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Copper prices slide in LME pre-market

February 22, 2012 - 10:23 GMT Location: London

KEYWORDS: copper prices , nickel prices , aluminium prices , LME , Metal Bulletin

Copper lost steam in pre-market trading on the London Metal Exchange on Wednesday February 22, slipping back from a strong Asian session buoyed by improved Chinese economic data.

Three-month copper opened at $8,450 per tonne and was trading at $8,401.50 per tonne by 10:14 GMT. The red metal traded as high as $8,488 per tonne and as low as $8,395.25 per tonne. Copper stocks in LME-listed warehouses rose by 300 tonnes to 305,725 tonnes. Traders in Europe and Asia are warning...

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Comment & analysis

EXPERT VIEW FROM ERNST & YOUNG: Horror week favours the brave

Seven days is a long time in the investment world, but last week must have felt longer than most.
COMMENT: When super-cycle poster child BHP Billiton trims its plans...

BHP Billiton is one of the poster children for the commodities super-cycle: a mining company whose immense upstream assets in copper and iron ore have fed the industrialisation of China since the early years of the 21st century and enabled it to return $52 billion to shareholders between 2001 and 2011.
LORD COPPER: There is nothing to fear after JP Morgan loss ...

So, here we go again. Another bank, another huge trade gone bad. This one doesn’t even appear to have been a case of rogue trading; a whole desk seems to have been operating with the full knowledge of the management and/or risk committee.