Reuters reported that London copper rose to its highest in more than a month and was on track to log a fourth week of gains in five supported by the European Central Bank's plan to buy bonds to shore up the region's economy. Investors were also looking to a key US jobs report later in the day for fresh clues on the health of the global economy, though an improved labor market could reduce pressure on the Federal Reserve to take steps such as a third round of bond buying, known as quantitative easing. Mr Ivan Szpakowski metal analyst of Credit Suisse said that "There are still questions as to whether the ECB program will help calm investors and whether you'll get QE from the Fed." Three month copper on the London Metal Exchange rose 1.08% to USD 7,783 per tonne by 0706 GMT having earlier hit USD 7,788.50 per tonne its highest since July 19. The most traded December copper contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange also rose 0.8% to close at CNY 56,650 per tonne having earlier hit CNY 56,890 its highest since May 14. The ECB agreed on Thursday to launch a new and potentially unlimited bond-buying scheme to lower struggling euro zone countries' borrowing costs, in a bid to draw a line under the debt crisis there. Mr Szpakowski said that "Copper has rallied pretty well, so the risk is we could see a sell off. September is usually one of the stronger months of the year, ahead of the October holidays in China so there's a seasonality effect. October will be even worse this year because you have the mid-Autumn festival and the national day holiday back to back, which is not always the case." China, the world's top consumer of metals, and accounting for 40% of refined copper demand last year will be on holidays for the first week of October. Traders said that sentiment had improved this week after China gave the green light for 60 infrastructure projects as it looks to energize an economy mired in its worst slowdown in three years, fuelling hopes that the world's growth engine may get a lift from the Q4.

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