Base metals prices on the London Metal Exchange were mixed during morning trading on Wednesday December 19, with moderate volumes facilitating a broadly upward trend while commodity investors continued to be cautious ahead of expected interest rate rises in the United States.
Trading above $6,000 per tonne, the three-month copper price has edged 0.6% higher after falling more than 2.5% at Tuesday's close, with the metal's 8,000 lots topping volumes as of 10:30am London time. Climbing 1% over the morning, zinc futures also gained ground despite a recent inflow of stock, with just under 17,000 tonnes arriving since December 14. While tightness in zinc's forward curve has eased from its widest cash/three-month spread backwardation since 2007 at $122 per tonne earlier this month, the metal's forward spread remains in a backwardation of $59 per tonne. "Today sees the start of the three-day Central Economic Work Conference (CEWC) in China, at which the country's economic policy is analyzed and [where] measures for the future are generally initiated. At this conference two years ago, for example, the financial deleveraging process that has [since]...