London - Zinc slid to the lowest in 15 weeks in London after Chinese industrial output had the weakest start to a year since 2009, sparking concern about the demand outlook in the world’s biggest user of industrial metals.
Production rose 9.9 percent in the first two months, trailing economists’ estimates, and retail sales also fell short of forecasts.
French industrial output dropped in January as Europe’s second-largest economy teetered on the brink of its third recession in four years.
Fitch Ratings cut Italy’s debt rating by one level on March 8.
Zinc also declined after falling below its 200-day moving average of about $1,967.54 today.
“Metals prices have not changed much in past days due to uncertainty over Chinese economic growth this year,” Pengjiang “Richard” Fu, director for Asian commodities trading at Newedge Group SA in London, said by e-mail.
“The European economy is weak.”
Zinc for delivery in three months dropped 1.7 percent to $1,942 a metric ton by 12:23 p.m. on the London Metal Exchange.
Prices reached $1,928 in earlier trade, the lowest since November 23.
Copper fell 0.4 percent to $7,706.25 a ton and the metal for delivery in May lost 0.4 percent to $3.4945 a pound on the Comex in New York.
Money managers more than doubled net-short positions, or wagers on lower copper prices, to 16,391 Comex futures and options contracts as of March 5 from 7,172 a week earlier, according to the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
The dollar traded near the highest level since August against a basket of six currencies.
A stronger greenback makes commodities less appealing as an alternative investment.
Zinc Inventories
Stockpiles of zinc tracked by the LME increased 1 percent to 1.21 million tons, daily exchange figures showed. Inventories of the metal used to rust-proof steel are within about 2 percent of the highest level since 1994, reached December 6.
Copper stocks monitored by the LME rose for an 18th session, the longest streak of advances since January 2010, to 513,550 tons.
Inventories jumped 60 percent this year as orders to withdraw copper from warehouses plunged 54 percent.
Today, the orders slipped 0.1 percent to 23,825 tons, equating to 4.6 percent of the stockpiled metal.
Aluminum reached the lowest price since November 22 in London.
Tin, nickel and lead dropped. - Bloomberg News