COMEX August 14 Copper Roundup

New York, August 14 news: Copper futures on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (COMEX) were mixed on Monday, and the benchmark contract rose slightly.

As of the close, copper futures ranged from a rise of 1 cent to a fall of 0.75 cents. Among them, the most actively traded copper futures for September 2023 closed at $3.7255 per pound, up 0.65 cents or 0.17% from the previous trading day.

September copper traded in a range of $3.687 to $3.742.

The dollar strengthened on Monday as a stronger-than-expected U.S. producer price index raised concerns that the Federal Reserve could keep interest rates high for longer.

Traders see a near 89% chance the Fed will keep rates on hold next month, according to the FedWatch tool.

Goldman Sachs expects the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates starting in the second quarter of 2024.

Concerns remain about the real estate sector in the world's top metals consumer. For the first time, Country Garden, the largest private property developer, tried to defer payments on private onshore bonds.

The recent COMEX copper contract has fallen 6.76% so far this month and 2.13% so far this year. Monday's closing price was still 2.63% higher than the same period last year, but 24.44% lower than the historical peak hit in March 2022. COMEX copper futures fell by 14.6% in 2022, mainly because the outlook for global economic growth is worrying. High inflation prompted European and American central banks to actively raise interest rates to curb inflation, exacerbating the risk of economic recession. In contrast, 2020 and 2021 copper has recorded two consecutive years of gains of 25%, the global economic green transition and electrification will help boost the additional demand for this widely used metal in the power and construction industries, while copper mines face Disruptions such as underinvestment and production disruptions.

From the perspective of fund dynamics, the position data released by the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) shows that speculative funds are mostly short-selling in the US copper futures market. As of August 8, speculative funds held a net short position of 3,395 lots in the COMEX copper futures and options market, compared with a net long position of 21,513 lots in the previous week, which meant a net sell of 24,908 lots in the week. For comparison, net buying was 8,011 lots the previous week.

The September 2023 copper contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange closed down 520 yuan at 67,980 yuan a tonne on Monday. Bonded copper futures for October delivery on the Shanghai International Energy Exchange (INE) fell 570 yuan to 60,180 yuan a tonne.

In registered warehouses of the Shanghai Futures Exchange, copper inventories on Friday (11th) were 52,915 tons, an increase of 763 tons from 52,152 tons a week ago. 79.0% lower.

On Monday, the trading volume of COMEX copper futures was 101,443 lots, compared with 132,600 lots in the previous trading day; the number of empty positions was 2290,052 lots, compared with 226,905 lots in the previous trading day.