Commodities: Copper slips after weak China GDP numbers

Commodities were little changed at the start of the week, with most markets closed in observance of the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday in the States, including the Chicago Board of Trade.

Nevertheless, there were some interesting price moves, including in three-month LME copper futures, which ended the day at $6,056 per metric tonne, having begun the session from $6,048 a tonne.

The other main base metals contracts were little changed, although tin and zinc managed to put in some gains.

On a related note, at first glance figures released overnight appeared to show largely 'in-line' Chinese GDP growth for the last quarter of 2018.

However, according to Pantheon Macroeconomics, downwards revisions to readings for the prior year meant that in real terms year-on-year growth in fact slowed from a 6.2% clip in the third quarter of 2018 to 5.7% over the last three months of last year.

For their part, traders at Sucden Financial noted the roughly 10,000 tonnes of arrivals seen in New Orleans, while adding that "Since late November on-warrant LME copper inventories have risen 63%."

In the energy space meanwhile, Brent crude oil futures for prompt month delivery edged up by 0.19% to $62.82 a barrel on the ICE.

That was alongside a large 7.09% drop in February natural gas on NYMEX to $3.24/MMBtu.