Copper stays steady

Good data and earnings push prices higher

Copper prices ended higher for the day and week on Friday, 14 January 2011. Prices rose due to better than expected earnings data and mixed economic data that boosted overall sentiments. Though prices rose at Comex, they slipped at LME.




At USA, copper futures for December delivery ended higher by 4 cents (1%) at $4.41 a pound on Friday. Prices gained 3% for the week. For the year, copper prices are almost unchanged till date.

At LME prices fell by $65 (0.7%) to $9,551 a ton.

For the year 2010, copper gained 33%. It was the ninth rise for the red metal in ten years.

At Wall Street on Friday, Intel and JP Morgan Chase both reported earnings beating expectations.

In the currency market on Friday, the dollar index, which weighs the strength of the dollar against a basket of six other currencies was in constant search of direction and dropped marginally.

Overnight, the People's Bank of China said it would raise the reserve-requirement ratio of major lenders by half a percentage point from Jan. 20, as it steps up efforts to control excess money supply.

Among economic data expected for the day, the December Consumer Price Index showed a slightly stronger-than-expected 0.5% increase, but core consumer prices increased just 0.1%. Overall retail sales for December increased 0.6% while sales less autos increased 0.5%, which is a bit shy of what had been widely expected. December industrial production increased 0.8%, which is double the rate of increase that had been generally expected. The preliminary Consumer Sentiment Survey for January from the University of Michigan came in at 72.7. It was down from the prior month, but it's also shy of what had been expected. Business inventories for November were up 0.2%. That's considerably more modest than what had been widely anticipated.

Among other metals traded in the LME on Friday, lead ended 0.2% higher at $2,632.5 a ton and zinc ended 0.7% lower at $2,444 a ton. Nickel lost 0.3% at $25,470. Aluminum was unchanged to end at $2,486.5 a ton.