London copper futures fell last week and are expected to resume gains in the later stages

On Friday, European stocks stumbled, Wall Street declined, crude oil fell, bond prices soared, and traders scrambled to find relatively safe assets, with risk aversion dominating financial markets, though analysts believe copper is poised to resume gains as investors rotate away from other asset classes
.
With rising inflation in the U.
S.
and potentially weak growth (because of the prospect of rate hikes), it may be safer for money to stay in commodities than stocks or bonds
.

London copper prices hit an all-time high of $10,747.
50 on May 10 last year as the market was optimistic about the global economic recovery and additional demand
from the transition to a green economy, including electric vehicles.
But since then, copper prices have retreated and are still 7.
5 percentage points below their historical peak, as concerns about slowing China's economic growth and the possibility of the Federal Reserve starting its interest rate hike cycle as early as March have put pressure
on markets.
The market widely expects that the Fed may accelerate the pace of interest rate hikes, which will reduce liquidity in financial markets and slow the recovery of the US economy
.

However, China's central bank policymakers have recently begun to roll out a series of monetary easing policies to boost the economic recovery, which has helped improve the demand outlook in China, the top consumer of the metal, and the remaining low copper inventories on the exchange have become the main driver supporting copper prices
.

LME copper rose $202 or 2.
07 percent last week, the second straight weekly gain, up $97 or 1.
01 percent the week before
.
In contrast, copper rose 25.
6% in 2021, the second consecutive year of gains
.