New York, September 18: Copper futures on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (COMEX) fell on Monday, hitting their lowest closing price in more than a week.
As of the close, copper futures fell by 1.85 cents to 2.3 cents. Among them, the most actively traded December 2023 copper futures closed at $3.779/lb, down 2.20 cents or 0.58% from the previous trading day, hitting a record of 9 The lowest closing price since March 8.
December copper futures traded in a trading range of $3.7655 to $3.823.
U.S. homebuilder confidence fell for a second straight month in September, data showed on Monday, with optimism falling to its lowest level since April as high interest rates cut affordability for would-be buyers.
Building permits for apartments in Germany fell 31.5% year-on-year in July. 21,000 permits were approved to build apartments in July, 9,600 fewer than a year ago. Licenses fell 28% in the first seven months of the year.
The Federal Reserve is expected to keep interest rates unchanged on Wednesday. The Bank of England is expected to announce its 15th consecutive interest rate hike on Thursday, raising the key interest rate by 25 basis points to 5.50%, the highest level since 2008. The Bank of Japan is likely to keep its key interest rate unchanged at minus 0.1% on Friday. Japan has had negative interest rates since early 2016. Last week, the European Central Bank raised interest rates by 25 basis points for the 10th consecutive time, reaching a record high of 4.0%. High interest rates mean higher borrowing costs, which is detrimental to economic growth and demand for goods.
The recent COMEX copper futures contract has fallen 0.82% so far this month and 1.68% so far this year. Monday's closing price is 5.17% higher than the same period last year, but 24.09% lower than the historical peak set in March 2022. COMEX copper futures fell 14.6% in 2022, mainly because the global economic growth outlook is worrying. High inflation has prompted European and American central banks to actively raise interest rates to curb inflation, exacerbating the risk of economic recession. By comparison, copper in 2020 and 2021 has recorded gains of 25% for two consecutive years. The green transformation of the global economy and electrification have helped boost additional demand for this metal widely used in the power and construction industries, while copper mines are facing Disruptions such as underinvestment and production disruptions.
From the perspective of fund dynamics, position data released by the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) shows that speculative funds are shorting in the U.S. copper futures market. As of September 12, speculative funds held a net short position of 3,768 lots in the COMEX copper futures and options market, and a week ago they held a net long position of 3,904 lots, meaning a net selling of 7,672 lots that week. For comparison, there were net purchases of 10,217 lots last week.
On Monday, the October 2023 copper contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange closed down 200 yuan at 69,360 yuan per ton. Bonded copper futures for January on the Shanghai International Energy Trading Center (INE) fell 210 yuan to 61,430 yuan per ton.
In the registered warehouse of the Shanghai Futures Exchange, copper inventory on Friday (September 15) was 65,146 tons, an increase of 10,191 tons from 54,955 tons a week ago. This is also the fourth consecutive week of inventory growth, and is still higher than the end of February. The peak of 252,455 tons was 74.2% lower.
On Monday, the trading volume of COMEX copper futures was 55,077 lots, compared with 64,259 lots on the previous trading day; the open volume was 196,608 lots, compared with 196,561 lots on the previous trading day.
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