Copper reached a record high on Monday evening at London's LME, briefly touching $14,533 a tonne — topping the previous peak set earlier in the year — and driving the SMI lower ahead of Tuesday's session.
Julius Bär quoted the SMI pre-market at -0.8%, weighed by Novartis shares sliding 5.2% after the drugmaker missed the primary endpoint in a clinical trial for a muscle-disease therapy. Only two of the 20 SMI constituents traded in positive pre-market territory: Swiss Life (+0.4%) and Roche (+0.6%), while Oerlikon (+1.8%) and Sandoz (+1.4%) led gainers.
Copper's rally is fueled by tightening global supply and surging demand. Chilean output fell 9.4% year-on-year due to adverse weather, Commerzbank analyst Barbara Lambrecht said, adding that production disruptions in Indonesia and last year's mining incidents in Chile further constrained supply. The metal — critical for power grids, electric vehicles, AI data centers, and defense — has climbed more than 40% over the past year and tripled over a decade.
IG Bank expected the SMI to open down 0.2% after Monday's 0.8% close.
In Asia, the Nikkei flatlined at 66,445.13 and Topix shed 0.6% to 4,102.05, lacking Wall Street direction ahead of U.S. Labor Day. Shanghai's market rose 0.4% to 3,947.27, and the Shanghai-Shenzhen index gained 0.2% to 4,582.81. South Korea's Kospi jumped 1.9% to 7,129.34, its highest in three weeks, led by Samsung Electronics (+2.59%) and SK Hynix (+3.98%).
Japan's data intensified speculation the Bank of Japan will raise its benchmark rate to 1.25% next week. Real wages rose 2.4% in July, the strongest gain since May 2021, and Q2 GDP grew faster than initially estimated. Nomura Securities' Maki Sawada said the stronger yen would likely dampen trading. Capital Economics agreed the pace of tightening was probable.
The yen strengthened to a fresh February high: USD/JPY fell 0.8% to 153.12. The dollar was little changed against the yuan at 6.7104, and rose slightly to 0.8091 CHF. The euro held near $1.1625 and 0.9405 CHF.
Oil: Brent crude was little changed at $97.10 a barrel; WTI rose 1.1% to $92.51. Westpac analysts cited low volume from the U.S. holiday but said weekend military clashes between the U.S. and Iran continued to underpin prices and weigh on risk appetite.
