The London Metal Exchange three-month copper price slightly improved at the close on Thursday March 19, up by 2% but firmly below the $5,000-per-tonne resistance level, while nickel recorded its highest daily trading volume since November 2016.
Copper's underlying price on the LME closed at $4,830 per tonne this afternoon, while turnover was once again just below 30,000 lots over the day.Yet buying activity in LME copper over the afternoon prompted the forward spreads to narrow, with copper's benchmark cash/three-month spread trading in a $4.75-per-tonne contango, narrowing from a $15.50-per-tonne contango earlier this week. After open interest in LME copper dropped by more than 25,000 positions yesterday - below 300,000 open positions for the first time since June 2019 - the metal gained some 12,990 positions overnight to close at 305,956 total...