Categories:
Base Metals
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General Market Commentary
Topics:
General Base Metals
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General Market Commentary
Chinese factory shocker gives copper price bulls another jolt
The price of copper dropped on Monday amid intensifying worries about China’s economic slowdown, particularly in manufacturing, vital to overall demand for the bellwether metal.
In afternoon trading in New York, copper for delivery in July was trading just off its low for the day of $2.638 a pound ($5,815 a tonne), down more than 2% on the day and wiping out any gains for 2019 in the process.
Trade worries have dogged copper price bulls for the better part of a year, but more recently weak data from China (and the US and Germany, the world’s top three consumers of industrial metals), has intensified the sell off.
Chinese manufacturing data for August released Monday was nothing short of dismal with the National Bureau of Statistics outlining a 4.4% rise in factory output which was well below forecasts and the lowest reading since February 2002.