Metals: Copper Drops as Mine Strike Continues
February 27 2017 - 11:27AM
Dow Jones News
By Stephanie Yang and Katherine Dunn
Copper prices fell on Monday as uncertainty around supply from
major mines weighed on sentiment.
Copper for May delivery was recently down 0.6% to $2.6795 a
pound on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile
Exchange.
The industrial metal suffered from weakness in Asian stock
markets Monday, analysts at Commerzbank said. Stockpiles of copper
in China also remain high, with total inventories rising 16% in
February compared with the previous month, the largest increase
since last March, according to metal analysts.
"[There's] plenty of rhetoric around supply side issues versus
China headwinds but in truth nothing has changed since last
week...as such we are in 'no-mans land' here," Matt France, head of
institutional sales in Asia at brokerage Marex Spectron, said in a
Monday note.
Workers striking over pay at the Chile's Escondida copper mine,
majority-owned by BHP Billiton Ltd., have said they have the funds
to remain on strike for over two months, Bloomberg reported.
Meanwhile, Freeport-McMoRan Inc. remains locked in a standoff with
the Indonesian government over permission to export copper
concentrate produced at the Grasberg mine.
Gold prices edged higher Monday, with futures for April delivery
trading up 0.1% at $1,260.10 a troy ounce. Prices are on track to
close at the highest level since Nov. 11.
Gold has also benefited from political risks linked to the
coming election in France and Britain's efforts to leave the
European Union, Commerzbank said in a note. Mixed expectations
about whether the Federal Reserve will raise rates next month has
also helped support gold, the bank said.
The gold market will be looking ahead to U.S. President Donald
Trump's first address to Congress on Tuesday, which should reveal
details of further economic plans, Carsten Menke, a commodities
analyst at Julius Baer, said in a morning note.
"While we acknowledge the Trump-related upside risks for gold,
we need to take into consideration that his actions did not have a
negative impact on the economy and financials markets yet," it
added, noting that markets remain on solid footing.
Ed Ballard contributed to this article.
Write to Stephanie Yang at stephanie.yang@wsj.com and Katherine
Dunn at Katherine.Dunn@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
February 27, 2017 11:12 ET (16:12 GMT)
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