Copper edges up amid fragile US-Iran ceasefire

Copper prices edged up on Friday and were on track for weekly gains, but doubts on whether the US-Iran ceasefire would hold tempered the initial optimism on global growth, keeping a lid on metal prices.

The benchmark three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange rose 0.29% to $12,718.50 a metric ton as of 0312 GMT, and is set to end the week up near 3%.

The most-active copper contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange added 0.50% to 98,370 yuan ($14,401.79) a ton, poised to post a near 2% weekly gain.

The Shanghai copper hit an over three-week high at 98,550 yuan a ton earlier this session.

The London copper hit a three-week high on Thursday. Investors are closely watching how Saturday’s negotiations between the US and Iran in Pakistan develop.

The ceasefire announcement on Tuesday sparked a sharp decline in oil prices and helped to ease immediate fears of a deeper hit to global growth.

Iran has cited Israel’s attacks on Lebanon as a key sticking point, while the US has accused Tehran of failing to uphold commitments on oil flows through the strait.

Meanwhile, Chinese inflation data showed that factory-gate prices rose in March for the first time in more than three years, suggesting the conflict is already feeding higher costs into the industrial economy.

China’s producer price index rose 0.5% from a year earlier, ending a 41-month run of declines, while producer prices in non-ferrous metal mining and beneficiation jumped 36.4% and those in non-ferrous smelting and rolling rose 22.4%.

Elsewhere on the LME, aluminium ticked 0.04% higher, nickel added 0.13%, tin advanced 0.45%, zinc dropped 0.36%, and lead dipped 0.13%. Among other SHFE base metals, aluminium added 0.14%, tin rose 1.01%, zinc dropped 0.25%, lead lost 0.75%, nickel tumbled 0.91%.