Copper prices soften on geopolitical uncertainty
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The most-traded copper contract prices on the Shanghai Futures Exchange and London Metals Exchange fell on Friday as the ongoing Israel-Iran conflict kept investors cautious.
On Thursday, Israel bombed nuclear targets in Iran, and Iran fired missiles and drones at Israel after hitting an Israeli hospital overnight, with U.S. President Donald Trump saying he will make a decision within the next two weeks on whether to get involved on Israel's side.
The most-traded copper contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange eased 0.6% to 77,990 yuan ($10,855.31) per metric ton as of 0103 GMT, down 0.3% on the week, and three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange pared 0.5% to $9,571 a ton, down 0.8% on the week.
Copper softened on both exchanges for the second straight week.
"A few issues have been stirring the metals market sentiment, and investors are divided on how to assess these, most importantly the Middle East, but also the possible U.S. interest rate cuts, and China's lower consumption, just to name a few," said a Shanghai-based metals analyst at a futures firm.
China's refined copper output in May gained 13.6% on the year to 1.25 million metric tons, data on Wednesday showed, in line with April's output while the country's demand for metals such as copper and aluminium has been muted by summer seasonal weakness.
LME tin gained 0.3% to $32,100, while nickel fell 0.6% to $14,960, zinc was down 0.6% to $2,625, lead dropped 0.6% to $1,981, and aluminium ticked down 0.2% to $2,517.
SHFE tin fell the most on the day by 1.2% to 260,560 yuan a ton, aluminium eased 0.7% to 20,465 yuan, and lead went down 0.4% to 16,810 yuan and zinc dropped 0.3% to 21,845 yuan.
