It was a tentative start to the short week for the LME complex on Tuesday. After Shanghai made gains on Monday following Friday's short-covering flourish in London, prices here followed through initially, though the morning session was one of the quietest seen for a while. Aluminium had perked up from 2790 to 2808 before we signed off yesterday, with the dollar falling sharply and oil prices higher again. However, from there the lack of interest generally was evident and with the exception of lead, the whole LME set came off on renewed fund selling. There was little buying around as values were offered down rapidly to 2760, from where they bounced in the afternoon to 2787 before sliding back to the lows in the aftermarket. A positive set of US consumer confidence numbers was offset by the dollar's recovery later on.
The nearby C-3m contango lengthened as the small backwardation around the June prime date disappeared, while the rest of the structure eased incrementally. There was little movement in the forwards, with rates to end 2008 marginally easier and rates in 2012 marginally steadier, with no change in between. An update on the LME's WC warrant banding listings was unavailable at time of writing.
So far on Wednesday morning the market had hovered in a $20-range between 2778-2758 on light turnover of some 1,100 lots. While the 100-day moving average at 2782 was again broken, prices were hanging on with locals extremely wary of next week's June options expiry. For many this had been the focus even before May's options matured and while technicians and funds (evidently) appeared to favour lower prices, the massive open interest was keeping them on the sidelines. Cliff Green Consultancy suggested in a report that local supports c. 2720 and 2660 could come under fresh examination, while a break above ‘strong resistance' to 2860 was required relieve this downward pressure. Last at 2772.
豫公网安备41010502003434号