LONDON: Copper prices rebounded on Thursday, buoyed by a slide in the dollar and bets that China’s lacklustre metals demand will recover following its lifting of COVID-19 controls.
Three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange was up 1.4% at $9,020 a tonne by 1515 GMT after slipping 0.4% in the previous session and touching a four-week low on Monday.
Helping to boost industrial metals was a tumble in the dollar index, partly on views that inflation has peaked and the Federal Reserve will be able to slow rate hikes.
A softer US currency makes dollar-priced metals cheaper for buyers using other currencies.
A slowdown in the US economy is allowing the Federal Reserve to move “more deliberately” with any further interest rate increases, Richmond Fed President Thomas Barkin said on Thursday.
Hopes for stronger demand in top metals consumer China also lifted prices.
“The recovery after the Chinese New Year has definitely been weak, but I’m broadly bullish about the next few weeks for copper,” said Dan Smith, head of research at Amalgamated Metal Trading.
Among other metals, LME aluminium gained 0.5% to $2,492.50 a tonne, nickel advanced 3.5% to $28,335, zinc climbed 0.6% to $3,151, lead added 0.3% to $2,127.50 and tin rose 1.7% to $28,075.
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