Copper for December delivery on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange tumbled 5.30 cents or 1.8% to $2.9830 per lb. Earlier this morning, the contract hit $2.9770, the lowest since August 21.
Since the middle of August, the red metal surged to a three-year high amid fund buying and improved data. However, the fundamental picture didn’t change and this morning 32,550 tonnes were delivered into LME warehouses – the majority of the stock was delivered into Rotterdam with 1,925 tonnes sent to Hull and the remaining 950 tonnes arriving in Busan.
“It seems as if metals prices begin falling virtually the moment they lose the support of speculative financial investors,” Commerzbank said in a note. “This shows that prices have become detached from the fundamental data and that the price rise was exaggerated.”
In the precious metals space, Comex gold for December settlement inched up 60 cents or 0.1% to $1,333.30 per oz.
Currency moves and data releases
- The dollar index was up 0.13% to 92.01.
- In other commodities, the Texas light sweet crude oil price was up 0.83% to $48.63 per barrel.
- In data today, US PPI and Core PPI in August came in at 0.2% and 0.1%, respectively.