US stocks traded lower yesterday on the back of mixed economic data and its implications on the Fed tapering decision. Retail sales rose unexpectedly in August, up 0.7% m/m, on a broader expansion of demand offsetting auto sales. US initial jobless claims, however, increased to 332,000 in the week ending September 11th, in large due to Hurricane Ida slowing recovery in the labour market. The dollar rallied, and the 10yr US Treasury yield increased up to 1.3310%.
We saw a broader weakness on the LME yesterday, only with zinc and tin closing marginally higher. Copper sold off to breach the $9,400/t level, to close at $9,366.50/t. Likewise, nickel lost ground in the second half of the day but found support at $19,200/t to close higher at $19,401/t. Lead was seen marginally lower, closing at $2,208.50/t. Aluminium continued to soften from its multi-year highs to close at $2,879.50/t; the cash to 3-month spread tightened up to -$22.00/t. Tin and zinc resisted the downside pressure and closed higher at $34,050/t and $3,082/t, respectively.
Oil futures softened alongside commodities as the dollar strengthened. WTI and Brent weakened into $72.20/bl and $75.18/bl. Precious metals sold off, with gold and silver fell into $1,754.09/oz and $22.76/oz.
For more in-depth analysis of base and precious metals, please see our Quarterly Metals report.
All price data is from 16.09.2021 as of 17:30
