Bloomberg Jan 06---Copper in London rebounded from its biggest drop in more than a month on better-than-expected U.S. economic data and a looming output disruption in Peru.
Three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange rose as much as 1.1 percent to $9,654.25 a metric ton, 1 percent shy of its record $9,754 reached Jan. 4. It fell as much as 2.2 percent yesterday, the biggest intra-day drop since Nov. 26, and traded at $9,626 a ton by 10:26 a.m. in Singapore. Aluminum and nickel also gained.
“The expected shortfall in supply this year is fueling the rally and the improving economic data in the U.S. is helping to support the demand outlook,” Zou Lihu, an analyst at Dongguan Hualian Futures Co., said from Guangdong. “In the very short term, because of the speed of ascent, prices remain vulnerable to pullbacks.”
Workers at Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc.’s Peruvian copper mine, the country’s third-largest, plan to strike Jan. 14 in a dispute over health and overtime issues, a union official said yesterday, adding to concerns supply will lag behind demand this year. A month-long strike at Collahuasi, the world’s third- biggest copper mine, helped drive prices to a record last month.
The April-delivery contact on the Shanghai Futures Exchange gained as much as 1.7 percent to 72,490 yuan （$10,943） a ton, while futures on the Comex in New York climbed as much as 0.4 percent to $4.4260 a pound.
Service industries in the U.S. expanded at the fastest pace since May 2006 in December and companies increased payrolls by the most since records began in 2001, boosting confidence that the economic recovery remains intact.
Aluminum rose 0.2 percent to $2,470 a ton and nickel gained 0.9 percent to $24,980 a ton. Zinc fell 0.5 percent to $2,453 a ton, lead declined 0.7 percent to $2,642 a ton, while tin hadn’t traded.
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