Copper up on supply woes but dollar drives worst week since April
SINGAPORE: Copper recovered from some of the previous days’ losses on Friday , supported by supply concerns, but earlier declines still set it up to notch its worst weekly fall since April. Benchmark three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange was up 0.32% at $14,289 a metric ton by 0300 GMT. That marked a decline of 2.28% since the end of last week. Official data on Wednesday showed that…
Copper prices rebounded on Friday, buoyed by worries about supply but still ended with the weakest weekly performance since April. The benchmark three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange rose 0.32% to $14,289 per metric ton, marking a 2.28% drop since last week's end. Chile, the world's biggest copper producer, saw its output drop 12.8% year-on-year in August.
The country's largest copper mine, Escondida, rejected a collective contract offer, which could trigger a strike and exacerbate supply worries. In China, copper inventories in warehouses monitored by the Shanghai Futures Exchange hit a 14-month low of 38,744 tons, their lowest since January 2024. Supply constraints and a weak dollar, which makes copper more expensive for foreign buyers, prevented copper from recovering fully from its decline.
The US dollar hit a 17-month peak due to global bond market turmoil caused by high inflation and government debt. As a result, borrowing costs worldwide soared to multi-decade highs, potentially dampening economic sentiment and impacting copper prices, often referred to as "Dr Copper" for its role as an economic health indicator.
Other metals also saw declines, with aluminium falling 0.18%, zinc up 0.15%, lead unchanged at 0.03%, nickel down 0.19%, and tin decreasing by 0.72%.
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