Copper glides off 20-month peak

Copper prices fell today away from a 20-month peak hit yesterday, as traders took profits garnered after the workers' strike at an BHP Billiton mine, threatening to disrupt global copper trade flows.
 
Copper last traded at $2.770 a pound, down from the opening of $2.785, with an intraday high at $2.815, and a low at $2.755.
 
Copper prices surged to the highest level since June 2015 yesterday at $2.822 after workers staged a strike in the Escondida mine, Northern Chile, which is ongoing since Thursday after talks failed between management and workers, with the union threatening to go on with the strike for a long time, which would disrupt copper supply around the world.
 
The mine, owned by BHP Billiton, produces 5% of the global copper output, making it consequential in the markets, an leading prices sharply higher yesterday before falling today on profit-taking.
 
As for the dollar, it fell today away from a three-week high against a basket of currencies, but that failed to underpin the industrial metal today.
 
The dollar index, tracking the greenback against an array of rivals, edged down to 100.91 from the opening of 100.98, with an intraday high at 101.03, and a low at 100.70, as markets away Fed Chair Janet Yellen's congress testimony today.