A few years back, during the height of the pandemic, I was fond of using what I call my “crystal ball” analogy
when preparing this quarterly White Metal Market Report. You know, the one where the “situation” you’re
analyzing is so hard to read that you simply throw up your hands and say that your “crystal ball” is a little
murky … fuzzy … hard to read (feel free to fill in the blank.)

Well, guess what?

Just when you thought things might be returning to some semblance of a normal, predictable order… bam.
Global conflict. $6 diesel. See-saw inflation. Unfulfilled rate cuts.
It’s enough to make a market analyst cry if not for the fact that the underlying tone of the economy seems solid.
Unsettling for sure, but so far not fatal – at least in our neck of the woods. Perhaps uncomfortable would
be a better way to say it, but unfortunately, more of the over-arching current we’ve been swimming against
the past 5-6 years.