Industrial metals down pressured by stronger dollar
(Recasts, updates prices for Asia market close)
Industrial metals were subdued on Wednesday, weighed by a higher dollar, while improved risk appetite across financial markets following U.S. President Donald Trump's latest tariff respite offered support.
Three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange was down 0.1% at $9,585 per metric ton by 0704 GMT.
The most-traded copper contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange (SHFE) edged 0.1% lower to 78,200 yuan ($10,868.36) per ton.
The dollar index added to overnight gains, making dollar-denominated assets more expensive to holders of other currencies.
The global refined copper market showed a 17,000 metric tons surplus in March, compared with a 180,000 metric tons surplus in February, the International Copper Study Group (ICSG) said in its latest monthly bulletin.
However, risk sentiment received a boost in the wider financial markets after Trump rolled back on Sunday his threat to impose 50% tariffs on imports from the EU next month, restoring a July 9 deadline to allow for talks.
"Copper prices in the last two weeks have been trading in line with all sentiment in the global stock market. Trade optimism has lifted the US stock market and it has a kind of a spill over impact on copper prices as well," said Kelvin Wong, a senior market analyst, Asia Pacific at OANDA.
Also supporting risk sentiment was data on Tuesday that showed U.S. consumer confidence snapped five straight months of decline and improved in May amid the truce in the trade war between Washington and Beijing.
Among other London metals, aluminium eased 0.3% to $2,478 a ton, zinc fell 0.7% to $2,688, lead shed 0.4% to $1,977 and nickel weakened 1.6% to $15,165. Tin was down 2.3% to $31,840.
SHFE aluminium rose 0.2% to 20,095 yuan a ton, lead was down 0.5% at 16,705 yuan, nickel slipped 2.1% to 119,800 yuan, while zinc dipped 0.9% to 22,210 yuan and tin fell 3.1% to 256,870 yuan. ($1 = 7.1952 Chinese yuan renminbi) (Reporting by Brijesh Patel in Bengaluru; Editing by Janane Venkatraman and Sherry Jacob-Phillips)
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