SINGAPORE, May 27: Shanghai copper slipped on Monday and was mired near last week’s lows on worries fitful growth in top consumer China would not be met by fresh stimulus, while trade was thin with the London Metal Exchange closed for a holiday.
FUNDAMENTALS
* The most-traded September copper contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange fell 0.72 percent to 52,370 yuan ($8,500) a tonne. It hit a session low of 52,230 a tonne, close to 52,130 yuan hit last week – its weakest since May 16.
* The London Metal Exchange was closed on Monday and will reopen on Tuesday after finishing last week little changed.
* China’s factory activity shrank for the first time in seven months in May, reigniting worries over stuttering growth in the world’s top metals consumer. An official report is due on June 1.
* China will continue to liberalise interest rates, make the yuan currency more responsive to market forces and more convertible this year, the government said.
* Orders for long-lasting U.S. Manufactured goods rose more than expected in April, a hopeful sign that a sharp slowdown in factory output could soon run its course.
* German business morale improved far more than expected in May, rebounding after two months of falls and suggesting Europe’s largest economy is slowly picking up speed after a sluggish first quarter.
* Between 35 and 40 percent of workers at Freeport McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc’s Indonesian unit returned to work on Saturday to carry out maintenance work after a tunnel collapse that killed 28 people, a union official said.
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MARKETS NEWS
* Japan’s Nikkei index slid 3.0 percent in early trade on Monday, following on from a 3.5 percent slide last week in breath-taking volatility that left many investors shaken.
* The dollar dipped against the yen, after marking its worst week in a year on Friday, as volatility in Japanese stocks and bonds pulled it well away from its highest level in 4-1/2 years.
(agencies)
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