Metals slide on escalating trade war; consumers dip in
Singapore (July 11) Industrial metals tumbled on Wednesday, with copper, zinc and lead sinking to the lowest in about a year as speculators unleashed selling on the back of a further escalation in the U.S.-Chinese trade conflict. Prices bounced off their lows, however, as some consumers scrambled to lock in prices they regarded as good value after heavy recent losses.
"Shanghai (Futures Exchange) is down even more aggressively today. It seems pretty clear that's where the momentum initiated, but it's been pretty broad across the board," said Oliver Nugent, commodities strategist at ING Bank in Amsterdam.
"I think we're seeing a decent amount of consumer interest at these levels. Our view is that there's a good chance that a (trade) deal could be sought, particularly after the November midterms (U.S. elections). If you are of that conviction, this could represent a substantial dip buying opportunity."
China accused the United States of bullying and warned it would hit back after the Trump administration raised the stakes in their trade dispute, threatening 10 percent tariffs on $200 billion of Chinese goods. "This is going to drag on until they can all come to the table and agree to even the playing field. But the unpredictability of the situation continues to rattle the markets," said Vishnu Varathan, head of economics and strategy at Mizuho Bank in Singapore.
Metals fell the most among commodities, with nickel, tin and aluminium dropping to multi-month lows. Three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange dropped as much as 4 percent to $6,081 a tonne, its lowest since July last year, before recovering to $6,185 by 1030 GMT, down 2.3 percent.
* ZINC: Zinc dropped by its 6 percent downside limit in Shanghai to 20,620 yuan per tonne, the lowest since June last year. On the LME it fell as much as 4.8 percent to $2,503, the lowest since June 2017, before paring losses to $2,576.50, off 2 percent.
* LEAD: LME lead slid by up to 4 percent to $2,220 a tonne, the lowest since July last year, before bouncing to $2,261, a loss of 2.3 percent.
* CHINESE STEEL: Nickel got some support after Chinese steel futures rose when the country's biggest steelmaking city, Tangshan, said it would deepen output curbs over the summer, raising concerns of tight supplies in the market.
* NICKEL: LME nickel recovered to $13,725 a tonne, a 3 percent drop, from a two-month low of $13,570. "Our speculative positioning estimates see nickel as the one remaining long across the complex at 2.8 percent of open interest ... albeit down from the June peak of 33 percent," Alastair Munro of broker Marex Spectron said in a note.
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