Metal Investments

Commodities?

03. June 2008

Tuesday, 12:20pm GMT


  • Crude oil traded above $127 a barrel Tuesday as investors sought to establish whether oil prices have peaked but many worry that supplies are barely meeting growing global demand. By midday in Europe, light sweet crude for July delivery was down 17 cents at $127.59 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. On Monday, the contract rose 41 cents to settle at $127.76. In London Brent on ICE Futures exchange fell 10 cents to $127.92 a barrel. Oil prices have fallen sharply over the last dozen days after climbing above a record $135 a barrel on May 22. .

  • LME base metals rose slightly today. Copper was up on bargain hunting and dollar weakness but fears of lower demand are holding metals gains. Copper had hit a record high of $8,880 per tonne in mid-March, when a strike at the world's top copper producer Codelco hit production. Since then it has lost more than 10 percent as the market struggled to go higher in the absence of physical buying particularly from China. Copper stocks are down by 1050 tons to 122,900 tons.

  • Aluminium is up to $2930 with LME down down by 875 to 1,074,900 tons.

  • Gold is at $892.10 slightly changed from yesterday.

  • At 12:20 pm GMT, the FTSE 100 index was at 6000 down 7 points.