Copper prices rose by 0.8% on Friday, climbing to $14,190 per metric tonne on the London Metal Exchange (LME) after a 1.9% drop the previous session. The rebound followed a stabilization in global technology stocks, which had been pressured by concerns over the funding demands of artificial intelligence development. While the relief in tech shares restored some investor confidence in industrial metals, lingering uncertainty over copper inventories and demand kept sentiment fragile.
Ole Hansen, head of commodity strategy at Saxo Bank, noted that the Nasdaq futures rebound likely drew metals investors back into the market. However, he warned that copper remains vulnerable if prices dip below the September low of $13,925 per tonne, a level that could trigger further selling pressure.
New inventory data offered conflicting signals about the copper market’s supply-demand balance. LME copper stocks increased by 800 metric tonnes on Friday, a slower pace than the previous week’s accumulation. Inventories had risen by a fifth over that period to 273,750 tonnes, raising concerns about the availability of excess metal and the strength of underlying demand. In contrast, Chinese warehouses registered with the Shanghai Futures Exchange saw a 26.5% weekly decline in copper holdings, a positive sign from the world’s largest copper-consuming economy.
The US has attracted large volumes of copper amid speculation that the government could impose tariffs, prompting traders to move copper into the country ahead of potential trade restrictions. The resulting stockpile has raised concerns that metal accumulated in the US could eventually be re-exported into international markets, increasing available supply elsewhere and putting renewed pressure on prices. Hansen highlighted that the massive pile of copper in the US is clearly weighing on prices given the risk of re-exporting that copper into the rest of the market.
While copper prices showed signs of stabilization, other industrial metals faced their own challenges. Nickel dropped 1.8% to $15,825 a tonne, as traders awaited clearer signals from Chinese companies considering coordinated production cuts at their Indonesian operations. The International Nickel Study Group last week forecast a small global nickel surplus for the year, reversing an earlier projection of a deficit.
Among other LME metals, aluminium slipped 0.1% to $3,007 a tonne, while zinc rose 1.1% to $3,710. Lead was little changed at $1,898 a tonne, and tin advanced 1.3% to $50,715.
