LONDON- Copper prices fell in London on Friday, retreating from a 14-month high hit in the previous session as the US dollar rose after March job growth beat expectations, potentially delaying anticipated US interest rate cuts this year.
Three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange (LME) fell 0.4 percent to $9,318.50 per metric ton. Copper prices on Thursday hit $9,397.5, the highest since January 2023.
“Copper has done a lot recently and the rise has been rapid, so even if it continues going up in the short term, downside risks are starting to build,” said Dan Smith, head of research at Amalgamated Metal Trading.
Better-than-expected manufacturing activity data from top metals consumer China and hopes for rate cuts in the United States and Europe boosted growth-dependent industrial metals earlier this week. Chinese markets were closed on April 4-5.
“The seasonality charts of previous years indicate that normally 9th week of a year is the strongest one for copper, and then it tends to go down closer to summer. We are now in the 14th week,” Smith said.
Chinese copper factories typically slow down over the Northern Hemisphere summer months.
The discount for the LME cash over the benchmark three-month copper contract hit a fresh record high of $118.75 on Friday, which, according to Smith, supported the idea that copper prices were getting closer to their peak.
From a technical point of view, copper’s 5 percent -growth this week brought it above major moving averages with the nearest, 21-day moving average currently at $8,914.
Meanwhile, aluminum rose 0.2 percent to $2,448.5, lead lost 1.4 percent to $2,108 and nickel gained 0.2 percent to $17,745. Tin added 0.4 percent to $28,735 after hitting the highest level since July 2023 of $29,045.
Zinc shed 0.5 percent to $2,631.5. It was heading for a 8.0 percent weekly gain, its biggest rise since January 2023.
