Gold & Base Metals Rally as US-China Trade Tensions Thaw—Just in Time for Wall Street to Overhype It
Trade war de-escalation sends commodities into bullish territory—while hedge funds scramble to front-run the ’obvious’ play.
Gold’s safe-haven status wobbles as industrial metals steal the spotlight. Copper, aluminum, and nickel surge on supply chain optimism (and speculative froth).
Watch for the classic Wall Street pivot: talking up ’recovery plays’ while quietly shorting the same assets. Some things never change.
Is the outlook for base metals improving?
Base metals such as Copper and Aluminum have recovered from 2025 lows, but gains could remain capped.
There has been a flurry of headlines supporting base metal prices. Front and centre has been the thawing trade tensions between the US and China. Additionally, broad-based stimulus efforts have been announced in China.
China is the heart of the base metal market, given that it is the largest producer and consumer of these metals. In the case of Copper, China accounted for almost two-thirds of the supply and demand in 2024.
Therefore, less damaging US trade tariffs and signals of support for the Chinese economy would benefit the base metal market.
However, risks and uncertainty remain, which could keep gains in base metals capped.
While the reduction in US-China trade tariffs is good news for base metals such as Copper and Aluminium, removing the worst-case scenario, uncertainty remains, which means we are unlikely to see new highs in base metals in the coming months.
Trading Base Metals and Gold with PrimeXBT
The de-escalation of the US-China trade war, along with other macroeconomic developments in both the US and China, has influenced market sentiment across commodities like Gold, Aluminium, and Copper – shaping opportunities for both short- and long-term trading strategies. PrimeXBT, a trusted regulated multi-asset broker, has recently expanded its offering to include a wider range of commodities, indices, stocks, and forex pairs.
Clients can trade these markets using USD or crypto as margin and take long or short positions to capture moves in either direction. All commodity markets are available on the industry-standard MT5 platform and PrimeXBT’s native trading platform PXTrader, which offers advanced charting and risk management tools such as stop losses and limit orders.
PrimeXBT’s expanded market offering brings traders a better way to navigate market volatility and create targeted strategies within a secure, all-in-one trading environment.
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