US MIDDAY: copper steadies

12 Mar, 2011

Copper steadied by the close on Friday, recovering from an earlier three-month low, as investors reassessed the likely fallout from Japan's massive earthquake.
An acceleration in Chinese inflation in February only added to the negative mood across the base complex, extending copper's weekly losses to as much as 10 percent before the sell-off began to show signs of fatigue.
COMEX copper for May delivery settled up 1.00 cent at $4.2075 per lb, near the upper end of its $4.0860 to $4.2195 session range. The 8.9 magnitude quake that struck the north-east coast of Japan, the world's third largest economy, triggered a tsunami and killed at least 1,000 people, while power plants, oil refiners and ports were shut down.

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