ISRI Monday Report-For the week beginning April 22nd

Markets were mostly off to a weaker start this morning as a series of lackluster corporate earnings reports and an unexpected monthly dip in U.S. existing home sales reportedly weighed on prices

For the week beginning Monday, April 22^nd

Markets were mostly off to a weaker start this morning as a series of lackluster corporate earnings reports and an unexpected monthly dip in U.S. existing home sales reportedly weighed on prices. The National Association of Realtors reported this morning that existing home sales declined 0.6% m-o-m in March, although the association attributed the slip to inventory constraints as home prices continue to rise. In London, base metal prices were easier this morning with the exception of nickel as the LME official 3-mo. nickel asking price improved to $15,230/mt ($6.91/1b.). The other metals didn't fare as well as LME official 3-mo. asking prices fell for copper ($6,916/mt = $3.137/1b.), aluminum ($1,873/mt = 85 cents/lb.), lead ($2,016/mt = 91 cents/lb.) and zinc ($1,875/mt = 85 cents/lb.). While the DJ-UBS Commodity Futures Index was off around 0.5% overall, gold and crude oil futures firmed to $1,423/to and $88.65/bbl, respectively, in late morning trading in New York. On Wall Street the Dow Industrials were off 0.3% late this morning while the U.S. dollar firmed to $1.304 vs. the Euro but eased to 99.30 Japanese Yen.

Last	CHG	% CHG	Prior Settle	Open	High	Low
COMEX Copper May 3.1335	-0.015	-0.5%	3.1485	3.1465	3.165	3.082
($/lb)
COMEX Gold Jun	1,423.6	28.0	2.0%	1,395.6	1,408.3	1,438.8	1,403.5
($/to)
COMEX Silver May	23.3	0.4	1.6%	23.0	23.3	23.7	23.1
($/to)
NYMEX Light Sweet Crude	88.65	0.38	0.4%	88.27	88.2	89.45	87.69
Jun ($/bbl)
SHFE Aluminum Aug	14,565	-25	-0.2%	14,590	14,570	14,605	14,535
(RMB/mt)
SHFE Copper Aug	49,730	-740	-1.5%	50,470	50,440	50,750	48,970
(RMB/mt)
SHFE Zinc Aug	14,580	55	0.4%	14,525	14,620	14,670	14,500
(RMB/mt)

This week we'll see additional figures on U.S. housing, durable goods and consumer sentiment, while flash PMI numbers are due out for China and the Euro zone. The big release of the week comes on Friday with the BEA's advance estimate of 1^stquarter GDP growth in the U.S. The consensus forecast is that growth picked up from 0.4% in 40 2012 to 2.8% in the first quarter of this year. Briefing.com has an even rosier forecast that growth accelerated 3.2% during Jan-Mar. We'll have a look at the week's economic, commodity and scrap market highlights in this week's Friday Report which comes to you from India as we'll be reporting from the MRAI's Indian Metals Recycling Conference 2013 in New Delhi.

Date	Time	Release	Period	Consensus	Prior
Apr 22	10:00	Existing Home Sales	Mar	5.01M	4.95M
Apr 23	09:00	FHFA Housing Price Index	Feb	NA	0.6%
Apr 23	10:00	New Home Sales	Mar	415K	411K
Apr 24	07:00	MBA Mortgage Index	04/20	NA	4.8%
Apr 24	08:30	Durable Orders	Mar	-3.1%	5.6%
Apr 24	08:30	Durable Goods -ex transportation	Mar	0.0%	-0.7%
Apr 24	10:30	Crude Inventories	04/20	NA	-1.233M
Apr 25	08:30	Initial Claims	04/20	351K	352K
Apr 25	08:30	Continuing Claims	04/13	3060K	3068K
Apr 25	10:30	Natural Gas Inventories	04/20	NA	31 bcf
Apr 26	08:30	GDP-Adv.	Q1	2.8%	0.4%
Apr 26	08:30	Chain Deflator-Adv.	01	1.6%	1.0%
Apr 26	09:55	Michigan Sentiment - Final	Apr	72.4	72.3

*U.S. On-Highway Diesel Fuel Prices (dollars per gallon)**
				Change from
	04/01/13	04/08/13	04/15/13	Week ago	Year ago
U.S.	3.993	3.977	3.942	-0.035	-0.185
East Coast	4.025	4.009	3.977	-0.032	-0.204
New England	4.148	4.134	4.105	-0.029	-0.164
Central Atlantic	4.083	4.062	4.032	-0.030	-0.248
Lower Atlantic	3.958	3.946	3.911	-0.035	-0.180
Midwest	3.970	3.956	3.923	-0.033	-0.098
Gulf Coast	3.915	3.888	3.852	-0.036	-0.186
Rocky Mountain	3.922	3.899	3.882	-0.017	-0.247
West Coast	4.116	4.117	4.066	-0.051	-0.323
West Coast less California	4.016	4.023	3.970	-0.053	-0.386
California	4.200	4.196	4.147	-0.049	-0.271

*prices include all taxes

Chart of the week