BLBG:Copper Rebounds as U.S. Retail Sales Boost Outlook for Demand
Copper rebounded from a one-month low as the U.S. reported better-than-expected retail sales and Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. said consumption in China is being sustained. Industrial metals gained.
Metal for delivery in three months rose as much as 1 percent to $8,175 a metric ton on the London Metal Exchange and was at $8,162 at 4:22 p.m. in Seoul. Futures for delivery in December gained 0.4 percent to $3.7155 a pound on the Comex.
“We are seeing expectations reappear that demand will recover,” said Chae Un Soo, a metals trader at Korea Exchange Bank Futures Co. “We see some strong buying appetite, while there’s still concern that the global economy may weaken.”
U.S. retail sales advanced 1.1 percent in September, following a revised 1.2 percent increase in August, the best back-to-back showing since late 2010, Commerce Department figures showed yesterday. The median forecast of 77 economists surveyed by Bloomberg called for a 0.8 percent rise.
Chinese demand is being sustained even amid concerns that purchases by the second-largest economy may be slowing, said Freeport-McMoRan, the biggest publicly traded copper producer. “Presently we’re not seeing physical evidence of a significant change,” Chief Executive Officer Richard Adkerson said yesterday in an interview in London.
Copper imports by China climbed to a four-month high in September amid expectations of improving demand as home prices increase. More than 55 percent of market participants in a Macquarie Group Ltd. survey on the outlook for the next 12 months expect copper to gain, up from 40 percent a year earlier.
Copper for January delivery gained 0.4 percent to close at 58,790 yuan ($9,383) a ton on the Shanghai Futures Exchange. On the LME, zinc, aluminum, nickel, lead and tin advanced.
To contact the reporter on this story: Sungwoo Park in Seoul at spark47@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: James Poole at jpoole4@bloomberg.net
