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The copper price fell on Thursday as poor risk sentiment driven by weak corporate earnings pushed the dollar up.

March delivery contracts were exchanging hands for $4.47 a pound ($9,840 a tonne) on the Comex market in New York, down 0.5% compared to Wednesday’s closing.

European shares and US equity futures declined on Thursday amid the souring mood in the stock market. The greenback snapped three days of declines as investors sought a haven, putting pressure on gold and metals priced in the currency. 

U.S. businesses’ payrolls fell last month by the most since the early days of the pandemic, due to the spread of the omicron coronavirus variant, according to ADP Research Institute data. That release came ahead of Friday’s employment report from the Labor Department which will be eyed by traders to gauge the pace of wage inflation.

“The bar is very high for a data miss to derail the Fed’s hiking plans, given its commitment to inflation,” Nicky Shiels, head of metals strategy at MKS PAMP SA, wrote in a note.

On Thursday, the Bank of England lifted its key interest rate as part of measures to contain inflation, with policymakers coming close to an even bigger hike. The European Central Bank left its rates unchanged, in line with expectations.

Click here for an interactive chart of copper prices.

Markets in China remain closed for the Lunar New Year holidays.

Global copper smelting

Global copper smelting activity powered to a 13-month peak in January as operations in China ramped up ahead of seasonal construction demand, data from satellite surveillance of copper plants showed.

The number of inactive smelters fell to the lowest level since February 2018, according to a statement on Thursday from commodities broker Marex and SAVANT, a satellite analytics service it launched with Earth-i in 2019.

“The strong start to the year in the SAVANT measures of copper smelting activity corroborate our own observations from the physical markets, which is an industry supply chain that is ramping up to meet strong downstream demand,” said Guy Wolf, Marex global head of analytics.

(With files from Reuters and Bloomberg)