New York copper futures rose on Thursday, recovering from early profit taking after a series of bombing attacks rocked London, as worries about a shortage of the economically crucial metal remained the main influence. "The market absorbed this quite nicely," said Fred Demler, minerals economist at E.D. & F Man. "It does make the markets nervous. But, overall, the market seems to have weathered this event."
Traders in London quickly dumped long copper positions accumulated during a rally this week, after four powerful explosions ripped though London's subway and bus system during the rush hour.
At least 37 people were killed and 700 wounded in what British interior minister Charles Clarke called "terrorist attacks," which disrupted a meeting of Group of Eight leaders in Scotland.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair called the blast "barbaric" before rushing home.
At the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange, September copper settled up 0.55 cent at $1.5355 a lb., trading between $1.5425 and $1.5060.
Spot July copper went up 0.65 cent to $1.6095 a lb. "Somebody said to me today 'the best time to buy the market is when there's blood on the streets,' and, as aggressive and nasty as that sounds, there's probably some truth to it," said Mark Morgan, a metals trader at Trilled USA.
Still, with visible copper inventories at their lowest levels in three decades, and strikes disrupting the supply of concentrates from copper mines, the path of least resistance seems up.
London Metal Exchange warehouse stocks actually went up 25 tonnes on Thursday, but at 29,450 tonne were nears a 31-year low. Comex stocks fell 43 short tons to 15,189 tons on Wednesday.
"The fundamentals do dictate in the end, regardless of what you think is going to happen on the technical side of the market," Morgan said. "People do look at visible stocks, and visible stocks are very low right now."
The LME, the main base metals pricing arena, closed floor trading after the London attacks, leaving open only its Select electronic platform.
Traders said Comex could accommodate some of the slipover business, although estimated volume was 8,000 contracts, comparable to Wednesday's final 8,759.
LME three months copper was quoted at $3,212.50 a tonne, down from Wednesday's kerb close at $3,322.
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