Almost all London Metal Exchange base-metals prices fell under pressure at the end of the day on Wednesday September 1, to start the new month on the back foot following a small pickup in prices in the last week of August.
The base-metals complex came under pressure on Wednesday morning after the release of the Chinese Caixin manufacturing purchasing managers' index (PMI). This dropped to 49.2 in August from 50.3 in July, moving into contraction territory from expansion, which is associated with months when the index is higher than 50."While there will be a school of thought that... this deterioration should result in government stimulus, in the here-and-now, metal prices are under pressure, with signs of onshore traders shorting the likes of lead and zinc, while even aluminium is seeing some signs of longs taking...