BEIJING- Copper dipped on Wednesday, with rising COVID-19 cases in the world’s top metal consumer China weighing on sentiment, while investors awaited more clues on US interest rates ahead of the minutes of the last Federal Reserve meeting.
Three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange was down 0.1 percent at $8,008 a ton, while the most-traded December copper contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange added 0.4 percent to 64,900 yuan ($9,084.93) a ton.
Risk assets had been under pressure earlier this week as China is battling numerous COVID flare-ups, fanning concerns about the impact on global growth due to the world’s second-largest economy’s tightening curbs.
China reported 29,157 new COVID-19 infections on Nov. 22, versus 28,127 a day earlier.
Also this week, some Chinese copper smelters are meeting miners in Singapore to discuss 2023 copper concentrate treatment and refining charges (TC/RCs).
Freeport-McMoRan Inc expects difficult negotiations with Chinese smelters amid market uncertainties and a potential surplus, a senior company official said on Tuesday.
The dollar retreated across the board on Tuesday, ceding some of the ground gained in the previous session.
