LONDON: Copper prices edged up on Tuesday as a weaker dollar and an incident at a major mine in Indonesia provided support, although overall activity was muted ahead of the U.S. data revisions.
Three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange rose 0.1% to $9,924 per metric ton by 0956 GMT.
“There is a lot of focus on the U.S. economy with revisions of the U.S. job growth through March expected today after last Friday’s data showed that job growth almost stalled in August,” said Dan Smith at Commodity Market Analytics.
The dollar wallowed close to a seven-week low as investors braced for the revisions that could point to a jobs market in worse shape than initially thought, shoring up the case for even deeper Federal Reserve interest rate cuts.
In top metals consumer China, the yuan rose to a 10-month high against the U.S. currency, making dollar-priced metals more attractive for Chinese buyers.
“Demand for copper is still pretty strong because China is doing quite well as was shown by its Monday’s export-import data. It is the rest of the world that is causing a concern,” Smith said.
Freeport-McMoRan said it had temporarily halted mining in Indonesia’s Grasberg, one of the world’s largest copper mines, after a large flow of wet material blocked access to parts of the underground mine, restricting evacuation routes for seven workers.
Miner Anglo American said it has agreed a merger with Canada’s Teck Resources in what would be the biggest mining sector M&A deal in over a decade. The two companies operate adjacent copper mines in Chile.
Meanwhile, LME aluminium was steady at $2,616.50 a ton, ignoring daily LME data showing that available aluminium inventories in the LME-registered warehouses fell to 375,025 tons, their two-month low, after 67,400 tons of fresh cancellations in Malaysia.
LME zinc fell 0.8% to $2,853.50, lead CMPB3 lost 0.3% to $1,985, tin slid 0.4% to $34,145, while nickel dipped 0.2% to $15,205.
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