SINGAPORE — Most base metals rose on Wednesday amid improved risk appetite as crude oil and equities gained on partial easing of coronavirus restrictions, while eyes were on the outcome of the U.S. central bank’s meeting later in the day.
The Fed meeting’s results could help clarify how long the central bank intends to leave rates near zero and offer a glimpse of how its key officials feel the economy will evolve.
Three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange (LME) rose 0.1% to $5,230 a tonne by 0218 GMT, and the most-traded June copper contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange (ShFE) advanced 0.8% to 42,630 yuan ($6,021.70) a tonne.
FUNDAMENTALS
* PRICES: LME aluminum rose 0.6% to $1,513 a tonne, nickel was almost flat at $12,295 a tonne, zinc climbed 0.7% to $1,943.50 a tonne and lead was up 0.2% to $1,647 a tonne.
* SHFE PRICES: Shanghai aluminum increased 1.2% to 12,615 yuan a tonne, nickel was up 0.5% to 101,000 yuan a tonne, zinc climbed 1.3% to 16,290 yuan a tonne while lead eased 0.7% to 13,740 yuan a tonne.
MINING: As South Africa and Peru move to lift lockdowns, mining workers are resisting returning to work without adequate protective gear and information about cases at sites.
* RESULTS: Jiangxi Copper Co,, China’s top copper producer, said first-quarter profits fell 78.4% year-on-year while Aluminum Corp of China Ltd, reported a slump of 93.1% in January-March net profit from the same time last year.
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DATA/EVENTS (GMT)
0900 EU Consumer Confid. Final April
1200 Germany CPI Prelim YY April
1200 Germany HICP Prelim YY April
1230 US GDP Advance Q1
1800 US Federal Open Market Committee announces its
decision on interest rates followed by a statement
1830 US Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell holds
news conference on interest rate policy
PRICES
Three month LME copper
Most active ShFE copper
Three month LME aluminum
Most active ShFE aluminum
Three month LME zinc
Most active ShFE zinc
Three month LME lead
Most active ShFE lead
Three month LME nickel
Most active ShFE nickel
Three month LME tin
Most active ShFE tin
ARBS ($1 = 7.0794 Chinese yuan) (Reporting by Mai Nguyen; editing by Uttaresh.V)