Chicago 13/07/2016 - Copper futures jumped to a two-month high early Tuesday morning in US before overbought conditions led to a minor consolidation before the final settlement.
Copper for September delivery on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange rose 2.4 cents or 1.1 percent to $2.2370 per pound. Earlier, the price touched $2.2775, the highest since May 1.
Base metals have generally benefitted from the calmer market conditions and anticipation of central bank action in Asia, plus possible policy easing in Europe and the UK following the Brexit decision.
Investors are awaiting further data out of China with the world's largest end-user of commodities struggling to maintain 6.5-7 percent growth in recent months as it transitions away from metal-intensive infrastructure projects.
Earlier in data, the Chinese trade balance at 311 billion yuan was below the expected 320 billion yuan.
In metals-related statistics, imports of unwrought copper and copper products fell 1.7 percent month-on-month to 420,000 tonnes in June, while unwrought aluminium and aluminium product exports slipped 7.9 percent month-on-month to 380,000 tonnes in June.
Its GDP, industrial production, fixed asset investment and retail sales data will be released on Friday.
Speculative positioning have improved in recent days, according to the latest CFTC statistics, the net short fund position fell 25,342 contracts from 44,811 contracts to 19,469 contracts between June 14 and July 5. This was the result of short-covering of 46,027 contracts; longs also reduced their exposure by 20,685 contracts.
Elsewhere, Theresa May was appointed prime minister after David Cameron stepped down this morning. May has insisted that the UK will honour the vote to exit the EU market once the two-year negotiation period is complete.
Tomorrow, the Bank of England is meeting to discuss monetary policy - investors are speculating that it will lower interest rates in response to the massive pound devaluation and uncertainty relating to the Brexit decision.
"It's been just three - very volatile - weeks since the unprecedented British referendum vote to terminate membership in the EU; May’s appointment appears to be the first event cheered by the markets," Stifel chief economist Lindsey Piegza said.
Meanwhile in US equities, the Dow Jones industrial average and S&P were little changed overnight after hitting record highs on Tuesday, while the dollar softened 0.5 percent to $1.1106 against the euro.
While in data, US import prices for June ticked up 0.2 percent, missing expectations of a 0.6 percent gain. Later, crude oil inventories and the Beige Book are all scheduled for release.
As for other commodities, light sweet crude (WTI) oil futures on the Nymex were down $2.05 or 4.4 percent at $44.75 per barrel while the most active Comex gold contract was at $1,343.90 per ounce, up $8.60 or 0.6 percent.
(Editing by Tom Jennemann)