Base metals futures on the London Metal Exchange (LME) and Shanghai Futures Exchange (SHFE) moved down by up to 2.13% on 18 August. However, SHFE copper rose by 1%.
Fed indicates need of further rate hikes
Also, the dollar rose sharply as Federal Reserve officials spoke of the need for further rate hikes.
The USA is leaning toward supporting a third straight 50 or 75-basis-point interest rate hike in September 2022.
The US dollar index pulled up sharply in the US trading session, SteelMint observed.
Base metals market performance – 18 August
SHFE copper rose 1.1%, aluminium rose 0.57%, lead slid 0.4%, and zinc lost 0.22%.
LME 3-month copper was slightly down by 0.69%, aluminium rose 0.79%, lead down 2.13%, zinc down 4.33% and nickel fell by 1.57%.
MCX aluminum was down 0.18%, nickel fell 0.10%, copper down 1.6%, zinc down 1.06% d-o-d.
Stock levels fall d-o-d
LME registered warehouse stocks of base metals fell by around 2% d-o-d with copper falling the most by 1.86%.
Oil prices up slightly
Brent oil futures rose slightly to $96.22 per barrel and crude oil WTI futures increased to $90 per barrel at the time of reporting.
Currency exchange
The Indian rupee was at 79.75, depreciating by 0.31 paise against the US dollar. The dollar index, which gauges the value of the dollar in a basket of six different currencies, hovered at around $107.66 at the time of reporting.
Leave a Reply