Copper price holds steady ahead of holiday weekend

Comex copper prices were little changed on Friday December 23 amid soft volumes and a general winding down of the market ahead of Christmas. 

Copper for March delivery on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange rose 0.2 cents or 0.1% to $2.5015 per pound. Yesterday the contract hit its lowest since mid-November. 

Comex gold for February settlement gained $1.60 or 0.1% to $1,132.30 per oz. Trade has ranged from $1,129.50 to $1,133.60. Comex silver for March settlement was recently at $15.850 per oz, down 2.1 cents.

Despite losing ground over the past few weeks, copper has risen roughly 17% this year on hopes of further Chinese stimulus measures and a possible US infrastructure spending bill that would boost demand for metals.

But with the Christmas holiday approaching, profit-taking and a lack of liquidity have resulted in listless trading conditions across commodities. Market participants will return on December 27.

“Right now, we are seeing a mixed tone, but trading conditions are very quiet ahead of the Christmas weekend,” INTL FCStone analyst Edward Meir said.

The global copper market has been roughly balanced this year, according to the International Copper Study Group (ICSG). Copper usage increased 3% or 565,000 tonnes over January-September, putting the market in an 84,000-tonne deficit, the ICSG estimates.

In stocks, LME copper inventories fell for the fourth day in a row on Friday, dropping a net 1,275 tonnes to 334,525 tonnes. But inventories are still up by nearly 100,000 tonnes so far this month following a run of large deliveries from December 12.

On the data side, US new home sales, revised University of Michigan (UoM) consumer sentiment and revised UoM inflation expectations are due later today.

In Europe, Germany’s DAX and France’s CAC-40 were down 0.2% and unchanged respectively, while the dollar softened by 0.1% to 1.0439 against the euro.

In other commodities, light sweet crude (WTI) oil futures on the Nymex dipped by 59 cents or 1.1% to $52.36 per barrel.

(Editing by Mark Shaw)

 

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