LONDON: Fund buying helped copper higher on Tuesday, but worries about demand prospects in top consumer China and an inventory uptrend in warehouses registered with London Metal Exchange (LME) are likely to cap prices.
Traders are selling copper and other industrial metals into the rally that started around 0830 GMT on momentum buying by funds that trade on signals from numerical models rather than supply and demand fundamentals. Benchmark copper on the LME traded 0.7% higher at $9,694 a metric ton in official rings.
“The market is choppy, struggling to find real direction - and recent Chinese data has done little to assure anyone about the demand outlook,” one metals broker said, adding that a firmer dollar would also weigh on prices of industrial metals.
Activity among smaller Chinese manufacturers grew at the fastest pace since 2021 thanks to overseas orders, a private survey showed. However, optimism was tempered by another broader survey suggesting weak domestic demand.
Stocks of copper in LME-registered warehouses have climbed nearly 80% since mid-May to reach 184,475 tons for their highest levels since December. Traders say much of the metal delivered to storage facilities in Asia comes from China.
Copper started to slide from May peaks above $11,100 a ton as LME stocks started to rise. “Copper’s performance is part-capped, too, by weak activity in China’s property sector, said Panmure Liberum analyst Tom Price.
On the technical front, copper faces upside resistance around $9,750, where the 21-day moving average sits. In other metals, aluminium was up 0.6% at $2,530 a ton, zinc rose 0.1% to $2,932, lead added 0.5% to $2,229, tin advanced 0.6% to $33,100 and nickel was up 0.5% at $17,450.
“Increasing trade tensions also raise the spectre of stickier inflation. The argument to own commodities will therefore come back to the fore,” Marex analysts said in a note.
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