Copper falls on rising dollar

Copper prices fell on Tuesday, after the markets returned from an official holiday, while the US dollar rose against most major currencies.

The markets are parsing the recent Federal Reserve officials statements, in which they hinted at sooner-than-expected rate hikes, which affects the dollar, and in turn, commodities and stocks.

The Federal Reserve will hold its first monetary policy meeting in 2022 next week, but analysts expect that the Fed will keep interest rates unchanged this time, and will start to raise it most likely during the March meeting.

The dollar index rose against a basket of major currencies by 0.3% to 95.5 points as of 14:35 GMT, after hitting a high of 95.5 points and a low of 95.1 points.

Copper March futures fell 0.2% to $ 4.41 a pound, as of 14:26 GMT .