Industrial metals ended firm on Friday after stronger-than-expected US housing and durable goods data drove global equities higher and offset fears of a slowdown in the world's biggest economy, traders said. "It is giving a little bit of a boost (to metals)," a London Metal Exchange trader said.
Copper for three-month delivery ended firm at $7,310 a tonne, up $50 from Thursday's close. In early trade the metal, used extensively in the construction, power and auto industries, hit an intraday low of $7,160, down 1.4 percent.
Prices were capped at around $7,300, traders said, due to some pre-holiday selling as the London market is closed on Monday for Bank Holiday. Lead, mainly used in batteries, was up 4 percent or $125 to $3,240. Prices rose beyond zinc, with which it commonly occurs, for the first time in 27 years. Three-months zinc closed at $3,139, down $11.
LME lead stocks fell to a 17-year low of 26,400 tonnes, just over a day of global consumption, reinforcing the threat to supply posed by the stoppage at Doe Run's Missouri, smelter for a week to 10 days because of furnace failures.
Investors had been nervously awaiting the data after the head of Countrywide Financial Corp, the biggest mortgage company, said on Thursday the persistent downturn in the US housing market could lead to recession.
"The data is bullish for metals because it means more demand for raw materials," another LME trader said. Sales of new US homes rose unexpectedly 2.8 percent to an 870,000 annual rate in July, reversing two months of declines, a Commerce Department report showed.
New orders for long-lasting US-made manufactured goods surged a much bigger-than-expected 5.9 percent in July, the biggest gain since September. "But my feeling is that the US housing sector is going to get worse before it gets better," base metal analyst Daniel Hynes at Merrill Lynch said.
The market was some 6-9 months away from a recovery in demand growth for copper, due to the large level of housing inventory that must be worked through before real growth in copper consumption occurred, he said. "And if the US subprime mortgage problems get even worse, we could see US copper consumption remain flat or even fall."
London-listed miners BHP Billiton and Anglo American were up over 1 percent after earlier losses, while broader FTSE 100 index was also up 0.37 percent. BHP Billiton, the world's biggest mining company, said it was not overly concerned about short-term market movements and that it would seek to grow aggressively in India, where volume growth is outstripping China Three-months tin was $50 softer at $14,550/14,600, while aluminium was up $23 to $2,555.
The key ingredient in stainless steel, nickel, shed $150 to $27,700/27,750. The metal has nearly halved in value since its high of $51,800 in May as producers have cut back use.