Copper price slips as US dollar hits 20-year high

Copper for delivery in July fell 0.5% from Thursday’s settlement price, touching $4.26 per pound ($9,391 per tonne) midday Friday on the Comex market in New York.

The most-active June copper contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange fell 1.3% to 72,100 yuan ($10,783.89).

The Federal Reserve on Wednesday raised its benchmark overnight interest rate by half a percentage point, the biggest jump in 22 years, to fight against soaring inflation.

A stronger dollar makes greenback-denominated metals expensive for buyers using other currencies.

Further, China’s zero-covid policy has taken a toll on the market.

Officials at all levels of government should “resolutely fight with any words and acts distorting, doubting and denying China’s covid control policy,” said President Xi Jinping on Thursday.

“That may serve to dampen some hopes of any covid-19 policy shift, which suggests that economic recovery will remain prolonged and uneven,” wrote Yeap Jun Rong, a market strategist at IG Group.