LONDON: Copper and other industrial metals fell on Friday after weak economic data from top consumer China fanned concerns over demand and hopes of a further U.S. rate cut this year faded.
Benchmark three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange was down 1% to $10,850 per metric ton in official open outcry trading, having slipped to as low as $10,822 earlier in the session.
The metal was still on course for a weekly gain of around 1.2%, having briefly crossed the $11,000 mark on Thursday. It hit an all-time peak of $11,200 on October 29.
“Copper looked like it was going to hit a new high a couple of times last week,” said Robert Montefusco at broker Sucden Financial. “It’s failing at the moment because the fear of the AI bubble in stocks bursting is keeping us at bay. But longer term, I think copper goes again.”
The selloff in U.S. stocks on Thursday followed through into Asia on Friday, Montefusco noted. “The production numbers in China were not so good … the property numbers weren’t very good either.”
China’s factory output and retail sales grew at their weakest pace in over a year in October, piling pressure on policymakers to revamp the $19 trillion export-driven economy.
Meanwhile, hopes of a Federal Reserve interest rate cut in December dimmed after a growing number of Fed policymakers signalled reticence on further easing.
The LME complex was down across the board. Aluminium fell 1.4% to $2,855 a ton, zinc dropped 0.9% to $3,028, and nickel sank 0.8% to $14,860 after touching its lowest since August 1. Tin slid 0.6% to $37,000, while lead slipped 0.1% to $2,076.50.
“Apart from tin and zinc, nearby spreads remain in contango, suggesting availability of deliverable material and limited tightness in the front-end of the curve,” Sucden said in a note.
The premium of the cash LME zinc contract over the three-month forward -3 was at $121.59 on Thursday, while for tin -3 it was $15.30.
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