bhp on steriods?, page-2

July 29 (Bloomberg) -- European stocks advanced, paced by mining companies including Rio Tinto Plc and BHP Billiton as copper prices rose to a record.

The Nasdaq Composite Index and the Standard & Poor's 500 Index reached four-year highs yesterday. Companies including Starbucks Corp. raised their annual profit forecasts.

``This stands to buoy European markets in early trade,'' Claire Collingwood, trader at CMC Group in London, wrote in a note. ``Attention is likely to remain on U.S. markets'' ahead of a report later today on economic growth in the world's biggest economy, she wrote.

Copper prices rose 1.4 percent to a record $1.654 a pound in New York. On the London Metal Exchange, prices surged above $3,500 a metric ton, a so-called resistance level, traders said.

Rio Tinto Plc, the world's third-largest mining company, added 1.7 percent to 1915 pence.

BHP Billiton, the world's biggest miner, added 1.4 percent to 801 pence in London.

JPMorgan Securities Ltd. raised its 2006 profit estimate for the company by 7.7 percent to $9.1 billion, according to a report dated yesterday.

JPMorgan said prices of thermal coal may stay at a record $54 a metric ton in 2006, compared with previous estimates of a decline to $50.

The brokerage raised its BHP profit estimates for 2007 by 4.7 percent to $8.8 billion, and for 2008 by 2.4 percent to $7.9 billion.