Copper trades close to 10-week high on China easing hopes

Forexpros - Copper futures regained strength on Monday, trading just below a 10-week high as prices continued to draw support from expectations for near-term monetary easing in China, the world's largest copper consumer. On the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange, copper futures for March delivery traded at USD3.661 a pound during European morning trade, gaining 0.66%. It earlier rose by as much as 0.9% to trade at a session high USD3.677 a pound, hovering close to Friday's 10-week high of USD3.687. Sentiment on the industrial metal remained upbeat amid growing expectations China will ease monetary policy in the near-term and provide further stimulus measures to boost economic growth. Copper traders were awaiting Tuesday's report on Chinese gross domestic product for the fourth quarter to gauge the economic strength of the world's largest consumer of the industrial metal.Official data published last week showed that Chinese consumer price inflation cooled to a 15-month low in December, paving the way for more policy easing.China is the world's largest copper consumer, accounting for almost 40% of world consumption last year.Prices shrugged off Friday's decision by ratings agency Standard & Poor's to downgrade nine euro zone countries, as traders speculated the rating cuts were already priced in to the market. S&P stripped France and Austria of their coveted triple-A ratings and slashed Italy, Spain, Portugal and Cyprus by two notches. Malta, Slovakia and Slovenia were downgraded by one notch, while Germany, Finland, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands kept their triple-A ratings.Later in the day, France was to auction as much as EUR8.7 billion in short-term government debt, in what was being viewed as a critical test of investor's appetite for euro zone sovereign debt.Meanwhile, Wall Street investment bank Goldman Sachs said in a report Friday that it remained bullish on copper, citing greater supply risks and stronger fundamentals.'We view copper, along with gold, as providing the best value opportunities relative to our view of fundamentals in 2012," the bank said Friday. Elsewhere on the Comex, gold for February delivery rose 0.8% to trade at USD1,643.85 a troy ounce, while silver for March delivery jumped 1.35% to trade at USD29.92 a troy ounce.Comex floor trading will be closed on Monday for the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday.
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