Metals prices mixed in New York, London

Metals prices were mixed Wednesday for both base and precious metals.

May copper added 2 cents to $3.26 per pound in New York trade, while three-month contracts on the London Metal Exchange ended the session $14 lower to $7,130 per tonne, but not before hitting a three-week high at $7,240 per tonne earlier.

Early gains were driven by a gain of 500 tonnes in cancelled warrants, or stocks marked for delivery, in this case mostly to China, on LME-monitored inventories.

Later declines in LME prices came on a stronger US dollar, which made the metal more expensive for buyers using other currencies.

Aluminium was $9 lower, to $2,122 per tonne, on LME inventories that were up 22,750 tonnes on the session to over 4.6 million tonnes, near record levels.

Among other base metals, lead was down $8 to $2,290 per tonne while zinc fell $37 to $2,300 tonnnes as inventories grew and nickel dropped $185 to $20,140 per tonne after rising as high as $20,589 per tonne earlier.

Tin, on the other hand, added $50 to $16,750 per tonne.

Among base metals, April gold was up 30 cents to $1,120.10 per troy ounce, but March silver fell 8 cents to $16.07 per troy ounce and April platinum dropped $2.20 to $1,535.50 per troy ounce.