Copper finished higher on Friday, with support from a weak dollar, steadier equities, Chilean supply threats and Asian demand signals enabling prices to overcome overnight selling pressures. It was a day of indecisiveness in the base metals complex. Zinc, lead, and tin all tracked copper higher, while nickel plumbed one-week lows and aluminium sank to a new yearly trough.
In New York, the September COMEX contract settled up 1.75 cents at $3.9835 per lb, near the upper end of its $3.9255 to $4.0145 session range.