SHANGHAI, Oct. 21 (SMM) –Markets was overnight plagued by a series of negative news during the US and European trading hours. German government said the EU summit on the weekend would not reach any agreement of European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) leveraging and that there was possibility the summit could be postponed, worsening the European debt crisis. The Euro-zone Confidence Index fell for a fifth consecutive month in October. Later, the US Department of Labor announced the initial jobless claims were down 6,000 to 403,000 in the week ending October 15th, and the Existing Home Sales slid by 3%, both within market expectations. Besides, since copper prices on the Shanghai Futures Exchange fell by their daily limit during Asian trading hours, the US and European markets were dominated by bearish sentiment and LME copper prices directly lowered to test USD 6,700/mt after losing the psychological level of USD 6,800/mt, leading the decline among other commodities. However, LME copper prices pared some losses at the tail of trading due to a drop in the US dollar index, with prices closing at USD 6,784/mt, down more than 5.5% and registering the biggest one-day loss in four weeks, and selling pressures were growing.

Copper markets will remain weak today, since Asian investors are unwilling to provide support when copper prices are on a downward track and the EU summit will be held on the weekend. However, a low level of near USD 6,770/mt reached during China's National Day holiday period will probably limit the weak LME copper price trends today. Therefore, LME copper prices are expected to fluctuate between USD 6,750-6,900/mt during today's Asian trading hours. Chinese stock price movements will be pessimistic today. SHFE copper prices will continue to open lower following slumps in LME copper prices, and directly touch RMB 50,000/mt and then struggle at the price mark, while SHFE 1201 copper contract prices will move in the RMB 49,500-51,000/mt range.