Base Metals and Minerals

Hopes of a rescue for stricken US bond insurers helped to encourage buyers back into stocks as the Dow turned down 300 into up 300.

Wall Street saw what happened in the rest of the world and opened the Dow down 464 points. But the Fed decided to make an emergency rate cut of 75 basis points and the Dow came racing back.

Stocks in Asia, Europe and elsewhere suffered huge falls yesterday and overnight as all confidence is lost in the financial sector and the Bush rescue package is seen as inadequate.

Last week’s quarterly report showed challenges remain for Iluka and in the view of RBC Capital Markets there is still little value in the stock despite it falling 28% in recent months.

Market analysts remain divided on the outlook for copper prices, as bullish factors such as potential supply side issues are countered by the impact of any slowdown in the global economy.

Base metal prices have started the new year strongly but with continued concerns over global economic growth Barclays Capital doesn’t expect the trend to continue shorter-term.

Underground seismic activity has led to some rather disappointing production downgrades for Perilya.

The Dow managed to rise 38 points despite weak economic data, spurred on by the tech sector. The Nasdaq was up 1.5%.

The Dow lost 25 points in a volatile but thin session last night, following news the Chinese government had bought into Morgan Stanley.

The Dow closed up 65 points after the ECB injected no less than US$500bn in two-week credit.