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Copper prices slipped on Wednesday as investors worried about weaker economic growth and metals demand, but the losses were moderated by measures to support China’s troubled property sector.
Three-month copper CMCU3 on the London Metal Exchange (LME) was down 0.2% at $8,433 a metric ton in official open-outcry trading after rising 1.1% on Tuesday.
Some investors seem to be having second thoughts about weak U.S. jobs data on Tuesday, which was initially welcomed as a sign that inflation could be curbed without a sharp rise in the unemployment rate, said Saxo Bank analyst Ole Hansen.
“Maybe it’s a realisation that bad news may not be good news, simply because it does highlight the risk that we are heading to an economic slowdown,” Hansen said.
“Copper is doing reasonably well despite all of the recent concerns about China because the green transition is gathering momentum not only in China, and that’s providing underlying support.”
On the Shanghai Futures Exchange, the most traded October copper contract SCFcv1 rose 0.4% to 69,380 yuan ($9,514.93) a metric ton.
The Yangshan copper premium SMM-CUYP-CN touched its highest since December 2022 at $52 a ton on Tuesday as the price difference between London and Shanghai created an opportunity to ship metals to China for profit.
Bolstering metals was news that Guangzhou became the first major Chinese city to announce an easing of mortgage curbs as the government ramps up efforts to revive the crisis-hit property sector
Metals industry players were awaiting manufacturing data from China on Thursday and Friday, which is expected to show activity contracted for a fifth straight month in August.