Copper prices up on US consumer confidence levels

The price of copper was up Tuesday on gains in consumer confidence after falling earlier on gains for the US dollar.

The Conference Board’s Consumer Confidence Index was at 54.9 in May, its biggest monthly gain in six years as it was much higher than the 42.3 expected for the month after coming in at just 40.8 in April.

Good consumer confidence is important to the overall economy because around two-thirds of the US economy is accounted for in consumer spending, while it is important to copper prices because better confidence could contribute to more purchases of manufactured goods and homes.

July copper was 4 cents higher to $2.14 per pound in New York while three-month copper added $6 to $4,616 per tonne on the London Metal Exchange.

LME inventories of the metal used in construction and manufacturing fell for the 13th session in a row, to 326,575 tonnes during the session.

Other base metals prices were mixed as aluminium, nickel and tin were all higher in London but lead an zinc prices were both lower after gains in their LME inventories.