SHANGHAI, Oct. 19 (SMM) – The global commodity markets tumbled due to the troublesome European debt issues. Meanwhile, the release of slower growth of China’s Q3 GDP dented market sentiment, sending domestic stocks down sharply. In this context, metal market is being dominated by cautious attitude, and Shanghai metal prices will hardly rally in response.

China’s National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) announced on October 18th that Chinese economy grew 9.4% in the first three quarters, and the GDP growth for Q3 slowed down, while inflation pressures remained high, raising market doubts about the easing of monetary policy. SMM expects that Chinese Government will not make significant changes in the existing monetary policy, and will continue its tightening policy in the short term. Hence, cash flow pressures will not ease greatly. In other news, the Moody’s lowered the Spain’s credit rating, adding to market worries over solution towards the European debt issues. The US announced positive economic data and Goldman Sachs reported lower-than-expected losses, helping LME metal prices rally at the tail of trading from the rising equities. Overall market, however, was still dominated by negative factors.

To sum up, SMM believes that Shanghai metal prices will continue to fluctuate in the near future, given internal and external uncertain factors.