Yesterday morning, all of the leading base metal stocks were declining lower. Leading stocks such as Freeport McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc (NYSE:FCX), Rio Tinto plc (NYSE:RIO), BHP Billiton Ltd (NYSE:BHP), and Tech Resources Ltd (NYSE:TCK) were all coming under early selling pressure. The catalyst for yesterday's decline in the base metal stocks was certainly due to the poor performance in the Chinese markets Tuesday night. The highly important Shanghai Index (China) closed lower by 2.60 percent Tuesday and that tells the world that a slowdown in Asia is very possible.
Copper is considered the most important industrial metal in the world. Yesterday, the iPath Dow Jones-UBS Copper Subindex Total Return ETN (NYSEARCA:JJC) is trading lower by 0.61 cents to $49.53 a share. Short term traders should watch for intra-day support around the $49.30, $49.00, and $48.65 levels.