SF: Copper Drops as Economic Growth Concerns Persist: LME Preview
July 14 (Bloomberg) -- Copper fell in London as concerns about the strength of the global economic recovery persist. Aluminum and nickel also declined.
Market News:
-- China's slowing expansion may encourage officials to shift policy toward sustaining the rebound in the economy forecast to account for one-third of global growth this year. {NSN L5J0XR1A74E9 }
-- Asian stocks rose, pushing the region's benchmark index to a three-week high, and emerging-market currencies climbed after Intel Corp. reported record second-quarter sales and Singapore raised its 2010 economic growth forecast. {NSN L5J6201A1I4H }
-- Debt investors are signaling renewed confidence in the global economy, snapping up new securities from companies at the fastest pace since March and driving corporate bonds to their longest rally in four months. {NSN L5J5QN0UQVI9 }
-- For Germany, bailing out its neighbors to save the euro is proving a price worth paying. {NSN L5I8ZE07SXKX }
-- Hedge funds fell in the first half of the year amid concerns that the sovereign debt crisis in Europe may hamper a global economic recovery. {NSN L5J3OB1A1I4H }
-- High-yield bonds are the cheapest since March 2009 as surging profits drive down the corporate default rate to the lowest in more than two years. {NSN L5I9AM1A74E9 }
-- Crude oil fell from a two-week high in New York as investors sold contracts to lock in price gains after an industry report showed increases in U.S. inventories. {NSN L5J8KN07SXKX }
Metals News:
-- The nickel market may swing into a greater deficit than expected this year because of supply disruptions and greater Chinese demand, which could boost prices, said Sumitomo Metal Mining Co., the biggest producer in Japan. {NSN L5J0020YHQ0X }
-- Indophil Resources NL, owner of a third of a $5.2 billion copper project in the Philippines, fell the most in more than eight years in Sydney trading after a local government in the Asian nation banned open-pit mining. {NSN L5J5KU1A74E9 }
-- Zijin Mining Group Co., China's largest gold producer, said its explanation for an acid spill that polluted a river and poisoned 1,890 metric tons of fish in Fujian was incomplete, and it will extend an investigation. {NSN L5J99E0UQVI9 }
-- Xstrata Plc, the world's biggest thermal coal exporter, plans to start its first shipments of iron ore concentrate from Australia to Asia during the first half next year. {NSN L5IZ0F0UQVI9 }
-- A divergence in gold options is signaling the metal's rally may pause as Europe's sovereign-debt concerns ease, said William O'Neill, a partner at Logic Advisors. {NSN L5IP3107SXKX }
