Jan 5 (Reuters) – London copper prices fell on Wednesday, retreating from a six-week high hit in the previous session, as the U.S. dollar held firm on expectations for early interest rate hikes from the Federal Reserve.
Three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange CMCU3 was down 0.4% to $9,725 a tonne by 0330 GMT. On Tuesday, prices hit their highest since Nov. 25 at $9,812.
The most-traded February copper contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange SCFcv1 rose 0.6% to 70,210 yuan ($11,018.69) a tonne.
The dollar hovered close to a two-week high hit in the previous session against a basket of major currencies while scaling a five-year peak against the Japanese yen. USD/
While a firmer dollar makes greenback-priced metals more expensive to holders of other currencies, an interest rate hike could trim liquidity in financial markets and slow recovery in the world’s biggest economy.
Among other industrial metals, LME aluminium CMAL3 was down 0.1% at $2,837.5 a tonne, nickel CMNI3 slipped 0.7% to $20,980 a tonne, lead CMPB3 was down 0.2% at $2,293 a tonne, tin CMSN3 was flat at $39,195 a tonne and zinc CMZN3 fell 0.8% to $3,575 a tonne.
FUNDAMENTALS
* ShFE aluminium SAFcv1 rose 0.4% to 20,330 yuan a tonne, while nickel SNIcv1 gained 1.6% to 154,130 yuan, zinc SZNcv1 was up 1.4% at 24,430 yuan and lead SPBcv1 fell 1.1% to 15,260 yuan. Tin SSNcv1 climbed 2.2% to 296,780 yuan a tonne, having earlier scaled a record high of 297,900 yuan.
* Chile’s total copper production in November fell by 0.6% year-on-year to 481,800 tonnes, due to drops from state-owned Codelco and the giant Escondida mine, the Chilean Copper Commission reported on Tuesday.
* Indonesian coal miners are due to hold talks with government officials on Wednesday on a ban on the country’s coal exports that has unnerved global markets for the fuel and triggered energy security concerns in some major economies.
* For the top stories in metals and other news, click
TOP/MTL or MET/L MARKETS NEWS
* Asian stocks slipped following a mixed Wall Street session as higher U.S. Treasury yields weighed on global tech firms and pushed the dollar to a five-year high against Japan’s yen. MKTS/GLOB
DATA/EVENTS (GMT)
0850 France Markit Serv, Comp PMIs
0855 Germany Markit Services PMI
0855 Germany Markit Comp Final PMI
0900 EU Markit Serv, Comp Final PMIs
1445 US Markit Serv, Comp Final PMIs
1900 US Federal Open Market Committee will release
the minutes from its Dec. 14 – 15 policy meeting
($1 = 6.3719 Chinese yuan)
(Reporting by Eileen Soreng in Bengaluru; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu)
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