Copper Price Today: Bulls battle two-month top around $4.60 on China news, mixed sentiment

• Copper steps back from early June’s high, stays bid for the sixth consecutive day.
• China aims to restrict metal exports to propel industrial profits.
• Covid updates stay sour from Asia-Pacific, numbers from West eyed.
• Market sentiment dwindles amid pre-Fed caution, US Durable Goods Orders will be the key for today.

Copper prices fade uptick to early June tops, easing to $4.59, ahead of Tuesday’s European session. In doing so, the industrial metal struggles to cheer China’s deemed restrictions on steel exports as the coronavirus woes and pre-Fed jitters weigh on the commodities, as well as the market sentiment.

Having witnessed a reduction in Industrial Profits for the fourth month, Chinese authorities are inching closer to export limits of the metals. The news backed commodity prices initially but failed to ignore the sour sentiment of late.

Also behind the market’s cautious mood could be the pre-Fed notions and the fears of the Delta covid variant. Although the recent data from the US backs the need for easy money, hawks in Canada and New Zealand seem to lure the US optimists as further stimulus is on the way and can fuel the reflation fears.

After a brief halt to the COVID-19 woes in Australia, the latest figures from the Pacific major refreshed a ten-month high. Additionally, the death toll in the UK and the US also pose serious threats to the economic recovery from the pandemic. On the positive side, China and India report softer covid infections but are vulnerable to supply crunch.

Against this backdrop, S&P 500 Futures print mild losses and the US 10-year Treasury yields stay firmer around 1.28% by the press time.

Although risk-off mood can keep the metal buyers on the edge, likely softer figures of the US Durable Goods Orders may help the Fed to reject tapering concerns, putting a bid under the riskier asset. However, it all depends upon how well the market reacts to the unknowns.

Read: Durable Goods Orders Preview: Why expectations could be too high, data useful for trading GDP

Technical analysis

A clear upside break of 50-DMA, around $4.40, keeps copper buyers hopeful but a seven-week-old horizontal resistance near $4.60 becomes the key hurdle to the north.