China is pressing Rio Tinto PLC (NYSE ADR: RTP) hard for a sharp reduction in the prices the company charges for its iron ore. But mining companies like Rio, who have had their bottom lines eviscerated by a slump in commodities prices, may have a hard time acquiescing.
Base metals were mostly down on Tuesday. Copper fell 0.68 cents to close at $2.4374/lb. Nickel dropped more than 21 cents to finish at $7.1320/lb. Zinc lost three-quarters of a penny, ending at $0.7357/lb. Aluminum added less than a quarter of a cent, closing at $0.7634/lb., while lead moved to $0.7493/lb., down more than a penny from the previous session.
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The base metals were mostly lower on Thursday. Copper sank from the pre-dawn hours to mid-morning, bottoming at $2.24, but rallied back from there to finish at $2.2754/lb., down more than 3½ cents.
China has stopped stockpiling metals, according to reports in the Chinese media. Will this put the cap on the recent strength in base metals prices? The AFP reports that, “China has been building its inventories of metals, including 235,000 tonnes of copper, over recent months, Caijing magazine reported on its website over the weekend, citing Yu Dongming, an official with the state economic planner.”
The session started off with a nice rebound from Monday’s sell-off but as the day wore on the profit takers once again took control during Tuesday trading on the Canadian Markets. For the tale of the tape, the TSX Exchange fell 0.84%, while the TSX Gold Index bucked its recent losing streak by jumping 1.7% and the TSX Venture Exchange, Canada’s largest junior exploration bourse, added 0.55% with the advancers edging out the decliners by a 400 to 397 margin on a robust 223 million shares traded.
Iron Ore Rising… Is the current rally in stocks is just a bear market variety, or is it the real thing? The debate has been going on for quite some time now…
The session started off with a nice rebound from Monday’s sell-off but as the day wore on the profit takers once again took control during Tuesday trading on the Canadian Markets. For the tale of the tape, the TSX Exchange fell 0.84%, while the TSX Gold Index bucked its recent losing streak by jumping 1.7% and the TSX Venture Exchange, Canada’s largest junior exploration bourse, added 0.55% with the advancers edging out the decliners by a 400 to 397 margin on a robust 223 million shares traded.
The base metals were mostly a bit lower on Tuesday. Copper climbed from the pre-dawn hours to mid-morning in New York, peaking north of $2.30 before falling as steeply as it rose and finishing $2.2426/lb., down a bit less than 2¼ cents.