LONDON: Copper prices rose on Thursday as strong U.S. economic data and rising U.S. stock markets drew attention from concerns that the spread of the Omicron coronavirus variant could dampen demand.
Benchmark copper on the London Metal Exchange (LME) was up 0.5% at $9,490.50 a tonne at 1705 GMT but down about 4% from a week ago.
Prices are still up more than 20% this year and have held up much better since Omicron was identified than oil, which is down about 15% in the past week, said WisdomTree analyst Nitesh Shah.
“This underscores how strong demand for copper is and how likely it is to come out of this period with structural strength,” he said.
“As long as the market’s thinking about the medium-term growth, copper should hold up pretty well.”
RALLY: Used to transmit power, copper has been boosted by massive government stimulus and expectations of investment in infrastructure for electrification.
U.S.: Strong jobs and factory data point to a U.S. economy in robust health.
MARKETS/OMICRON: Globally, stock markets edged lower as the United States, France and India reported their first Omicron cases.
CHINA: Advisers to China’s government will recommend authorities set a 2022 economic growth target of 5-5.5%, below the target of more than 6% for 2021, sources said.
CHINA PROPERTY: Three Chinese developers plan to sell bonds in China to raise a combined 18 billion yuan ($2.83 billion), which should ease liquidity strains on the sector.
However, analysts still expect China’s property downturn to continue into the first half of 2022.
FORECASTS: Chilean copper producer Codelco predicted prices would fall next year but Commerzbank analysts said copper would average $9,400 a tonne in 2022 and Bank of America said it would average $9,813 in 2022.
CHILE: Copper output in Chile fell year-on-year in October.
ALUMINIUM: LME aluminium was down 2.1% at $2,607.50 a tonne after on-warrant aluminium inventories in LME-registered warehouses rose by 16% to 677,225 tonnes.
OTHER METALS: Benchmark zinc fell 1.2% to $3,163 a tonne, nickel gained 0.1% to $19,960, lead fell 2% to $2,254.50 and tin was flat at $39,100.
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