Copper price rises on dollar decline and easing of COVID-19 restrictions in China

Copper prices rose on Friday, buoyed by a weaker dollar and the easing of COVID-19 restrictions in China, but upcoming US jobs data kept the market on edge.

Three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange (LME) was up 0.1% at $8.348 a tonne at 1030 GMT, after gaining nearly 5% so far this week. .

The most traded January copper contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange gained 0.9% to 66,240 yuan ($9,415.11) a tonne.

“The weaker dollar has helped, but there are also signs that China may have to revise its zero COVID policy and that’s good for metals markets toosaid Nitesh Shah of WisdomTree.

China, the world’s biggest consumer of metals, continued to relax COVID-19 testing requirements and quarantine rules in some Chinese cities on Friday. China’s COVID policies, the strictest in the world, have choked everything from domestic consumption to factory production and global supply chains.

Also supporting metals was weakness in the dollar index, which was trading near 16-week lows after falling more than 5% last month on hopes the Federal Reserve will start to slow its pace of rate hikes starting in November. their December meeting.

However, the market was unsettled ahead of the US Non-Farm Payrolls data, due at 13:30 GMT.

In other base metals, aluminum was down 0.1% at $2,482.50; Nickel was down 0.4% at $27,500; zinc was up 0.3% at $3,088; Lead was up 0.7% at $2,188; and tin rose 0.7% to $23,500.

With information from Reuters