BEIJING, May 23 (Reuters) - Copper prices fell on Thursday, dragged down by a stronger U.S. dollar after hawkish minutes of the Federal Reserve's meeting and weakening demand in top consumer China.
Three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange (LME) was down 0.9% to $10,325 per metric ton by 0133 GMT, while the most-traded June copper contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange (SHFE) fell 4% to 83,230 yuan ($11,492.05) a ton.
The dollar hovered near a one-week high on Thursday following its best day this month against major peers after minutes of the last Fed meeting revealed a willingness to raise interest rates among some officials.
A stronger dollar makes it more expensive to buy the greenback-priced commodity.
Also weighing on metals was the waning demand in China, as large price rises this year hit copper-user consumption and pushed inventories higher.
Other base metals trended lower. LME aluminium slid 0.2% to $2,631 a ton, nickel dropped 1.1% to $20,145, zinc shed 0.6% to $3,043, tin was little moved at $33,500, and lead was 0.6% lower to $2,301.
SHFE aluminium lost 2.2% to 20,910 yuan a ton, zinc dropped 2% to 24,395 yuan, tin moved 2.2% to 272,790 yuan, lead slid 0.6% to 18,440 yuan, and nickel was down 3.6% to 152,080 yuan.
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DATA/EVENTS (GMT)
0500 Japan Chain Store Sales YY April
0715 France HCOB Mfg, Serv, Comp Flash PMIs May
0730 Germany HCOB Mfg, Serv, Comp Flash PMIs May
0800 EU HCOB Mfg, Serv, Comp Flash PMIs May
0830 UK Flash Comp, Mfg, Serv PMIs May
1230 US Initial Jobless Claim Weekly
1445 US S&P Global Mfg, Svcs, Comp Flash PMIs May
1400 EU Consumer Confid. Flash May
1400 US New Home Sales-Units April ($1 = 7.2424 Chinese yuan renminbi) (Reporting by Siyi Liu and Colleen Howe; Editing by Mrigank Dhaniwala)
