US stocks slumped on the back of further growing geopolitical tensions as well market angst ahead of the Fed meeting this Wednesday. US business activity slowed in January, driven in large by the spread of omicron and lingering capacity constraints; the latter, however, began to show the signs of easing. The dollar rallied, and the 10yr US Treasury yield continued to break lower. Elsewhere, eurozone economic performance increased at the slowest pace in almost a year in January, with IHS composite index at 52.4, as lockdown restrictions weighed heavily on the service industry.
Risk-off sentiment has caused metals prices to sell off today, and nickel lost the most ground as traders saw the news from Tsingshan that they had shipped their first cargo of nickel matte to China. The metal closed at $22,404/t, with the cash to 3-month spread at $300/t back. Copper also sold off and closed at $9,728/t; cash to 3s is $43/t back. Aluminium was softer, closing at $3,028.50/t. Zinc and lead were also down on the day, falling to close at $3,595.50/t and $2,358/t.
Oil futures tumbled on fears of Fed hiking soon. WTI and Brent sold off to $82.33/bl and $85.39/bl. Gold was range-bound while silver tumbled to $23.72/oz.
For more in-depth analysis of base and precious metals, please see our Quarterly Metals report.
All price data is from 24.01.2022 as of 17:30
