COMEX October 9 Copper Roundup

New York, October 9: Copper futures on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (COMEX) rose to a one-week high on Monday.

As of the close, copper futures rose by 1.7 cents to 2.2 cents. Among them, the most actively traded December 2023 copper futures closed at $3.646/lb, an increase of 1.85 cents or 0.51% from the previous trading day, hitting a record of 9 The highest closing price since March 29th.

December copper futures traded in a trading range of $3.6135 to $3.673.

Copper fell nearly 3% in the last cycle. In the absence of Chinese buyers due to Golden Week, market concerns about the Federal Reserve's interest rate hikes and global economic growth caused copper futures to fluctuate lower.

Copper futures rose as Chinese traders returned from the Golden Week holiday on Monday. Although China's real estate sector remains sluggish, China's demand for copper and aluminum has been surprisingly strong, mainly benefiting from orders from the home appliances, electric vehicles, solar and wind energy industries. Traders, analysts and producers said that would help support higher copper prices.

Fierce military clashes broke out between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas group over the weekend, raising speculation that the Federal Reserve is unlikely to continue raising interest rates as political and economic turmoil intensifies.

The world's largest copper producer warned that due to a lack of mines under construction, there will be insufficient copper supplies in the future to support the global energy transition. Rising costs and falling metal prices amid a weakening global economy are making executives, investors and banks wary of financing new projects.

The U.S. dollar exchange rate index rose 0.03% on Monday to 105.811. The U.S. dollar has risen 3.1% so far this year.

The recent COMEX copper futures contract has fallen 2.24% so far this month and 4.28% so far this year. Monday's closing price increased 5.47% compared with the same period last year. 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 have reduced their net short positions in the U.S. copper futures market, compared with net short positions for three consecutive weeks. As of October 3, speculative funds held a net short position of 12,975 lots in the COMEX copper futures and options market, a decrease of 8,245 lots from a week ago. For comparison, there were net sales of 15,384 lots last week.

After the Golden Week holiday, the November 2023 copper contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange closed up 190 yuan on Monday at 67,340 yuan per ton. December bonded copper futures on the Shanghai International Energy Trading Center (INE) rose 140 yuan to trade at 59,630 yuan.

In the registered warehouse of the Shanghai Futures Exchange, copper inventories were 38,996 tons on September 28, 15,169 tons less than 54,165 tons a week ago. This was also the second consecutive week of decline and 84.6 tons lower than the peak of 252,455 tons at the end of February. %.

On Monday, the trading volume of COMEX copper futures was 76,201 lots, compared with 100,463 lots on the previous trading day; the short volume was 204,133 lots, compared with 209,452 lots on the previous trading day.