BLBG: Copper Rebounds as Weakening Dollar Offsets Growing Stockpiles
By Glenys Sim
Nov. 13 (Bloomberg) -- Copper rebounded in Asia, on pace for a second weekly advance, as the dollar’s decline outweighed an expansion of global inventories.
The metal used in construction and automobiles is up 0.5 percent this week as the dollar dropped 0.3 percent against a basket of currencies of six main trading partners. The dollar index fell as much as 0.2 percent, after rising for two days.
“Consolidation is the most likely price path in the coming days until clarity emerges from the inventory side,” Tobias Merath, head of commodity research at Credit Suisse Group AG, said in a note today. “The market continues to be torn between conflicting signals from the fundamentals side, particularly inventory developments.”
Copper for delivery in three months on the London Metal Exchange gained as much as 0.4 percent to $6,530 a metric ton, and traded at $6,524 as of 10:59 a.m. in Singapore. The metal lost as much as 1.1 percent yesterday.
February-delivery copper on the Shanghai Futures Exchange fell 0.5 percent to 51,010 yuan ($7,472) a ton, after losing as much as 1.2 percent earlier.
Copper stockpiles tallied by the London Metal Exchange rose 1.2 percent yesterday to 402,125 metric tons, the highest since May 6. Inventories in Shanghai are at a five-year high and grew this week by as much as 8,000 tons, according to traders.
Prices are supported by possible supply disruptions in South America. Cia. Minera Antamina SA workers in Peru will set a strike date next week after rejecting a proposed wage increase, a union official said yesterday, while wage talks at Codelco’s Andina mine in Chile are under way. Miners at BHP Billiton Ltd.’s Spence mine in Chile have been on strike since Oct. 13.
Among other LME-traded metals, aluminum was up 0.3 percent at $1,953 a ton, zinc rose 0.8 percent to $2,168 a ton, and nickel added 0.7 percent to $16,300 a ton. Lead was unchanged at $2,260 a ton, while tin hadn’t traded as of 11 a.m. in Singapore.
To contact the reporter for this story: Glenys Sim in Singapore at gsim4@bloomberg.net
