LONDON: Prices of copper and other industrial metals fell on Friday, weighed down by a stronger dollar as investors sold risky assets after Israel attacked Iran.
Benchmark three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange shed 1.3% to $9,575 a metric ton by 1010 GMT, the weakest since June 3.
The dollar index climbed and world stock markets tumbled after Israel launched a large-scale military strike on Iran.
A firmer dollar makes commodities priced in the U.S. currency more expensive for buyers using other currencies.
“The market is de-risking on copper and aluminium,” said Alastair Munro, senior base metals strategist at broker Marex.
“The key now will be whether the risk managers in the USA start to knock on the money managers’ door saying you’ve got to reduce risk ahead of the weekend.”
U.S. Comex copper futures dropped 1.9% to $4.74 a lb, bringing the premium of Comex over LME copper to $879 a ton.
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Munro said much of the selling was by Commodity Trade Advisor (CTA) investment funds, which are largely driven by computer programs, while Chinese participants emerged at the lows to do some buying.
In China, the most-traded aluminium contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange (SHFE) gained for the third straight day, up 0.4% at 20,425 yuan per metric ton, outperforming other SHFE metals.
“Aluminium, compared with the other metals, has been performing rather strongly recently as demand from the domestic market has been robust, while SHFE stocks have been declining,” a Hangzhou-based analyst from a futures company said.
Aluminium stocks in SHFE warehouses fell to 110,001 tons in the week ended June 13, the lowest since February 2024, having tumbled by 54% since late March.
Among other metals, LME aluminium gave up 1.2% to $2,487.50 a ton, zinc fell 1.7% to $2,598.50, lead dipped 0.3% to $1,991.50, nickel slipped 0.2% to $15,165 and tin was down 0.1% to $32,600.
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