Copper nudges up on support from stockmarket rally and China demand

Copper ticked up on Tuesday, supported by improving macroeconomic sentiment tied to a stock market rally and demand strength in China. Benchmark three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange edged up 0.04% at $14,333.50 a metric ton by 0645 GMT. The most-traded copper contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange edged 0.33% higher to 109,240 yuan ($16,377.81) a ton. "Sentiment was boosted by a recovery in AI stocks, after Anthropic announced its IPO," Daniel Hynes, senior commodity strategist at ANZ, said in a note. Asian stocks rose on Tuesday as AI enthusiasm returned ahead of earnings and after bellweather Anthropic's eagerly anticipated IPO filing lifted risk appetite. Copper has benefited from demand expectations tied to the AI infrastructure expansion, and was weighed down in recent weeks by underperformance in stocks tied to the AI buildout. Signs of copper demand strength in China are also boosting sentiment, Hynes said. The Yangshan copper premium , a gauge of China's appetite for imported copper, hit $178 a ton on Monday, its highest since 2014. Another key indicator, the Chinese domestic copper cathode premium , which tracks the spot market premium over SHFE copper, was at 900 yuan a ton on Monday, up 5.88% from the end of last week and its highest in two weeks. Chinese copper stocks have waned as smelters there entered maintenance. Last week, SHFE copper stocks fell more than 25% to 54,356 tons. Meanwhile, copper stocks in LME-registered warehouses rose last week, helping to relieve global supply fears, but most warehouse deposits were in North America, adding to concerns about regional supply bottlenecks. Among LME metals, aluminium dipped 0.3%, zinc dipped 0.25%, lead was little changed, down only 0.03%, nickel added 0.44% and tin ticked 0.05% higher. On the SHFE, aluminium dipped 0.34%, zinc added 0.21%, lead gained 1.33%, nickel lost 0.86% and tin added 0.42%. ($1 = 6.6700 Chinese yuan renminbi)