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BASE AND PRECIOUS METALS European Morning View – Base metals under pressure as data disappoints
London – 02/04/2013 – Copper was under pressure yesterday as the market chose the ‘glass half empty’ interpretation of the mixed economic data. US manufacturing expanded less than expected with the ISM reading dropping to 51.3 from 54.2. Not all the news was bad as construction spending climbed in February by 1.2 percent, which was better than the 1.1 percent expected and the prior reading of minus 2.1 percent. Chinese PMI data came in at 50.9, which was better than the February reading of 50.1, but it was lower than expected. All in all it seems that the markets have concentrated on the fact the data missed what it was expected to do and that has so far set the tone, but with reading above 50 at least China and US manufacturing remain in expansion mode.This morning the base metals are down 0.5 percent on average, while the precious metals are up 0.4 percent, with silver bucking the trend with a one percent decline to $28.03. Copper is off 0.9 percent at $7,465.25, aluminium is down 0.4 percent at $1,895 and gold is up 0.3 percent at $1,601.10. Volume has been strong on the LME with 12,119 lots traded as of 07:18 BST.
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