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Gold/Mining/Energy : Copper - analysis -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Stephen O who wrote (956)	10/15/2004 3:27:38 PM
From: Stephen O	Respond to of 2131

Copper Gains for 1st Time This Week on Buying by Manufacturers By Claudia Carpenter Oct. 15 (Bloomberg) -- Copper in New York rose for the first time this week on demand from manufacturers attracted by prices close to a five-week low. ``A number of consumers of copper have taken the recent downturn to come in as buyers and the market has recovered dramatically,'' said Jim Steel, director of commodity research at Refco LLC in New York. Prices had fallen 14 percent this week on concern a slowdown in China's economy would reduce consumption by the world's biggest buyer. Melbourne-based BHP Billiton Ltd. and China's Jiangxi Copper Co. say China's usage still will outpace production. ``The reality is that the country's demand, boosted by the need to build new power generators and other equipment, cannot be satisfied by current tight supply,'' said Hu Wei, head of copper trading at Jiangxi Copper, China's biggest refiner of the metal. Copper futures for December delivery rose 3.95 cents, or 3.1 percent, to $1.309 a pound on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange, rebounding from yesterday's $1.248, the lowest since Sept. 9. The price dropped 11 percent this week after rising 16 percent in the previous five weeks. Shares of Phoenix-based Phelps Dodge Corp., the world's biggest publicly traded copper producer, climbed $2.67, or 3.2 percent, to $85.38 at 1:55 p.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. London-based Winton Capital Management and Meyer Capital Management said they are among the speculators that suffered on Oct. 13 as copper had its biggest drop in 14 years and prices of metals including nickel and aluminum slid. Meyer Capital of Barrington, Illinois, lost 7 percent on the day. The fund rose 12 percent in September, primarily from bets on rising metals, said Michael Stendler, managing director. `Good Runs' ``Zinc, nickel, aluminum and copper all had good runs,'' he said. Winton's $1.08 billion managed futures fund declined 1.4 percent, said David Harding, a principal. The fund sold metals including copper this week, though retains a ``long'' position on optimism for demand in China, he said. In China, the December contract fell 4 percent, tumbling the maximum allowed by the Shanghai Futures Exchange for the second day in a row. Copper stockpiles in warehouses approved by the Shanghai exchange rose 36 percent as of Oct. 14 from a week earlier. That followed a 40 percent surge the week before. Mining companies had increased sales to take advantage of the higher prices, said Pan Haisheng, analyst at China Aviation Futures Co. A futures contract is an agreement to buy or sell a commodity at a specific price and date. --With reporting by Tan Hwee Ann in Melbourne and Samantha Lafferty in London. Editor: McKiernan