Copper Trades Near One-Week High on Rising Builder Confidence

By Richard Dobson

May 19 (Bloomberg) -- Copper traded near a one-week high in London as improved sentiment among U.S. builders and rising equity markets increased investor confidence in the demand outlook for industrial metals.

The National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo index of builder confidence rose a second month to its highest since September, the Washington-based NAHB said yesterday. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index jumped 3 percent, its biggest gain in two weeks.

The housing “news and the gain in the U.S. stock market subsequently showed sentiment has further improved and bolstered metals as well,” analysts led by Tan Wentao at HNA Topwin Futures Co. wrote in an e-mailed report today. “We’ll need more concrete data to sustain the positive mood.”

Copper for three-month delivery on the London Metal Exchange rose as much as 0.8 percent to $4,556 a ton, the highest intra-day price since May 13. It traded at $4,515 at 9:55 a.m. Shanghai time.

Copper for August delivery on the Shanghai Futures Exchange, the benchmark contract, climbed as much as 2.7 percent to 36,200 yuan ($5,303) a ton, and last traded at 35,910.

Homebuilders are the biggest users of copper in the U.S., the world’s second-largest consumer of the metal after China. It is used in electrical wiring and plumbing.

Among other LME-traded metals, aluminum was down 0.1 percent at $1,518 a ton. Zinc climbed 0.8 percent to $1,530 a ton, lead gained 0.3 percent to $1,495 a ton and nickel rose 0.6 percent to $12,425 a ton. Tin was yet to trade.

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