US copper futures recovered from a 1-1/2-week low early Wednesday as currency-based buying boosted the broader complex, holding the red metal's upward momentum firmly intact, analysts said.
"I like the price action across the board in the metals," said Ralph Preston, senior market analyst with Heritage West Financial in San Diego, California. "To see such a sharp sell-off and then a recovery like this is encouraging to the bulls."
Copper for May delivery shot up 8.75 cents, or 2.3 percent, to $3.9090 a lb by 10:51 am EST (1551 GMT) on the New York Mercantile Exchange's Comex division, near the upper end of its morning band between $3.9175 and $3.9175, its lowest level since February 26. May copper hit a 22-month high peak of $3.9670 on Monday. Spot March was up 8.60 cents to $3.9130. Futures volumes were estimated at 7,053 lots by 10 am.
Fundamentally, declining copper warehouse stock levels and concerns arising labour protests in Chile and Zambia highlight the market's high sensitivity to supply-side shocks. Protesters blocked a tunnel at Chile's El Teniente copper mine on Wednesday to demand pay rises from their subcontracting company. El Teniente, the world's largest underground copper mine, produced 405,000 tonnes of copper in 2007.