Although the global economy appears to be growing, concerns remain about the pace of growth and this is having an impact on the price of virgin commodities.
With China raising the price of petrol and diesel by the most in two years, there are fears about the impact this will have on its already slowing economy.
Yesterday, the Chinese finance ministry revealed that profits at state-owned industries had fallen 11 per cent in the first two months of the year, although revenue was up 9.9 per cent.
As a result, the S&P GSCI index of 24 commodities was down 0.4 per cent. Oil fell 79 cents in New York from a three week high to $107.30 and Brent crude in London dropped 97 cents to $124.74. The decline in the price of oil was also due to an expectation that Saudi Arabia will increase production as well as US oil stockpiles being at a six-month high.
Copper continues to struggle to get much above $8,500. After reaching $8,690 on Friday, it dropped back to $8,532 this morning over falling demand expectations from China due to high stockpiles.
Aluminium dropped 0.2 per cent to $2,269 and lead fell 0.4 per cent to $2,096 per tonne.
