Copper shot to a more than two-month high above $8,000 per tonne on Thursday after a drop in China's inflation and two successful European debt auctions emboldened market bulls and unleashed a wave of pent-up short-covering. In New York, the key March COMEX contract rallied 10.30 cents or by 2.9 percent to settle at $3.6490 per lb, near the top end of its $3.5220 to $3.6710 session range.
COMEX copper's open interest is up nearly 13 percent from early December, front-running the rally in the futures price. Volumes surged above 68,000 lots in late New York business, nearly two-thirds above the 30-day norm, according to preliminary Thomson Reuters data.