Copper Carnage Continues - Bloodbath At China Open

Update: COMEX Copper trades $243.40

Heavy volumes in the futures markets have smashed COMEX Copper prices to as low as $251.90 as China opens. This is the lowest level for copper since July 2009... LME prices are as low as $5,500/mt... Blame OPEC! In fact - we suspect - blame massive rehypothecation hedge unwinds...

• *COPPER DROPS BELOW $5,500/MT ON LME
• *COPPER DROPS AS MUCH AS 5.7% ON THE LME

Total Carnage

This is not a normal China open...

As Bloomberg reports, the catalyst for this latest leg down appears to be World Bank global growth forecast cuts...

Copper tumbled below $5,500 a metric ton for the first in five years as a cut in the World Bank’s global growth forecast fueled speculation demand for raw materials won’t be enough to eliminate a supply glut.

Copper dropped as much as 6.6 percent and nickel slid 2.2 percent. The world economy will expand 3 percent in 2015, according to a World Bank report released today, down from a projection of 3.4 percent in June. The Bloomberg Commodity Index of 22 energy, agriculture and metal products slid to the lowest level since November 2002 yesterday after dropping 17 percent last year.

“The news everywhere is doom and gloom,” said David Lennox, a resource analyst at Fat Prophets in Sydney. “Prices are going to keep sinking.”

Copper for delivery in three months on the London Metal Exchange dropped as much as $388 to $5,472 a ton, the lowest intraday price since July 2009. The metal was trading 6.1 percent lower at $5,501.25 ton at 9:54 a.m. in Hong Kong.

All other metals on the LME declined, with nickel dropping to the lowest since February 2014.

*  *  *

Maybe commodities are on to something...

Naah - stocks are all-knowing...

*  *  *

Copper's cost curve is coming under pressure...

*  *  *

Crude is also under pressure...