Copper's three-month price on the London Metal Exchange continued its uptrend at the close of trading on Tuesday February 5, with moderate volumes and a surge in the US dollar index doing little to curb the metal's upward price movement, while the rest of the complex broadly consolidated.
Climbing above $6,200 per tonne for the first time since October 2018, the three-month copper price continued to find support in afternoon trading, despite the LME's latest commitment of traders report (COTR) showing that the addition of gross shorts at 1,637 lots offset mild buying of 104 lots.Fresh inflows across the LME, CME and SHFE added a further bearish element to the copper complex, but a market deficit estimated at around 545,000 tonnes, according to the International Copper Study Group, could contribute to upward price drift.With much of Asian trading subdued by a national holiday in China, volumes were moderate, with copper's 13,700 lots topping the complex at the close of trading."Copper prices are firm, and a lot of [participants] are waiting for an outcome on recent US-China [trade] discussions," a Europe-based copper trader told...