Comex copper futures closed with modest gains on Wednesday as the market continued to consolidate heavy losses of two weeks ago and looked for fresh fundamental direction, traders said.
"Not much happened in here today. We matched the top and bottom of yesterday, so I would say we were range-bound," said one floor trader.
Benchmark December copper on the New York Mercantile Exchange's Comex division settled 0.65 cent higher at $1.2880 a lb after trading from $1.2750 to $1.2950.
The exchange estimated final volume at 13,000 lots. Copper opened higher on reports of possible labour strikes in both Peru's top copper producer and at the El Abram copper mine in northern Chile, and on a jump in aluminium prices, traders said.
But prices settled back in a range at midseason. "There was no fresh direction," a trader said. "China's the question mark going forward.
What is the Far East going to do?" China has been a major buyer of various commodities on the world markets this year, including copper.
"The raw material deficit needs to be resolved by importing," Yang said in a paper prepared for the 2004 China International Copper Forum in Haiku, on Hanna Island.
Workers at Peru's leading copper producer, Southern Peru Copper Corp, will go on strike on November 3 unless a fired worker is reinstated, a union leader from one of the company's two mines said on Tuesday. The union said it was travelling to Lima on Thursday to meet the (Labour) minister for the reinstatement of the fired worker.
Meanwhile, a union worker at El Abram copper mine in northern Chile, which is controlled by Phelps Dodge Corp, said the union would reject the company's latest wage offer in a vote on Wednesday, paving the way for a strike next week.
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