Copper gains as soft dollar set to save 10 week streak

SINGAPORE: Copper prices edged up on Friday, set to end the week higher, supported by the US dollar’s overnight plunge which offset pressure from recedingsupply fears. Benchmark three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange was up 0.06% at $14,342 a metric ton by 0300 GMT. That placed the metal on track to edge up 0.03% this week, which would mark a tenth straight weekly gain. The most-traded copper contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange rose 0.58% to 109,170 yuan ($16,254.73) a ton. The dollar slumped overnight on fading rate hike expectations after comments by Fed Governor Christopher Waller. The CME’s Fedwatch tool shows rate traders pricing in even odds of a September rate hike, from a nearlytwo-in-three chance a day earlier. A cheaper US dollar can support greenback-denominated commodities by making them more affordable for buyers using other currencies, and lower rates can support industrial metals by stimulating economic activity. It was a choppy week for copper, weigheddownin trading earlier in the week by resurgent interest rate fears, and by market perceptions of less physical tightness of supply. LME copper’s cash-to-three-month spread narrowed to $57.93 a ton of ba