Copper games. “There were rumours circulating that the sudden...

Copper games.

• “There were rumours circulating that the sudden influx of LME stock was a result of a major merchant delivering metal to pressurise the price so that they could get back an LME futures short position – a plausible argument that may well turn out to be the truth,” Malcolm Freeman at Kingdom Futures said.

• The three-month copper price was $9 higher at $5,782 per tonne, recovering slightly from Tuesday’s one-month lows.
• The battle for control of copper restarted in earnest this week when the trend shifted from stock removals to stocks arrivals.
• Stocks rose another net 26,550 tonnes to 288,525 tonnes today, their highest since January 10. More than 91,000 tonnes have arrived so far this week, the bulk into listed warehouses in Asia.
• But there was another jump in cancelled warrants today of 15,600 tonnes, lifting the total to 123,500 tonnes – 16,650 tonnes were freshly cancelled in Busan.