Comex copper price falls for fifth straight session

Chicago 13/12/2016 – The Comex copper price dipped for the fifth consecutive session on the morning of Tuesday December 13 even after the release of positive US and Chinese data.

Copper for March delivery on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange declined 0.7 cents or 0.3% to $2.6120 per pound. Trade has ranged from $2.5930 to $2.6305 so far.

Comex gold for February settlement, meanwhile, slipped $2.60 or 0.2% to $1,163.20 per oz. The precious metal is hovering around its lowest since February this year. 

The copper price has been rangebound over the past few weeks – the optimism that spilled over from LME Week has subsided. 

Market participants have also moved to the sidelines ahead of the Federal Reserve statement that is due at the conclusion of its two-day meeting tomorrow.

“The approaching FOMC meeting is widely believed to bring in the first rate hike since December 2015,” HSBC analyst James Steel said. “The market’s attention will also shift to how many – if any – rate rises are likely to come in 2017. It will scrutinise this week’s FOMC meeting for any clues as to Fed policy thinking.”

In data, there was a run of positive numbers overnight. China’s industrial production grew 6.2% year-on-year in November, close to expectations of 6.1%.

Fixed asset investment in January-November grew 8.3% year-on-year, in line with market consensus, while retail sales rose 10.8% year-on-year in November, beating the forecast of 10.2%.

Here in the USA, the NFIB small business index for November came in at 98.4, above the forecast of 96.7. Import prices over the same period were in line with estimates at -0.3%.

Turning to European markets, Germany’s DAX and France’s CAC-40 were each up 0.5%, while the dollar strengthened by 0.1% to 1.0628 against the euro.

In other commodities, light sweet crude (WTI) oil futures on the Nymex gained 28 cents or 0.5% to $53.11 per barrel, while Comex silver for March delivery was recently trading at $17.180 per oz, down 1.7 cents. 

(Editing by Mark Shaw)

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