LME copper closed higher and the market waited for policy stimulus

Copper prices fell for the third consecutive week, while prices of other metals also recorded weekly declines
.
U.
S.
lawmakers and the White House are close to reaching an agreement on an
economic aid package on the coronavirus.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she hopes the deal
will be announced Friday.
Meanwhile, China, the world's largest consumer of metals, said it would cut the reserve requirement ratio of some banks for the second time this year, freeing up 550 billion yuan of liquidity
.

ING's senior commodity strategist said these stimulus expectations have been in the market for a long time, and now China has come up with more targeted measures to help the economy
.
This has helped copper and other base metals recover
from yesterday's plunge.

The LME Major Contracts Index fell to its lowest level since November 2016 and is down 9.
3%
so far this year.
LME copper stocks continued to decline steadily, falling by 3,750 tonnes to 183,700 tonnes
.

Weekly data released by the Shanghai Futures Exchange on Friday showed that China's copper stocks jumped to their highest level since March 2016, up 10 percent
, to 380,085 tonnes.
At a time when demand is struggling to recover from the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, China's production is still growing
.

The notice issued in the previous issue decided that from the closing settlement on Monday, March 16, 2020, the trading margin ratio of copper, aluminum, zinc and lead will be adjusted to 8%, and the range of the price limit will be adjusted to 6%.

Earlier, Chinese research firm Antaike said its survey of smelters showed copper production in February was unchanged from January at 656,000 tonnes, well above expectations, while key metal-consuming industries were slower
to resume production.