Shanghai copper fell to its lowest level in more than a year on Wednesday, down for a fifth straight session amid simmering US-China trade tensions. Open interest in Shanghai copper, a measure of market liquidity, on Tuesday hit its highest since July 18, as futures brokerages added a total of 3,047 lots to their short positions on the October contract. Shorts outnumber longs on every contract until at least January.
The Shanghai copper futures curve remains in backwardation until January, a sign of higher immediate demand, with China copper premiums still near a 22-month high. All other Shanghai base metals dropped with the exception of tin, which eked out a 0.5 percent rise.
The most-traded October copper contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange fell as much as 2 percent in the night session to 47,040 yuan ($6,881.72) a tonne, its lowest since June 2017. It ended down 1 percent at 47,510 yuan. Shanghai nickel dropped 2.1 percent, after hitting its lowest since April 24 overnight, while zinc, which is down 17.3 percent year-to-date, lost 2.1 percent and lead slumped 1.7 percent.