London, Aug 21 (Reuters) – Aluminium prices fell on Wednesday as investors took profits from an eight-session rally and technical resistance limited gains.
Losses in the most-traded three-month aluminium contract on the London Metal Exchange narrowed in the afternoon as the US dollar fell to its lowest level since December, supporting dollar-denominated metals.
Aluminum fell 1% to $2,478 a metric tonne by 1600 GMT, after falling as much as 2% to $2,452.50 earlier.
The dollar came under pressure after US employers added far fewer jobs than originally reported in the year to March, raising concerns about the health of the labour market as a first rate cut was expected in September.
Attention is now on scheduled comments from Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell on Friday for clues on interest rate easing, which could reduce metals holding costs, said Ole Hansen, head of commodity strategy at Saxo Bank.
Funds are repositioning as aluminum prices move away from the $2,500 technical barrier, Hansen added.
In terms of fundamentals, aluminium raw material supplies remained tight as the rainy season disrupted bauxite shipments from Guinea. Production cuts outside China also reduced global supplies.
Copper rose 0.4% to $9,236 a tonne, with further gains limited by a five-year high in stocks at LME-monitored warehouses. The market views a rise in metal inventories as a sign of weak consumption.
Among other metals, lead rose 1.5% to $2,085, after hitting a three-week high of $2,089.50 following a drawdown in London Metal Exchange (LME) inventories in Asia. Lead stocks had fallen 21% to 185,500 metric tons since the beginning of August.
Zinc rose 1.4% to $2,843.5, while tin gained 1.3% to $32,598 and nickel lost 1.1% to $16,850. (Reporting by Julian Luk; Editing by Emelia Sithole-Matarise, Barbara Lewis, Shounak Dasgupta and Rod Nickel)
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