A combination of concerns over the spread of the delta variant of Covid-19, a sturdy dollar index and falling US equities triggered a sell-off in London Metal Exchange prices during the afternoon's trade on Monday July 19.
Nickel's three-month price showed the biggest drop of the day, down by 3.2% at the close to $18,462 per tonne, from Friday's $19,070 per tonne price at the same time."Nickel prices were above $19,000 [per tonne] today. Now, because of the equity markets selling off, they are lower, but they will move up again because of the Indonesian [Covid-19] situation," one trader said.The metal's price had reached a five-month high of $19,205 per tonne on Friday, boosted by a number of supply concerns and falling inventories on the LME, but faltered throughout the day on Monday.Copper's three month price was down...