Despite the German Parliament voting to accept the Greek bailout package yesterday, markets did not react with jubilation.
Markets also shrugged off a further downgrade of Greece to a selective default by S&P last night.
However, the German consumer confidence index GfK increased to 6.0, which is its highest level since March 2011 and suggests Europe’s largest economy is still growing strongly.
Three-month copper was up on the LME at 7:15am this morning to $8,557 (£5,416) after falling a little in the previous session to $8,490 (£5,373). With copper there remain concerns that Chinese demand is weak, and although there are signs that Chinese sentiment is improving, copper has continued to bump around in a range of $8,300 to $8,600 in the past couple of weeks failing to hit the 9 February high for this year of $8,765.
The G20 group of finance ministers yesterday said that it was well aware of the impact that high oil prices could have on halting growth in the world economy, especially as sanctions against Iran are being implemented. Brent crude oil was down $1.32 to $124.15 a barrel, while US crude fell $1.21 to $108.56.
The S&P GSCI gauge of 24 commodities increased just 0.3 per cent yesterday.
