Just as Wednesday’s 5% jump in iron ore prices surprised commodity investors, especially in Australia, how will they view a sharp fall in copper on Thursday that came out of the blue?
After rising 11% in the September quarter for its best performance for more than a year, copper prices simply swooned on the first day of the new quarter, for no apparent reason.
Comex December copper fell 5.5% to $US2.8655 a pound, down from Wednesday (and the end of quarter) close of $US3.025 a pound.
The fall wiped out all gains since early August when copper was trading at $US2.88 a pound.
The slump halved the quarterly rise and came despite solid reports on manufacturing activity last month in China which would normally be a big positive for the metal.
Copper’s slide was so different to the strong rise in gold prices on Thursday.
Against that backdrop, Comex December gold rose $US20.80, or 1.1%, to settle at $US1,916.30 an ounce and are heading for a nice weekly gain.
On Wednesday, gold futures logged a 4.2% loss for September but rose 5.3% for the third quarter.
Comex December silver jumped 76 cents, or 3.2%, to end at $US24.254 an ounce after losing 3.9% on Wednesday. Prices had fallen nearly 18% in September but rallied by 26% for the quarter.
Oil though performed like copper – seeing sharp falls despite what looked like OK economic data with a 1% rise in consumer spending and a steadying in first-time jobless claim numbers around 873,000 for schemes run by the states. But a further 650,000 people signed on to the separate federal scheme taking the total number to 1.49 million.
West Texas Intermediate crude for November delivery dropped $US1.50, or 3.7%, to settle at $US38.72 a barrel in New York, following a 2.4% gain on Wednesday.
In Europe, December Brent crude lost $US1.37, or 3.2%, at $US40.93 a barrel after trading as low as $US39.92.
