Copper gains but set to snap seven-week winning streak

Copper rose on Friday as the dollar weakened, but was headed for its first weekly decline in eight weeks, with London Metal Exchange inventories climbing and nearby price spreads narrowing sharply during the week.

Benchmark three-month copper on the LME was up 0.53% at $14,111.50 a metric ton by 0340 GMT.

The contract was down 0.30% so far this week.

The most-traded copper contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange rose 0.36% to 107,570 yuan ($16,003.63) a ton.

It was set to end the week just 0.07% lower, after a 0.32% drop last week.

Copper inventories in warehouses monitored by the LME continued to build, totalling 239,925 tons on Thursday, up just over 17% from 204,975 tons on Aug 14, when stocks were at their lowest since February.

The premium for cash copper over three-month delivery surged to $545 a ton on Monday, its widest since late 2021. It has narrowed to around $76 in the current session.

More than 38,000 tons of copper was delivered into the LME warehouse system over the first three days of the week after inventories had fallen for 42 consecutive sessions through last Friday.

A weaker US currency offered support to base metals on Friday.

The dollar index hovered near a three-month low and was headed for a weekly decline of more than 0.8%.

The dollar has come under pressure after the US Treasury moved to expand buybacks of long-dated government debt this week, while investors remained concerned about the country’s fiscal outlook.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Thursday the government could further increase repurchases, after the Treasury said a day earlier it would double longer-dated buybacks to at least $4 billion per operation.

Among other LME metals, aluminium rose 0.03%, zinc added 0.48%, lead gained 0.16%, nickel climbed 0.41% and tin advanced 0.44%.

On the SHFE, aluminium added 0.11%, zinc jumped 1.38%, lead rose 1.22%, nickel fell 0.67% and tin gained 0.92%.