Industrial metals prices crumple, gold hits a new peak

The weaker-than-expected economic activity data for China in Q2 weighed on industrial metals prices early in the week. The mood was further darkened by the lack of any specific stimulus announcements at the Third Plenum and resulted in most industrial metals prices falling around 5% this week. We think that the big falls in metals prices are now behind us and that China’s robust export volumes and the likelihood of greater fiscal spending will provide support to most industrial metals prices over the rest of this year.