London, March 3, 2026, 09:44 GMT — Regular session
- Glencore shares dropped over 3% early in London, pulling back after touching a new 12-month high.
- Shares of Rio Tinto, BHP, and Anglo American dropped, with investors holding onto their “risk-off” stance.
- Oil prices, inflation cues, and Glencore’s next production update on April 30 are on traders’ radar.
Glencore (GLEN.L) slid 3.2% to 517.1 pence on Tuesday, giving up more ground after touching a 12-month peak the previous day. Shares dropped 17.3 pence from Monday’s close.
European shares dropped further, rattled by mounting evidence that the Middle East conflict is morphing into a prolonged, more expensive problem for markets. By 0804 GMT, the STOXX 600 was down 1.3%. Traders homed in on surging energy prices after an Iranian Revolutionary Guards official declared the Strait of Hormuz shut to marine traffic.
London traders are already recalculating rate-cut odds on the back of the oil surge. “If the issues persist, then the market will start to worry about new inflationary pressures,” said Dan Coatsworth, head of markets at AJ Bell. Reuters
Mining stocks lost ground too. Rio Tinto slipped 2.1%, while BHP Group shed 3.0%. Anglo American posted the steepest drop, off 4.5% based on delayed LSE data.
Futures for major U.S. stock indexes slid over 1%, as traders braced for a potential inflation uptick driven by energy. Oil jumped 2.2%. Gold, the classic safety net in risk-off stretches, kept climbing. Investors were eyeing U.S. January retail sales, ADP jobs data, and Friday’s non-farm payrolls.
Europe isn’t escaping the jitters either. Philip Lane, chief economist at the ECB, flagged that “a jump in energy prices puts upward pressure on inflation.” The scale and duration of any fallout? Lane says it all hinges on how widespread and drawn-out the conflict proves to be. Reuters
Copper flows grabbed attention again as Zambia announced the key route used by Democratic Republic of Congo exporters for both copper and cobalt is expected to be back up Tuesday, following rain-related disruptions. Despite the pause, no mining companies have flagged any interruptions to their shipments.
Back in February, Glencore released its 2025 results, revealing a 6% drop in adjusted EBITDA to $13.51 billion. Still, the company said it plans to hand $2 billion back to shareholders, even with earnings down. Chief executive Gary Nagle called out “the underlying momentum in H2 was clear” at the time. Reuters
The stock’s immediate direction could depend more on geopolitical shifts than on anything internal. Elevated energy prices might give miners a quick bump in certain commodity-tied revenues. Still, those same price shocks risk denting growth forecasts and crimping demand for industrial metals.
Glencore has its first-quarter production report slated for April 30, with the annual general meeting on May 28, according to the company’s calendar.
