2011 Halftime Report: The Cues for Copper

Copper slightly disappointed investors, ending the first half of the year with a decline of 3.50 percent. Worries about global inflation and, more specifically, the potential slowing of China’s economy weighed on copper’s price. The red metal rose 5 percent quickly in the new year, but similar to zinc, lead, palladium and platinum prices, declined sharply at the beginning of May.

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Precious Metals Forecasting

LBMA Conference - bullish on gold but terrified on dollar... London - Asked by John Reade, in his anchor leg role on the Conference podium, to forecast the gold price at next year's LBMA Conference (late September 2010), the average forecast among this year's Conference delegates was $1,183/ounce,(a gain of 12% in dollar terms.  Last year the forecast for today's price was $956.50, which is perhaps a sobering thought for those of us to profess to have crystal balls.  We were not asked to project a dollar exchange rate as such, but not surprisingly 63% of delegates thought that the dollar would be weaker next September than it is now. [Read more...]