BLBG:Copper Reaches One-Week Low and Zinc Drops Amid Swollen Stocks
Copper reached a one-week low in London and zinc fell as inventories remained elevated at a time when the world’s largest consumer of both metals is absent from the market.
Copper stockpiles tracked by the London Metal Exchange touched the highest level since November 2011 and zinc inventories stayed within about 4 percent of an 18-year high, figures showed today. Financial markets in China are shut this week for the Lunar New Year holiday. Euro-area finance ministers met yesterday to discuss aid to Cyprus and Greece.
“Most people wait for the Chinese after the holiday,” Pengjiang “Richard” Fu, director for Asian commodities trading at Newedge Group SA in London, said by e-mail today. “Whether they buy or not would be the focus. Major issues include the European finance ministers’ meeting.”
Copper for delivery in three months slid 0.3 percent to $8,174 a metric ton by 10:23 a.m. on the LME. Prices reached $8,166.25, the lowest since Jan. 31. Copper for March delivery fell 0.3 percent to $3.713 a pound on the Comex in New York.
Investors bought and sold LME copper contracts equating to 4 percent of the three-month daily average, figures compiled by Bloomberg showed. The equivalent for zinc was 9.4 percent.
Figures due Feb. 14 will show gross domestic product in the 17-nation euro area shrank 0.4 percent in the fourth quarter, the most since the first quarter of 2009, according to estimates from economists surveyed by Bloomberg. Europe accounts for 18 percent of zinc demand, according to Barclays Plc.
Copper inventories tracked by the LME expanded to 399,850 tons and zinc stocks dropped for a ninth session to 1.19 million tons. Orders to withdraw copper from LME-approved warehouses slid for an eighth session in nine to 31,275 tons, extending this year’s retreat to 39 percent.
Nickel for delivery in three months on the LME rose 0.2 percent to $18,203 a ton. Workers at BHP Billiton Ltd.’s Cerro Matoso mine in Colombia are threatening to strike if the company disciplines a laborer.
Zinc fell as much as 0.9 percent in London. Aluminum, tin and lead declined.
To contact the reporter on this story: Agnieszka Troszkiewicz in London at atroszkiewic@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Claudia Carpenter at ccarpenter2@bloomberg.net
