Copper ended up for a third straight day on Thursday, hitting its priciest level in about two weeks, as investors once again ignored an in-line interest rate hike and continued to bet on the global economic recovery. Copper's bullish momentum spread to other base metals, boosting the price of tin to within $10 of its mid-February record and pushing nickel up nearly 4 percent at one point.
COMEX May copper climbed 4.65 cents to settle at $4.4165 per lb. As prices extended their gains this week, trading volumes saw a slight uptick. More than 50,500 lots traded by 2:11 pm EDT (1811 GMT), nearly 17 percent above the 30-day norm, Thomson Reuters preliminary data showed.