Dec 13 (Reuters) – London copper prices, often used as a gauge of global economic health, edged higher on Monday as investor appetite for riskier assets remained strong with expectations of a faster policy tightening by the U.S. Federal Reserve mostly priced in.
Three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange CMCU3 was up 0.3% at $9,538 a tonne, as of 0400 GMT, while the most-traded January copper contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange SCFcv1 inched 0.2% higher to 69,520 yuan ($10,927.55) a tonne.
Asian stocks rose with investors seemingly confident markets can weather whatever comes from a host of central bank meetings this week, including the likely early end to U.S. policy stimulus. MKTS/GLOB
The U.S. central bank, due to meet on Dec. 14-15, is widely expected to signal faster tapering of its asset buying programme and an early start to rate hikes.
Also meeting are the European Central Bank, the Bank of England and the Bank of Japan, and all are heading toward normalising policy at their own, often glacial, pace.
Meanwhile, on-warrant LME inventories MCUSTX-TOTAL rose to 78,300 tonnes, their highest in more than two months, but were still down 67% from August high of 238,725 tonnes.
FUNDAMENTALS
* LME aluminium CMAL3 was up 0.7% at $2,624 a tonne, zinc CMZN3 fell 0.1% to $3,325, nickel CMNI3 rose 0.4% to $19,830 a tonne and lead CMPB3 gained 0.5% to $2,295.5 a tonne.
* ShFE aluminium SAFcv1 rose 0.6% to 18,940 yuan a tonne, nickel SNIcv1 fell 0.5% to 144,900 yuan a tonne, lead SPBcv1 climbed 1.7% to 15,705 yuan a tonne and tin SSNcv1 ticked 0.2% higher to 285,110 yuan a tonne.
* China’s major copper smelters boosted output by 1.3% in November from the previous month as fewer producers carried out maintenance and power supply shortages eased, state-backed research house Antaike said on Friday.
* Major copper miners and Chinese smelters have moved closer to agreement on treatment and refining charges (TC/RC) for 2022, two sources with knowledge of the talks said on Friday.
* MMG Ltd’s 1208.HK Las Bambas copper mine has increased its offer of jobs and investment to a Peruvian province blockading a road used to transport the red metal in a bid to stave off a production shutdown next week, meeting minutes seen by Reuters show.
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* The dollar was quiet at the start of a week in which central bank meetings, including by the Federal Reserve, will likely drive currency markets, while sterling fell slightly after Boris Johnson warned about the impact of the new COVID-19 variant. USD/
($1 = 6.3619 Chinese yuan)
(Reporting by Eileen Soreng in Bengaluru; Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips)
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