Copper prices fell on Monday as disappointment over China’s growth target hit sentiment ahead of the release of data from the United States that could influence the direction of interest rates. interest and dollar.
* Traders said testimony from Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell on Tuesday and Wednesday will also be closely scrutinized for clues to the outlook for U.S. rates and the dollar.
* As of 1700 GMT, three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange (LME) was down 0.5% at $8,938.50 a tonne. It gained more than 3% last week after a Fed official came out in favor of a steady quarter-point rate hike.
* “The Chinese growth target was not very encouraging for industrial metals markets,” said a trader. “This week the focus will be on Powell and the monthly US jobs report.”
* China, the world’s biggest consumer of metals, set a modest growth target of around 5% for this year at the opening of the annual session of its National People’s Congress (NPC) on Sunday.
* US Nonfarm Payrolls data, due out on Friday, is expected to show 200,000 new jobs created in February.
* Stocks in LME-registered warehouses have risen more than 10% since March 1, to 72,400 tonnes. In warehouses supervised by the Shanghai Futures Exchange Stocks have fallen in recent days, but continue to accumulate an increase of more than 340% since the end of December, to 240,980 tonnes.
* In other base metals, LME aluminum fell 0.8% to $2,386.50 a tonne; zinc lost 1.3% to $3,038.50; lead subtracted 0.2% to $2,114.50; tin fell 1.1% to $24,480; and nickel fell 0.4% to $24,495.
* To view base metal futures prices:
– COPPER
– LEAD
– TIN
– NICKEL
– ALUMINUM
– ZINC