SHANGHAI, Aug. 17 (SMM) – The US equities markets were stable last night, while weak economic data from Japan and the US raised doubts about value of their currencies as a tool to hedge against the risk. Hence, investors looked for Swiss franc as a safe-haven, helping the US dollar fall from 83 to 82.2. The US dollar index is fluctuating at around 82.4 since Asian trading hours started on Tuesday. A weaker US dollar was favorable for copper prices. Coupled with a 2% gain in China’s domestic stocks market on Monday, LME copper prices during earlier Asian trading hours rallied as high as USD 7,285/mt. Finally, LME copper prices closed at USD 7,235/mt, up USD 45/mt, with trading volumes expanding to about 114,000 lots, a sign of strong trading sentiment.

SMM expects LME copper prices to struggle at the USD 7,300/mt mark, and will likely reach USD 7,500/mt in the short term in view of its strong trend.

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