LME Aluminium tom-next spread rises – ING

LME Aluminium prices extended the upward rally for an eighth consecutive session, with prices closing well above US$2,700/t (the highest level since 20 February 2025) yesterday, driven by expectations of a US Federal Reserve rate cut this week and a weaker dollar index (the lowest level since 2022), ING's commodity experts Ewa Manthey and Warren Patterson note.

Money managers increase their net long position in Copper

"The Aluminium tom-next spread traded at a premium of US$13.25/t (the highest since August 2024) yesterday, after remaining in contango for several weeks, indicating rising physical demand and tightening LME inventories."

"Recent LME data shows that Aluminium exchange stocks fell by 1,500 tonnes to 483,375 tonnes, while on-warrant inventories continued to hover at lower levels and stood at 375,025 tonnes (the lowest since 7 July 2025) as of yesterday. Turning to the speculative bets, the latest COTR report shows that net bullish bets in Aluminium rose by 4,562 lots for a fourth straight week to 131,922 lots for the week ending 12 September, the most bullish bets since the week ending on 7 June 2024."

"In other metals, money managers increased their net long position in Copper by 2,597 lots for a third consecutive week to 56,390 lots at the end of last week. In contrast, speculators decreased their net long position in Zinc by 1,654 lots to 33,066 lots as of last Friday."