Copper Resumes Rally as U.S. Industrial Output Boosts Prospects for Demand

Jan 15 (Bloomberg) --Copper futures advanced for the third time in four days as expanding industrial output in the U.S. boosted prospects for metal demand.

Output at factories, mines and utilities in the U.S. rose more than forecast in December, with gains in business equipment and home electronics, figures from the Federal Reserve showed today. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index of equities climbed to the highest since September 2008, and the dollar headed for the biggest weekly drop since September against a basket of major currencies.

Rising industrial production “is what’s supporting stocks, and that’s what’s supporting copper,” said Adam Klopfenstein, a senior strategist at Lind-Waldock in Chicago. “Copper is up today, defying the trend of the rest of the metal spectrum, as we see weakness in the dollar.”

Copper futures for March delivery rose 2.65 cents, or 0.6 percent, to $4.4035 a pound at 11:48 a.m. on the Comex in New York. A close at that price would leave a 2.8 percent gain for the week, the sixth such gain in the past seven. On Jan. 3, the price reached an all-time high of $4.498.

Before today, the most-active contract was up 29 percent in the past year.

On the London Metal Exchange, copper for delivery in three months climbed 0.2 percent to $9,632 a metric ton ($4.37 a pound).

Lead and nickel prices also gained on the LME, while aluminum and zinc declined. Tin was unchanged.