SINGAPORE- Copper prices rose on Tuesday as the Federal Reserve’s latest move to support a struggling US economy hit by the COVID-19 pandemic boosted risk-on sentiment across markets.
Benchmark copper on the London Metal Exchange (LME) jumped 1.9 percent to $5,818 a ton, while the most-traded July copper contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange (ShFE) advanced 0.6 percent to 47,030 yuan ($6,650.73) a ton.
The Fed widened its corporate bond buying program on Monday, while a weaker US dollar also made greenback-priced LME metals cheaper for buyers using other currencies.
In Chile, the world’s top copper producer, copper miners’ unions said there had been an “alarming” increase in coronavirus cases among workers and called for a reform of big miners’ operational continuity plans.
“Copper has the tailwind of a potential Chile labor union halt in operations,” said a Singapore-based metals trader, adding that copper prices have recently moved in tandem with the rally in US equities.