Key Facts
The United States Copper Index Fund, the futures-tracking proxy, settled at US$39.56, a rise of 0.56% on the day but well within a session range that signalled hesitation after a run of recent highs.
Southern Copper, one of the world’s most copper-sensitive listed miners, closed at US$182.71, a drop of 1.24%, reflecting a sharper sell-off in equities than in the underlying futures market.
Freeport-McMoRan, the giant US-based pure-play copper producer, fell 1.28% to US$62.63, mirroring the modest futures pullback as traders rotated out of high-beta copper names.
A widely-quoted front-month COMEX copper futures contract pulled back to about US$6.0453 per pound, down from a previous close of 6.1480, as a softer Chinese manufacturing print clouded the demand picture.
