Copper prices trimmed losses on Tuesday, holding above $14,000 a metric ton after hitting a nearly 2-1/2-month low earlier in the session amid uncertainty over the outcome of the US midterm elections.
Benchmark three-month copper CMCU3 on the London Metal Exchange was down 2.1% at $14,034 a metric ton by 1702 GMT after touching $13,883 — its lowest since August 19 — earlier in the session.
Investors were assessing the potential implications of the midterm elections for fiscal policy and monitoring the US-Iran conflict.
Iran and the US are still far from a deal to end their war, a senior Iranian official told Reuters, while mediator Qatar stepped up efforts to bridge differences and avert a renewed escalation after the US elections.
“We also suspect that copper is ‘catching up’ to the rout that has set in over the AI semiconductor group during the last few days,” said Marex analyst Ed Meir.
An inflow of 17,325 tons of copper into LME-registered warehouses in the US also weighed on sentiment, he added. LME copper MCUSTX-TOTAL stocks rose to a four-month high of 309,650 tons, daily data showed.
The yuan weakened sharply after China’s central bank said it would raise the amount of foreign currency that financial institutions must set aside as reserves. This has made dollar-priced metals more expensive for buyers in the top consumer.
However, continuing signs of tight physical supply in China limited losses: the Yangshan copper premium SMM-CUYP-CN, a gauge of demand for imported metal, remained near $200 a ton — its highest in more than a decade.
Among other LME metals, aluminium CMAL3 lost 2.0% to $3,032.50 a ton, zinc CMZN3 dropped 2.6% to $3,790.50, lead CMPB3 fell 1.1% to $1,885 and nickel CMNI3 eased 1.3% to $15,340.
Tin CMSN3 slid 4.3% to $47,450, having hit $47,385, its lowest since mid-April. Aluminium, zinc and lead touched their weakest levels since the second half of October.
(Reporting by Polina Devitt; additional reporting by Solomon Cefai;Editing by Joyjeet Das, Shreya Biswas and Joe Bavier)
