Copper Rebounds From Five-Month Low in N.Y. After U.S. Jobs Data

Copper  rebounded from a five-month low in New York after a report showed the U.S. added more jobs than forecast, boosting demand prospects.

Payrolls increased by 244,000 in April, the most since May 2010, the Labor Department said. Economists projected an increase of 185,000, according to the median of 86 estimates in a Bloomberg News survey. Prices slid 6 percent in the previous two sessions, the biggest such decline since June.

The metal “seems to have reacted very positively to the payrolls data,” said Gayle Berry, an analyst at Barclays Capital in London. “When you tend to see these big sentiment- driven moves, they can reverse just as quickly as they happen.”

Copper futures for July delivery rose 4.15 cents, or 1 percent, to $4.0395 a pound at 11:27 a.m. on the Comex in New York. The price earlier fell to $3.928, the lowest since Dec. 1. Before today, the commodity dropped 14 percent since reaching a record $4.6575 on Feb. 15.

Prices have slumped amid concern that higher interest rates will slow growth and cool metals demand in India and China, the world’s biggest consumer.

“Much of the play in metals is a bet on China,” Edward Meir, a senior analyst at MF Global Holdings Ltd. in Darien, Connecticut, said today in a report. “With the government there tightening the screws in order to get control of inflation, there are legitimate concerns as to whether the authorities will press too hard.”

On the London Metal Exchange, copper for three-month delivery rose $68, or 0.8 percent, to $8,888 a metric ton ($4.03 a pound).

Tin, zinc, lead and nickel also gained in London. Aluminum was little changed.

(Source: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-05-06/copper-rebounds-from-five-month-low-in-n-y-after-u-s-jobs-data.html)