A 3% drop in copper prices and 7% for zinc is a bad omen for the JSE on Wednesday.While oil halted its slide on Wednesday morning, with Brent gaining 0.6% to $47.64/barrel and West Texas Intermediate 0.53% to $45.48/barrel, other benchmark commodities fell.On the London Metal Exchange, copper futures for three months delivery fell 3% to $5,705/tonne and zinc fell 7% to $2,700.50/tonne.This sent BHP Billiton down 3.83% to A$24.48 in Sydney. BHP closed 2.18% lower at R227.24 on the JSE on Tuesday.Sliding base metal prices are likely to hit the JSE’s miners, contributing to a third day of losses for the all share index.But the rebound in oil prices may help Sasol, which fell 1.16% to R361.74 on Tuesday.Falling base metal prices saw Sydney’s S&P/ASX 200 index fall 0.37% and the Shanghai Composite index fall 0.96% ahead of the JSE’s opening.South African Revenue Services is scheduled to release October’s balance of trade figures at 2pm on Wednesday.Investec Bank economist Kamilla Kaplan ...
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