Commodities traded down this week after the Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell made hawkish remarks at a news conference.

On Sunday mining audiences manager Michael McCrae recorded Kitco Roundtable.

Powell warned markets that although inflation has come down from last year’s 40-year highs, the Fed still has work to do. He said that the central bank is not “confident” that it has inflation under control enough to shift its current tightening bias, according to reporting by editor Neils Christensen.

Powell also said that the Federal Reserve wouldn’t hesitate to raise interest rates if inflation pressures start to rise again.

Gold investors did not like Powell’s latest message to financial markets as prices have dropped below support at $1,950 an ounce and ended the week down nearly 3% from last Friday.

Copper followed gold down, too. The metal was off nearly 3% after last week's rise. It traded at $3.60.

De Beers sales plunge in ninth cycle of 2023, which was $80M lower than the same cycle a year ago. Al Cook, CEO of De Beers, commented, "Macro-economic challenges continue to affect the diamond sector. The retail recovery in China remains slow.

Gold is deferring a break higher, noted mining audiences manager Michael McCrae.

On Saturday McCrae recorded Kitco Roundtable with correspondent Paul Harris.

Key economic news this week was the jobs report. Non-farm payrolls number come in at up 150,000 versus market expectations of 170,000. The report fell into the camp of the U.S. monetary policy doves, who want the Federal Reserve to stop raising interest rates.

Gold was helped but not much. Spot gold finished the week at $1,998 ounce.

Gold’s inability to convincingly break above $2,000 an ounce is creating some cautious sentiment in the marketplace, with some analysts saying that prices might need to consolidate in the near term before the precious metal takes a run at its all-time highs, wrote Kitco editor Neils Christensen.

In mining news Harris noted that Ero Copper agreed with Vale to enter into an earn-in agreement for a 60% interest in the Furnas copper project.

A Fed rate-hike pause at next week's FOMC meeting is likely, noted mining audiences manager Michael McCrae.

On Friday McCrae recorded Kitco Roundtable with correspondent Paul Harris.

Also noted during Roundtable was Piedmont Lithium and partner Atlantic Lithium obtaining permits for the Ewoyaa project in Ghana.

War worries and a possible end to Fed tightening are some of the reasons gold is rebounding, noted mining audiences manager Michael McCrae.

On Friday McCrae recorded Kitco Roundtable with correspondent Paul Harris and QC Copper & Gold CEO Stephen Stewart.

The gold price has been on an unstoppable move higher when war fears entered the marketplace last week, that according to Kitco contributor David Erfle. Despite the U.S. 10-year bond yield rising to 5%, the safe-haven metal has risen from $1825 just two weeks ago to move closer to the key $2000 level notching up an impressive gain of 9%, so far this month.

Adding to support is the Federal Reserve. At the Economic Club of New York Thursday, Fed Chair Jerome Powell reiterated his stance that interest rates will have to be higher for longer, but he provided little new guidance on monetary policy heading into year-end.

Analysts have noted that the gold market has priced in a lot of bad news already, and the Federal Reserve, near the end of its tightening cycle, should not provide the same headwinds for the precious metal, wrote Kitco's Neils Christensen.

Stewart's QC Copper & Gold (TSXV: QCCU) is focused on acquiring and developing copper projects in Quebec. The company is focused on its Opemiska property. A maiden resource estimate for the property showed 81.7M tonnes @ 0.88% CuEq of pit constrained measured and indicated mineral resources and 21.3M tonnes @ 0.73% CuEq of inferred mineral resources.

"Historically speaking, billions and billions of pounds of copper have come out of Quebec," said Stewart.

The set up for copper looks good, said EMX Royalty CEO David Cole.

On Friday Cole recorded Kitco Roundtable with mining audiences manager Michael McCrae.

With the Federal Reserve looking to be near the end of its tightening cycle and geopolitical concerns, the vice-grip that monetary policy has exerted on gold through most of 2023 is starting to weaken, giving the market room to run.

After hitting a seven-month low a week ago, the precious metal is seeing its best weekly gains since mid-March, noted Kitco's Neils Christensen. Prices are over $90 higher than last week's closing price, with December gold last trading at $1,941.50 an ounce, and are up more than 6% from last week's lows.

