Copper futures in New York settled higher on Thursday, extending a rebound from the previous session's slide to one-week lows, as speculative buying boosted values with a weak dollar and firmer energy prices lending support, sources said.
Copper for December delivery closed up 6.45 cents at $3.3090 a lb on the New York Mercantile Exchange's Comex division, after dealing between $3.2250 and $3.3170.
Spot November climbed 6.35 cents to settle at $3.2955, a shade below its session peak at $3.30. Back months ended in positive territory, from up 6.50 to 7.75 cents. Comex final copper volume was estimated at 21,000 lots, in line with Wednesday's official count at 24,035 lots. "I think it is a bounce off of some of the weakness we have seen here recently, and maybe a little bit of short covering in response to some of the strength in the energy markets," said Steve Platt, an analyst with Archer Financial.
In currencies, the dollar slid to a two-month low against the euro on Thursday, weakened by soft US consumer sentiment and China's announcement that it had a clear plan to diversify its foreign exchange reserves.
The euro rose to a two-month high against the dollar at $1.2848 before trading back down to $1.2833 in later afternoon trade in New York. A weaker dollar typically makes dollar-denominated assets like copper less expensive to overseas investors. On Wednesday, Comex copper futures settled at their weakest level since November 1, as funds were seen liquidating their holdings of the red metal and possibly reallocating money into better performing sectors due to copper's stagnant price movement and softening demand outlook.
Sentiment also took a hit from news that the main union at Codelco's Norte division agreed to negotiate which raised the prospects for settlement. About half of the union workers at the largest division of Chile state-owned copper giant Codelco have opened early talks with the company, while the rest have opted to begin negotiations later this month.
Looking at supply-side fundamentals, London Metal Exchange-monitored warehouse stocks jumped 2,325 tonnes to 146,575 tonnes on Thursday, while Comex stocks rose 159 short tons to 25,664 tons on Wednesday. LME three-month copper ended up $190 or 2.7 percent at $7,310 a tonne bouncing back from Wednesday's 4 percent price decline.
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