KUALA LUMPUR: London copper inched up on Friday as it headed for its first weekly gain in three after signs of a recovery in the US economy boosted investor hopes that demand for the industrial metal may pick up.
Three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange rose 0.36 percent to $7,567 a tonne by 0348 GMT, extending gains from the previous session.
Prices have climbed 3 percent this week, snapping two weeks of declines. Copper is still down 21 percent this year, its worst annual performance since 2008.
The most-traded March copper contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange increased 1.1 percent to 55,490 yuan ($8,800) a tonne.
"Indicators continue to suggest a potentially decent spring-up in economic growth in the fourth quarter," said Thomas Lam, a Singapore-based chief economist at OSK-DMG, a joint venture of Malaysian securities firm OSK Holdings Bhd. and Germany's Deutsche Bank AG.
"The less tight US financial conditions through December so far coupled with the recent improvement in activity-related indicators also suggest a reduction in recession risk in the near term."
US claims for unemployment benefits dropped last week to their lowest in more than 3-1/2 years, while consumer confidence jumped in December to the highest level in six months.
The number of outstanding copper futures contracts on the LME has fallen this week, as positions are closed out before the year-end holidays.
LME copper faces a resistance at $7,573 per tonne, a rise above which will extend to $7,776, according to Reuters technical analyst, Wang Tao.
The euro was steady in thin holiday Asian trade on Friday, leaving it on track to end the year modestly lower against the dollar as the European debt crisis looks set to last for many more months. It was at $1.3050, having held to a tight $1.3016/$1.3120 range overnight.
Asian stocks edged up on Friday, as signs of a strengthening economy in the United States encouraged a modest year-end rally in riskier assets.
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