A steady hand.The invisible hand Invisible HandA term coined by economist Adam Smith in his 1776 book "An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations". In his book he states: "Every individual necessarily labours to render the annual revenue of the society as great as he can. that guides metals prices has been a fairly steady one lately, making life easier for some traders Traders Individuals who take positions in securities and their derivatives with the objective of making profits. Traders can make markets by trading the flow. When they do this, their objective is to earn the bid/ask spread. . Regarding both copper and aluminum prices, one dealer notes, "We all want them to go up, but it's nice to have some consistency and to be able to offer our customers an idea of what to expect from a buying point of view." Copper pricing, both on the Comex exchange for primary copper and scrap pricing as measured by American Metal Market, has trended steadily upward for 12 months now, allowing dealers to have some confidence in the market. If the supply and demand situation is being gauged correctly, the copper market is expected to operate in a supply deficit situation in the near term, according to according to prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. recent reports from the International Copper Study Group (ICSG ICSG International Copper Study Group ) and others. Certainly, scrap dealers scrap dealer n → chatarrero/a scrap dealer n → marchand m de ferraille scrap dealer scrap n → see too little in the way of scrap generated on the copper side, with most grades being in short supply. Aluminum scrap demand is also exceeding supply, not because of record demand, but again because of limited supply. Pricing for aluminum has been steady with an upward trend for the past 12 months. Overall economic and manufacturing numbers for the U.S. confirm that scrap generation remains in a slump Slump A temporary fall in performance, often describing consistently falling security prices for several weeks or months. . Many economists believe that before the U.S. economy can truly emerge from its recession, manufacturing production and employment will have to increase markedly. Scrap dealers with front-line observation posts on the manufacturing economy are not seeing the increases in scrap generation that would point to a rebound rebound (rē´bownd), n/v 1. a recovery from illness. n 2. an outbreak of fresh reflex activity after withdrawal of a stimulus rebound adjective . Rather, they are seeing reduced production, curtailed work shifts and idled stamping and machining equipment. Average U.S. Refiners Buying Prices for No. 2 Copper Scrap July 02 60.59 cents Aug 55.48 cents Sept 55.68 cents Oct 56.70 cents Nov 60.50 cents Dec 61.33 cents Jan 03 62.38 cents Feb 64.11 cents Mar 64.26 cents April 61.80 cents May 65.43 cents June 67.36 cents July 68.23 cents Source: American Metal Market (per pounds, mothly average) Note: Table made from bar graph. |
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