Sina US Stock News, February 20, Beijing time, Bloomberg reported that copper prices fell for the first time in six trading days because Indonesia extended Freeport McMoran's Grasberg mine copper concentrate export license for one year. Prices of most metals have declined; the Chinese and US markets are trading lightly during the holidays.

Copper: LME copper fell 1.6%, and the settlement price was 7118 US dollars/ton. Last Friday, the price reached the highest since mid-January. Previously, it had been rising for 5 consecutive days, the longest continuous increase this year. LME copper stocks rose 1.7% to the highest level since May. Marex Spectron analyst Alastair Munro said in an email that the overnight trading volume of basic metals was “very light” and that Comex copper trading volume was 47% lower than the average for the same period of 100 days.

Aluminum: LME aluminum rose 0.3% to 2,214 US dollars/ton; it rose 4% last week, the biggest weekly increase since December. The industry is weighing the impact of possible import tariffs imposed by the US. “If any proposed measures are introduced, we think domestic prices in the US will rise,” Carsten Menke, a product research analyst at Baer Sachs, said in an email. “At the same time, global prices should fall because oversupply outside the US will increase.”

Nickel: LME nickel fell 2.4% to 13,590 US dollars/ton, leading the decline in LME metals. Last week, prices hit the highest since 2015.