US copper rose to a third successive record high on Monday, extending last year's 33 percent gain on quickening US manufacturing growth and a slow-down in China that tempered fears of further rate rises. Often seen as a good barometer for the global economy, copper rallied as much as 5 percent after the official Chinese purchasing managers' index edged down in December, easing concerns that rising inflation would lead the government to take more steps to control growth
"(Copper) is showing investor sentiment about the economic outlook going forward is quite good," said Matthew Zeman, head of trading with LaSalle Futures Group in Chicago. "If this data stream stays positive, it will continue to go up." COMEX copper for March delivery settled up 1.05 cents at $4.4575 per lb, after dealing between $4.4315 and a new all-time high at $4.4980.
Volumes was thin with both London and Shanghai markets shut, with a little more than 17,000 lots traded on COMEX, about 50 percent below the 30-day average, according to Thomson Reuters preliminary data. Analysts expect copper to extend that move by another 10 percent in 2011 as consumers contend with a shortfall of metal estimated by Barclays Capital to be more than 800,000 tonnes or almost 4 percent of forecast output this year.