Copper jumped by the most in three weeks
on Friday after data showing U.S. employers hired more workers than expected
last month deflated the dollar and boosted prices of the red metal away from the
bottom end of well-worn range.
Copper rose alongside a 3 percent rally in crude oil and a late-week surge
in equities after the Labor Department said nonfarm payrolls rose 63,000 in
July, breaking three straight months of job gains below 100,000 and offering
some hope for the ailing economy.
But an increase in the jobless rate to 8.3 percent reminded investors of the
still-fragile state of the world's largest economy and kept prospects of further
monetary stimulus from the Federal Reserve on the table.
"The noose ... (is) still around the Fed's neck and everybody is very
cognizant of the fact that we could fall off the economic cliff any day," said
Adam Sarhan, chief executive of Sarhan Capital in New York.
London Metal Exchange (LME) three-month copper rose $115, or 1.6
percent, to end at $7,445 a tonne, its biggest one-day gain since July 13, when
prices soared by nearly 2 percent.
In New York, the COMEX September contract rose 7.70 cents, or 2.3
percent, to settle at $3.3675 per lb after dealing between $3.2985 and $3.3740.
Since May, copper prices have been mired in a range between $7,200 and
$7,800 in London and $3.25 and $3.60 in New York, pushed and pulled between a
waning global growth outlook and a tighter supply base and second-half Chinese
demand prospects.
"Although the numbers are decent, they're not so amazing that the Fed are
going to turn around and say the economy is fine. It will take a long and
sustained period of improving data for the Fed to say that," said Guy Wolf, a
macro strategist at Marex Spectron.
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