SHANGHAI, Nov. 23 (SMM) –Both Standard & Poor's (S&P) and Moody's said overnight that the US credit rating wouldn't immediately be downgraded even if the US congress couldn't reach an agreement on the deficit reduction, easing market worries and helping LME copper prices move at high levels. However, as markets were more focused on the release of China's economic data on November 23rd, and since Thursday is Thanksgiving Day, the US national holiday, speculative interest was waning gradually, which resulted in limited market transactions. Besides, the US announced the revised 3Q GDP figure in the evening, which came in weaker than expected and failed to lift copper prices. Hence, LME copper prices kept fluctuating around USD 7,400/mt during the US and European trading hours, and finally closed at USD 7,393/mt. LME copper inventories experienced an increase for the first time following significant declines, but overall, LME copper inventories have kept falling down stably recently, with a total drop of 70,000 mt as of November 22nd from the middle of September.

Markets are positively awaiting guidance from China's economic reports today, which will help push up LME copper prices in the session. However, LME copper prices will ease rising momentum after breaking resistance at the moving averages, with prices expected between USD 7,350-7,570/mt during today's Asian trading hours. Chinese stock markets will slightly recover from recent weak performance. SHFE copper prices will follow LME copper prices to climb, while SHFE 1202 copper contract prices will fluctuate in the RMB 54,300-55,900/mt range. In the spot market, copper premiums are expected to fall slightly to between positive RMB 450-650/mt versus SHFE 1112 copper contracts as SHFE copper prices move higher.