Metals return to the party

It has been a good week for industrial metals, with prices rising on the back of data showing relatively stable industrial activity and solid growth in investment spending in China. The Fed’s rate hike on Wednesday had been widely anticipated and there was only a muted reaction in commodities markets. Indeed, gold actually rose on the news, encouraged by the fact that the Fed did not change its interest rate and inflation projections. Turning to next week, it is relatively quiet on the data front and markets could be thinly traded in the run up to the Christmas and New Year holidays. China’s Central Economic Work Conference, where the leadership sets out its priorities for 2018, starts on Monday but we are unlikely to learn much that is new.