market cap, page-31

Some encourgaing news to help sooth macro concerns regarding CU.

Posted by Farlap on the AVB board.
"By Eric Onstad

LONDON, April 25 (Reuters) - Copper rose to a one-week high on Thursday, the
second day of gains, on signs of industry restocking in top consumer China and
hopes for more central bank easing after weak economic data in Europe.
Short-covering also spurred three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange
(LME) to hit a session peak of $7,197 a tonne, its highest since April
17. It closed at $7,180 on Thursday from $7,029.50 at the close on Wednesday.
On Wednesday copper rebounded 2.3 percent after hitting an 18-month low of
$6,762.25 a tonne on Tuesday. It has shed about 10 percent so far this year.
"All the signs suggest to me that there is some very, very good buying
coming out of China, and it's probably the end-users taking advantage of very
low copper prices to rebuild their inventories that have been at extremely low
levels," said Nic Brown, head of commodities research at Natixis in London.
"There are reports of falls in (Chinese) bonded warehouse stocks, very high
trading volumes, a significant increase in open interest (in Shanghai), and a
rise in physical premiums."
The most-traded August copper contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange
rose 2.7 percent to close at 51,280 yuan ($8,300) a tonne.
Open interest in the most active ShFE copper contract had reached a record
high near 420,000 lots on Tuesday, when prices hit the lowest in almost three
years.
But as prices bounced on Wednesday, open interest fell 14 percent,
reflecting a shutdown of short positions, which traders said continued on
Thursday.
Book-squaring in China, ahead of next week when markets will be closed for
three days due to Labour Day holidays, fuelled short-covering in Shanghai.

"Below $7,100 we are still going to stay in the lower range, although trade
will be choppy. Above that level I think people might start to see how deep
their pockets are," a Hong Kong-based trader said.
Copper prices may not make significant gains until the import arbitrage
window opens again between China and the LME after bonded warehouse stocks have
eroded more, Brown added.
Recent weak economic data have had a two-pronged impact on LME metals -
capping gains due to uncertainty about demand from a sluggish global economy,
but also providing some support recently after signals that the European Central
Bank could cut rates as soon as next week.
Also, data indicating resilience in the U.S. labour market has allayed
concerns about the pace of the economic recovery. "