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Strategies & Market Trends : YEEHAW CANDIDATES -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Ditchdigger who wrote (4590)	2/18/2004 8:09:20 AM
From: Sergio H	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 23958

Ditch, from today's WSJ: <March copper futures jumped 5.65 cents Tuesday to $1.30 a pound on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. From the Sept. 30 close through Tuesday, the contract had surged 58%, or 47.65 cents. "There are a lot of obvious factors -- technicals, new hedge-fund buying and so forth," said Bill O'Neill, principal with Logic Advisors. "But there also appears to be extreme tightness developing." Copper dealers, refiners and producers are all reporting strong demand, Mr. O'Neill said. Also, the auto and housing-construction sectors remain strong. "There is extreme tightness in the London market, and some of that tightness is spilling over into New York," he said. "There's a situation where those who have to make delivery are probably going to have to pay up to get the material." One analyst cited "backwardation" as a sign of tightness. This occurs when prices for nearby futures contracts are higher than for later months. Tuesday, the September contract settled at $1.24 a pound, a discount to March. "It suggests that people are looking to get the physical [product]," he said. Speculative buying has been spurred by bullish chart patterns as copper continues to rise. Other markets, such as stocks, are supporting copper, analysts said.>