Today Copper Prices 8.098USD per metric ton in LME

Copper prices was at $8,098 a metric ton today on the London Metal Exchange, heading for the biggest weekly advance since January 2009. Prices reached a five-week high of $8,280 after European leaders yesterday bolstered their rescue fund to 1 trillion euros ($1.4 billion) and persuaded bondholders to take 50 percent losses on Greek debt. Copper traders and analysts are forecasting an end to the biggest weekly rally in more than two years on concern demand will slow in China while Europe’s lingering financial crisis limits growth.

While copper surged 13 percent this week as European leaders agreed to expand the region’s bailout fund, the metal is down more than 20 percent from a record on Feb. 15, the common definition of a bear market. Global output exceeded demand in the eight months through August, the World Bureau of Metal Statistics said on Oct. 19. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and UBS AG cut their copper forecasts for 2012 this month, and economists surveyed by Bloomberg predict slower growth next year in Europe and China, the world’s largest metal user.

Copper output this year through August exceeded demand by 312,500 tons, up from 128,000 tons for 2010, according to the World Bureau of Metal Statistics, based in Ware, England.

The LME’s index of six industrial metals fell 15 percent this year, compared with a 3 percent gain for the Standard & Poor’s GSCI index of 24 commodities that’s been led by gasoil and gold. The MSCI All-Country World Index of equities slid 3.7 percent, and Treasuries returned 6.7 percent, a Bank of America Corp. index shows.

Goldman Sachs lowered its 2012 copper forecast by 18 percent to $8,750 a ton from $10,692, according to an Oct. 21 report from the New York-based bank. UBS, based in Zurich, on Oct. 14 reduced its 2012 estimate of copper futures on the Comex in New York by 5.4 percent to $3.50 a pound ($7,716 a ton) from $3.70.

Demand in China declined 5 percent in the first seven months of this year, the International Copper Study Group said in an Oct. 21 report. Imports of refined metal climbed in September to the highest since May 2010 as lower prices in London prompted traders to place orders. Inbound shipments climbed 17 percent to 275,499 tons last month from 235,509 tons in August, the General Administration of Customs said Oct. 24.

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