Copper prices rose towards $13,000 per tonne, influenced by a weaker dollar and China achieving its GDP target. This uplifted the industrial metals market, suggesting buoyed demand expectations despite prior market fluctuations.<\/p>\n
In the United States, copper inventories increased for the first time since September 2025. Warehouses tracked by the London Metal Exchange (LME) reported a rise of 950 tons. This shift indicates a reversal in previous market trends, where the LME spot price was surpassing the Comex front-month futures price. The change implies a stabilisation of the market distortions caused by previous tariffs.<\/p>\n
The recent drop in the dollar is providing a strong tailwind for copper, making the metal cheaper for international buyers. We have seen the Dollar Index (DXY) fall from its late-2025 highs to below 104 this month, reacting to new tariff threats. This macro trend is a primary driver for the broad buying we are observing across the metals complex.<\/p>\n
Demand expectations from China are also holding up, which supports prices. Now that we know China met its GDP target for 2025, the latest Caixin Manufacturing PMI reading of 50.8 confirms that industrial activity continued to expand into the new year. This provides a fundamental justification for remaining positive on copper demand for the first quarter.<\/p>\n
We are seeing early signs that the extreme market tightness of last year may be easing. The first increase in US copper inventories monitored by the LME since September 2025 is a critical signal that the inventory drain is reversing. In fact, since the start of January, global LME copper stocks have already increased by over 5,000 tonnes.<\/p>\n
For derivative traders, the key takeaway is the shift in pricing between the COMEX and LME exchanges. The large premium on COMEX futures that pulled metal into the US throughout 2025 has now disappeared, with LME spot prices trading higher. This opens the door for spread trades that profit from the continued normalization between the two markets.<\/p>\n
Given that these price moves are heavily influenced by political headlines, volatility is likely to remain high. A sudden change in tariff policy could easily cause a sharp price reversal. Therefore, using call options to participate in further upside while limiting risk, or using straddles to trade the volatility itself, may be more strategic than simply holding long futures positions.<\/p>\n
Create your live VT Markets account<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0start trading<\/a>\u00a0now. <\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Copper nears $13,000 per tonne as China’s growth boosts demand; U.S. inventory rise signals stabilization.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":62,"featured_media":16966,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[59],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-39628","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-live-updates"],"acf":{"acf_article_selection_author":null},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vtmarkets.com\/en-asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39628","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vtmarkets.com\/en-asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vtmarkets.com\/en-asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vtmarkets.com\/en-asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/62"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vtmarkets.com\/en-asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39628"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.vtmarkets.com\/en-asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39628\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vtmarkets.com\/en-asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16966"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vtmarkets.com\/en-asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39628"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vtmarkets.com\/en-asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39628"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vtmarkets.com\/en-asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39628"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}