(Bloomberg) -- Copper jumped more than 3% in London, joining a risk-on rally seen across markets after the Federal Reserve gave the clearest signal yet that its historic policy tightening campaign is over.

Wednesday’s Fed meeting, where policymakers signaled more aggressive interest-rate cuts in 2024, unleashed a bullish pulse that’s touched virtually every corner of global finance. Traders are betting the Fed is on the cusp of engineering a once-unthinkable soft landing in the world’s largest economy.

For copper, a slew of major setbacks at key mining operations is also tightening the market, erasing a large surplus analysts had been expecting going into 2024. Anticipation of a looser market in the near term has weighed on prices for much of the year, leaving copper drifting sideways.

Thursday’s rally took prices back above $8,500 a ton, making the year-to-date gain about 2%.

“Copper remains our preferred base metal,” analysts at Morgan Stanley said in an emailed note Wednesday as they predicted a rally to $9,000 by the second quarter. “Copper supply disruptions are rising rapidly, driving an even tighter balance for 2024.”

A slump in the dollar after the Fed meeting is also strengthening buying power for commodities consumers in China, with the onshore yuan posting its biggest gain in three weeks Thursday. Traders are now looking ahead to economic data and interest-rate policy in China on Friday.

Traders on the LME were also trying to assess the impact of new UK sanctions that will prohibit British citizens and companies from trading in a wide range of Russian metals. The rules potentially may prevent UK persons from withdrawing Russian metal they buy on the bourse starting Dec. 15, the LME said in a statement.

Copper rose as much as 3.1% to $8,588 a ton on the LME, the biggest intraday gain since Jan. 9. It was trading at $8,565 a ton as of 5:32 p.m. local time, as all major metals gained on the exchange.

Aluminum climbed 3.6%, leading the advance.

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