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The Chinese leadership is confident the country has found "it." Germany is sure "it" hasn't happened yet. Those searching for "it" in the United States have been told by President Obama to be patient.

Italian car company Fiat says it's definitely seen "it",global metals giant Rio Tinto thinks we're near "it" but Detroit automotive companies are still frantically searching for "it."

The hot topic that is exercising the minds of financial and political leaders is whether the world economy has stopped free-falling and is starting to stabilize. "It" is the floor and even the first fleeting sightings last week helped the LME metals consolidate at higher levels.

The Most Valuable Commodity "Confidence", as Chinese premier Wen Jiabao has said, "is more important than gold or money" at times of economic  turbulence.

China, for one, is confident that the worst is over.

"Before (the economy) bottoms out, it has to bottom. I believe it has bottomed, with the stimulus package and signs of recovery in some industries," said Fan Gang, who sits on the Chinese central bank's monetary policy advisory committee.

Zhou Xiaochuan, governor of the central bank, agrees. In a paper posted on the bank's website on Thursday, Zhou said "some leading indicators are pointing to recovery of economic growth, indicating that rapid decline in growth has been curbed."

Recovery in China may not be enough to drag the rest of the world out of recession but the country's dominant influence in the metals markets means the sector should be an early beneficiary.

Hence the confident assertion by Guy Elliott, chief financial officer of global mining house Rio Tinto, that "we are not far away from the bottom" and that "there is a case, you can believe, for a recovery in the second half."

BUYER OF FIRST RESORT