Another day of mixed stock performance on global markets on Monday as sovereign yields continued to advance. The dollar gauge ticked up. Meanwhile, China’s central bank cut the key interest rate benchmark by 10bps for the first time in almost two years to counter a slowing economy. The GDP figure came out at 4.0% y/y in December, with industrial output at 4.3% y/y; while this is lower quarter-on-quarter, the figures beat the expectations. However, the retail sales took the plunge, growing only by 1.7%, nearly a third of December 2020 performance.
NY markets were shut today, liquidity was lower, and that was noticeable on the LME. Geopolitical tensions between Russia and a host of other countries have prompted greater volatility due to the prospect of sanctions. LME prices were rangebound today apart from tin which gained ground towards $41,350/t; the metal closed at $41,300/t. Aluminium was seen marginally higher, closing at $2,997/t. Likewise, copper while rangebound, closing higher at $9,731/t. Nickel and zinc both weakened down to $22,063/t and $3,508/t. All cash to 3-month spreads are backwardated but are considerably weaker than previous months, except for nickel which is at $402.25/t back at the time of writing.
Oil futures continued to advance, with Brent now near the 2014 highs of $86.50/bl, while WTI is at $84.23/bl. Precious metals edged marginally higher, with gold and silver now at $1,819.72/oz and $23.02/oz, respectively.
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All price data is from 17.01.2022 as of 17:30
