Copper Trades Near Two-Week High After U.S. Equities Advance

By Bloomberg News

May 27 (Bloomberg) -- Copper was little changed in Asia after touching a two-week high earlier as an equity rally and a jump in consumer sentiment in the U.S. boosted demand prospects for industrial metals.

The metal used in pipes and wires gained as much as 1.1 percent on the London Metal Exchange after U.S. stocks advanced for the first time in five days and U.S. consumer confidence jumped the most in six years. The U.S. is the second-largest copper user.

“There isn’t much downside risk to copper, with the U.S. economy expected to improve gradually,” Chen Yonglin, an analyst at Citic Newedge Futures Co., said from Shanghai today. “The metal is likely to go up even when the summer lull kicks in,” he said, referring to the traditional slowdown in demand from processors in China during the summer months.

Copper for three-month delivery on the London Metal Exchange advanced to $4,710 a metric ton before trading at $4,665 at 10:30 a.m. in Singapore.

September-delivery copper on the Shanghai Futures Exchange added as much as 1.9 percent to 37,090 yuan ($5,425) a ton before trading at 36,890 yuan.

Among other LME-traded metals, aluminum gained 0.2 percent to $1,455 a ton, zinc added 0.3 percent to $1,504, lead declined 0.2 percent to $1,442 and nickel was little changed at $13,400 a ton. Tin hadn’t traded as of 10:28 a.m. in Singapore.

--Li Xiaowei, John Liu. Editors: Matthew Oakley, Richard Dobson.

To contact the reporter on this story: John Liu in Shanghai at jliu42@bloomberg.net