Photo by: Bloomberg
VANCOUVER (miningweekly.com) – Major miners saw their respective stocks pull back on Tuesday on the back of weaker iron-ore and base metals prices, despite the latest Chinese economic data showing better-than-expected growth in the first quarter of 2017.
Major miners traded in the red on Tuesday, including the world’s largest iron-ore producer Vale, which traded down 4.2% at $8.43 a share on the NYSE; BHP Billiton – the world’s largest miner by market capitalisation – lost as much as 2.84% on the Nasdaq to trade at $35.22 a share; and London-listed Glencore lost as much as 5.7% in the morning session at £2.92 a share.
Iron-ore futures on the Dalian Commodity Exchange, in China, were off 3.7% on Tuesday on top of a nearly 3% decline on Monday, with prices having now undone all gains seen earlier in the year and posting a 5.3% decline year-to-date.
Iron-ore with 62% iron content, including cost and freight to Tianjin, traded on the spot market at $61.2/t on Tuesday, compared with $66.5/t a week earlier. Steel rebar prices in China are also weak (-2.2%) taking the year-to-date run to -0.1%.
Copper prices were also slightly off on Tuesday, trading at $5 655/t, and extending the recent weakness in the metal’s price amid the ramp up of major operations following temporary disruptions.
Gold prices came just $5/oz short of the $1 300/oz mark on Monday, before settling at $1 293/oz on Tuesday morning, on the back of safe-haven demand amid continuing aggressive rhetoric between North Korea and the US.