Copper rose, extending the biggest rally in more than two and a half years, as investors expected European leaders to hammer out details on enhancing the region’s bailout fund at a summit tomorrow. The metal for delivery in three months on the London Metal Exchange gained as much as 2.4 percent to $7,820 a metric ton, the highest level since Sept. 22, and after surging 13 percent in the past two days. The contract was at $7,710 a ton at 3 p.m. Shanghai time, after falling as much as 1.2 percent to $7,545.50 a ton earlier. “Profit-taking earlier today weighed down prices, but short-covering on hope of breakthroughs in Europe near the key resistance level drove prices up,” said Fang Junfeng, an analyst at Shanghai CIFCO Futures Co. A resistance level is where sell orders may be clustered. European leaders, who will hold a second summit in four days tomorrow, are seeking an agreement on bolstering the region’s rescue fund, re-capitalizing banks and providing debt relief to Greece. The January-delivery contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange closed 3.6 percent higher at 56,710 yuan ($8,917) per ton. Copper for December-delivery on the Comex in New York rose 1.3 percent to $3.4945 a pound. China is heading towards a soft landing, and consumption is “very strong” as wages jump, John Tang, China strategist at UBS AG, said at the Bloomberg Link China Conference in Hong Kong today. A hard landing is a “distant scenario,” Liu Li-Gang, head of Greater China economics at Australia & New Zealand Banking Group Ltd., said at the forum. Strong Employment The world’s second-largest economy had the best third quarter for job creation in “several” years, and new urban positions in the first nine months already exceeded the government’s full-year target, Yin Chengji, a spokesman for the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, said at a briefing in Beijing today. Zinc gained as much as 3.4 percent to $1,940 a ton. Producers in China are starting to cut output after metal prices fell below cash production costs for “a material proportion” of small-scale, low-grade mines, said Duncan Hobbs, an analyst at Macquarie Group Ltd., in a research report yesterday. Aluminum rose 0.9 percent to $2,238.25 a ton, lead fell 0.4 percent to $2,010.25 a ton, nickel declined 0.7 percent to $19,860 a ton, and tin dropped 0.5 percent to $22,427 a ton. To contact the editor responsible for this story: Richard Dobson at rdobson4@bloomberg.net

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