Dec 14 (Reuters) – London copper fell to a one-week low on Tuesday, pressured by concerns over the impact of the Omicron variant and rising stockpiles while a firmer dollar made the greenback-denominated commodity more expensive for holders of other currencies.
Three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange CMCU3 was down 0.4% to $9,411 a tonne, as of 0250 GMT. Earlier in the session, prices fell to their lowest level since Dec. 6 at $9,398.
The most-traded January copper contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange SCFcv1 slipped 1.1% to 68,660 yuan ($10,785.08) a tonne, having earlier fallen to its lowest level since Nov. 19 at 68,510 yuan.
Mainland China detected first case of the Omicron variant in the port city of Tianjin. Meanwhile, major Chinese manufacturing province Zhejiang is fighting its first COVID-19 cluster this year, with more than a dozen Chinese-listed companies suspending production due to tightened COVID-19 curbs.
On-warrant LME inventories MCUSTX-TOTAL rose to 80,350 tonnes, their highest in more than two months, with LME cash copper on the three-month contract MCU0-3 flipping to a discount of $12.50 a tonne, first time since Sept. 17.
Chinese refined copper slipped to a discount of 30 yuan a tonne SMM-CU-PND.
The dollar index =USD hovered near a one-week high touched in the previous session, denting the greenback-denominated metal’s appeal.
Attention was also on the U.S. Federal Reserve’s two-day policy meeting, due to start later in the day, where the central bank is expected to announce that it will accelerate the end of its bond-buying programme in order to clear the way to lift off interest rates.
FUNDAMENTALS
* LME aluminium CMAL3 eased 0.2% to $2,648.5 a tonne, zinc CMZN3 was flat at $3,324.5, nickel CMNI3 fell 0.9% to $19,540 a tonne and lead CMPB3 was down 0.7% to $2,282 a tonne.
* ShFE aluminium SAFcv1 rose 1.4% to 19,150 yuan a tonne, nickel SNIcv1 fell 1.8% to 142,210 yuan a tonne, lead SPBcv1 eased 0.4% to 15,640 yuan a tonne and tin SSNcv1 was up 0.5% at 285,730 yuan a tonne.
* For the top stories in metals and other news, click
TOP/MTL or MET/L MARKETS NEWS
* Asian stocks and oil prices slipped on Tuesday as the spread of the Omicron coronavirus variant rattled investors who were already on edge ahead of a slew of central bank decisions this week, including a key Federal Reserve meeting. MKTS/GLOB
DATA/EVENTS (GMT)
0700 UK Claimant Count Unem Chng Nov
0700 UK ILO Unemployment Rate Oct
U.S. Federal Reserve’s Federal Open Market Committee starts its two-day meeting on interest rates
($1 = 6.3662 Chinese yuan)
(Reporting by Eileen Soreng in Bengaluru; Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips)
(([email protected]; Within U.S. +1 646 223 8780, Outside U.S. +91 80 6749 6131; Reuters Messaging: [email protected]))
The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.
www.nasdaq.com