Copper rebounded on Friday from the one-month lows hit in the previous session but the rest of the complex faltered as sustained turmoil throughout North Africa and the Middle East kept a lid on metals prices.
“After a decent pullback in copper and across the metals in recent days... the metals may well rally further as bargain hunting emerges,” William Adams, analyst at FastMarkets, said.
Three-month LME copper traded as high as $9,620 per tonne on Friday after plummeting almost to $9,300 in the prior session as investors saw the recent decline as excessive.
But civil unrest across the Mena region - and at its most acute in Libya - may push some market participants to the sidelines, Adams said.
“As copper led on the way down, it will be interesting to see whether it now attracts follow through buying or if the rebound turns into a dead-cat bounce,” he added.
Worries about energy markets abated after Saudi Arabia reassured the world that it would plug any oil supply shortfalls resulting from the violence in Libya, which is quivering on the brink of civil war.
The price of Brent crude oil eased from two-and-a-half year highs at $119.79 per barrel yesterday but the contract is headed for its biggest weekly gain since March 2009 on concerns that supply shocks may spread to other parts of the Middle East.
Friday’s economic calendar includes the second estimate of US fourth-quarter GDP at 13:30 GMT, with economists expecting growth of 3.3 percent in the final three months of 2010.
Elsewhere, data showed that the UK’s economy contracted more than economists had estimated in the fourth quarter, with GDP down 0.6 percent compared with the initial reading of 0.5 %.
Lifeline of Mumbaities is Local Railway. Lifeline for the world is - Aluminium, Copper, Crude, Gold, Lead, Natural Gas, Nickel, Silver, Zinc. |
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