Copper gains as precious metals see declines

Metals prices were mixed Thursday as base metals saw gains but precious metals fell.

Three-month copper added 1.9 percent to $7,160 per tonne on the London Metal Exchange after Spain and Portugal both announced budget cuts in an attempt to reduce debt and as some analysts said that copper demand will continue in China despite concerns about the Asian nation’s overheated economy and uncertainty about how far the government there will go to cool its economy down.

Aluminium, lead, nickel, tin and zinc were all also higher in trade on the LME, while June copper was up 4 cents to $3.22 per pound in New York.

Precious metals, however, fell as the US dollar strengthened versus the euro.

June gold was down $13.90 to $1,220.20 per troy ounce in New York after going as low as $1,227.50 per troy ounce earlier, but some analysts said they see gold prices continuing to climb on the theory that debt problems in Europe are not going to disappear with the arrival of the European Union bailout for Greece.

July silver fell 16 cents to $19.50 per troy ounce, while platinum was down $7.90 to $1,737.40 per troy ounce and palladium dropped $4.15 to $543.30 per troy ounce.