London 25/05/2016 - Base metals ended Wednesday LME trading showing mixed trends - consolidation and corrections were seen following recent losses, with copper standing out on the upside, hitting a one-week high at one stage, traders said.
Others in the complex were less impressive, with some posting losses, notably tin, which hit three-and-a-half month lows. Overall sentiment remains lacklustre and directional bias is lower.
"It has been a better day, and the markets are - mostly - holding in there but there hasn't been that much business so it might struggle to do more than consolidate," a floor trader said.
In wider markets, a rebound in oil prices was moderately helpful - spot Brent crude was steadier around $49.15 per barrel - while the dollar settled back from recent seven week highs to around 95.40 against a basket of currencies. There may only be short-term relief for the metals, however.
"The dollar still looks strong and, although oil is firm, most commodities are not being chased. But there are some shorts in place so we could get some covering ahead of the long weekend," the trader added.
UK markets will be closed next Monday for the late-spring holiday - all other centres will be open so some end-week volatility is highly likely.
There were few US data releases this afternoon although the metals-sensitive HPI figure was positive. The March HPI - a housing sector indicator - rose 0.7 percent against a forecast increase of 0.4 percent. Otherwise, the April flash services PMI was 51.2 compared with a predicted 53.1.
In the metals, copper touched $4,677 per tonne at one stage before last business at $4,654, up $52 from the Tuesday close. The market held robustly above the sub-$4,600 three-month lows hit last week.
In today's warehouse data, stocks fell a net 2,000 lots to 155,250 tonnes and cancelled warrants rose 2,900 tonnes to 45,250 tonnes.
"Copper is being supported above $4,600 now... it looks OK on the short-term charts and the spread is tight," another trader said.
Nickel closed at $8,355, a loss of $55, despite stocks falling 630 tonnes to 401,874 tonnes. Indeed, despite bullish outlooks from several leading banks, many investors are cautious, having been burnt last year when it was hailed as the most favoured metal only for it to end as the year's worst performer.
"Demand continues to be very good and clearly there are not enough ferro-nickel imports around but it looks like the price-makers and funds still don't want to believe it," a nickel producer said.
In others, aluminium was just $2 lower at $1,554. Inventories and cancelled warrants fell 5,375 tonnes to 2,544,325 tonnes and 1,128,325 tonnes respectively.
Lead dropped back to finish at $1,635, a $15 loss - stocks were unchanged. Zinc, by contrast, was last at $1,836 and up $7, while stocks fell 600 tonnes to 385,075 tonnes.
Tin closed $25 lower at $15,625 but had touched $15,425, the lowest since mid-February. Earlier, inventories climbed 95 tonnes to 6,980 tonnes and cancelled warrants were up 145 tonnes to 1,305 tonnes.
Steel billet was unchanged again at $65/115 while cobalt was quoted at $23,250/23,750 and molybdenum at $14,800/15,300.
(Additional reporting by Ewa Manthey and Kathleen Retourne, editing by Mark Shaw)