China’s President Hu Jintao just concluded on a victorious trip Havana on Tuesday - expanding a trade pact that could divert commodities from open spot markets.
The much anticipated presidential rally failed to materialize as profit taking was the story of the day during Wednesday trading on the Canadian markets. For the tale of the tape, the TSX Exchange gave back 2.27%, while the TSX Gold Index fell back 1.5% and the TSX Venture Exchange, Canada’s largest junior exploration bourse, lost 2.44% with the declining issuers outpacing the advancers by a 484 to 322 margin on volume of 130 million shares traded.
Commodity prices have been among the hardest hit by the wave of market panic. This has dragged down the stock of International Royalty Corp. (AMEX:ROY), which owns a portfolio of royalties from 80 mines around the world. Chris Mayer says this presents a great buying opportunity for investors. The company is not exposed to rising mining costs, yet it receives a slice of every ounce of metal that it pulled out. Chris says it’s “like a big bucket of call options…that don’t expire.”
The base metals were mostly lower on Tuesday. Copper held up until mid-morning when it hit a steep downdraft, from which it was able to recover only to $3.8033/lb., down nearly 4 cents. Nickel was down in the pre-dawn hours, but rallied into positive territory, then traded sideways to close at $9.3742/lb., up 3¼ cents.
The base metals were nearly all in the black on Thursday. Copper started up in the pre-dawn hours and climbed until the late morning, but then ran into a determined selloff that sank it back into negative territory at $3.7929/lb., down a penny and a third.
The base metals all went on a tear on Wednesday. Copper was down from the pre-dawn hours to the first part of the New York morning, touching $3.74, but then rallied sharply to finish just below its intraday high at $3.8065/lb., up nearly 3 cents.
The base metals were almost all in the black on Monday. Copper was off during the pre-dawn hours but rallied during the New York session to finish in the middle of the day’s trading range at $3.8898/lb., down a half-cent.