Materials Stocks Strong On Dollar Weakness - Materials Roundup

Shares of commodities producers rose as the dollar weakened in the wake of the Federal Reserve's July meeting minutes. Fed officials were split over the timing of future interest-rate increases and vowed to keep monitoring surprisingly weak inflation. The data-monitoring implies a relatively dovish position also reflected by one official's comment that the central bank could "afford to be patient" on rate increases. Zinc prices hit a 10-year high as rising demand for the industrial metal in China and elsewhere has coincided with tight supply, caused, in part by Glencore's 2015 decision to temporarily close mines representing 4% of global supply. Other miners including MMG and Vedanta Resources have also mothballed mines, with the latter two's zinc operations in Australia and South Africa unlikely to be fully back online until 2018.

-Rob Curran, rob.curran@dowjones.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

August 16, 2017 16:38 ET (20:38 GMT)