Copper closed with modest gains on Friday after European leaders agreed on measures to fix a two-year debt crisis that has crimped industrial demand, but the metal still posted its fifth weekly loss in the past six weeks. In New York, the key March COMEX contract rose 5.75 cents or 1.6 percent to settle at $3.5575 per lb, after dealing between $3.4755 and $3.5665.
Futures volumes continued to run a lighter-than-normal pace this week. Nearly 40,000 lots traded in late New York business - more than a third below the 30-day norm, according to preliminary Thomson Reuters data.