Copper on track for another weekly gain

Copper prices in London were on track for a second consecutive weekly gain on Friday, helped by efforts to support the property market in top metals consumer China, a weaker dollar and improved risk appetite in financial markets.

Three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange (LME) eased by 0.1% to $8,401 a metric ton in official open-outcry trading but remained 1.5% over the week.

“The positive performance in copper this week is very much driven by a risk-friendly environment in financial markets overall, extending the gains that were triggered by the lower than expected US CPI earlier this month,” said Julius Baer analyst Carsten Menke.

A weaker U.S. currency, meanwhile, made dollar-priced commodities more attractive for buyers using yuan and other currencies.

Industrial metals were also buoyed by China’s renewed support for the property sector. Higher import demand in China is reflected in a rally in the Yangshan copper premium, which ended this week at a one-year high.

Higher prices and premiums will eventually undercut China’s recent stronger demand impulse “largely continuing to keep copper prices capped and in a range”, said JP Morgan analyst Gregory Shearer.

On the technical front, the various supportive factors – including supply concerns over Panama and Peru – were not enough to drive copper through resistance coming from the 200-day moving average of $8,456.

In other metals, LME aluminium CMAL3 dipped 0.4% to $2,216 a ton in official activity, tin CMSN3 fell 0.7% to $24,295, zinc CMZN3 added 0.4% to $2,547 and lead CMPB3 slipped 0.5% to $2,203.

Nickel CMNI3 lost 2.5% to $16,200, its lowest since April 2021, pressured by a global surplus created by rising output in Indonesia.
Source: Reuters (Reporting by Polina Devitt in London, Additional reporting by Siyi Liu, Editing by David Goodman)