LONDON – Copper raced to record highs close to US$10 000 per ton yesterday, and tin also touched all-time peaks after economic data showed recovery in the United States and Europe that could push up demand amid supply shortages.
Investors also scooped up sugar, pushing prices to 30-year highs, as a cyclone threatened Australia’s Queensland state, its main sugar-growing region.Brent crude oil hovered near 28-month highs above the US$100 per barrel level it broke through on Monday on worries that unrest in Egypt would trigger instability across the Middle East and North Africa.The steady drumbeat of improved global economic data in recent months has prompted investors to move into riskier assets such as commodities.’People have become more and more confident in the rally as it’s taken place,’ said Sean Corrigan, chief investment strategist at Diapason Commodities Management in Switzerland.’So it’s back to growth assets and out of safe-haven ones, and commodities are benefitting from this.’COPPER to reach US$10 000The copper market, which has rallied 60 per cent since last June, was poised to pierce the psychological US$10 000 mark after positive data from top metals consumer China as well as an acceleration in manufacturing in both the euro zone and the United States.’Industrial production and trade flows certainly show that things have continued to improve – albeit quite slowly in the West, but at a rock-and-roll pace in emerging markets,’ Corrigan said.Benchmark copper on the London Metal Exchange hit a record of US$9 988,25 per ton and was trading unchanged at US$9 945 per ton in late morning activity yesterday.’The fundamentals in the copper market are strong, it will get to US$10 000,’ said analyst Daniel Major at RBS.LME tin hit a record high at US$30 790 a ton on yesterday, tracking copper higher and supported by supply concerns, and was trading up 1,1 per cent at US$30 500.The better prospects for global economic recovery, however, dampened gold’s safe-haven appeal and prices dropped.Gold was also dented by easing tensions in Egypt after President Hosni Mubarak said he would surrender power in September.Spot gold slipped 0,4 per cent from late New York trading to US$1 335,65 an ounce – well below a lifetime high of around US$1 430 struck in December. Trading slowed to a trickle in Asia ahead of the Lunar New Year celebration.- Nampa-Reuters
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