BASE METALS: Copper Soars As Technical Trade Trumps Sour Data

NEW YORK (Dow Jones) - Copper prices settled at a maximum of two weeks Wednesday as an increase in the technical negotiations not influenced by the weak U.S. data highly economical.
The most actively traded contract for May delivery, closed up 2.7%, or 11.55 cents, to $ 4.4285 a pound on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange.
The low price of the contract for delivery in March was 2.7%, or 11.5 cents, to $ 4.4185 per pound.
Technical trade dominated the market on Wednesday, with copper prices going above the 50-day moving average early in the session. Cross over this level signals an uptrend for the technical and algorithmic trading, crossing below it signals a downtrend.
"There are traders and computer-based programs that run automatically operations if it makes sense or not," said Sterling Smith, analyst coverage field.
The strong move comes amid increased trading volume "exceptionally low," said Smith. 33.791 Only copper contracts changed hands on the Comex in New York as of 13:56, nearly half of the 61,850 contracts traded on March 15, when metal prices rebounded from recent lows.
Copper prices briefly crossing on a surprise drop in U.S. sales new home, which fell 16.9% to a record low in February. The data, released at 10 hours than copper prices slip to $ 4.3985 before resuming the upward momentum.
"I'm always nervous in a market that meets in a low volume mainly in the face of bad news, and sales of new homes as anti-copper as you can get," said Smith.
Copper is widely used in the construction of housing for electrical wiring and plumbing, and the drop in new home sales is typically seen as negative for copper demand.
However, the technical indicators point to a further step for copper, as prices were set above the average mobile important technique 50 days $ 4.41 a pound.
"We are seeing a rally in a market that has generally been trending lower. To change the trend and more movement than we have to see some follow through ... and back above the key technical level" to resume the trend upward, said Matt Zeman, head of financial operations Kingsview.
A large meeting in the metals markets helped boost the confidence of the merchant. Gold set a record price of $ 1,438.0 per troy ounce, while silver hit a fresh 31 year high of $ 37,198 per troy ounce.
"Global risk appetite appears to be relatively high," said Zeman.
Advances in the earthquake damaged nuclear facilities in Japan helped boost market confidence. Workers in the hope of Fukushima Daiichi nuclear complex to restore cooling systems of all reactors in the coming days, after the electricity was reconnected on Tuesday. The authorities seem to be gaining ground control problems and avoid the risk of nuclear fusion.
But copper traders are watching geopolitical flare-ups. air attacks against allied forces Libyan leader Colonel Muammar Gaddafi continued for a fifth day Wednesday, when the Western coalition intervention in Libya's civil war continues.
exports of crude oil from Libya have been disrupted by fighting, and copper traders worry that a prolonged conflict will be higher energy prices pressure of economic growth and reduce demand for copper.
Copper is widely used in consumer electronics and home appliance products, and prices tend to weaken as economic growth slows.

(Source: http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20110323-712222.html)