It’s the MetalMiner Week-in-Review’s Election Edition

Republican Donald Trump won the U.S. presidential election this week, and markets have responded favorably since. Metals producers are generally upbeat as it looks as if much of the regulation over power plants and energy consumption that the Obama administration championed will be scrapped.

MetalMiner Price Benchmarking: Current and Historical Prices for the Metals You Buy

The Environmental Protection Agency Clean Power Plan appears to be dead. Trump promised to kill it on the campaign trail and the Supreme Court has already put it on hold.

Regulation: You’re Fired

Any national limit on carbon pollution produced from power is remote in a Trump administration and climate change activists are already concerned about who he might appoint to head the EPA. Let’s get some popcorn and watch.

When it comes to international trade, Trump has been even more of a hawk than he has on environmental policies. He has promised to “renegotiatie” the North American Free Trade Agreement, promised to not sign the Trans-Pacific Partnership and said then there’s the wall he said he’d build between the U.S. and Mexico.

Is all of this campaign bluster? Will Trump speak differently once he’s actually in office? What does this mean for actual policy? We asked Wiley Rein International Trade Practice Attorney Alan Price about it and he said there’s cause for actual concern.

Meanwhile, in actual metals markets this week, the bull market that started early this year shows no signs of letting up. If anything, the election was good for metals. Copper broke resistance and hit a 15-month high this week. It looks as if the bulls will run well into 2017, too.

Two-Month Trial: Metal Buying Outlook

The sun rose again on Wednesday. When President-elect Trump met and shook hands with President Obama a sense of normalcy even seemed to return (despite protests in some cities). One can only hope for a break from the bitterness of this very tough presidential campaign. The country needs it.