Copper futures settled down on Thursday as the US dollar strengthened against its major peers overseas and trader’s exercised caution ahead of the US Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell's speech at the Jackson Hole Symposium later on Friday. However, some declines were limited by falling inventories, easing worries over a potential US economic recession and signs of improving demand from the world’s top metal consumer China.
Copper futures for September delivery fell $0.0420 to settle at $4.1480 a pound on the Comex metals division of New York Mercantile Exchange. Copper on the London Metal Exchange was down by 1.40 percent at $9,130.50 a ton.