Apart from oil and gold, commodity traders are again focusing in on copper.
Prices have already enjoyed a big run this year, more than doubling, as has oil.
There were suggestions a month ago that copper might start running out of support with expectations of a downturn from Chinese buyers.
Stocks built around the world and prices eased and then ran out of support, or so it seemed.
Import figures for China last month, released last week showed a 23% jump in shipments of copper and copper products into the country, a big surprise as the expectation was for a fall.
Record first-half imports by China helped prices double this year.
Shipments fell in July and August before rebounding in September.
That got some traders wondering if the Chinese has eased off imports in August and let it be known, to drop prices to a more comfortable level and take some of the support out of the market.
But despite the impact the import figures had, stocks in Shanghai rose 12% last week, and that has seen the copper market lurch back to wondering just what is going on.
As well, stocks monitored by the London Metal Exchange hit their highest level for five months on Friday, a sign that the fundamentals in the market remain weaker than some traders would believe.
Codelco, the world’s biggest copper producer, was quoted Friday by Bloomberg as saying that it expects copper output will exceed consumption this year because demand is “not that strong”.
Comex December copper eased 1.35 US cents Friday to end at $US2.8455 a pound.
That left prices up just 0.3% for the week when oil surged 9%-10%.
According to Citigroup analysts demand for copper may fall because rebuilding of inventories by manufacturers will end.
That’s why they see demand growing by around 5% next year, despite stronger growth bin most economies.
Another factor last week was a lengthening strike at BHP Billiton’s Spence copper mine in Chile. Production is continuing at a “slower rate” because of the strike, but hasn’t been stopped, the company reported late last week.
In London three months copper fell $US59 to $US6,230 a tonne (or $US2.83 a pound) on the LME.
Aluminum, nickel and lead also fell in London. Tin and zinc prices rose.
Gold rose a touch Friday, even though the US dollar rose.
But the rise was just 90 cents at $US1051.50 an ounce for the December contract on Comex.
Spot gold ended around $US1052.80 an ounce in late trade, against the $US1049.85 seen late in New York on Thursday.
Overall gold prices ended the week largely unchanged compared with the previous Friday’s level, (up 0.4% in fact) as a combination of technical weakness, renewed credit concerns and record speculative long positions in the futures market prompted some selling at near record prices during the week.
Spot gold hit a record high of $US1070.40 an ounce on Wednesday and Comex futures hit a record high of $US1072 on Wednesday.
On Friday, gold’s rise was capped by a resurgent dollar.
It had fallen to close to the $US1.50 level against the euro on Thursday (and when the Aussie dollar climbed strongly past the 92 US cent level).
Gold’s small rise came despite the run up in oil during the week.
Rising oil prices, often seen as a trigger for rising inflation, usually lift gold.
Gold is up 21.9%.
Meanwhile world sugar prices were again strong last week amid concerns about bad weather affecting the harvest in Brazil and worries about the outlook for production in India.
Over the week, Liffe December white sugar rose 7.3% in London to $US600.6 a tonne, while ICE March sugar added 13.1% to 24.02 cents a pound in New York.
Both saw solid gains after a couple of weak weeks.
