London copper prices retreat as inventories rise, confusion swirls on tariffs

Copper prices pulled back on Monday as inventories extended their rise and investors puzzled over the future of US tariffs and Chinese trading ahead of reopening after a holiday.

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Benchmark three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange (LME) dropped 0.9% to $12,843 a metric ton by 1700 GMT after hitting a more than one-week high of $13,050 earlier in the session.

LME copper has rebounded about 3% over the past four sessions, but is still well below a record peak of $14,527.50 hit on Jan. 29.

“The fact that there are more visible inventories outside of the US is a bit of a dampener, that may indicate a bit of softness in demand,’ said Nitesh Shah, commodity strategist at WisdomTree.