Another lacklustre performance across the LME complex on Tuesday begged more questions than it answered, as the metals all pulled lower, though without falling out of bed completely. As we signed off yesterday aluminium had taken its cue from copper, which had come off on a sizeable stocks increase and on weaker oil and gold values. The investment community appeared on hold ahead of today's US FOMC interest rate move (or not), though stronger-than-expected eurozone industrial orders provided a glimmer of hope and kept trade buyers interested at lower levels. In the premarket aluminium had slipped from 2710 to 2670 before we signed off and while it bottomed there again in the early afternoon following a bounce to 2695, prices ended the day only slightly off Monday's close after a buoyant pm session. CTA 'systems selling' on COMEX had pressured copper at the opening there, though the metals markets' resilience after that surprised locals.
Nearby, Nov15-Dec20 and Dec22-Jan17 each eased by $1.50, seeing the C-3m spread return to a small contango overall, while forward movement was negligible.
On Wednesday morning LME Select reopened at 2706 and so far the market had traded only between 2710 and 2696 on poor turnover of only 488 lots. Copper and nickel traders had absorbed further stock increases, while the market generally sat on its hands ahead of the FOMC interest rate decisions, generally expected to be unchanged. Technically, Cliff Green Consultancy summarised aluminium's prospects as "improving", though the trading strategists stood on the sidelines awaiting a positive re-test of 'key resistance' up to 2760. Last at 2700.
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