Following up on the post immediately below, "Capital Markets: En Garde Lagarde (and industrial commodities)".
From Reuters via Nasdaq, Jul 22, 2021 12:07AM EDT:
Copper prices advanced on Thursday, as investors appeared to shrug off worries over rising coronavirus cases worldwide and as China, the world's top metals consumer, decided to release less reserve metals than expected.
Three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange CMCU3 was up 0.4% at $9,381 a tonne, as of 0316 GMT, while the most-traded August copper contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange SCFcv1 increased 0.8% to 68,740 yuan ($10,632.14) a tonne.
Copper is often used as a gauge of global economic health.
China will sell another 30,000 tonnes of copper, 90,000 tonnes of aluminium, and 50,000 tonnes of zinc from its state reserves on July 29, less than the market has anticipated.
The auction marked the second sale by China this month as the government aims to rein in skyrocketing commodity prices.....
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It looks as though China is experimenting, or at minimum, feeling their way, as they attempt to manipulate prices lower. If interested see also July 12's "Round II: "China to sell more metals from reserves to ensure stable prices"" for some of the things China's commodities czars have to consider as they go about this exercise.
