London 28/07/2016 - Base metals checked back from their highs and drew breath during late-Thursday LME trading but remained higher on the day, with technical covering seen.
"After a rather sharp sell-off yesterday, particularly in copper and zinc, we are seeing an element of stability return to the markets today," analyst Ed Meir of INTL FCStone said.
The market was correcting higher from the previous day's downswing when prices of many metals slipped to multi-week lows, traders said. The backdrop of post-FOMC dollar softness underpinned the mood in the complex.
The US currency has slipped back after the US Federal Reserve, at Wednesday's monetary policy meeting, opted to leave the Federal Funds rate unchanged.
The dollar was around a softer 1.1095 against the euro, down around 0.4 cents, while in today's US data weekly jobless claims were a slightly higher-than-forecast 266,000. In other financial markets, the UK FTSE and US Dow Jones indices were both an unexciting 0.4 percent lower.
The markets are now gearing up for a busy Friday session - end-month considerations will be given added spice by a regular stream of economic newsflow events. These kick off with the Bank of Japan outlook report, take in European GDP and CPI releases in the morning and the week rounds off with US GDP, PMI and consumer sentiment data.
In the metals, copper ended the day at $4,896.50 per tonne, up $44.50 from yesterday when prices hit two-week lows of $4,842. The $4,900 level remains the market's short-term pivot point. Earlier, warehouse stocks fell a net 5,700 tonnes to 208,725 tonnes and cancelled warrants fell 4,525 tonnes to 68,250 tonnes.
Aluminium, at a six-week low of $1,588 on Wednesday, rebounded back above $1,600 to finish the session at $1,609, a $17 rise. Today, inventories dropped 5,850 tonnes to 2,312,275 tonnes - interrupting a recent upward spike.
Zinc ended at $2,205, up $29 - the market climbed from yesterday's sub-$2,200 two-week low. Stocks and cancelled warrants were both down 1,575 tonnes at 434,025 tonnes and 17,275 tonnes. Lead ended $4 higher at $1,803, with stocks and cancelled warrants both slipping a modest 25 tonnes to 187,125 tonnes and 70,700 tonnes respectively.
Nickel was solid - it closed at $10,695, up $345 - after stocks fell 54 tonnes to 374,598 tonnes. Tin was last at $17,775, up $75, while stocks were again unchanged at 5,710 tonnes..
Steel billet was neglected while cobalt and molybdenum were indicated at $25,550/26,050 and $15,000/15,500 respectively.
(Additional reporting by Ewa Manthey, editing by Mark Shaw)