There we go. Guess I coulda figured that!
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24429607-5005200,00.htmlOctober 01, 2008
COPPER fell to an 18-month low before paring losses amid recession fears a day after the US Congress voted down a bailout plan.
Talk that Congress may reach some kind of deal by the end of the week and speculation that central banks could slash interest rates eased risk aversion.
US stocks rebounded overnight after Wall Streets Dow index in the previous session suffered its biggest one-day points decline.
Copper for delivery in three months on the London Metal Exchange sank to $US6170 per tonne, its lowest level since March 2007, before closing at $US6360, down $US80 from the previous session's close.
In New York, copper for December delivery shed US2.75 cents to finish at $US2.8790 a pound on the New York Mercantile Exchange's COMEX division. Earlier, it fell as far as $US2.7650, its lowest price point since late March 2007.
Other base metals also tumbled. Aluminium dropped to an eight-month low of $US2405 per tonne and nickel fell to $US15,588, its lowest level since April 2006.
People see a continuous deterioration in the economic outlook, analyst Gayle Berry at Barclays Capital said.
Industrial raw materials have taken a drubbing since touching record highs mid-year. Copper prices were off by 30 per cent since hitting records of $US8940 per tonne in London and $US4.27 a pound in New York.
The declines have accelerated in the past few days.
The sharp pull-back in prices suggested the market was already discounting a significant reduction in demand for the red metal, analysts said.
If we go into a global recession and it impacts worldwide demand for copper significantly, prices will probably continue to adjust lower, said David Rinehimer, director of Citi Futures Perspective in New York.
As the credit crisis spreads to European banks, metals markets are bracing for a weak second half, with even top global metal consumer China expected to slow down.
The question mark is what is the Chinese economy going to look like for the rest of this year? said Thys Terblanche, director and global head of mining and metals at Standard Bank.
We continue to be carefully optimistic ... but China is a key driver.
Over the past year, as the credit crisis escalated, the bull story for commodities remained intact, with demand from emerging countries -- mainly China -- taking up the slack as the United States and Europe slowed down.
But China's refined copper imports dropped 0.02 per cent in August and demand for copper grew at 4.8 per cent in the first eight months of the year, far below the 36 per cent surge in 2007.
Chinese factories are reportedly closing as consumer demand fails and industrialists attempt to protect assets, analyst John Meyer at Fairfax said in a research note.
The Shanghai Futures Exchange will be shut this week for National Day holidays.
