US stocks recouped some of the previous day’s losses, supported by investor dip-buying. Treasury Secretary Yellen has warned Congress that her department will effectively run out of cash by mid-October unless. US home sales rallied to a seven-month high in August as high demand was met with additional inventory added to the market. The dollar continued to gain ground, trading at the level last seen in November 2020, while the 10yr US Treasury yield retreated for the first time in five days. Euro area confidence rose unexpectedly rose in September, with a noticeable change coming from construction companies seeing an improvement in hiring.
LME prices declined yesterday, given moderate selling pressures. Copper prices tested support around $9,150/t and closed at $9,155/t. The copper cash to 3-month spread weakened for the first time in five sessions and settled at $19.00/t. Nickel broke below key support at $18,500/t to close at $18,342/t. The cash to 3-month spread is still in a backwardation at $15.50/t. Aluminium was supported above $2,900/t and closed marginally higher at $2,911.50/t. Zinc also broke through a support level of $3,060/t and settled at $3,054/t. SGX iron ore futures closed another day on the front foot at $115.44/mt; the next day, trading momentum pointed to further appetite above $120/mt.
Oil futures were marginally unchanged despite the data that pointed to an incline in US crude stockpiles for the first time in 2 months. WTI and Brent traded at $75.25/bl and $78.92/bl. Precious metals were also softer, with silver seeing the biggest losses down to $21.53/oz, falling to the level last seen in July 2020; gold softened marginally down to $1,730.81/oz.
For more in-depth analysis of base and precious metals, please see our Quarterly Metals report.
All price data is from 29.09.2021 as of 17:30
