Copper lures buyers as New York futures hover above $4/lb
Copper futures edged higher in London and New York as tentative signs of buying interest emerged following a string of losses.
Copper steadied near a nine-month low on the first trading day of the year, with investors weighing the scope for additional stimulus from Beijing in 2025 as the country’s stock market came under pressure.
Prices initially rallied more than 1% on the London Metal Exchange, but pared gains alongside other metals as Chinese stock markets got off to the worst start to the year since 2016. European markets also opened lower.
The selling pressure came as a weaker-than-expected Caixin manufacturing survey for December raised doubts about the strength of China’s economic recovery.
For the year to come, the market is focused on whether there will be a recovery in the nation’s embattled property sector, a key demand pillar for metals, as well as the potential impact of trade frictions from Donald Trump’s US presidency. Officials have pledged to use greater public borrowing and spending as well as monetary easing to spur growth in 2025.
Investors are “waiting to see if and when Chinese support measures will feed their way into metals markets in the form of stronger demand,” said Ewa Manthey, a commodities strategist at ING, said by email. “Trump’s tariffs could also trigger bigger stimulus from China, capping the downside for copper prices this year.”
Chinese President Xi Jinping acknowledged new challenges from the external environment in a New Year’s Eve speech on Tuesday. Earlier that day, he said China is on track to meet its official growth target of about 5% for 2024 and the economy is “overall stable.”
The LMEX Index of six metals on the London Metal Exchange closed out 2024 with a modest gain of about 4%, as softer Chinese demand was offset by flashes of supply stress on falling inventories and mine supply shortages.
Copper was 0.1% higher at $8,779 a ton on the LME at 11:13 a.m. local time. Zinc fell 1% to $2,948.50 a ton, following a 12% advance last year, while nickel was down 0.8%.
Comments
William Brown Sr.
Mining operations should be enacted by demand, NOt by politics at any level. I think all people with an I.Q. Of over 60 all know that the more people the world creates, the more materials of ALL sorts becomes more expensive because of the DEMAND of those materials becoming consumed at a faster rate than the are being harvested/ mined/ grown . With the newer generation and the reality of how much AI will effect and affect EVERYONE on earth much sooner than anyone can expect, the requirement of utilizing what’s left of the earths resources must be used wisely….. but first, you must bring it into a much easier access to use locality…… like above ground, where it can be used and recycled as needed.
Think of cost & Inflation on what’s left in the ground now of ALL minerals for example: we’ll pick gold: In the year 1900 in the USA a 1 ounce of Gold was worth $20 ( $20 gold piece). NOW here in 1925 it’s worth $2800 for that same ounce of Gold. That same scenario applies to ALL OTHER MINERALS as well. Recycling? Population increases? Hmmm, it doesn’t look like mankind has mastered control of that yet. Ahhh, but AI is the future solution to what is the “Worlds problems” or/and keeping the insanity of Rich people’s CONTROL of everyone around us NOW?
The world and its leaderships are a TOTAL MESS full of greed and the love of control over everyone around them.
When a Government or Leader of a country these days says and does something “for you” and does it……. look around you to see what they did To You so your actually paying more for, to cover your leaders nice gift to you.
So……. lucky us to live where we do…..right? Hey! What’s in the ground has been there for thousands & Thousands of years , millions in many cases………. There are many chapters I could add to all of this but …..( if I live longer) in reality, the earth has been recycled a few times already and I’m 100% sure God knows what he is doing.
To be fair, if you’re in control of your money – it’s in YOUR hands….Not in cyber space!