Copper Eases After Rallying Toward Record on Supply Concerns
(Bloomberg) — Copper pared gains after surging near a record high aided by a weaker dollar and supply concerns.
Benchmark futures on the London Metal Exchange rose as much as 2.5% to $13,323 a ton in London before giving up some of the advance. Comex copper pared gains after rallying to more than $6 a pound earlier. Other base metals on the LME also saw a pullback after a broad rally that sent aluminum and tin to the highest since 2022.
Market volatility and the reweighting of a benchmark commodity index contributed to some of the pullback across the metals, according to Ewa Manthey, commodities strategist at ING Groep NV, adding that underlying fundamentals remain unchanged for metals as a whole as they are powering higher early in the year with tight supply and robust demand expectations.
Copper currently makes up 6.43% of the Bloomberg Commodities Index, a widely tracked benchmark for a basket of commodities. That compares with a 2026 target weighting at 6.36%, meaning that some copper holdings will have to be sold in the 5-day roll period that started last Thursday. It’s a similar situation in aluminum and nickel.
Copper has gained more than 20% since mid-November on bets that a flow of metal to the US — ahead of the Trump administration’s decision on import tariffs — will leave the rest of the world short of supply.
At the same time, prices have been bolstered by global mine disruptions in recent months that heightened worries over supply not keeping up with demand for the metal that’s key for the world’s electrification.
Investors are also grappling with the implications of the US Justice Department threatening the Federal Reserve with a criminal indictment, which Chair Jerome Powell said was part of a campaign by the Trump administration to influence interest-rate decisions. The dollar fell, boosting commodities.
Metals have enjoyed a strong rally over the new-year period, with the catch-all LMEX Index posting four weekly gains, the best run since August. Investors have been piling into hard assets seen as possible winners from US monetary easing, a weaker dollar and the fracturing of supply chains. Copper hit a fresh peak last week, while aluminum and nickel both surged on Friday.
Copper holdings in Comex-tracked warehouses — one barometer of shifts in global holdings — have expanded for 42 straight weeks to a record, with traders front-loading shipments to the US ahead of potential tariffs.
Copper was 1.6% higher to settle at $13,209.50 on the LME. Among other metals, aluminum rose 1.5% to settle at $3,184.50, the highest close since April 2022 in the aftermath of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Tin climbed more than 5%, taking gains since the start of the year to 18%.
©2026 Bloomberg L.P.
