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To: Mao II who wrote (3423)	7/29/1999 3:28:00 PM
From: Night Writer	Respond to of 12662

Did you say Copper? NY Copper Review: Sep down 115 pts on fund selling; stops hit Jul. 29-MAR-- New York--Jul 29--COMEX Sep copper futures settled down 115 points at 73.35 cents per pound after dipping to a low of 73.15c. Copper saw light fund selling throughout today's session, with sell stops triggered on the move lower at 74.00c and 73.70c. Some bearish comments from Rio Tinto's chairman, and a soft US second-quarter GDP report, undermined sentiment. * * * Commission house selling in London early this morning in LME trading initiated today's sell-off, which sparked a "domino effect" that led many other holders of the metal to join in the selling spree. Bargain hunters and other buyers later appeared at the lows to stabilize prices. US economic growth fell sharply in the second quarter to 2.3%, far below market expectations of a 3.4% rate and the slowest pace in a year (See story .4739). This was hardly welcome news for the copper market, which is already concerned about US economic growth given the recent poor housing starts data. While many market players already had a strong hunch, Rio Tinto chairman Robert Wilson said today that no more major cutbacks to copper production are likely to emerge from global producers, although smaller ones may be seen (Story .11934). While Wilson can't possibly know what every major producer has planned, the comments indicate Rio Tinto itself won't be making any cutbacks soon. The comments also indicate a firm industry feeling that the market has seen the last of the big cutbacks for a while. The market is also concerned about the possibility of further steep increases in LME warehouse stocks. There is talk in the market that a large Chilean shipment will soon be entering the New Orleans warehouse. Today, LME warehouse stocks climbed 525 tonnes to 769,675 tonnes. COMEX warehouse stocks fell Wednesday 376 short tons to 121,519 tons. David Meger, senior metals analyst with Alaron Trading, said the copper market is still facing a near-term supply surplus and copper is still seeing some profit-taking after the recent run-up to around the 80c level. Meger suggests copper prices will do well going into the end of August, as the market will be entering a stronger seasonal period, Chinese buying should re-emerge and the recent production cuts will start to be realized. Asian copper demand has weakened this month as the manufacturing season has ended, and given that Asian demand is seen as a key driver of copper's recovery, the copper market is unlikely to see much buoyancy until the end of the summer, market players said. SETTLEMENT PRICES: --Aug (HGQ9) at 73.05c, dn 120 points; RANGE: 73.05-74.20c --Sep (HGU9) at 73.35c, dn 115 points; RANGE: 73.15-74.75c --Dec (HGZ9) at 74.10c, dn 125 points; RANGE: 74.00-75.50c End BridgeStation and Telerate users: For an intraday chart of active-contract copper, double-click: Media://analytics::/cmd=us@hg.1[1099ID;3;2] For a 1-year chart with moving averages, double-click: Media://analytics::/cmd=us@hg.1[1350MOVB]/VP Bridge News, Tel: (212) 372-7562 Send comments to Internet address: metals@bridge.com The Bridge ID for this story is 02100