The most-traded July copper contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange slipped 0.5 percent to 51,020 yuan ($8,010.17) a tonne on Wednesday as the US dollar hovered near a five-month high versus a basket of major currencies following a surge in Treasury yields. In Shanghai, aluminium rose 0.6 percent to 14,790 yuan per tonne and zinc advanced 0.6 percent to 23,780 yuan.
"A stronger dollar and trade uncertainties remain prevailing negatives, but given that all six metals are expected to be in deficit this year, we do see an element of underlying support for the group as a whole," Meir wrote in a report.
Also weighing on risk appetite was news that North Korea cancelled high-level talks with Seoul, denouncing military exercises between South Korea and the United States, breaking from several months of easing relations on the peninsula.
The Shanghai Futures Exchange said it will launch China's first real-time platform for trading physical commodities from copper to chemicals, as it seeks to improve transparency and challenge rivals in the global futures market.
China's new home prices rose 0.5 percent in April from a month earlier, compared with an increase of 0.4 percent in March.
China's Tianqi Lithium is nearing a deal to buy a 24 percent stake in Chile's Sociedad Quimica Y Minera, one of the world's biggest lithium producers, for about $4.3 billion.
Rio Tinto CEO Jean-Sebastien Jacques said resource companies needed to build "the United Nations of the mining industry" to tackle rising resource nationalism and cost inflation.
The United States is seeking to make a trade deal with China, White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow said as bilateral talks between the world's two economic powerhouses resume in Washington this week.
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