BEIJING — London copper prices climbed on Monday, supported by top metals consumer China’s pledge to stabilize its COVID-ravaged economy and as tight global stockpiles fueled supply concerns.
Three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange was up 1.1% at $8,358.50 a tonne, as of 0838 GMT.
China will focus on stabilizing its $17-trillion economy in 2023 and step up policy adjustments to ensure key targets are hit, said a statement last Friday following an agenda-setting meeting attended by President Xi Jinping and his senior officials.
More policy easing should stabilize the property sector, said Wang Tao, Head of Asia Economics and Chief China Economist of UBS Investment Bank Research.
“We expect more support to come, including further lowering of mortgage rates and down-payment requirements, relaxation of home purchase restrictions, and more credit support for stalled projects,” Wang said.
Supply concerns also lent some support, traders said.
Canada-based miner First Quantum Minerals said on Friday it is going through “all available legal means” after the Panamanian government ordered it to pause operations at its flagship copper mine over a payments dispute.
Copper inventories in warehouses monitored by SHFE fell 18.5% week-on-week to 64,041 tonnes last Friday.
Copper stocks on the LME warehouses ticked 375 tonnes higher to 84,100 tonnes last Friday, but were more than halved from 180,925 tonnes seen in May.
Still, fastspreading infections in China after the government relaxed strict anti-virus controls fueled worries over the impact on near-term manufacturing activities.
The country reported its first COVID-related deaths in weeks on Monday.
The most-traded January copper contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange dipped 0.5% at 65,110 yuan ($9,336.51) a tonne.
Also weighing on sentiment was a hawkish U.S. Federal Reserve that lead to fears that longer interest rate hikes would exacerbate demand for metals.
Among other metals, LME aluminum climbed 0.5% at $2,386.50 a tonne, zinc added 0.6% to $3,036.50, lead edged 0.1% up to $2,153, while tin eased 0.6% to $23,390.
SHFE aluminum was down 1.1% at 18,540 yuan a tonne, tin slipped 2.5% to 187,500 yuan, zinc fell 1.9% to 23,790 yuan and nickel retreated by 1.8% to 213,730 yuan.
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($1 = 6.9737 Chinese yuan renminbi) (Reporting by Siyi Liu and Dominique Patton; Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips and David Goodman )
OTTAWA – The parliamentary budget officer says the federal government likely failed to keep its deficit below its promised $40 billion cap in the last fiscal year.
However the PBO also projects in its latest economic and fiscal outlook today that weak economic growth this year will begin to rebound in 2025.
The budget watchdog estimates in its report that the federal government posted a $46.8 billion deficit for the 2023-24 fiscal year.
Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland pledged a year ago to keep the deficit capped at $40 billion and in her spring budget said the deficit for 2023-24 stayed in line with that promise.
The final tally of the last year’s deficit will be confirmed when the government publishes its annual public accounts report this fall.
The PBO says economic growth will remain tepid this year but will rebound in 2025 as the Bank of Canada’s interest rate cuts stimulate spending and business investment.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 17, 2024.
OTTAWA – Statistics Canada says the level of food insecurity increased in 2022 as inflation hit peak levels.
In a report using data from the Canadian community health survey, the agency says 15.6 per cent of households experienced some level of food insecurity in 2022 after being relatively stable from 2017 to 2021.
The reading was up from 9.6 per cent in 2017 and 11.6 per cent in 2018.
Statistics Canada says the prevalence of household food insecurity was slightly lower and stable during the pandemic years as it fell to 8.5 per cent in the fall of 2020 and 9.1 per cent in 2021.
In addition to an increase in the prevalence of food insecurity in 2022, the agency says there was an increase in the severity as more households reported moderate or severe food insecurity.
It also noted an increase in the number of Canadians living in moderately or severely food insecure households was also seen in the Canadian income survey data collected in the first half of 2023.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct 16, 2024.
OTTAWA – Statistics Canada says manufacturing sales in August fell to their lowest level since January 2022 as sales in the primary metal and petroleum and coal product subsectors fell.
The agency says manufacturing sales fell 1.3 per cent to $69.4 billion in August, after rising 1.1 per cent in July.
The drop came as sales in the primary metal subsector dropped 6.4 per cent to $5.3 billion in August, on lower prices and lower volumes.
Sales in the petroleum and coal product subsector fell 3.7 per cent to $7.8 billion in August on lower prices.
Meanwhile, sales of aerospace products and parts rose 7.3 per cent to $2.7 billion in August and wood product sales increased 3.8 per cent to $3.1 billion.
Overall manufacturing sales in constant dollars fell 0.8 per cent in August.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 16, 2024.
