Whisked to Trumpland, Alice ponders what the Mad Hatter would make of the president-elect's promises of an infrastructure rebuild and his plans to make America great again by putting up barriers to free trade.

US president-elect Donald Trump has vowed to kick-start funding of up to $1 trillion on infrastructure projects, and the steel and metals industry has been cheering. But analysts remain unconvinced.

US president-elect Donald Trump will not set off a trade war this year despite making fair trade a focal point of his campaign, according to a metals analyst.

Base metals prices are for the most part firmer this morning, Wednesday January 18, with prices up an average of 0.4%.

Base metals prices are pulling back to consolidate this morning, Tuesday January 17, with three-month prices on the London Metal Exchange down an average of 1% as of 06:08 GMT with the pullback been done at quite a high volume of 11,288 lots.

Metals – or commodities generally – are no longer the pariah class, as funds once again dip their toes into the pool, Lord Copper asserts as he looks to the year ahead with cautious optimism.

At the start of 2016 the mood was dire – metals prices were trading around multi-year lows in thin trading conditions. Speculators and funds shunned the complex and, with a poor global economic outlook, the outlook was bleak.

Modestly higher interest rates in the USA are not expected to have much of an impact on metal markets, according to industry sources.

Metal Bulletin's price reporters look forward to the major issues and industry trends that face the base metals industry in 2017.

The weight of long copper positions on the London Metal Exchange has eased as prices have fallen, but traders are unwilling to heavily short in the current volatile price environment, market participants told Metal Bulletin.