BC copper closed slightly lower, with the inverted structure continuing [SMM BC copper commentary]

Today, the most-traded BC copper 2508 contract closed at 68,990 yuan/mt, with a negative daily candlestick, indicating an increase in bearish open interest. During the night session, the most-traded BC copper 2508 contract fluctuated downward at the start, touching an intraday low of 68,910 yuan/mt. Subsequently, the copper price center surged straight up to an intraday high of 69,310 yuan/mt. After a brief pullback and adjustment, it stabilized and rebounded again. During the daytime session, the copper price center gradually pulled back and entered a rangebound fluctuation zone, eventually closing at 68,990 yuan/mt, with a decline of 0.26%. Open interest reached 4,588 lots, an increase of 108 lots from the previous trading day, and trading volume reached 4,173 lots. On the macro side, Trump stated that he had no plans to fire Powell, but changes would occur within the next eight months. He was only interested in having a "low-interest-rate person" as the Fed Chairman, and market uncertainty about a shift in the US Fed's monetary policy emerged. Meanwhile, Trump said he would send notices of general tariff rates to over 150 small countries, possibly imposing tariffs of 10% or 15% on relatively small countries, and the uncertainty of tariffs continued. On the fundamental side, as of today, SMM copper inventories in major regions nationwide fell by 4,300 mt compared to Monday. The decrease was due to, on the one hand, the impact of lower imported copper clearance volumes, and on the other hand, the increase in downstream procurement volumes benefiting from lower copper prices. On the demand side, the pullback in copper prices stimulated downstream procurement sentiment, and consumption rebounded somewhat.

The most-traded SHFE copper 2508 contract closed at 77,840 yuan/mt. If based on the most-traded BC copper 2508 contract price of 68,990 yuan/mt, its after-tax price would be 77,959 yuan/mt. The price spread between the SHFE copper 2508 contract and the BC copper contract was -119, maintaining an inversion and narrowing compared to the previous day.