Weaker Dollar Tempers Copper Price Decline Amid Inventory Buildup

Copper prices slipped on Thursday as more inventories arrived in warehouses, but losses were modest due to a weaker dollar following the US government's move to calm the bond markets.

Benchmark three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange shed 0.6 percent to USD13,970 a metric ton in official open-outcry trading, having added 0.5 percent in the previous session.

LME copper hit a six-month peak on Monday on worries about low inventories, but has eased since then as a flow of metal replenished storage facilities.

'Yesterday's buyback announcement from the Treasury helped arrest the slide that we saw as inventories started to return to the LME,' said Ole Hansen, head of commodity strategy at Saxo Bank in Copenhagen. 'The announcement sends quite a strong signal and points to the risk of a weaker dollar ahead.'

The dollar index fell to a three-month low after the Treasury Department moved to calm a bond market sell-off that had pushed long-end yields to their highest since 2007.