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April 30: Notable News & Headlines
By admin · April 30, 2009 · 11:49 am · Leave a Comment
Rising equities, falling inventories boost copper
HUMEYRA PAMUK AND MICHAEL TAYLOR, Reuters, April 30, 2009 at 12:43 PM EDT
LONDON — Copper climbed 3.3 per cent to its highest in a week on Thursday, as rising equities aided sentiment while persistent falls in copper inventories raised expectations of further Chinese buying ahead.
Copper for three-months delivery on the London Metal Exchange rose to a session high of $4,513.75 (U.S.) a tonne, its highest since April 23, and closed at $4,431 a tonne versus Wednesday’s close at $4,370 a tonne.
“We’re seeing short covering on the back of higher equity markets,” said analyst David Thurtell at Citi, adding comments from the U.S. Federal Reserve, which said on Wednesday the outlook for the U.S. economy had improved a bit, have also helped buoy sentiment.
Falling inventories and tightening spreads were among the major drivers behind copper’s rise on Thursday and so far this year – an impressive 40 per cent plus.
Copper stocks fell 5,675 tonnes to 405,775, having fallen 25 per cent or around 140,000 tonnes since late February. Cancelled warrants – material tagged for delivery – saw a fresh rise of nearly 20,000 tonnes, bringing the total amount to 84,000 tonnes – equivalent of 20 per cent of total inventories.
Agnico-Eagle sees higher gold output, new projects
TORONTO (Reuters) – Agnico-Eagle Mines ( AEM – news – people ) could boost gold output at its current projects to as much as 1.6 million ounces by the middle of the next decade, its chief executive says, and it hopes to acquire two new projects over the next two or three years.
The Canadian gold producer is studying ways to expand planned output at four of its six projects, which would allow it to push production beyond its forecast 1.2 million ounces next year, CEO Sean Boyd said in an interview on Thursday.
“We could see a 25 percent bump in output to the 1.5-1.6 million ounce range, based on those four studies,” Boyd said.
Turnaround in uranium markets has begun
To all those investors hanging on for uranium markets to turnaround, RBC Capital Markets analyst Adam Schatzker has a message: The wait is finally over.
“We believe that the uranium market is in the early stages of a bull market rally that could last three to four years,” he said in a note to clients.
