational information conglomerate. The company was founded in Toronto, Ontario, Canada and maintains its headquarters at 19 Duncan Street there.
GFMS are research and consultancy company for the precious metal markets. Since 2011 they have been part of Thomson Reuters. As well as other commodities, they research gold, silver, platinum, palladium, and copper trading.
The London Bullion Market Association, established in 1987, is the international trade association representing the global Over The Counter (OTC) bullion market, and defines itself as "the global authority on precious metals". It has a membership of approximately 150 firms globally, including traders, refiners, producers, miners, fabricators, as well as those providing storage and secure carrier services.
The 2000s commodities boom or the commodities super cycle was the rise of many physical commodity prices during the early 21st century (2000–2014), following the Great Commodities Depression of the 1980s and 1990s. The boom was largely due to the rising demand from emerging markets such as the BRIC countries, particularly China during the period from 1992 to 2013, as well as the result of concerns over long-term supply availability. There was a sharp down-turn in prices during 2008 and early 2009 as a result of the credit crunch and European debt crisis, but prices began to rise as demand recovered from late 2009 to mid-2010.
Rand Refinery (Pty) Limited is the world's largest integrated single-site precious metals refining and smelting complex. It was established in 1920 to refine gold within South Africa, which had previously been refined in London.
Reuters is a news agency owned by Thomson Reuters. It employs around 2,500 journalists and 600 photojournalists in about 200 locations worldwide writing in 16 languages. Reuters is one of the largest and most trusted news agencies in the world.
MKS (Switzerland) SA is a trader of precious metals. Based in Geneva, the group employs approximately 1,500 workers. MKS is an associate of the London Bullion Market Association (LBMA), and its subsidiary PAMP has been on the LBMA's Gold List, widely recognised in the financial services industry as the indicator of quality, since 1987.
Clarivate Citation Laureates, formerly Thomson Reuters Citation Laureates, is a list of candidates considered likely to win the Nobel Prize in their respective field. The candidates are so named based on the citation impact of their published research. The list of awardees is announced annually prior to the Nobel Prize ceremonies of that year. In October 2016, Thomson Reuters Intellectual Property and Science Business was acquired by Onex and Baring Asia and the newly independent company was named as Clarivate.
The London bullion market is a wholesale over-the-counter market for the trading of gold, silver, platinum and palladium. Trading is conducted amongst members of the London Bullion Market Association (LBMA), tightly overseen by the Bank of England. Most of the members are major international banks or bullion dealers and refiners.
PAMP SA is an independent precious metals refining and fabricating company, and a member of the MKS Group. Established in 1977 in Ticino, Switzerland, the company originally started as a minting facility for bars weighing less than 100 grams and as an alloy specialist for the jewelry and luxury watch-making industries. It has since expanded to provide a full range of services, from collecting doré from mines to assaying, hedging, and delivering its bars and other products. PAMP produces bullion bars ranging from 1 gram to 12.5 kilograms.
Baird & Co. is the largest gold refiner and the only full-service bullion merchant in the United Kingdom. Founded by Tony Baird in 1967; Baird & Co. initially dealt in numismatic coins expanding into bullion bars and jewellery as time progressed. The company is headquartered in Hatton Garden, London, operating out of a 30,000 sq foot high-security refinery in Beckton and an international branch in Singapore.
Emirates Gold is a precious metal refinery, bullion manufacturer, and dealer based in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Working primarily with gold and silver, the company produces its own bullion which is recognized internationally, as well as other products such as investment bars in sizes ranging from 1 gram to 100 grams, and customized coins and medals.
Clarivate Plc is a British-American publicly traded analytics company that operates a collection of subscription-based services, in the areas of bibliometrics and scientometrics; business / market intelligence, and competitive profiling for pharmacy and biotech, patents, and regulatory compliance; trademark protection, and domain and brand protection. In the academy and the scientific community, Clarivate is known for being the company that calculates the impact factor, using data from its Web of Science product family, that also includes services/applications such as Publons, EndNote, EndNote Click, and ScholarOne. Its other product families are Cortellis, DRG, CPA Global, Derwent, CompuMark, and Darts-ip, and also the various ProQuest products and services.
