Copper for December settlement on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange gained 2.25 cents or 0.7% to $3.0830 per lb.
Since Chinese investors returned from the Golden Week holiday on Monday, prices for the red metal have experienced a big boost. However, many will likely await the decisions of the Communist Party Congress meeting next week in Beijing on infrastructure spending, stimulus plans and so on.
“We remain bullish for copper’s fundamentals but prices started to look overstretched when they approached $7,000 per tonne,” Metal Bulletin senior analyst William Adams said. “They have since corrected on some profit-taking, but the dip has been well supported.”
On the global scale, the IMF raised its global growth forecast by 0.1 percentage points from its April and July outlooks to 3.6% in 2017 and to 3.7% for 2018, driven by a pick-up in trade, investment and consumer confidence.
Meanwhile, the IMF increased its 2017 China and US forecasts to 6.8% (from 6.7%) and 2.2% (from 2.1%), respectively, according to ANZ Research.
In the precious metals space, Comex gold for December delivery dipped $1.50 or 0.1% to $1,292.30 per oz.
Currency moves and data releases
- The dollar index was down 0.29% to 92.99.
- In other commodities, the Texas light sweet crude oil spot price was up 0.14% to $50.99 per barrel.
- In equities, the Dow Jones industrial average was up 0.01%.
- In data today, we have August job openings from the USA and the FOMC’s September meeting minutes due, the latter of which will be closely eyed by markets for any language hinting towards a US rate increase in December.
- In addition, FOMC member Robert Kaplan is speaking.