Metals fall on LME due to Italy worries

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At close yesterday, copper was down on the LME to $9,579 after finishing at $9,661 on Friday.

During Friday trading, the 3-month price had reached $9,789.75, which was its highest since 12 April, but still down from the record $10,190 seen in February.

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Fears over Italian banks failing stress tests due this week, as reported by scrap-ex news yesterday, is behind the fall in price according to analysts as well as concerns over poor US employment data and Chinese efforts to curb inflation.

Citi analyst David Thurtell said: “It seems like the European debt problems are going to be a source for continual dips all year long.

“Also, the fears are that the Chinese will have to keep on tightening which is not going to be supportive for copper, but the supply problems seem to be underpinning things at the moment.”

Metals across the board were down. 3-month aluminium closed at $2,481 on Monday after closing at $2,575.5 on Friday. Lead fell from $2,717 on Friday to $2,663 on Monday. Nickel was at $23,440 on Monday, lower than the $24,100 closing price on Friday. Tin dropped to $26,450 yesterday from $27,500 at the end of last week and zinc was down to $2,324 from $2,392 on Friday.