Silver soared 3.7 per cent% after earlier sliding as much as 4.2 per cent% while gold rose to $3,044.90 per troy ounce at 10:25 AM Singapore time. Copper was near $8,920 a ton while nickel advanced 0.6 per cent
| Photo Credit:
iStockphoto

Copper and other metals reversed earlier drops that tracked a brutal market-wide selloff, as US President Donald Trump’s broadening trade war batters the prospects for the global economy.

China on Friday retaliated against the sweeping US levies announced last week in a further worsening of the trade conflict between the world’s two largest economies. Copper extended its three-day selloff to as much as 16 per cent, the steepest drop since October 2008, in the depths of the Global Financial Crisis. 

Gold rose after earlier falling as much as 2.2 per cent to below $3,000 an ounce. Copper advanced 2.4 per cent after earlier sliding as much as 7.7 per cent in London, the most in five years. The moves follow a metals-to-oil rout that saw the Bloomberg Commodity Index tumble 5.8 per cent last week, its worst showing since 2022. 

Copper prices had been surging as traders warned that threatened tariffs on the metal would squeeze global supplies. However, collapsing equity markets, further punitive tariffs across a swathe of countries and retaliatory measures from China prompted much larger fears around global demand. 

Silver soared 3.7 per cent after earlier sliding as much as 4.2 per cent while gold rose to $3,044.90 per troy ounce at 10:25 AM Singapore time. Copper was near $8,920 a ton while nickel advanced 0.6 per cent. Iron ore in Singapore fell as much as 4.2 per cent to $96.40 a ton, a three-month low.

More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com

Published on April 7, 2025