RTRS: US copper under pressure from dim economic outlook
U.S. copper futures opened lower on Tuesday as persistent fears of demand destruction from a slowing world economy continued to weigh on prices, while further weakness in the dollar offered mild support.
For detailed report on global copper markets, click on [MET/L]
* Copper for March delivery HGH9 was trading down 1.30 cents at $1.2985 a lb by 10:28 a.m. EST (1528 GMT) on the New York Mercantile Exchange's COMEX division.
* The morning range from $1.2855 to $1.3170.
* Last week, the benchmark March contract fell as low as $1.2550, which marked a new low for a fourth-month position contract dating back to October 2004 on a continuation basis.
* COMEX estimated futures volume at 1,458 lots by 9 a.m.
* Copper weakness reflective of waning market confidence about demand potential due to deepening global recession - analysts.
* Copper's downside momentum slowed by another down day in the dollar - analysts.
* The dollar slipped versus the euro as weak U.S. housing data and a dim economic outlook for the start of 2009 weighed on the currency. [USD/]
* Prices of U.S. single-family homes in October plunged a record 18 percent from a year earlier - Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices. [ID:nNYS004673]
* On the global economic front, South Korea's industrial output slumped to a seasonally adjusted 10.7 percent in November from October, its biggest decline in 21 years, as the global downturn took its toll. [ID:nSEV000562]
* Chilean industrial production sank a bigger-than-expected 5.7 percent in November from a year earlier to its lowest level in nearly a decade. [ID:nN30332830]
* U.S. consumer confidence fell to a record low in December as the worst job market in 16 years hammered sentiment - Conference Board. [ID:nN30314773]
* "The overall economic outlook remains quite dismal for the first half of 2009, and only a modest recovery is expected in the second half," the Conference Board said.
* Business activity in the U.S. Midwest continued to shrink in December but at a less severe rate than expected, and input prices fell sharply. [ID:nN29318638]
* Chile's copper output fell 6.4 percent in November as the world's biggest copper producer churned out 442,872 tonnes of the red metal - the National Statistics Institute (INE).
