Copper withers on doubts about further gains

• LME lead stocks hit highest since June 2018

• Lead price sinks to one-month low

LONDON: Copper prices slipped on Thursday as investors questioned whether its recent rally was exaggerated, but losses were capped by a slide in the dollar after US jobs data and comments by the European Central Bank (ECB).

Copper, which has rebounded about 50% from 45-month lows in March, is the best-performing industrial metal this year, helped by a recovery in top metals consumer China and tumbling inventories.

Three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange was down 1.3% at $6,646 a tonne by 1615 GMT, paring losses from a intra-day low of $6,609 and after rising on Wednesday.

LME copper inventories ticked higher on Thursday after repeatedly touching the lowest levels since 2005 in recent weeks.

"That raised the question of whether for copper we have priced in most of the supportive news in terms of declining stocks and Chinese data. That leaves the market somewhat focused on what happens on the macro front," said Ole Hansen, head of commodity strategy at Saxo Bank in Copenhagen.

"Having failed above $6,800, the really big number for copper is the uptrend from the March low and that's coming in at $6,550, which if broken could add additional selling pressure."

The euro jumped to a one-week high and the dollar index slipped after the ECB repeated there were no foreign exchange targets for the common currency. A stronger euro makes metals priced in dollars cheaper for buyers using the euro.

Benchmark treatment charges for copper concentrate next year are likely to fall for a sixth straight year to their lowest since 2011 at about $60 a tonne. LME lead inventories rose to 131,750 tonnes, the highest since June 2018, having more than doubled over the past two months.

The discount of LME lead cash to the three-month contract rose to $28.75 a tonne by Wednesday's close, the highest since November 2018, indicating healthy supplies. LME aluminium rose 0.3% to $1,789 a tonne, nickel fell 0.6% to $14,830 and tin declined 0.3% to $17,955. Lead dropped 0.6% to a one-month low of $1,883 while zinc lost 0.5% to $2,411 after touching $2,383, the weakest in over three weeks.