Copper prices fall as other metals see gains

Copper prices were lower Tuesday although inventories were lower in London Metal Exchange warehouses as cancelled warrants, which denote amounts of commodities which are already spoken for, also declined.

LME stockpiles dropped by 3,775 tonnes during the session, but cancelled warrants were down from 83,100 tonnes at the end of last week to 79,450 tonnes this week.

July copper was 6 cents lower to $2.08 per pound in New York trade, while three-month copper on the LME dropped $65 to $4,535 per tonne after it had gone as high as $4,750 per tonne earlier in the session.

Other base metals, however, were higher on US home sales data and data on manufacturing activity in China that raised hopes that the economy is beginning to recover.

Aluminium was up $5 to $1,542 per tonne as gains were held back by a gain of another 4,825 tonnes in inventories to nearly 3.8 million tonnes.

Lead added $14 to $1,415 per tonne while zinc was up $20 to $1,530 per tonne, nickel was $100 higher to $12,000 per tonne, and tin gained $275 to $12,625 per tonne.

Precious metals prices were also higher as June gold added $2.10 to $904.30 per troy ounce in New York, while July silver was up 31 cents to $13.42 per troy ounce and July platinum gained $15.90 to $1,137.90 per troy ounce.