BLBG: Copper Advances to a Three-Month High as U.S. Housing Starts Top Forecasts
Copper futures rose to a three-month high after a government report showed housing starts in the U.S., the world’s second-biggest user of the metal, gained more than forecast in June.
Work began on 629,000 houses at an annual pace, topping the highest estimate in a survey of economists by Bloomberg News. Building permits, a sign of future construction, unexpectedly climbed. Before today, copper, used in pipes, wiring and roofing, rose 2.8 percent this month.
“Positive housing numbers are lending support to copper,” Adam Klopfenstein, a senior strategist at Lind-Waldock in Chicago, said in a telephone interview. “There is a continued feeling that growth will be here in the second half of the year.”
Copper futures for September delivery advanced 7.75 cents, or 1.8 percent, to $4.4805 a pound at 9:40 a.m. on the Comex in New York. Earlier, the price touched $4.4885, the highest for a most-active contract since April 11.
Before today, the metal jumped 50 percent in the past year, reaching a record $4.6575 on Feb. 15, as mining companies struggled to keep pace with rising consumption. China is the world’s largest user.
“We’re having now a bit of a relief rally in some of the markets,” Christin Tuxen, an analyst at Danske Bank A/S in Copenhagen, said in a telephone interview. “Market participants are more confident” that the European and U.S. debt woes won’t derail the global economy, she said.
On the London Metal Exchange, copper for delivery in three months rose $156.75, or 1.6 percent, to $9,850.75 a metric ton ($4.47 a pound).
Aluminum, lead, nickel, tin and zinc also gained in London.
To contact the reporters on this story: Yi Tian in New York at ytian8@bloomberg.net; Agnieszka Troszkiewicz in London at atroszkiewic@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Steve Stroth at sstroth@bloomberg.net
