“A very tight job market and unabated inflation might require the Fed to raise interest rates sooner than expected,” policymakers said, fuelling expectations of a rate hike in March.
While a firmer US dollar makes greenback-priced metals more expensive to holders of other currencies, an interest rate hike could trim liquidity in financial markets and slow recovery in the world’s biggest economy.
March delivery contracts were exchanging hands for $4.36 a pound ($9,592 a tonne) on the Comex market in New York, down 1.1% compared to Wednesday’s closing.
Click here for an interactive chart of copper prices.
The most-traded February copper contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange slipped 0.7% to 69,730 yuan ($10,944.05) a tonne.
(With files from Reuters)
