NEW YORK, Jan 29 (Reuters) - U.S. copper futures climbed to a two-week peak early Tuesday after a robust December durable goods report eased some of the economic worry that has hung over prices since the fourth quarter of 2007, brokers said.
"The durables number certainly helped push some of these metals into higher ground this morning," said Frank Lesh, broker and futures analyst with Future Path Trading in Chicago.
Copper for March delivery HGH8 was trading up 7.35 cents, or 2.3 percent, to $3.2630 a lb by 10:27 a.m. EST (1527 GMT) on the New York Mercantile Exchange's COMEX division, easing back from an earlier peak of $3.2920, its highest level since Jan. 15.
Futures volumes were estimated at 8,593 lots by 10:00 a.m.
The Commerce Department reported new orders for long-lasting U.S.-made manufactured goods rose by a much-larger-than-expected 5.2 percent in December, and a key gauge of business spending also surged. [ID:nN28459407]
"This is a pretty good number, but we are going to get a lot more information this week, including jobs data and GDP, which will be a better indicator for whether or not the market jumped the gun on worrying about recession," said Linda Duessel, market strategist with Federated Investors in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Copper prices surged to their session highs following the surprisingly strong durables numbers, but the momentum petered out after another report showed U.S. consumer confidence fell in January.
The Conference Board said its index of consumer sentiment fell to 87.9 from an upwardly revised 90.6 in December.
Looking ahead, the fundamental focus will shift to Wednesday's U.S. Federal Reserve meeting and announcement on interest rates. Market expectations are high that policy makers will slash rates again to prevent the economy from tipping into recession.
"It seems to be we have already priced in the Fed at this point, so I don't know if the metals are really going to advance much more on this Fed action. Maybe we'll get a little push if we get the 50 instead of the 25," Lesh said.
In other news, state-owned Codelco, the world's largest copper miner, has won four of six court decisions against an edict by Chile's labor ministry that would have forced it to revamp its work force, a company source said.
In December, Codelco challenged a ministry edict that would have required it to directly hire nearly 5,000 currently subcontracted workers across its five divisions.
The company, which produces 1.7 million tonnes of copper per year, is appealing the edict division-by-division and mine-by-mine.
On the London Metal Exchange (LME), copper for delivery in three-months MCU3 last traded at $7,240 a tonne, up $180 from Monday's close.
LME warehouse stocks fell by 400 tonnes to 171,275 tonnes on Tuesday, while COMEX copper stocks eased 58 short tons to 13,978 short tons. (Reporting by Chris Kelly; editing by Jim Marshall) |
