Just wondering if the rise in copper is another feather in the...

Just wondering if the rise in copper is another feather in the cap Of NCM being bullish.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20602013&sid=aVuYJLxmUoR8&refer=commodity_futures


Jan. 9 (Bloomberg) -- Copper rose, capping a second straight weekly gain, on speculation that U.S. government spending will help end a recession that eliminated more jobs in 2008 than in any year since World War II.

A government report today showed U.S. employers last month cut 524,000 jobs, close to analysts’ forecasts. That pushed the unemployment rate to 7.2 percent, the highest in more than 15 years. Copper gained 6.7 percent this week on expectations that President-elect Barack Obama’s stimulus plan will spur growth.

“Industrial metals are getting support as the jobs report didn’t give us any significant surprises,” said Frank McGhee, the head dealer at Integrated Brokerage Services LLC in Chicago. “The market is looking forward to the injection of funds from the stimulus package and is hoping for a recovery in the economy.”

Copper futures for March delivery climbed 8.05 cents, or 5.4 percent, to $1.5595 a pound on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. The price jumped 12 percent last week.

Obama yesterday urged Congress to act quickly on his stimulus package. The plan will include spending on infrastructure such as roads and electrical grids, boosting demand for copper and other metals, McGhee said.

Demand may also rise as China adds to inventories. The country will build emergency stockpiles of metals such as copper under a long-term plan to guard against supply disruptions, the Ministry of Land and Resources said this week. The amount of copper to be purchased wasn’t specified.

China Demand

“There’s still a lot of infrastructure in China that needs to be built,” McGhee said. “China will definitely end up being a buyer of copper.”

The metal also got a boost this week because of fund rebalancing to match new target weightings for 2009 in gauges such as the Dow Jones AIG-Commodity Index and the Standard & Poor’s GSCI Index. Copper plunged 54 percent last year as the U.S., Europe and Japan fell into recessions.

“As index-related buying activity subsides, prices could ease further from this week’s highs in the face of the bleak demand environment and inventory overhang,” analysts at RBS Global Banking & Markets led by Nick Moore in London said today in a report.

The metal will average $1.89 in 2009 as demand continues to wane, analysts at Goldman Sachs JPWere Pty said in a report this week. That’s 40 percent lower than last year’s average of about $3.12.

On the London Metal Exchange, copper for delivery in three months climbed $205, or 6.4 percent, to $3,400 a metric ton ($1.59 a pound) at 6:59 p.m. London time. The price reached a record $8,940 on July 2.