Morning Copper Market Report

Like the rest of the metals complex, the copper market saw an initial rally which many traders felt was in reaction to better than expected Chinese economic data and also because of the weekend Spanish bank bailout. With somewhat positive Chinese economic news flow from the weekend, it is also possible that some of the overtly negative demand views in copper from last week were mitigated. While the copper market also received news of a large daily increase in LME copper stocks overnight, that news might have been offset by an increase in Chinese May copper output versus year ago levels. On a month over month, basis May Chinese copper production actually declined, and combined with a surprising increase in May Chinese copper imports to provide additional support for copper prices at the start of the US trading session.