London copper hovers near two-week high, Fed meet eyed

28 Oct, 2014

SYDNEY: London copper was perched near its highest in two weeks on Tuesday on a seasonal pick up in Chinese demand, but traders were cautious ahead of a key US monetary policy meeting.

FUNDAMENTALS

Three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange had edged up 0.1 percent to $6,739.50 a tonne by 0129 GMT, after small gains in the previous session when it hit its highest since Oct. 15 at $6,752 a tonne.

The most-traded January copper contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange climbed 0.6 percent to 47,490 yuan($7,765) a tonne.

The US Federal Reserve this week will likely reinforce its stated willingness to wait a long while before hiking interest rates after a volatile month in financial markets that saw some measures of inflation expectations drop worryingly low.

The European Central Bank's plan to buy private sector assets may fall short of its goal and pressure is likely to build for bolder action early next year.

Copper product-maker Luvata is aiming for 3-4 percent global sales growth next year, its managing director said, with sales in North America and top consumer China expected to offset weakness in Europe.

Workers at Freeport-McMoRan Inc's giant Indonesian copper mine plan to go on strike for a month from next week, a union official said on Monday, after the company failed to make changes to local management following a fatal accident.

Copyright Reuters, 2014

Read Comments