
All eyes were on Brussels on Wednesday as European ministers met to discuss about the prospects of Greece. Metal traders remained confused on the fate of major industrial metals on contradictory events governing the markets. Barring Nickel other metals were mostly on the sidelines.
On one hand, Europe crisis resurfaced after Moody's downgrade of France credit rating on the contrary US economy continued to resurge. The much talked term fiscal cliff was subsided a bit by the reports of better housing starts last night.
US census bureau reported a rise of 3.6% in the US housing starts in October to 0.894 million. The expectations were of a 3.7% decline. This was highest level of housing starts since July 2008.
In Japan, trade deficit has depicted a gloomy picture as exports fell sharply lower. Japanese exports were also reported to have plunged 6.5% amid tension between Japan and China.
The US Dollar dwindled between gains and losses against the Euro before closing lower on Tuesday. The greenback tested a low of 1.2828 and a high of 1.2763. US currency settled at 1.2816, down 0.04%. The dollar index, which tracks the performance of the greenback versus a basket of six other major currencies, inched down by 10 pips to 80.89.
This year Nickel has whipped 11% of its value in 2012. The prices were at $ 18420 levels at the beginning of this year. Higher production of stainless steel and rise in inventories due to lower demand has affected Nickel negatively.


