BLBG: Copper Resumes Decline in Asia as Recent Gains Seen Excessive
By Glenys Sim
Dec. 9 (Bloomberg) -- Copper fell in Asia as some investors sold the metal following its biggest gain in a month yesterday on optimism President-elect Barack Obama’s plan to boost the U.S. economy will spur demand.
Prices fell following the 10.8 percent surge yesterday as Obama pledged to increase spending on roads, bridges and repairing school buildings to create or preserve more than 2.5 million jobs after companies cut payrolls at the fastest pace in 34 years last month.
“With that kind of big overnight move, you’re bound to get some profit taking the next day,” Li Jingyuan, an analyst at Haifu Futures Co. said today from Shanghai.
London Metal Exchange copper fell 3.9 percent to $3,185.5 a metric ton at 11:33 a.m. Singapore time, after yesterday rising the most since Nov. 10. The metal had fallen for seven days before yesterday.
March-delivery copper on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange dropped 2.9 percent to $1.4545 a pound, and copper for February delivery on the Shanghai Futures Exchange lost 3.6 percent to 24,230 yuan ($3,523) a ton.
In China, the world’s largest consumer of industrial metals, leaders may introduce more measures to stimulate the economy at the annual economic conference that is underway. Last month, the government unveiled a 4-trillion yuan ($581.2 billion) economic stimulus package and a cut in the benchmark lending rate by the most in 11 years.
“Any kind of fiscal stimulus will give the market a short term boost, however, an actual revival in demand will only be felt in the medium to longer term,” said Li.
Among other LME-traded metals, aluminum fell 1.3 percent to $1,501 a ton and lead slipped 2 percent to $990 a ton. Zinc added 0.4 percent to $1,107 a ton, and nickel gained 0.3 percent to $9,350 a ton. Tin had not traded as of 10:31 a.m. in Singapore.
To contact the reporter for this story: Glenys Sim in Singapore at gsim4@bloomberg.net