London copper inches up after US employment report buoys recovery hopes

MELBOURNE — London copper inched up on Monday after a solid US jobs report buoyed hopes that an economic recovery is taking root in the world’s top economy, spurring appetite for riskier assets.

The data followed expansion in China’s manufacturing sector in June, which also underpinned investor demand for metals.

“Although (China’s) domestic market is weakening because of seasonality, it has not shown a very strong weakness, and also because of the improving macro sentiment… people have seen some signs from the ( Chinese) central bank trying to (increase) liquidity,” said analyst Chris Wu of CRU in Beijing.

“So that’s why people are more bullish than expected… for all metals, not just for copper.”

London Metal Exchange ( LME) copper had edged up 0.30% to $5,846.50 a ton by 0409 GMT, after small losses in the previous session. Copper prices have been consolidating in a narrow range of $5,800-5,965 since late June.

Shanghai Futures Exchange copper was trading up 0.10% at 46,980 yuan ($6,908) a ton.

LME nickel rallied 1%, recovering from a steep fall the previous session when prices hit a two-week low. Nickel has been trending down on expectations Indonesia and Malaysia will step up ore shipments.

Japan’s core machinery orders unexpectedly tumbled in May and the government downgraded the outlook for orders for the first time in eight months.

The US economy continues to churn out jobs and grow at a steady pace, with investment and consumer confidence both healthy and only moderate signs of risk in financial markets, the US Federal Reserve said on Friday.

China’s producer price index rose 5.50% in June from a year earlier, the National Bureau of Statistics said on Monday. This was in line with analyst forecasts and unchanged from the previous month.

China’s economy will maintain steady and improving momentum in the second half of this year, but it still faces many diff iculties, state radio quoted Premier Li Keqiang as saying on Friday.

Cuba plans to produce 54,500 tons of nickel and cobalt sulfides this year, state- run television said.

Hedge funds and money managers in the week to July 3 raised their net long position in COMEX copper futures and options, US Commodity Futures Trading Commission data showed on Friday. —