Oil, Copper Rise In Asia Risk Rally; Gold In Range With Fed Blackout

 | Sep 09, 2015 02:17AM ET

h3 Talking Points:
  • Risk-buying dominated Asian session, weakened USD
  • Oil recovered but topside is weak before EIA & API data
  • Copper surged with China demand, despite sufficient supply
  • Gold steadied as Fed stopped communication until September meeting

Risk trades continued in the Asian morning after a buoyant session in Europe and US, following an Asian stock rally the previous day. Commodities, Australian dollar and New Zealand dollar posted notable gains, with iron ore and Nikkei up over five percent at one point. The consequent fall in US dollar precipitated as most assets in Asia time zone are associated with risk.

Optimism was reinstated in expectation of more China stimulus as the Financial Times reported that China's Ministry of Finance posted on its website that it would carry out "stronger proactive fiscal policy".

Copper spiked to 2.4755 near Asian noon time after a rally during the New York session eluded to the biggest surge since 2013. China’s rising copper imports and newly-approved railway projects were welcomed reprieves for the metal after slowing usage and oversupply drove prices to a six-year low in August, which led to recent mine shutdowns, including Glencore PLC's (OTC:GLNCY).

Copper inventories tracked by the London Metal Exchange eased up after reaching a peak on August 28 and yesterday’s stockpile was near August low at 0.346 million tons. However the below graph shows that inventories are still exceedingly high compare with levels in 2014, which is a drag on price outlook.