was up 1.7% at $9,037.5 a tonne at 1703 GMT, having earlier touched its highest since March 2 at $9,047.5 a tonne. "Fundamentals still look strong on copper," said Dan Smith, head of research at Amalgamated Metal Trading. Seasonally strong demand has been reinforced by expectations of a boost from the post-pandemic economic recovery in China, which accounts for about half of global copper demand estimated at around 25 million tonnes this year. Traders said the lower greenback, which makes dollar-priced commodities more attractive for holders of other currencies, had triggered buying by funds, which use this relationship to generate buy and sell signals from numerical models.
The dollar was headed for its longest losing streak in 2-1/2 years on Thursday after the Federal Reserve sounded close to calling time on interest rate hikes. Also helping copper are worries about supplies on the LME market, which have resurfaced due to cancelled warrants - metal earmarked for delivery - rising to 45% of the total at 73,475 tonnes , compared with 29% a week ago. This can be seem in the premium or backwardation for the cash over the three-month copper contracts , last at $6.50 a tonne for the first time since January. Elsewhere, buyers of nickel on the LME nervous about receiving material that does not meet specifications are rolling their positions forward by selling nearby contracts and buying longer-dated ones. The discount or contango for the LME's cash against the three-month nickel contract hit its highest since December 2007. Three-month nickel was up 0.2% at $22,505 a tonne. In other metals, aluminium was up 2.3% at $2,340, zinc gained 1.5% to $2,910, lead added 0.4% to $2,124 and tin added 3.9% to $24,300. (Reporting by Polina Devitt and Pratima Desai; Additional reporting by Siyi Liu and Dominique Patton; Editing by Jason Neely, Jan Harvey and Andrea Ricci)
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