Base metals were higher on Friday. Copper rose 0.26 cents to close at $2.4919/lb. Nickel gained nearly 23 cents to finish at $7.5266/lb. Zinc climbed almost one penny, ending at $0.7530/lb. Aluminum added a cent and a half, closing at $0.7957/lb., while lead moved to $0.7880/lb., up a penny and a half from the previous session. Copper is up 3.5% this week and 7.8% since June 1, but an abrupt reversal could be just around the corner.

China’s copper imports are slowing after record purchases, likely ending an 81% price rally this year, according to Sumitomo Metal Mining Co., Japan’s second-largest smelter of the red metal.

“Excessive imports mean much of the purchased metal was just stored, raising the risk that they may sell it back to the market and depress prices,” said Koichi Kaku, general manager at Sumitomo. “Imports may have exceeded manufacturing demand by as much as 1.3 million

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Base metals were mixed on Thursday. Copper fell 1.25 cents to close at $2.4893/lb. Nickel gained just over 1 cent to finish at $7.2998/lb. Zinc lost almost one penny, ending at $0.7450/lb. Aluminum rose a cent and change, closing at $0.7798/lb., while lead moved to $0.7719/lb., down half a penny from the previous session. Despite copper’s slight pullback, investors remain mostly bullish, encouraged by what they see as an improving outlook on demand and economic recovery.

“The overall sentiment in the metals market has improved a lot,” said Yingxi Yu, an analyst at Barclays Capital. “It has not much to do with the dollar, but follows stock markets closely, as the second quarter’s corporate earnings were broadly better than expected, improving outlook on the economy.”

Copper supply concerns also underpinned the bullish sentiment. Violence was reported near Freeport-McMoRan’s massive Grasberg mine in Indonesia, and a power problem occurred at Anglo American’s

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Base metals were mostly down on Tuesday. Copper fell 0.68 cents to close at $2.4374/lb. Nickel dropped more than 21 cents to finish at $7.1320/lb. Zinc lost three-quarters of a penny, ending at $0.7357/lb. Aluminum added less than a quarter of a cent, closing at $0.7634/lb., while lead moved to $0.7493/lb., down more than a penny from the previous session. Copper retreated a bit yesterday capping a six-day rally that pushed the red metal to a nine-month high on Monday. Speculation that demand will slacken in a seasonal slowdown in China had much to do with the drop in prices.

China imported 378,943 metric tons of refined copper last month, a 12% increase from May and the fifth straight record, customs office data showed yesterday.

“Demand should ease after builders filled orders for the summer construction peak and the margin between China and London prices narrowed,” said Pang Ying, an analyst

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Source: David and Eric Coffin, Hard Rock Advisory Journal  05/29/2009
The greatest economic realignment since Genghis Kahn took over Eurasia’s trade routes is continuing apace. The west remains mired in an assets contraction of its own making, and the east is refocused on channeling its growth engines into domestic consumption. The resource sector, which is our focus and which has been governed by those growth engines for a decade and half, is indicating at least the expectation of continuing gains in the east. That does not mean we ignore what is going on the developed west, plus Japan.

Most of the planned bad news on the US banking system is now on the table or at least anticipated, in some form. The stress test requirements for US banks at $75 billion of new capital required are workable, though heavily dilutive. There are legitimate doubts that this will actually be sufficient given …

The base metals were mixed on Thursday. Copper gained 3.41 cents from yesterday’s close to $1.5598/lb. Nickel lost 4.61 cents to finish at $4.4959/lb. Zinc fell one-third of a penny, ending at $0.5042/lb. Aluminum tacked on half a cent, closing at $0.5988/lb., while lead moved to $0.4708/lb., up three-quarters of a cent.

The price of copper rallied on Thursday amid hopes government assistance plans will help improve demand in the U.S. and China. The red metal rose to its best level in more than two weeks.

“As governments put more money toward infrastructure and into stimulus plans, it’s going to help out copper,” said Michael K. Smith, the president of T&K Futures & Options. “It seems like people are feeling better about the outlook for metals.”

“We’ve gotten some clarity on the plan to rescue banks and the plan to stimulate the economy and that’s given people some optimism,” said Michael Pento,

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Bby By Dan Ferris/BBRBR Investors who know what they're doing will recognize the secret as soon as they hear it. But I bet if you try to tell your friends about this secret, they won't get it (and they'll continue to get killed in the stock market).BRBR The thing is, it's not really a secret.BRBR At least three times last year, in Forbes, the Wall Street Journal, and Barron's, Cohen and Steers fund manager Rick Helm repeated the simple secret on how to avoid risky income stocks and earn a steady stream of high and growing dividends The best income stocks are the ones that consistently raise their dividends, even though these stocks tend to have low current yields.BRBR Helm has spent his entire career looking for the very best dividend-paying stocks, and his fund owns Procter and Gamble (which yields 2.7%), Microsoft (which yields 2.7%), Wal-Mart (which yields 1.8%), and a whole host ...

The base metals were all mired in the red on Monday. Copper was in the green until the late pre-dawn hours, but fell off the rest of the day, only coming slightly off its intraday lows to finish at $1.6186/lb., down 2¼ cents from Friday.

Nickel sagged from the pre-dawn hours all the way through, closing at its intraday low of $4.3681/lb., down 8 cents. Zinc was in the green until the noon hour, but then it too sold off, ending at its intraday low of $0.525/lb., down nearly a penny. Aluminum had another weak day, shedding a penny and a half to $0.7575/lb., while lead gave up just over a penny, to $0.4837/lb.

Copper was off, albeit perhaps not as much as might have been expected considering the selloffs in other markets, as well as the gloomy news that keeps piling up.

In addition to the grim purchasing managers’ indexes from the

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The base metals were all in the red on Monday. Copper was off sharply pre-dawn, rallied at the beginning of the New York day, but then fell again to finish at its intraday low of $2.5478/lb., down nearly 13 cents from Friday. Nickel was down consistently throughout the day, closing at $6.8697/lb., down 51¾ cents.

The base metals were mixed on Tuesday. Copper fell below $2.80 in the pre-dawn hours, but then righted itself, managing to claw its way back into positive territory at $2.9036/lb., up better than a penny and a half. Nickel dropped below $7 early, rallied back into the mid-morning, but then sagged again to close at $6.9642/lb., down more than 24 cents.