US stocks declined as corporate earnings results guided the market lower once again. From the macroeconomic standpoint, US consumer confidence dipped to the lowest level since July, even as current conditions improved. US home price gains have cooled slightly in anticipation of the last hike from the Fed in a couple of weeks. At the same time, US new-home sales unexpectedly increased in March to the highest level in a year, suggesting an easing in mortgage rates is helping the housing market find some ground. However, there is still disagreement over the rate of the cuts, and we expect market focus to shift back to economic growth indicators to help guide the sentiment in the face of high interest rates. The dollar strengthened back to 101.92, and the 10yr US Treasury yield fell below 3.50%.
The sentiment deteriorated sharply today, as a lack of positive momentum out of China exacerbated downside pressures for price performance. We expect downstream purchases to benefit from lower prices and some spot deliveries to take place in China in the meantime. Aluminium broke below the support of $2,360/t to settle at $2,345.50/t. Copper weakened sharply, losing as much as $270/t to test the robust support level near $8,500/t. Tin weakened below $25,800/t, erasing most of the recent gains that we saw took place after the news of Myanmar ore supply shutdown. Lead and zinc closed lower at $2,106.50/t and $2,600/t, respectively.
Oil futures struggled to hold the recent gains after the US demand outlook was brought into question, with WTI and Brent falling back to $77/bl and $81/bl. Silver followed base metals lower today to $24.72/oz; gold remained unchanged at $1,990/oz.
All price data is from 25.04.2023 as of 17:30
