The base metals were little changed on Thursday. Copper was off in the pre-dawn hours, but then rose through the New York day, overcoming each selloff to finish at $3.1511/lb., up more than 2 cents. Nickel traded sideways for most of the day, closing at $7.5773/lb., up 2¼ cents.

Zinc was well up most of the day, only coming off in the early afternoon, and ending at $0.8056/lb., up a penny and a quarter. Aluminum came off its pre-dawn lows to rise through New York, ultimately gaining two-thirds of a cent, to $1.1137/lb., while lead cratered in the pre-dawn hours but rallied strongly to make it almost back to even at $0.8982/lb., down a tenth of a cent.

The base metals barely budged yesterday, as traders waited cautiously for something to happen with the big bailout plan.

They were also mostly taking their cue from the dollar.

For lack of anything better to do, “While the markets are indecisive, they might as well follow the currency market,” said Justin Lennon, an analyst at Mitsui Bussan Commodities in New York.

Ralph Preston, futures analyst with HeritageWest Futures in San Diego, added that, “Everyone is fixated on U.S. monetary policy at the moment … Everybody’s in limbo, waiting to see what Congress is going to do with this ridiculous amount of money and the impact it will have on the economy.”

Of course, it could be quite a wait. What an intervention of this magnitude will mean for the economy will not be completely evident for a very long time.

Whatever Congress does or doesn’t approve, though, “We believe if the Chinese economy grows by 8 to 9 percent this year, we’re seeing probably an extra increase in copper demand above 400,000 tonnes per annum,” said Gary Stafford, managing director at Australia-based PanAust.

“That has to be met with production and we just don’t see where that is coming from,” Stafford said.

Source: Base metals listless