US MIDDAY: copper jumps

In New York, the May COMEX contract climbed 8.10 cents to settle at $3.7205 per lb on Thursday, near the upper end of its $3.6340 to $3.7310 session range. COMEX copper volumes reached above 92,500 lots in late New York trade, more than 50 percent above the 30-day norm, according to preliminary Thomson Reuters data.
"It (Europe's debt crisis) has been a contributory factor in the weakness over the last couple of weeks, but the default position of markets is to be bullish unless the evidence is overwhelmingly the other way around," said BNP Paribas analyst Stephen Briggs.