HANOI- Copper prices fell on Thursday after comments from US Federal Reserve officials raised fears of a sooner-than-expected interest rate hike in the world’s largest economy.
A rate hike could dampen liquidity into metals and slow a global economic recovery, eventually hurting demand for metals. Copper is also often used as a gauge of global economic health.
Three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange fell 1.2 percent to $9,370 a ton, while the most-traded July copper contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange rose 0.6 percent to 68,520 yuan ($10,577.67) a ton, tracking overnight gains in London.
A period of high inflation in the United States may last longer than anticipated, two US Federal Reserve officials said on Wednesday, prompting one to pull forward his views on when the central bank should start raising interest rates. — Reuters
