LME stocks: copper 272,725 t (-250 t); aluminium 232,100 t (-1,950 t); zinc 165,650 t (-1,300 t); nickel 280,218 t (+276 t); lead 314,675 t (-3,975 t); tin 4,000 t (unchanged).

At the midday close, China’s main futures contracts were mixed. Container shipping rates on the Europe route fell nearly 7%. Caustic soda dropped over 4%. Palm oil and platinum were down more than 3%; Soybean No.2 fell nearly 3%. Soybean oil, cotton and palladium declined over 2%. On the upside, LPG rose over 4%; asphalt and lithium carbonate were up nearly 4%. Polypropylene (monthly average), polypropylene, propylene and methanol gained more than 3%, and fuel oil rose nearly 3%.

Refinitiv: U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve crude inventories fell to 282.6 mln barrels last week, the lowest level since 1982.