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Copper slips on hawkish Fed minutes, weak demand

Copper rates fell on Thursday, dragged down by a stronger U.S. dollar after hawkish minutes of the Federal Reserve's conference and deteriorating demand in leading customer China.

Three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange (LME). was down 0.9% to $10,325 per metric lot by 0133 GMT,. while the most-traded June copper contract on the Shanghai. Futures Exchange (SHFE) fell 4% to 83,230 yuan. ($ 11,492.05) a ton.

The dollar hovered near a one-week high on Thursday. following its best day this month against significant peers after. minutes of the last Fed meeting revealed a determination to raise. rates of interest amongst some officials.

A stronger dollar makes it more expensive to purchase the. greenback-priced product.

Also weighing on metals was the waning demand in China, as. big price increases this year struck copper-user intake and. pressed inventories greater.

Other base metals trended lower. LME aluminium slid. 0.2% to $2,631 a lot, nickel dropped 1.1% to $20,145,. zinc shed 0.6% to $3,043, tin was little moved. at $33,500, and lead was 0.6% lower to $2,301.

SHFE aluminium lost 2.2% to 20,910 yuan a load, zinc. dropped 2% to 24,395 yuan, tin moved 2.2% to. 272,790 yuan, lead slid 0.6% to 18,440 yuan, and nickel. was down 3.6% to 152,080 yuan.

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DATA/EVENTS (GMT)

0500 Japan Store Sales YY April

0715 France HCOB Mfg, Serv, Comp Flash PMIs May

0730 Germany HCOB Mfg, Serv, Compensation Flash PMIs May

0800 EU HCOB Mfg, Serv, Comp Flash PMIs May

0830 UK Flash Compensation, Mfg, Serv PMIs May

1230 United States Initial Jobless Claim Weekly

1445 United States S&P Global Mfg, Svcs, Comp Flash PMIs May

1400 EU Customer Confid. Flash May

1400 US New Home Sales-Units April.

(source: Reuters)