Base metals prices on the London Metal Exchange consolidated lower during morning trading on Friday February 1, hampered by weaker-than-expected Chinese PMI data and while the Chinese New Year holiday next week kept Asian markets idle.
Copper's three-month price fell the furthest out of the base metals complex this morning, retreating toward $6,100 per tonne after reaching an intra-morning high of $6,177.50, its highest price since November 2018. "The recent 17% year-on-year drop in copper was not justified by the red metal's robust fundamentals. Visible exchange stocks finished 2018 at the lowest level in almost four years, while copper cathode premiums in all major regions of consumption reached multi-year highs in the second half of the year," Eurasian Resources Group chief executive officer Benedikt Sobotka said in a statement. "This year we anticipate a strong recovery in prices as investors' attention turns to the 300,000 tonnes refined market deficit that we project for 2019. Healthy demand, supported further...