By Leia Michele Toovey- Exclusive to Copper Investing News

Now that the U.S. election is over, the economy is back in the spotlight.

Earlier this week, pre-election excitement sent the economy on an ascent; following the election, the markets tracked back their gains. On Wednesday, copper, considered a key indicator of economic health, was down five per cent.  Is America’s choice of a president to blame? Not necessarily. Now that the election is over, focus has returned to the state of the global economy.

The dollar’s rally after Obama’s victory was largely to blame for wiping out early week gains in copper and the other base metals.  However, more bad news from around the globe about the economy also weighed in on the metals. The European Central Bank (ECB) cut interest rates by 50 basis points while the Bank of England (BoE) surprised by slashing its rates by 1-1/2 percentage points. European shares extended losses after the ECB cut while U.S stock index futures fell.

The market prices are largely being influenced by fears of recessionary demand,  as the economic outlook deteriorates so goes the outlook for metals consumption.  The Bank of England rate cut shook investor confidence.  A rate cut much larger than expected is being taken a signal that the near future for the UK economy is worse than anticipated.

The International Monetary Fund’s latest report added to the doom and gloom. Prospects for global growth have deteriorated over the past month and developed economies will likely contract for the first time since World War II, it said. The IMF said it now expects 2009 global economic growth of 2.2 per cent, down 0.8 percentage point from the forecast it gave in October.

Copper’s poor demand environment is being reflected with the continuous rise in inventories. Stocks of copper in LME-registered warehouses jumped 5,075 tonnes on Thursday, bringing the total to 252,550 tonnes, a rise of more than 40,000 tonnes in about two weeks time and at their highest since March 2004.

Copper for three-month delivery MCU3 on the London Metal Exchange (LME) was at US$3,965 per tonne by 2 p.m., GMT, versus a session low of US$3,855 per tonne and compared to its close of US$4,070 a tonne on Wednesday.

Shanghai copper prices opened at their 4 per cent downside limit on Thursday. Benchmark Shanghai copper touched 31,060 Yuan at the open, down 1,300 Yuan from Wednesday’s closing value. By 0105 GMT, Shanghai copper had pared losses at 31,210 Yuan.

Company news

Private Placements

Canstar Resources Inc. (TSX.V:ROX) announced a non-brokered private placement financing of up to $250,000 via the sale of 5,000,000 units at $0.05 each.  Canstar is a junior exploration company focused on base and precious metals exploration in Canada

Bell Copper Corporation(TSX.V:BCU) will be conducting a non brokered private placement of up to 15,000,000 units at a price of $0.10 each.  The company hopes to raise proceeds of $1,500,000.

Fjordland Exploration Inc. (TSX.V:FEX) is conducting a non brokered private placement of non flow through units to raise $150,000 in general working capital. Fjordland is a Vancouver based mineral exploration company focused on the discovery of gold, copper, and molybdenum projects in BC.

New discoveries

Continental Nickel Limited (TSX.V:CNI) announced additional assay results from the second season of drilling on its 70 per cent owned Nachingwea nickel sulphide project in Tanzania. In 2008, one hundred and six drill holes totaling 12,888 meters have been completed. Assay results have been received for an additional seventeen diamond drill holes for a total of twenty-seven drill holes reported year to date. Excellent results continue as thirteen out of the seventeen recent drill holes intersected high grades of nickel and copper in sulphide and oxide mineralization. The highlights include 6.25 meters grading 5.48 per cent nickel and 2.05 per cent copper, one drill hole with 17.41 per cent nickel and 3.27 per cent copper over 1.60 meters, 2.56 per cent nickel and 0.34 per cent copper over 16.0 m, a 34.0 meter interval  grading 1.66 per cent nickel and 0.23 per cent copper, and a drill hole returning 4.37 per cent copper over 22.0 meters.

Capella Resources Ltd (TSX-V:CPS) announced assay results from the 2008 sampling program on its Labrador Base Metals Initiative. The company is actively exploring for nickel, copper, cobalt and other metals in central Labrador. Five main diamond-drilling target areas were defined based on geophysics, geology and assay results. When combined with historical data, the 2008 sampling gave 17 samples with greater than 0.1 per cent Cu with peak values of 0.47 per cent Cu.  Nine anomalies gave peak copper assays from 0.41-0.44 per cent.

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