LIVE FUTURES REPORT 16/10: Comex copper prices surge on optimism of positive Chinese data

Copper for December settlement on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange jumped 11 cents or 3.5% to $3.2435 per lb.

Chinese market participants’ growing optimism ahead of the upcoming 13th Five-Year Plan meeting at the 19th Party Congress in Beijing is playing a major role in higher prices.

“It appears that copper, and indeed the other base metals, is in demand in anticipation of good Chinese economic data – Thursday will see the third-quarter GDP figure and other economic data for September published,” Commerzbank said in a research note.

“The governor of the Chinese central bank had already hinted at the weekend that growth is likely to be good. Market participants will also be focusing their attention on China this week because Wednesday will see the start of the party congress, which only takes place every five years,” the bank added.

Comex gold for December delivery inched up $3.0 or 0.2% to $1,307.60 per oz.

Currency moves and data releases 

• The dollar index was recently up by 0.14% to 93.19. 
• The Texas light sweet crude oil spot price was most recently up by 1.47% to $52.49 per barrel. 
• Data out already shows the Chinese producer price index (PPI) for September climbing 6.9%, after a 6.3% rise previously, while its consumer price index (CPI) dipped to 1.6% from 1.8%, but this lower reading was within market expectations. Meanwhile, Japanese revised industrial production was 2%, down slightly from the initial reading of 2.1%. 
• In the USA, the Empire State Manufacturing Index in October was 30.2, a big lift from the economic consensus of 20.3.