Copper prices hurt by US, Eurozone jobs data

Copper prices were lower Thursday after employment data from both the United States and the Eurozone held bad news that raised fears of delayed demand recovery for the metal used in construction and manufacturing.

The US Labor Department reported that 467,000 US jobs were lost in June, many more than expected, and that the unemployment rate there rose to 9.5 percent.

Meanwhile, new figures showed that unemployment in the Eurozone reached its highest level in a decade.

Three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange dropped $55 to close at $5,035 per tonne after going as low as $4,966.50 per tonne earlier in the session as it took back some losses on the news that US factory orders were up 1.2 percent in May.

Despite the good news on US manufacturing, September copper dropped 3 cents to $2.31 per pound in New York trade.

Among other base metals, aluminium was down $23 to $1,640 per tonne in London after inventories in LME warehouses were up by 2,500 tonnes on the session to 4.4 million tonnes, near a record.

Zinc was $35 lower to $1,560 per tonne while lead fell $39 to $1,700 per tonne and tin dropped around $150 as it last traded around $14,300/$14,350 per tonne.

Nickel remained near yesterday’s price as it closed at $16,450 per tonne.