Morning Copper Market Report for 2/18/2011

While copper prices have fallen lower this morning, many traders feel the market is probably lucky it avoided a really aggressive liquidation selloff this morning as fundamental news overnight was thought to be very negative. In addition to another 50 basis point hike in Chinese bank reserve requirements overnight, the copper market also received news of a potentially damaging rise in Shanghai copper stocks. In fact, weekly Shanghai Deliverable Stocks were pegged at 161,062 tons for a large increase of 16,865 tons. Furthermore, LME Copper Stocks were seen at 407,925 tons for an increase of 725 tons.

However, copper did receive a somewhat supportive prediction from a major global copper producer, who suggested that copper was set to remain in a global supply deficit condition. Euro zone emergency overnight borrowing was more than 16 billion Euro, the highest amount since the middle of 2009 and may ultimately have a dampening effect on Euro zone copper demand over the near-term.
Read more: http://community.nasdaq.com/News/2011-02/morning-copper-market-report-for-2182011.aspx?storyid=58334#ixzz1ELuVI2lW