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Gold/Mining/Energy : Precious and Base Metal Investing -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: loantech who wrote (19207)	9/3/2003 6:28:37 PM
From: Stephen O	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 39344

Thanks for the compliment, I assume it was directed at me. I even picked up a little more BHK today myself. One day someone will just sweep up all the 20c stock that's offered and we will move quickly to 25c. First Quantum (FM.TO) made a new high today, no wonder look at copper to get some base metal stuff in the thread. Sept. 3 (Bloomberg) -- Copper futures in New York rose to a 30-month high after the government said spending by the U.S. construction industry, the biggest user of the metal, increased for a second straight month. Prices have climbed 19 percent this year, largely because of increasing copper demand among U.S. manufacturers and builders. Construction spending rose 0.2 percent in July after a revised 0.7 percent gain in June that was more than double the previous estimate, the U.S. Commerce Department reported. ``The housing construction and hospitals and schools have been tremendous,'' said Vincent Rego, chief executive of Encore Wire Corp. in McKinney, Texas, which uses about 25 million pounds of copper a month to make electrical wiring for homes, schools and office buildings. ``A lot of hospitals in our area are increasing their capacity because there's more old folks.'' In other markets, natural-gas futures rose for the first time in three sessions as U.S. utilities and fuel brokers took advantage of the lowest prices this year to lock in supplies for winter, and gold futures gained. The energy-weighted Goldman Sachs Commodity Index rose 1.00 to 233.17. Copper for December delivery rose 1.45 cents, or 1.8 percent, to 83.2 cents a pound on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. The closing price was the highest for a most-active contract since March 2001. U.S. residential construction rose 0.6 percent in July, fueled by declining mortgage rates, the Commerce Department report showed. An average single-family home contains about 400 pounds of copper, according to the Copper Development Association in New York. U.S. home sales increased to a record annual rate in June, when mortgage rates fell to a record low. ``Steady consistent spending runs parallel and bullish with the current view of an economy that is trending on higher growth,'' said Michael Guido, associate director for hedge-fund marketing at Barclays Capital Inc. in New York. Before the revision to the June report, economists had expected a July increase of 0.5 percent, the median estimate in a Bloomberg News survey. Construction accounts for about 40 percent of copper demand.