Wednesday, January 24, 2024

Copper: Freeport McMoRan Reports, Beats, Stock Gets A Lift From Chinese Stimulus Hopes (FCX)

As we've been saying for a year, any stimulus ordered by the Chinese Communist Party is not going into new apartment construction - that's the last thing they need - but every time a plan is announced copper jumps and then falls back. Today's action has the red one up 0.0855 (2.25%) 3.8790.

FinViz, weekly prints. The Nov. 2022 - Jan. 2023 spikes were "The Great Reopening".

Copper Chart Daily

And from Investor's Business Daily, January 24:

FCX Stock Clears Key Level As China Stimulus Lifts Copper Price  

Freeport-McMoRan (FCX) topped Q4 estimates early Wednesday, but Beijing's measures to revive China's economy appear to be the main impetus behind a jump in FCX stock and for rival Southern Copper past key levels. The price of copper rose 2.2% to $3.88 per pound after drifting lower in recent weeks.

China Stocks Bounce
The biggest sign of stimulus coming from China is the sharp bounce of its major stock indexes over the past two sessions. Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index rose 3.6% on Wednesday. That followed Tuesday's news that Beijing may deploy some of the $278 billion held offshore by state-owned enterprises to prop up its stock market.

Also, China's central bank announced a half-point reduction in the required level of cash banks must hold as reserves. That would allow about $140 billion to be deployed into the economy, such as for loans.

China's central bank often works to shore up markets ahead of the country's Lunar New Year Festival, which this year will close the Shanghai Stock Exchange beginning Feb. 9, to reopen on Feb 19. Markets tend to decline ahead of the holiday, as individual investors withdraw funds for the more-than-week-long holiday.

China's stock market hosts some 219 million individual investors, which accounted for an estimated 60% of trading volumes in the country's stock exchanges in 2022, according to the Wall Street Journal.

FCX Earnings
Freeport-McMoRan posted a Q4 profit of 27 cents a share, down 48% from a year ago, a nickel ahead of estimates. Revenue rose 2.5% to $5.91 billion, edging past forecasts of $5.86 billion....

....MUCH MORE, IBD packs a lot of information into not very much space.