Copper up despite drop in US housing starts

Copper prices were higher Tuesday despite bad news from the US housing market as inventories dropped another 3,250 tonnes to 419,600 tonnes in warehouses monitored by the London Metal Exchange.

US equities markets were lower but in China, the worlds biggest consumer of metals, markets were up on the session, overriding concerns raised by new data from the US Commerce Department showing that US housing starts fell by 5 percent in June from May’s levels.

The housing data came just a day after a report showing that sentiment among US home builders was down.

September copper was up 6 cents to $3 per pound in afternoon trade in New York, while three-month contracts for the metal used in construction and manufacturing added $129 to $6,637 per tonne on the LME.

Other base metals followed copper higher as lead added $62 to $1,837 per tonne, zinc was up $67 to $1,875 per tonne, tin was $295 higher to $18,240 per tonne and nickel gained $325 to $19,125 per tonne.

Aluminium ended even at $1,971 per tonne.

Gold added $9.60 to $1,191.50 per troy ounce in afternoon trade in New York as bargain-hunters came out, but the precious metal did not rise to recent highs as demand for safe investments was low after Ireland, Spain and Greece all auctioned debt with good results, despite yesterday’s cut in Ireland’s credit rating by Moody’s Investors Service, and although a debt auction by Hungary was not as successful.

September silver was up 15 cents to $17.69 per troy ounce in afternoon trade in New York, while at the same time October platinum had added $4.80 to $1,517.90 and September palladium gained $6.90 to $450.80.