The base metals were mostly slammed again on Tuesday. For the second straight day, copper held up pretty well until mid-morning, but then got pounded, finishing barely off its intraday low at $3.2638/lb., down nearly 9¼ cents.
The base metals all moved higher on Monday. Copper peaked during the pre-dawn hours and, though it declined to mid-morning, staged a later day rally to finish at $3.7938/lb., up more than 3 cents.
Nickel fell off its peak around the noon hour, but remained in positive territory at $9.2238/lb., up 4 2/3 cents. Zinc bottomed at mid-morning, but took off strongly from there, ending at its intraday high of $0.8371/lb., up nearly 2½ cents. Aluminum traded very jaggedly, to little eventual effect, closing at $1.3615/lb., up three-quarters of a cent, while lead was up straight through the day, just coming off its intraday high at $0.9295/lb., up 4 1/3 cents.
Copper was strong on the rise in crude, and the associated…
Some say that if the U.S. economy begins to shrink, we’ll see demand for metals drop, especially copper. Well, it doesn’t matter if the U.S. is in a recession or not because copper demand will continue to grow thanks to emerging economies like China, India and Brazil.
Concerns about the U.S. economic slowdown are starting to blunt some of the optimism surrounding Latin American economies.