Copper rose for a second day in London, reducing this week’s drop, as a weaker dollar stoked demand for commodities as an alternative investment. The U.S. Dollar Index, a six-currency gauge of the greenback’s strength, fell as much as 0.5 percent after four days of gains. A slumping dollar makes commodities priced in the currency cheaper in terms of other monies. Raw materials from crude oil to rice gained. “The dollar has stopped rallying,” said Kevin Tuohy, a metals trader at MF Global U.K. Ltd. in London. “I don’t see much else influencing prices today.” Copper for delivery in three months rose $30, or 0.4 percent, to $7,285 a metric ton at 9:38 a.m. on the London Metal Exchange, paring a climb of as much as 0.8 percent. The contract is down 1.2 percent this week, headed for the first slide in four weeks. Futures for September delivery added 0.4 percent to $3.298 a pound on the Comex in New York. Copper has dropped 1.2 percent this year after more than doubling in 2009. Only nickel and tin have gained among the six main metals traded in the LME. The dollar index is up 6 percent in 2010. LME-monitored copper stockpiles slipped 0.1 percent to 408,550 tons. They have shrunk for five months in a row. Canceled warrants, or orders to draw metal from LME-registered warehouses, dropped 6.4 percent to 20,500 tons. Zinc, Lead Including metal tracked by exchanges in Shanghai and New York, copper inventories totaled 610,978 tons, or about 12 days of global consumption based on Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc’s estimate for demand this year of 18.2 million tons. That’s down from almost 14 days at the start of 2010. Zinc for three-month delivery on the LME increased 0.7 percent to $2,069.75 a ton and lead added 1 percent to $2,120 a ton. Glencore International AG suspended operations at its mines for the metals in southwest Bolivia as local authorities and workers protest over a lack of investment in the region. Bolivia will produce 470,000 tons of zinc this year and 100,000 tons of lead, London-based researcher CRU estimates. That would be about 3.5 percent to 4 percent of world mine production for zinc and 2.5 percent for lead. “Neither the lead nor the zinc market is tight,” Graham Deller, a zinc analyst at CRU, said yesterday by phone. Production disruptions in Bolivia “will nibble away the surplus, but it’s fairly insignificant.” Aluminum fell 0.2 percent to $2,160 a ton and tin advanced 0.3 percent to $20,610 a ton. Nickel increased 1.4 percent to $21,730 a ton.

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