A recovery in the US dollar index weakened London Metal Exchange zinc and lead prices in the morning of Wednesday April 21, while nickel and aluminium prices regained some of the previous day's losses.
The dollar index was at 91.32 on Wednesday morning, up from Tuesday's reading of 90.96. It hit its lowest since March 4 on Tuesday morning when it fell to 90.85, which had allowed for some price recovery on the LME but this has now been reversed. A higher dollar index usually suppresses LME prices since it makes dollar-denominated commodities, such as base metals, more expensive to purchase in other currencies. As such, zinc and lead were the most affected on Wednesday at 9am, down 0.8% and 0.6% respectively. Zinc's three-month price was down to $2,791 per...