EMX Royalty (TSX-V:EMX) is a precious, base and battery metals royalty company. Some highlight assets are Timok Magmatic Complex in Serbia and Caserones, a copper and molybdenum mine in Chile. The company asset mix is 56% gold and 22% copper.

"I do expect the copper side of that equation to continue to increase with our exposure to Caserones..operated by Lundin Mining and of course Timok," said Cole. "Those are two generational copper assets with very long lives within our portfolio. Generally speaking, we love the metals across the periodic table and are happy to be exposed to them all, but if you ask me what my favorites are I'd say that copper is the most strategic."

3:00 - Focus on royalties
4:00 - More deal flow for royalty and streaming companies during a downturn
4:33 - Timok settled dispute
5:20 - Asset mix at EMX Royalty

Many commodities were routed in October, noted mining audiences manager Michael McCrae.

On Friday McCrae recorded Kitco Roundtable with Kitco correspondent Paul Harris.

Gold prices dropped to a fresh seven months below after data showed that the us economy created 336,000 jobs last month, significantly beating the market's expectations. However, according to some analysts, disappointing wage growth and an unchanged unemployment rate gives the federal reserve room to leave rates on change next month.

And with that gold recovered slightly and finished the week in the 1840 range, copper traded lower this week to hitting its lowest point since May. The big commodity surprise was oil. Early this month, oil looked like it might crest $100 a barrel prices, but prices retreated sharply, and now a barrel can be had for the low 80s.

During the last week of September, gold suffered its second largest monthly decline of 2023 with only February having a greater devaluation of gold futures, noted mining audiences manager Michael McCrae.

On Saturday McCrae recorded Kitco Roundtable.

The precious metal droped 5%, nearly $100. According to Kitco contributor Gary Wagner, the root cause the Federal Reserve including a major revision that was announced at last week’s September FOMC meeting.

In mining news, battery metal investments led the headlines.

Swedish lithium-ion battery manufacturer Northvolt announced that it will establish a fully integrated lithium-ion battery gigafactory near Montreal, Quebec. Spend is $5 billion and the plant will employ up to 3,000 people.

Due to travel schedules, we reprised an interview with Exploration Insights’ Joe Mazumdar.

Mazumdar spoke to Kitco in mid-September at the Precious Metals Summit 2023 in Beaver Creek, Colorado. Mazumdar is editor and analyst of Exploration Insights. Brent Cook, who is founder of Exploration Insights, also joined the interview.

There is a big disconnect between gold prices and gold miners, noted panelists on Kitco Roundtable.

On Friday mining audiences manager Michael McCrae, Kitco Correspondent Paul Harris and David Erfle with the juniorminerjunky.com recorded Roundtable at the Precious Metal Summit in Beaver Creek, Colorado.

During the first quarter of the year, gold futures traded above $2,000. Since then, the metal has mostly traded within a healthy band of $1,900 to $2,000. Yet, the gold mining index, the GDX, is down 3% year-to-date, while the tech-heavy NASDAQ composite is up nearly one-third.

Gold mining shares..."look like the gold price, you just have to turn the charts upside down," noted Erfle. "It's an amazing dichotomy."

Erfle said there are just better options for investors with elevated inflation, good rates on T-bills and other parts of the market showing more promise.

Harris noted the toll the gold market is taking on investors and companies.

"It's grinding down the management teams," said Harris "People have commented to me that they love the sector...but the joy has gone out of it, because it's relentless—the endless calls from disgruntled investors about when it's going to turn around."

Kitco Roundtable is sponsored by Snowline Gold.

While gold and copper slipped 1% and 3.5% respectively this week, oil is gaining, noted mining audiences manager Michael McCrae.

On Saturday McCrae recorded Kitco Roundtable with correspondent Paul Harris.

Copper prices dropped 3.5% this week to finish at the low $3.70 level. Gold trended downward this week, with prices falling around 1% after the Labor Day holiday finishing the week at $1,919 an ounce.

But oil is surging. On Tuesday Brent crude saw $90 a barrel for the first time since November, a 10-month high. Oil gained on news that Russia and Saudi Arabia committed to reducing production over a longer period of time.