While copper prices initially lifted higher during the overnight session, the market failed to sustain those initial gains. The copper market may have been initially lifted by news that the Chinese central bank indicated they would continue to buy European sovereign debt. However, the promise of Chinese support of the Euro zone was also accompanied by ongoing fears of another build-up in Shanghai copper stocks at the end of this week. However, the copper market may be holding onto some residual support from the Japanese monetary easing news yesterday and from the talk of potential additional easing from the Bank of England this morning. Like a number of physical commodity markets, the copper market today will be set to take a lot of direction from US economic numbers. Initial expectations call for modest improvement in the Empire State manufacturing report and for gains in Industrial Production and Capacity Utilization readings. On the other hand, many potential copper buyers have remained on the sidelines because of concerns that Greece ultimately may not follow through with the necessary austerity measures.
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