Metals - Copper jumps as Fed leaves rates unchanged

Tag : Fast 50

LONDON (Thomson Financial) - Copper rose as the dollar remainedweak after the U.S. Federal Reserve left interest rates unchanged.
Tight supply and some signs of strong demand from fast growingeconomies, despite a global credit crunch, also underpinned copper.
At 9:50 a.m., London Metal Exchange (LME) copper for three-monthdelivery was at $8,420 per tonne, up from $8,315 at the close onTuesday.
'The main change following the FOMC meeting, therefore, seems to bethe weaker dollar ... and the metals, both base and precious, areup as a result,' said BaseMetals.Com analyst William Adams.
'So, for the moment the dollar seems to be the underlying rulingfactor in the metals and as such the direction of the metals willno doubt be in the hands of today's economic data,' added Adams.
Later on Thursday, the focus will be on U.S. existing home salesnumbers and whether the beleaguered housing market is finallystarting to recover. Analysts expect the annual rate of sales tohave risen to 5.0 million in May from 4.89 million in April.
Also of note, will be the final reading of first-quarter U.S. GDPgrowth, which is expected to be revised up to 1.0 percent from theinitial estimate of 0.9 percent.
'U.S. data releases may come as a little bit of relief to U.S.markets today following the run of soft data over recent days,'said Mitul Kotecha, head of currency research at Calyon.
In other metals traded on the LME, three-month tin was up at$22,900 per tonne against $22,705. Lead for delivery in threemonths jumped to $1,800 per tonne from $1,782, while aluminium washigher at $3,075 from $3,058. Nickel rose to $22,195 per tonne,basis three months, from $21,700, while zinc was higher at $1,900from $1,872.
anealla.safdar@thomsonreuters.com
as/wj

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