US and UK market indices closed lower while most Asian markets were positive yesterday.
Copper staged a "modest pick-up" yesterday afternoon on the London Metal Exchange, to close down 0.7%.
The move came amid reports of workers at Antofagasta's Antucoya mine in Chile set to strike, following a strike which began this week at Teck's Carmen de Andacollo mine and the Peruvian government declaring a state of emergency on the road linking MMG's Las Bambas mine to the port, Marex Spectron's Dee Perera noted. Dalian iron ore futures hit a six-week low yesterday as China's top steel making city Tangshan issued a second-level smog alert which requires operations to be further limited, Reuters reported, and the country outlined its annual winter anti-pollution plan.
Among the majors, Rio Tinto (LSE: RIO) closed 1.7% lower in London yesterday, Newmont Goldcorp (NYSE: NEM) rose 0.4% in New York and BHP (ASX: BHP) was down 2.5% at the time of writing.
Finally, the gold price was US$1,488 an ounce on the spot market while palladium has hit a fresh high on the spot market of $1,753/oz.