London Metal's Exchange (LME)

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The London Metal Exchange’s gold and silver futures are being thrown into doubt, with the imminent resignation of Societe Generale as a market maker threatening to deepen a decline in trading activity, three sources said.

SocGen, one of five lenders that partnered with the LME to launch the contracts in 2017, is expected to resign shortly as a market maker, taking the number of banks committed to offering tradeable prices to two — Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, the sources said.

That has triggered a discussion over the contracts’ future.

“There’s still commitment,” said one of the sources. But if volumes remain low, they added, “we’ll have to sit down and decide what is the next stage — exit, restructuring, or something else.”
...
But even as a surge in gold prices this year pushes trading on CME Group’s New York COMEX market and the Shanghai Gold Exchange to record levels, turnover on the LME’s contracts, known as LMEprecious, has dropped.
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https://www.reuters.com/article/us-...t-as-societe-generale-pulls-out-idUSKCN1VP2H1

I'm not sure if this is really significant or not with respect to the overall gold/silver markets. Sounds like the LME has been declining into significance for a while. Maybe they shouldn't have engaged in shenanigans with the warehouses a few years back...

 

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The London Metal Exchange is planning to launch new metals contracts using prices from the Shanghai Futures Exchange, three industry sources familiar with the matter said, increasing China's influence on global metals markets.

Collaboration between the 146-year-old LME and ShFE was mentioned briefly by LME's Chief Executive Matthew Chamberlain in October at the annual LME Week dinner, without any detail.

Two years ago the idea of China allowing an overseas exchange to use domestic prices would have been met with reluctance, but since then there has been a sea-change in strategic direction at Chinese exchanges, the sources said.

The change has come due to pressure on Chinese exchanges from the government to innovate and expand their influence to the rest of the world and China's aim of domestic players having more control over commodity prices.

Known as cross-listing, the process would involve new LME metal contracts settling against ShFE prices, the sources said. The sources did not have a timeline for launch. ...

It is not known which metals are involved in this initiative, but copper and aluminium are both high volume contracts on both ShFE and the LME ...

LME plans new metals contracts using Shanghai prices, sources tell Reuters | Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee | Exposing the long-term manipulation of the gold market

gata.org

 

[Voodoo]

I'd write off ALL of London. Waay too far gone.