Copper in London rebounded after the Federal Reserve said it will purchase more government debt, boosting confidence that growth will be sustained in the world’s largest economy. Prices also climbed in New York and Shanghai. Three-month-delivery copper rose as much as 1.4 percent to $8,439 a metric ton on the London Metal Exchange and traded at $8,432 at 2:03 p.m. Singapore time. The contract fell 1.4 percent yesterday. The U.S. central bank said yesterday it will expand stimulus by buying an additional $600 billion of Treasuries through June in a bid to reduce unemployment. “The mood in the market is so positive at the moment that not even deteriorating fundamentals is going to stop the rally,” Lu Shaohan, a trader at Guosen Futures Co., said from Guangdong. “There’s no physical support for these prices. The import market is almost dead and people would rather buy scrap than refined metal.” December-delivery metal on the Comex in New York gained as much as 1.6 percent to $3.8450 a pound and the price on the Shanghai Futures Exchange rose as much as 0.9 percent to 64,660 yuan ($9,685) a ton. Spot copper in Changjiang, Shanghai’s biggest cash market, has been trading mostly at a discount to futures in the past month, suggesting ample near-term supply. In Chile, the world’s largest copper-producing country, unions representing workers at the Collahuasi copper mine, the world’s fourth-largest, agreed to return to negotiations today after suspending government-mediated wage talks yesterday. China’s Demand Copper, up 14 percent this year, will extend its rally as “mammoth demand” from China will outpace supplies through 2014, according to Standard Chartered Plc, which predicted in August the metal’s rise to $12,000 a ton in the next two years. “We are seeing a serious reduction in the supply of copper at a time when demand is quite robust whereas there’s a very low inventory,” said Michael Haigh, the bank’s global head of commodities research. “Copper will continue to perform incredibly well.” Standard Chartered expects copper to average $7,369 a ton this year and $8,325 a ton in 2011. The metal has averaged $7,330 a ton so far this year. Aluminum in London rose 1.2 percent to $2,447 a ton, zinc gained 2.3 percent to $2,461 a ton, and lead advanced 1.8 percent to $2,479.50 a ton. Nickel climbed 1.2 percent to $23,825 a ton, and tin increased 0.6 percent to $26,000 a ton by 1:08 p.m. in Singapore. To contact the reporter on this story: Glenys Sim in Singapore at Gsim4@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: James Poole at jpoole4@bloomberg.net

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