US copper closed higher on Thursday, aided by revised fourth-quarter economic numbers and better jobs data, although nagging worries over housing kept a lid on prices, traders said. A rally in oil, which aided copper's run-up over the last week, demonstrated to investors that funds were bullish on commodities as a whole, analysts said.
Most-active copper contract for May delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange's Comex division ended 2.40 cents, or 0.8 percent, up at $3.0865. The session high was $3.0950, versus a low of $3.0260. US economic growth for the last quarter of 2006 was revised up to an annual rate of 2.5 percent, from the 2.2 percent reported a month ago, the Commerce Department said on Thursday.
Separate data showed the number of US workers filing new claims for jobless benefits unexpectedly fell by 10,000 last week to the lowest level in more than two months.
But analysts said some metals investors were queasy about the future of the housing sector, a lifeline for copper. "Most numbers we're getting suggest the US economy isn't doing as badly as feared, except for housing, which remains the uncertain bit and the one probably weighing copper down," said Steve Platt, analyst at Archer Financials.
Final turnover estimated for Comex copper was 2,750 lots, versus on Wednesday's official volume of 12,405 lots. Open interest shrunk by 148 lots to 74,864. Copper prices have risen 15 percent since March 5, rebounding from February's broad sell-off in commodities. While the rebound has been due largely to fundamentals such as strong Chinese imports and declining copper inventories on the London Metal Exchange (LME), higher oil prices have also been factors.
US crude oil broke past $66 a barrel on Thursday; it's highest since September 11, 2006, as a tense situation persisted over Iran's capture of 15 British sailors [O/R]. The energy rally bumped up the Reuters-Jefferies CRB Index of 19 US-traded commodities to a 3-1/2 month peak.
Copper on the London Metal Exchange closed higher, with the three-month contract gaining 1.5 percent to $6,755 a tonne, against on Wednesday's close of $6,655. On the industry front, Anglo-Swiss miner Strata Plc said it expected to produce about 1.1 million tonnes of copper in 2007, with output bolstered by the acquisition of Canada's Falconbridge and the Tintaya mine in Peru last year.
Congo's state-owned copper producer Gecamines said it expected to raise output of copper and cobalt by-product to more than 30,000 tonnes and 1,500 tonnes, respectively, in 2007, from 22,000 and 700 tonnes in 2006.