COMEX May 4 Copper Roundup

New York, May 4 news: Copper futures on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (COMEX) rose on Thursday, rising for the first time in three sessions.

As of the close, copper futures rose by 1.75 cents to 1.95 cents. Among them, the most actively traded July 2023 copper closed at $3.863 per pound, up 1.80 cents or 0.47% from the previous trading day.

July copper traded in a range of $3.826 to $3.9075.

The contract closed Wednesday at its lowest close since Jan. 5.

Copper prices rebounded from their lowest close in four months as expectations for a pause in interest rate hikes by the Federal Reserve helped improve investor risk appetite and boosted metal prices, analysts said.

Copper prices fell earlier this week as they were hit by mixed data from China and a resurgence of U.S. banking problems. Copper prices have all but erased gains made earlier in the year as China's economic recovery is uneven and Western economies face recession fears.

Copper prices (near-term contract) rose 1.17% so far this year as of Thursday, mainly because market participants earlier hoped that the outlook for China's economic growth and metals demand would improve. Thursday's closing price was 10.15% lower than a year earlier and 21.89% lower than its all-time peak of $4.929 in March 2022. In contrast, COMEX copper futures fell by 14.58% in 2022, reflecting the worrying outlook for global economic growth. High inflation has prompted central banks in Europe and the United States to actively raise interest rates to curb inflation, while higher borrowing costs have exacerbated the risk of economic recession. In the medium to long term, the green transition of the global economy and electrification are helping to boost additional demand for the metal, which is widely used in the power and construction industries, while copper mine production has been disrupted.

From the perspective of the external market, after returning from the May Day holiday, the most actively traded June copper futures on the Shanghai Futures Exchange rose 20 yuan to close at 66,990 yuan per ton on Thursday. Bonded copper for July delivery on the Shanghai International Energy Exchange (INE) rose 90 yuan to close at 59,320 yuan a tonne.

On Thursday, the trading volume of COMEX copper futures was 79,234 lots, compared with 59,480 lots in the previous trading day; the volume of short positions was 195,983 lots, compared with 195,462 lots in the previous trading day.