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[ Base Metals ]
30 January 2012
In the latest MB Apex leader board for base metal price forecasts in Q4 2011, MBR was ranked second again in copper out of 22 analysts, with an accuracy of 98.5%.
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[ Base Metals ]
16 January 2012
We are not being lulled into a false sense of security by the strong copper prices over the past week. There is a case for seeing prices at much lower levels – even deep beneath $6,000/tonne – before things get better.
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[ Base Metals ]
11 January 2012
The following article featuring our view on supply indiscipline in the zinc market was published in Metal Bulletin today.
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[ Base Metals ]
03 January 2012
The manufacturing PMIs showed a welcome rebound in China and India in December, which is an encouraging end to a troubled year and lays the foundation for an optimistic start to 2012. However, weakness persists elsewhere in Asia, and of course in Europe which is where the main focus of concern for the coming year still lies.
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[ Base Metals ]
13 December 2011
Like most of the other metals, copper ran into overhead technical resistance, where they were turned lower again. The rebound was speculative in nature and short-covering played a major part. There was little follow-through buying interest, and we think that this will remain the case until there is better clarity on the Eurozone crisis and a stronger outlook for the floundering European economy. Copper still has many positives – Chinese merchant restocking, supply disruptions and low inventories – so it will lead on the upside when sentiment turns.
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[ Base Metals ]
22 November 2011
Base metal assets under management fell $3.7bn to $99.3bn last week – the third successive down-week. We would not be surprised to see further declines until investors perceive the worst of the economic downturn has passed or until stimulus and quantitative easing boost liquidity. Neither scenario is on the horizon yet.
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[ Base Metals ]
10 November 2011
Chinese production data was released by the NBS yesterday. We provide our initial thoughts on these numbers.
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[ Base Metals ]
09 November 2011
Data released earlier today shows that China’s CPI fell to 5.5% - the lowest since May 2011. After months of trying to cool the domestic property market, this release potentially gives room for the authorities to look to loosen monetary policy thereby preventing the economy stalling.
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[ Base Metals ]
08 November 2011
There are potentially bullish inverse head-and-shoulders patterns on the lead and zinc charts at the moment. However, we would treat any bullish technical signals cautiously. Given the overall multi-month downtrends and nervous sentiment about the Eurozone crisis, we doubt the head-and-shoulders will be triggered.
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[ Base Metals ]
31 October 2011
Base metals prices showed strong gains last week on the back of renewed investors’ optimism in the run-up to the announcement of the European rescue plan to deal with the fall-out from the Greek debt crisis. Although the rally proved to be robust, with copper prices crossing the $8,000/tonne mark, market sentiment quickly reversed as investors started questioning the size and sustainability of the rescue deal.