Copper Trades Little Changed as Investors Look to Dollar, Oil

By Glenys Sim

Sept. 4 (Bloomberg) -- Copper was little changed in Asia after advancing for the first day in five yesterday, as the dollar's climb against the euro and crude's decline both paused.

Copper has fallen 7 percent in the past month as oil tumbled 13 percent while the dollar has gained 7 percent against the euro, eroding demand for investments in commodities.

``The market is consolidating as the bulls and bears are locked in a tug-of-war,'' Jia Zheng, an analyst at Southwest Futures Co., said today from Shanghai. ``While waiting for the fundamentals to become clearer, investors just have to rely on other cues like the oil price and the dollar for direction.''


Copper for delivery in three months stood little changed at $7,345 a metric ton on the London Metal Exchange, after rising 1.2 percent yesterday.

November-delivery copper gained as much as 1.1 percent to 58,370 ($8,535) a ton on the Shanghai Futures Exchange, and traded at 57,840 yuan at 10:38 a.m. Singapore time.

Crude oil for October delivery rose as much as 0.6 percent to $110 per barrel before trading littled changed at $109.25 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract fell 7.5 percent in the past four days, reaching a five-month low Sept. 2.

The dollar fell to $1.4528 against the euro and last traded at $1.4494 from $1.4498 yesterday in New York. The dollar rose to $1.4385 against the euro yesterday, the highest since Jan. 22.

Among other LME-traded metals, aluminum was up 0.3 percent at $2,684 a ton and zinc declined 0.2 percent to $1,785. Lead, nickel and tin had not traded as of 10:40 a.m. in Singapore.

To contact the reporter for this story: Glenys Sim in Singapore at gsim4@bloomberg.net