LONDON: Copper prices edged higher on Friday, supported by a slightly softer dollar, although gains were capped by concerns over the Iran-Israel war, U.S. tariffs and Chinese demand.
Three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange was up 0.4% at $9,652 a metric ton in official open-outcry trading. Earlier in the session, prices hit the weakest since June 13 at $9,558.50.
The U.S. dollar index eased 0.3%, making dollar-denominated metals more attractive to buyers using other currencies.
“We’ve got the geopolitical uncertainty in the background although maybe a little bit of reprieve on that side in the sense that Trump wants to allow a bit more time for diplomacy,” said Nitesh Shah, commodity strategist at WisdomTree.
U.S. President Donald Trump will decide in the next two weeks whether the U.S. will get involved in the Israel-Iran air war, the White House said on Thursday.
“But we still have all the trade fears, which may have become a secondary feature over the last week. It’s not that fardown the line before the expiry of the 90-day pause on the Liberation Day tariffs.”
Copper hits near one-week low on stronger dollar, growth fears
The 90-day pause in Trump’s broadest “reciprocal” tariffs will end on July 8.
A Shanghai-based metals analyst at a futures firm said in addition to the Middle East and U.S. interest rates, investors were concerned about weaker demand in top metals consumer China.
China’s refined copper output in May gained 13.6% on the year to 1.25 million metric tons, data on Wednesday showed, in line with April’s output, while the country’s demand for metals such as copper and aluminium has been muted by summer seasonal weakness.
U.S. Comex copper futures steadied at $4.88 a lb, bringing the premium of Comex over LME copper to over $1,000 a ton.
Among other metals, LME aluminium ticked up 0.3% to $2,529, nickel fell 0.8% to $14,940, zinc edged up 0.1% to $2,643.5, lead dropped 0.2% to $1,988.5 while tin gained 1.3% to $32,425.
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